Customer Dis-Service

By now, many of you know that my wife was in a minor auto-accident earlier this week. She was driving to one of her client's houses on a very narrow, back-country road when a truck rounded a corner and they both started sliding headlong towards each other on the ice and snow. They barely missed a head on collision, but the truck ripped Lisa's driver side mirror off and they both ended up in the ditch...on opposite sides of the road. Long story short, Lisa's car needs a new tie-rod, wheel and some repair to the steering gears. I'm just thankful she wasn't hurt! Cars can be replaced...people can't.

After Lisa's accident, we had to call roadside assitance. It's a service that Lisa got when she purchased the car, which actually is pretty nice because they will tow you or change your tire or even bring you some gas if you run out. In talking to the customer service rep, she was having a difficult time figuring out exactly where we were in order to dispatch someone to help us. The conversation went something like this:

Customer Serv Rep: ...Ok, and where's the car located?
Lisa: MV Road
Customer Serv Rep: Did you say that's in "this town"?
Lisa: No, it's near "that town"
Customer Serv Rep: Are you at the car now?
Lisa: No, we're on HWY Y. The car's about 3 miles down on MV Road...I can't get cell phone service there.
Customer Serv Rep: I'm having trouble finding MV Road...what's the road next up from there?
Lisa: LP Road.
Customer Serv Rep: No...can't find that either...are there any other major roads close by?
Lisa: No...wait, highway X is close by.
Customer Serv Rep: ...OK, so the car is on HWY X...
Lisa: ...No.
Customer Serv Rep: ...OK...I don't understand how HWY X is related then...
Lisa: Uh...you can't find MV Road...you asked for a major road that might be nearby...
Customer Serv Rep: Oh...yeah.

Now, we DID get the needed help, but that little exchange reminded me of the following little comic I ran across a week or so back about customer service...

I'm sure most of you, at some point in time, have had the 'pleasure' of placing a call to customer service as well and I'd like to ask you to share your FAVORITE customer service call or moment!

Look forward to reading yours!

~ V