Customer Service
Someone once told me not to complain about something unless you plan to do something about it. This simple bit of advice struck a nerve with me because I find it really annoying when people complain for the sake of complaining and do nothing to resolve those complaints. Working in corporate america I keep catching myself making a random complaint and have to mentally scold myself.
With this philosophy in mind, last week I decided to tackle some of our recent consumer complaints and see how well the customer service is at the companies we buy from.
1) Defective Canon Ink Cartridge - Our printer has been acting strangely on and off for months. I thought it was a software problem with the iMac and upgraded all the drivers. Last month the printer got even worse and kept giving us weird error message. The one thing they had in common was the yellow ink cartridge. I finally gave in and ordered a new one even though the one we had was full. This fixed the problem! Last week I went to the Canon site, contacted customer server and after a short email exchange where I provided the printer’s serial # and purchase date they put a new replacement cartridge in the mail. A+
2) Broken Rug Cleaner - This one was my own fault, from my fall down the stairs. Instead of contacting customer service I went to the Bissel site and quickly found an area to order replacement parts. Prices were a bit steep, but I easily ordered what was needed. A
3) Possessed Cell Phone - Heather’s new LG eNv2 has been acting very strange. Sometimes when you flip it open the phone starts entering numbers, letters, and commands all on its own. I found out that we get a full 1 year warranty on Verizon phones, during which time they will replace the phone with a refurbished model. Customer service was extremely nice and helpful. After a software update didn’t fix the problem they ordered the replacement. A+
4) LL Bean Return - I love ordering from LL Bean because of their lifetime guarantee. I had accumulated a collection of items I wasn’t happy with and finally got around to mailing them back. The return included clothes and shoes that I bought over the last 3 years. One item was defective, the others I just didn’t like. They accepted the return, no questions asked, and I had my replacement items and a refund within a couple weeks. A+
We always hear the horror stories of dealing with a bad customer service department, but my experiences the last couple weeks have been extremely positive. I think some companies understand that a bad experience with a product can be quickly turned around by a good customer service department. A great example of this is Lowes. They have a very easy returns policy that I use frequently…which leads me to keep going there and buying more stuff. I’ve never seen someone walk away from the returns desk and leave the store..they always walk in to buy something else while they’re there.
Fall TV
We’re getting adjusted to our new antenna setup and programming our favorite shows into the TiVo. We miss a few things from the large satelite buffet, but it is so nice to be getting PBS again. Here are the shows we’re watching this fall.
Chuck - our favorite new show from last season. The pilot was released on Amazon a week early.
Samantha Who - starts in a few weeks
Fringe - a new one this fall by JJ Abrams. Not sold on it yet, but giving it a chance
Survivor - always fun to watch and comment
Amazing Race - starts Sunday
My Name is Earl - wasn’t so great last season, but we’re giving it another chance.
Scrubs - now on ABC, but not sure when it starts
Kath & Kim - new show that looks funny. Starts next week
Pushing Daisies - starts next week
Heather also has a few shows she watches without me that I can’t comment on:
Lipstick Jungle
Ugly Betty
Kitchen Nightmares - I really like Gordon Ramsy, but the US version doesn’t always do it for me.
We’re also watching Firefly for the first time. Pretty good so far. The funnest part of it has been remembering where we’ve seen the cast before.
What shows are you watching this fall?
Comments Fixed
Sorry for breaking the comments. I’m working on getting the site ready for a new design and deactivated a plugin I shouldn’t have been fiddling with. Look for our new design soon, but expect a couple speed bumps while I get everything setup.
Email Problem!
Well its very weird and John doesn’t even know why yet but emails that I send from our blog address are not getting to their recipients some of the time. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason yet and at the moment I’m resending some of the emails that I remember I’ve sent and haven’t gotten a reply to. So if you are waiting for a reply from me I might have already sent one and its “lost” somewhere! Maybe I’m ending up in peoples SPAM filters, I have no clue but if you have been waiting for a reply from me just send me another email so that I can reply again. SORRY!
Wordpress 2.6.1
After having problems with our permalinks when we upgraded to Wordpress 2.6, I have been waiting anxiously for 2.6.1. The wait is over, the site is upgraded, and so far everything is working well.
I also decided to upgrade one of my favorites plugins, cforms. This plugin allows me to create custom forms, like our Contact Us and Comment forms, but I’ve had problems in the past with the Ajax. This upgrade was no different and the forms broke, but I have been unable to get them working again. To get around the problem I turned the Ajax off and am using their simple version of the form and that seems to work.
If you hit any problems please let us know
ContactUs@myfamilylovesit.com
Oops!
Yesterday I goofed and put up THREE posts by accident (thats what I get for trying to write ahead). Anyway now I’ll be taking the rest of the weekend off from blogging as a result!
Problems with Wordpress 2.6
Wordpress has identified the bug causing 404 Page Not Found errors on some sites. They will fix it in a future release so for now I will be going back to version 2.5.1. The problem only occurs with sites using permalinks that include “index.php”. I rolled back to the previous version of our theme and will leave things alone for the time being.
Wordpress 2.6 Problems
I upgraded to Wordpress 2.6 yesterday and love the improvements to image handling, but we discovered today that it broke our theme. I have been planning on switching our theme for awhile now, but that will have to wait. There is a new version of our current theme WPAndreas01 that supports the latest versions of Wordpress. I’m going to install that tonight so cross your fingers that our broken site links will be fixed. Until then we have a birthday to celebrate.
Comments are fixed
I just noticed our comments have been broken for about a week or two. Should be all fixed now. Please test it out.
Wordpress 2.5
Sorry for the brief lunchtime outage. Our site is now running the latest Wordpress (2.5). We’ve been playing with the release candidates for over a week and now we’re on the official release and so far I am loving it. I’ll write more later, but for now I will just say that the upgrade was, as always with WP, painless. The admin area had a major overhaul and after a little disorientation I am really liking all the changes. If you notice anything quirky on the site, let us know.
