Being bought off & Customer service

Being bought off

Apropos Lisa’s blog last week about the printer offering her discount (in lieu of fixing up the bad job he did) on her next print job, I had a similar situation on Saturday morning.

Once a month I trek to fabric places all over the place to stock up on materials and things for the gaiters. I sometimes go to a number of shops, especially if we have had a special order or if I am just looking for some new colours. In this place called Dubai Centre (on the very, very far east Rand) I found lovely orange fabric for gaiters and I know this is a winning colour – it’s very popular and also quite hard to get. So I grabbed the roll and when the lady was getting ready to cut I saw a mark that ran down the middle – it was about 12 cm wide at the widest part, tapering to about 1cm wide. So I said I didn’t want that piece and she must cut my fabric from a bit that didn’t have this mark….she reeled off about 4 metres of fabric until she got to a pristine section…she looked me in the eye and said if I took the stuff with the mark she would give me discount…. I said no thanks and she cut me piece from the nice clean stuff. Question: why on earth does she think that one would spend a lot of time making something that might just be unwearable because of the mark…

Great Customer Service

I went to Edgars to buy some new moisturiser. I usually buy Elizabeth Arden and while I was searching the self for the type I use, an assistant came over and asked if I needed help. I was going to say I needed a lot of help and particularly wanted something that would make me look 30 years younger in 7 days..with a money back guarantee.

But she didn’t really look like someone with a sense of humour so instead I asked for my particular type of product. Our conversation went like this:

Assistant: I can’t help you because I do Clarins.

Me: Ahh…so where is the Elizabeth Arden lady? (Thinking she might have nipped off to the loo)

Assistant: She’s on maternity leave.

Me: Ahh….and when will she be back?

Assistant: In about 3 months time.

Me: So do you think I should come back then?

Assistant: Yes please.

Me: exit store, go round the corner and burst into tears.