Example of Bad Customer Service – Vacation Time Share Sales

Today I’m writing this post in my hotel lobby instead of enjoying a free cruise of the San Francisco Bay and a free tour of Alcatraz.  I’m also hungry and cranky because I missed my free catered luxury breakfast.  My 13 year old son is sad and said his entire day was ruined, and he’s tired from getting up 2 hours earlier than he should have.  My vacation in San Francisco was destroyed.   How on earth did this all happen?  And how did this end up being my example of the worst customer servcice I’ve ever experienced in my entire life?  Well, let me paint a picture of inconvenience and discrimination for you, it’ll make your head reel!  And just to be clear about the date of this article, it’s written in June of 2009, not June of 1969!  Continue reading and you’ll see what happened to victimize my 13 year old son and myself today.

Yesterday we were enjoying a walk along Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, and browsing the gift shops.  There was a little kiosk that said “Alcatraz Tours” in front of a gift shop.  My son thought the man behind the kiosk was a cashier and brought his gift shop purchase to the man behind the kiosk.  The man explained that he wasn’t the cashier and asked us if we’d like Alcatraz tickets, and said that he could give us free tickets to Alcatraz and to a San Francisco bus tour or a San Francisco Bay tour if we’d like to attend a time share presentation in San Francisco tomorrow morning at 9:00 am.  This was for a marketing promotin for The Meritage Resort and Spa.  I’m interested in time shares, and I’m staying in the Sonoma Valley on vacation right now, so I am interested in their new property in Napa Valley, the Meritage Resort and Spa.  I said I’d be happy to attend the meeting with my son, and then on Sunday actually drive to Napa Valley and tour the property.  We covered all the qualifying details, and everything seemed in order.  The gentleman collected a $20. refundable deposit for the breakfast and mentioned my parking would be validated.  He was very nice, explained all the details, and I signed up.  So far, so good.  I’ve always wanted to go on an Alcatraz tour, but they’re always sold out in advance, and I’ve never made it.  I’ve been to one other time share presentation before, and have many friends that own and enjoy timeshare vacations. 

Saturday morning we woke up at the crack of dawn and made our way back to San Francisco to the Fishermans Wharf area, to the Shell Vacation Club, SVC-West, L.P. 2770 Taylor Street, San Francisco.  I asked the rep behind the desk if they had a press kit, as I write for a commercial travel webiste, (not this WP Customer Service site) and I always like to publish the commercial photos when available instead of mine.  (Needless to say I did not do a  fabulous writeup on my other website – the commercial travel website – no good free publicity of Shell Vacation Club!)  We signed in and waited.  It was a nice office, and the staff appeared to be pleasant, ushering people in to their free breakfast.  Everyone, except us.  My son and I sat there for about a half hour after everyone else had been pleasantly greeted and ushered away.  Stomachs growling, I began to wonder what the problem was.  Whoops, turns out I didn’t bring my ex-husband on vacation with me!  (Who does?)  Actually, I happen to think that my marital status is nobody’s business.  It was only after my son and I were kicked out of the time share presentation that I examined in detail the fine print of the promotional offer.  Here’s why we were kicked out:

“Must be married, engaged, or co-habitating, both partners must attend the presentation together and bring proof of matching addresses.”

In the excitement of the moment when my son and I were invited to attend the presentation and have two free boat cruises, a free breakfast, and free parking, I wasn’t thinking of my ex-husband!  (Why would I???)  Although I did initial the paragraph noted above.  (I obviously didn’t understand it at the time, it was one of thirteen qualifying statements, including one that you must understand, read, write and understand English fluently.)  The gentleman that invited me did not ask me if I had a husband, or was engaged, or living with anyone that shared a utility bill with me!  I did assert that my credit score was above (a certain number) and that my income was above (a certain figure), both true statements.  And I did say that my marital status was separated.  I have been separated for many years, and for (my own person infomation omitted!!!) reasons have not finalized the divorce.  I have bought and sold several homes in my current marital status, and told the person registering me that I do currently own a home in my own name, which is a true statement.  I am actually perfectly qualified to purchase a timeshare.  I’m old enough to have a fabulous income, a great job with vacation days to spare, disposable income, and I want luxury.  I would actually think that companies selling timeshares would line up and present their offers like they were in the company of royalty, which is what companies with good customer service models do.  Nope.  Not Shell Vacations Club!  Shell Vacations Club has bad customer service.

Shell Vacations Club Bad Customer Service Nomination for 2009.

They escorted my son and I out of the building.  They did refund the $20.  They did not give us the cup of coffee promised.  They did not give us the piece of toast.  And don’t even think about the Alcatraz or Bay Cruise. (Fortunately I had presented my parking garage ticket for validation prior to registering, so I didn’t have to pay for parking.)

Currently I have a call in to Gianni Ingargiola, the Marketing Manager, but he hasn’t returned my call yet.

Shame on Shell Vacations Club for discrimination.  My son and I experienced shame and humiliation today, and for me this was a time share sales meeting scam.  Why would anyone in 2009 treat single women like they were second class?  And don’t even get me started when I think about the clause that you must “understand, read, write and speak English fluently.”

Shell Vacations Club you’ve got your work cut out for you if you intend to be a modern company providing good customer service.  I shudder to think about how you treat your clients that have already purchased a timeshare! 

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Update to post:  Thanks for your comments!  Here’s a great suggestion from one of our readers – you can find timeshares on eBay for only $1.00!!!  I checked and found a whole long list of people selling timeshares on eBay!  I saved the link to the listings for California timeshares selling on eBay:  Click Here:  Buy Timeshares on eBay

Here’s the best suggestion I’ve seen for how to end the recession, giving money away for free!  Save a little bit for me! Here’s the plan for AIG to buy everyone a new car! Thanks Bill!  http://www.billzucker.com/

And when I asked Bill what some TARP is, anyway, this is what he said (on Twitter) billzucker @PennyGo :The TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) is the trillion dollar BAILOUT   http://bit.ly/ty3vi government giving their friends $ #tcot (That’s a bit of Twitter lingo, the # in front of a word makes it easier to search on Twitter…)

Today I’m heading over to my local GM dealer to talk to them about GM Customer Service.  GM Customer Service  didn’t start out being the focus of this blog, but sometimes we receive gifts that are unexpected, and for me, as a blogger with strong opinions and a head on my shoulders, I have been given the gift of GM Customer Service.  This is a gift I’ve been ignoring for quite some time, and I’ll tell you how I got it.  Quite a while back, one of the random ramblings on this blog was about GM, and Customer Service.  My Grandfather, George A. Gatch, “GAG” to his friends and family, was a GM manager in the trenches.  He hauled my poor Grandmother, Mother and Aunt all over Southern California while he opened up GM dealerships in the ’40’s.  My Grandfather was a careful saver, and held onto his stock bonuses.  He even put some of these shares of stock into a shared fund that created one of the first ever mutual funds.  He died early, and his investments supported my Grandmother, and then my Mother for many years.  My sisters and I still have shares of the closed mutual fund that my Grandfather helped to start way back in the day by depositing his shares of GM stock.  So, in my ramblings about GM, and my subsequent horror at their current dismal financial situation, I wrote about GM, and naturally my slant was on GM Customer Service….  Whoops, my bad!  I am NOT the GM Customer Service Department!!!  However, based on the thousands of “blog hits” I am getting for “GM Customer Service” searches, they apparantly don’t have one, or I wouldn’t be outranking GM for the search term “GM Customer Service”!!!

So, as a public service, and because I’m nosy, I’ll drop in on my local GM dealer and get my own (undercover – of course!) opinion of GM Customer Service!!! 

Actually I don’t even know where my nearest GM dealer is, and I live in a small town!  Is that pathetic or what???  As a first assumption I would think that GM would like everyone to know where their local dealer is!!!  Ok I’m going to google “GM + (my town)” and I’m off and running!

Happy Memorial Day!

What constitutes excellent customer service? The extraordinary. Break it down. Extra. Ordinary. Is your customer service ordinary? That’s like getting a “C” in English Class. Not flunking, but nothing to write home about either. How do you change from “Ordinary” to “Extra” with customer service…..

• Ordinary = do what you’re supposed to and expected to do.
• Extra = Surprise and Delight! (On top of doing what you’re supposed to and expected to!)

Now I’d like to surprise and delight you!

Please enjoy the video lesson on how to surprise and delight!

Please join the conversation – what do you presently do to surprise and delight your customer?  (Extra points if it involves music!)

Which came fist, the customer service or the customer?  Last year I received a letter (like all stock holders) from General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner, detailing the cuts in production and so forth that were taking place with GM for survival. I couldn’t find a mention of customer service anywhere in the letter, or anywhere in the media, for that matter. (Check out the post I made July 26, 2008:  GM Customer Service).  I could tell from the letter that customer service wasn’t mentioned, that it was a survival mode, and the luxuries were not being addressed. Like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, basic survival comes before self actualization.  Since when is customer service a luxury??? Maybe that’s where things went wrong. Rick Wagoner has been with GM since 1977, according to an article today on Yahoo News, and was asked today by President Obama to step down. Well that doesn’t come as a surprise since the company is being artifically supported by me, and you, and every other American taxpayer! I had a few ideas last July about directions that GM could go, and they all centered around good customer service. What do people need? They don’t need huge expensive “boats” for cars, that’s for sure. Why are people oversold items they can’t afford and don’t need? That old model of corporate America is folding like a house of cards…

Good by Mr. Wagoner, best wishes in your retirement. Good luck President Obama, I hope your patient survives!

When I think about good customer service, I think of the good ole days with GM.  My grandfather, George Gatch, was a general manager for GM in the 40’s and 50’s in Los Angeles, California, and his job was general manager in charge of opening new dealerships in Southern California.  My poor mother attended a new high school about every 6 months as they moved from one dealership location to the next!  And back then, the customer was king!  It was a wonderful goal to own a new cadillac every year, and of course my grandmother did!  And I grew up loving to see my grandmother’s new cadillac every time I visited. 

I was feeling nostalgic for the good ole days with GM, and came across a video of Johnny Cash singing “One Piece at a Time”, about building his own custom GM, one piece at a time!  He went to work at a GM factory and snuck parts out, in his lunchbox and in his buddy’s RV.  If you’re nostalgic for the good ole days, and want to hear the song, and see a great slideshow on vintage cars and trailers, here’s the link:  Vintage Trailers.  Watch closely, the creator has done a fabulous job matching the expressions on the faces of the people in the slides to the lyrics in the song, it’s a great tribute to GM in days gone by!  Let’s hope GM will survive to continue the legacy that my Grandfather and many others like him started!  (More about GM’s current troubles.)

Technorati Tags:GM Customer Service, GM Song, Funny GM

Have some bad news?  Good customer service requires good communication.  Here’s an example of a letter from a company that has some bad news.  (Personally I like how they call their bad news “challenges”, it puts a nice perspective on things.  We ALL have challenges from time to time!) They follow a good communication formula with bad news, and it leaves a good feeling and develops loyalty.  Every company has problems and bad news from time to time, it’s how that bad news is dealt with that shows whether or not they have good customer service!

Dear Valued Partners: At this busy time of year for all of us, we wanted to take a moment to update you with some important information on how LinkShare is prepared to handle the expected increase in transaction volume in November and December.Over the past several months we have experienced intermittent challenges with the performance and presentation of data in our reporting systems. First, we want to say thank you for your patience and your understanding as we have worked through these issues. Second, we want to emphasize that our core capability to capture and track clicks and transactions continues to be the most robust and precise in the industry.We are happy to report that we have made great strides in all areas. Here is a summary of our current progress:

Account Access
We recently identified and resolved a database problem that was preventing user access to our systems during peak usage times. Since implementing and monitoring this fix last week, we are confident that prolonged, unannounced downtimes are unlikely.
Data Quality
The intermittent downtime we were experiencing contributed in many cases to inconsistent data in our reporting systems. The interruption in sequence and flow of data from the main database (MainDB) to our reporting servers created a lag in the system’s ability to present the most up-to-date information. Now that data access issues have been resolved many of the reporting issues will also be resolved.

However, there are currently some infrequent, yet persistent inconsistencies in the data in SynergyAnalytics that we are investigating. We are also improving the performance of Traditional Reporting and working to resolve remaining data inconsistencies. We expect to make swift progress in these areas in the coming weeks.

Investing in the Future
Over the last 10 months, we’ve made significant investments in our systems. We have replaced our data center networks, reinforced our database systems, upgraded our ad and click servers, assigned additional servers to existing services to allow for increased capacity and automated fail-over, and installed a new software system to monitor and report on performance. These investments have prepared us to handle not only the additional load we expect in November and December, but well into the future.

In our effort to be as transparent as possible, we want to make you aware of some upcoming scheduled maintenance windows over the next few weeks:

Thursday, October 23, 2008 5:00pm – 9:00pm EDT (GMT-4) -Regularly scheduled software release.

Thursday, November 6, 2008 5:00pm – 8:00pm EST (GMT-5) -The last scheduled software release of the year.

On behalf of the entire team at LinkShare, we truly appreciate your business and your patience. We look forward to building even stronger partnerships and wish you strong sales during the 2008 holiday season.

Sincerely,
Jonathan Levine
Co-President
Yaz Iida
Co-President

What is good customer service? Good customer service entails communicating effectively. Good customer service is getting the message out – whether it’s good or bad. Good customer service is knowing and respecting your customer.

Here’s a message that filled my screen today when I logged onto my Wells Fargo account.

To Our Customers,

The dramatic changes taking place in the financial services industry and economy these days are historic in scope and proportion. And as you may know, Wells Fargo & Company and Wachovia Corporation have agreed to merge and create the nation’s premier coast-to-coast community banking presence.

You may be asking yourself, “What does this mean for me as a Wells Fargo customer?”

The answer simply is – it’s business as usual. That’s because perhaps never before in our company’s 156-year history has Wells Fargo enjoyed a greater reputation for strength, security, financial discipline, and doing what’s right for the customer than it does today.

You trust us with your business. You continue to give us even more of it. We’re attracting more customers and earning more business from our current customers like you because many of our customers rave about us to their families, friends and business associates. We’re known and admired for our conservative financial services approach and time-tested business model, and it succeeds because you trust us to do what’s right for you, the customer.

We still focus, as always, on what got us here – building lifelong relationships with our customers and communities. Our team works hard to know you, understand your complete financial picture, listen to you, provide you value and reward you for doing even more business with us. We put you at the center of everything we do. And we work together to decide locally how we can help support the communities in which you – and we – live and work.

Thank you for entrusting us with your business!

John Stumpf
President and CEO

October 2008

Good Customer Service

I had a tricky problem a while back, and I was very glad that eBay has a good Customer Service Department! I listed a diamond engagement – wedding band set for a family member. (One of those relationships gone south things…) I went to a lot of trouble to photograph the ring, brought it around to local jewelry shops to get an idea of the type of diamond, size, condition, type of setting, etc. I knew going in, after my research, that the style of the cut of the diamond was out of style, and the current sales prices on eBay were low. My family member wanted me to try for a high price anyway, and so we launched the listing on eBay. To my amazement, it sold! Wow! And we got an email from PayPal saying the item had sold, and the payment had been received! Very exciting! When I saw the address to ship it I was hesitant to ship the diamond. (It was Nigeria.) I told my family member, and she said since I’d been paid, I should ship it. Something still didn’t seem right! My son (out of the mouths of babes!) suggested we look in the bank account to see if the money actually was there! So we logged onto PayPal, and no money! Big goose egg! Nada! Zip! Keine! We laughed till we cried – we’d been scammed AND Phished! I tell you that PayPal email looked GOOD!

So I logged onto ebay and went to the live chat box, and explained to them what had happened. They took it seriously right away, and transferred my chat to the ebay accounting chat line, and they looked up all the information right away. They told me that I had been a victim of fraud, and that they would transfer my chat to the securities and fraud division of eBay, which they did. When the securities and fraud division came into the chat they asked me if I was near the telephone that I had listed on my eBay application, and I said yes, that I was at home, and that was the telephone number that I had listed. They also asked me if I was on a dial up connection, as they were going to call me to verify they were really talking to me. I said no problem, give me a call, I’m on a separate computer line. They called me and verified it was me. They they cancelled the transaction, and returned the listing fee and final value fee. The only thing I was out was time, about an hour at this point.

We relisted the diamond and the same scammer thief “bought” it again! He had opened another eBay account, incrementing the number by 1. I knew right what to do (rinse and repeat…) and did it! Again scam emails saying ship the item to Nigeria, and spoof emails from “PayPal”. What a bummer. Believe it or not this happened a third time with scam emails and spoof PayPay emails, this time to ship it to Spain! Needless to say, we decided to sell the diamond ring to a local diamond wholesaler and be done with it!

Back to the eBay customer service…. excellent! They pulled me out of the fire three times! And it didn’t cost me a cent. All listing fees and final value fees were refunded immediately, and no negative feedback was incurred, because they immediately cancelled the scammer’s account. Good job eBay Customer Service!

Have you had any experience with eBay Customer Service? Good? Bad? Indifferent? What do you think? Join the conversation!

Today I was horrified and disgusted at the bad customer service at a national fast food chain.  I was midway through a long car trip and pulled off at an exit for food and gas.  I pulled into the busy parking lot of (no name given) fast food chain and was grossed out by the overflowing trash can to the left of the front door.  People had been piling trash next to the can for awhile.  It looked like a city scene when the trash collectors went on strike!  As I entered the (no name given) fast food restaurant, I noticed trash all over the place!  When I went into the ladies room, more trash on the floor!  And in the stall area it was a real nightmare!  A huge pile of toilet tissue, paper toilet seat covers, and a few used diapers, not to mention some items I won’t mention, littered the floor!  It was a shocking scene!  I ran out of there! I hoped I wouldn’t throw up!  It was THAT BAD!  Wow! How’s that for amazingly bad customer service! I cut in front of everyone in line and asked quietly to speak to the manager.  She was busy filling orders, but she did eventually come over and talk to me.  I told her quietly what I had seen, I figured she didn’t know about it or it wouldn’t be like that.  She said she knew, and that it was being taken care of.  I didn’t see a single employee on the restaurant floor or in the parking lot, (where, incidentally, ALL of the trash cans were overflowing), I didn’t see any signs of trash collection, floor sweeping, mopping, or any cleaning person whatsoever!  I only saw 3 employees in the restaurant, including the manager, and they were only making a dent in the huge crowd waiting to be served!  What a nightmare on all levels of customer service!  A filthy restaurant, understaffed, indifference to customer service!  Needless to say, I left without using the restroom or buying anything!

I went down the block, and searched out a small local restaurant, and was glad I did!  For about the same price I enjoyed some really nice food in a pleasant atmosphere.  They were also crowded, but they were staffed for it, and it wasn’t a problem.  They were also super clean, and the restroom was working and clean.  (Not a lovely sight, but functional and clean…) 

I couldn’t get the horror out of my mind, like watching a bad car wreck, I went back to (no name given) to see if the situation was fixed.  Although this was one hour later, I was shocked to see that the mess in the parking lot was still there!  I was trying to figure out what had caused the problem in the restroom, and was thinking it was one of those restrooms that doesn’t use paper towels, so they don’t have a trash can.  (Bad idea in a restroom – you ALWAYS need a trash can!)  But no, that wasn’t the case – they had 2 small trash cans that should have been ok had they been serviced frequently.  So really no clue why all the toilet paper was on the floor.  I’ve seen that before, and never have understood it!  (Toilet paper goes in the toilet – right?)  Anyway, this time things were better, the floor was swept up and the trash cans emptied.  I ran into a lady with a large trash can that was cleaning the restaurant and told her quietly that there was also a huge trash problem in the parking lot.  She didn’t understand english, but I was able to tell her (hopefully!) hay mucho basura y es muy malo – lot’s of trash – very bad – and I pointed to the parking lot and made a yucky face.  I’m pretty sure she got the message and thanked me for the info.  (You can’t help picking up a bit of handy spanish in southern California!  Basura is the bilingual label on every trash can!)

On my way out I snapped a couple of pictures of the amazingly bad customer service example at the front door.  Nothing says bad customer service like a filthy restroom and overflowing trash cans!  I’m not posting the picture because you can clearly tell which fast food restaurant I’m talking about by the branded overflowing trash can!  Hint Hint Hint – when you brand yourself try to do it in a good way!  Rest assured that the picture will be forwarded to the health dept and the corporate office for the chain – there’s no excuse for filth!

What do YOU think about this example of bad customer service?  Has something like this happened to you?  Would you like to do business with a company that treats you so badly?  What’s more important to you – clean environment and wait 1 extra minute – or wallow in filth and get out quickly?  Do you make any assumptions about the cleanliness of a restaurant kitchen based on the parking lot and the bathroom?  After all – those are the parts that WE CAN SEE!  What about the parts we CAN’T SEE???   Please dive into the discussion – and don’t forget to wash your hands after reading this filthy post!!!

Read more about Good Customer Service.