Too purty to live in town.....

11/16/07

I know it’s been awhile since I’ve written a “decent” blog entry. I’m happy to say that I’ve finally got one today. This entry is about a portion of my day today.

I’ve been ordering custom music cd’s from Walmart.com for a while now. I love this feature of their website. I can make a cd with just the songs that I like on it, for the same price of a store bought cd. I make my selections and pay online for it, and in a week or so, it comes in the mail. I have done this many, many times and have been so pleased with how easy it is and the quality of the music that I get.

Recently, I ordered a cd with classic rock songs from Journey, REO, Boston, etc. However, one of the songs from Journey was not the song I had selected. It was printed correctly on the cd holder, but it was the wrong song on the cd. I wasn’t too upset, because I had gotten such great cd’s in the past. So, I called their customer service center to see if it could be corrected. That’s when the fun began…

The call started around 2:45 pm. I spoke to someone named Amanda, and told her I needed to speak to someone about a custom music cd. She stated that she handled music downloads, but would transfer me to a custom music cd rep. No problem.

I was put on hold for about a minute, then Tocara came on the phone. I explained to her about an error on a custom cd, and she sounded a bit confused and asked me to hold. Ut-oh. After being on hold almost FIVE minutes, the next thing I know, I’m listening to an automated recording regarding photos! I was put into a phone tree about photos.

I go through several prompts and finally got to a representative named Kenny. I explained to Kenny that I was erroneously transferred to photo when I need to speak to someone about a custom music cd. I also explained to him that he was the THIRD person that I've talked to and I was getting a tad frustrated that I can’t get put to the person that I need to speak with.

He apologized profusely and stated he would put me on hold and get the correct phone number I need, and would then transfer me to that extension. After holding for another FIVE minutes (yes, I timed it) he came back on and gave me the same phone number that I originally dialed! I explained that to him, and he then proceeded to tell me that I “must have” selected the incorrect prompts! Oh NO he didn’t!!! Oh yes, he did! I gave him a piece of my mind, and asked him to PLEASE transfer me back to that number. Any guesses who I spoke with? Oh, come on, it isn’t that difficult, and it’s not a trick question. Amanda. again <sigh>

I explained to Amanda what has happened, and that I REALLY need to talk to someone who can help me. She didn’t understand how I got to photo, so she put me on hold while she got a supervisor. I was on hold over 20, yes TWENTY MINUTES!!!

By that time, I was royally pissed, and there was no way I was hanging up the phone and starting all over. It was that old, “in for a penny, in for a pound” mentality. I had wasted so much time on this, that I was at that point like a bulldog with a bone and was not going to give up.

When she finally comes back on the line, she stated that she had talked with her supervisor, and he had traced the path of my call and had determined that they were having phone system upgrades done, and as a result I was inadvertently transferred to the wrong area.

I explained to her that that was all well and good, but it didn’t solve MY problem, and could she PLEASE help me with MY problem. She stated her supervisor advised her to have me go to [e-mail] and email them my issue. (Oh yeah, get rid of the cranky lady and move on to the next call!) I responded that if I had wanted to email my issue, I would have. However, I wanted to speak to a REAL PERSON, voice to voice about this, and that I still did. At that point, I requested to speak to a supervisor.

Amanda told me that she could “escalate the call.” I told her that I didn’t know what that meant, and she could transfer me all the way up to GOD if she wanted to, but I wanted to talk to someone who could solve my problem! (grrrr) Guess what happened? Yup. Please hold…..

In about 10 minutes, a supervisor named Shawn came on the line. I explained to him all the grief I had went through so far, and that I wanted to talk to someone who could help me. I further stated that if he wasn’t able to do it, then I wanted to speak with his superior. He apologized profusely and once again, I was asked to hold.

In about 30 seconds, a man named Emmitt came on the line. Believe it or not, Emmitt actually worked in the custom music cd department! Thank God and all things holy!!!! I explained to him what had previously happened, and again, was apologized to. He then began to fix the problem. He pulled up my order, and somehow, he was able to listen to the track that was in error, and acknowledged the error.

I don’t think that he had ever encountered this problem before, because he had to put me on hold several times. The nice thing is that he said it would take a little time to fix it, but he would stay with me until it was done. About every 3 minutes or so, he would come back on the line and tell me that they are working on it, and to keep waiting because they would solve the problem.

He finally came back on the line and talked me through printing out a label to return the defective cd, and then he ordered me a new one. I told him that he had done such a good job, that I wanted to write a letter to the Walmart Corporate Office about his excellent customer service. He told me that he knew that this had taken up way too much time so far, and I could provide my feedback by phone to his supervisor. He put me on hold again.

In about 8 minutes, I spoke to William, another supervisor. I gave William a glowing review of Emmitt’s customer service. It became quite apparent that William’s job was to take the complaints or compliments of other Walmart.com employees. His responses were quite obviously read from a script prompt, and I didn’t feel that William really cared. It seemed all he wanted to do was to document the call and move on to the next call. I found that quite disappointing, but I gave Emmitt great compliments anyway.

After that, I was transferred back to Emmitt, who had completed my reorder and gave me a respectable date by which I could expect delivery. The call ended at about 4:15 pm.

There are several morals to this story.
1) When Walmart gets it right, they really get it right!
2) When Walmart gets it wrong, be prepared to twist in the wind a while, get angry, get accused of doing something wrong to cause the problem, and talk to at least 2 supervisors before the issue is resolved.
3) Excellent customer service has now become an endangered ideal.
4) Don’t expect excellent customer service, but when you do receive it, compliment, compliment, compliment it!
5) Don’t accept less than what you really want, no matter what that thing may be.

This experience will not prevent me from ordering custom cd’s from them again. One bad Edsel doesn’t make Ford all bad, and I won’t let this one experience create a “walmart sucks” mentality in me. I’m looking forward to getting my cd, and I truly expect it to be correct this time.

For the record, I’m going to send a copy of this blog entry to the Walmart Corporate Office, so that they can recognize Emmitt for his kind, professional demeanor, and hopefully address the areas in which they missed the mark bigtime. One can only hope that they will.

Thanks for stopping by,
Curls