Customer service in this country is dead. If you are a consumer in need of something that, for the most part, should be easily attained you are screwed. Only the most specialized goods and services will see halfway decent customer service from this point forward.
Here’s why.
My wife and I are traveling to Mexico in June. We attempted to apply for passports today and failed miserably, but not before we could encounter customer service that was non-existent. The State Department web site list several locations where you can submit your application. Included on that list is locations that offer photo services. You see, passport photos have to be just right, and as a result require the use of any readily available, easy to operate digital camera and printing to produce. No more than 50 yards from my apartment there is a USPS Station that claims to offer photo services for a fee of $15. Needing to hurry up and get the passport in this weekend, my wife and I headed around the corner to submit our applications.
And so it began.
We arrived 30 minutes before the 2:00 pm deadline when the USPS stops taking applications. We were met with a line of approximately 10 people. On the wall there is significant signage that indicates “Get Your Passport Here!” After 15-20 minutes of waiting in line, I approach the counter and say “I’d like to apply for a passport, but I need a photo taken.”
I still have no idea what the woman said to me, but it wasn’t English. The only thing I could surmise was that we would be unable to attain the needed photos at the location that day. Apparently the camera needed to take said photos was broken. So, I ask if I can go elsewhere to get photos and come back. Nope, sorry, we stop taking applications at 2:00 pm. So, even though they were unable to provide the services they said they could, they were unwilling to accommodate me while we went to CVS to get a photo taken.
The man two people in front of me went to the counter to buy a book of stamps. THEY WERE OUT OF STAMPS. THE UNITED STATES POST OFFICE WAS OUT OF STAMPS.
There was no sign, no apology, nothing. Why not have a sign that says something to the effect of “Due to technical issues, this station can not take photos for passport usage.”
I’d at least have 20 minutes and about 10 blood pressure points back.
So the wife and I head to Target and then to CVS to fill her prescription (a whole other story of failed service) and get passport photos taken so we can submit an application either this weekend or next. I called ahead to double check the CVS we were going to offered passport photos. They do, at least they claimed to.
But no, they didn’t. Not because of technical malfunctions (possible) or lack of hardware. It was simply that there was no one within 30 feet of the photo center at CVS. The Gannons and another couple stood there while employees moved back and forth across the store, but not a single one even stopped to say why there was no one there or when we could expect someone to come and help us.
We got her prescription and left.
Mercifully the Walgreen’s near our apartment was able to bail us out and fulfill our need of photos.
So What the Hell is Wrong?
There is no longer any incentive to provide customer service. Companies have provided so much convenience and driven out competition for obscure, high margin services, that they truly can afford to fall short in so many areas because there is no where else to go. What was I going to do? Find a photographer, get the photos printed in four days and pay $40 for the privilege? The same can be said about several industries.
The convenience of shopping at Target and Wal-Mart for everything we could possibly need, having CVS and Walgreen’s fill a Tamiflu prescription at 2:30 am, Delta deliver us halfway across the world in 12 hours and Comcast deliver 200 channels into our homes in High-Def has also made it possible for these industries to hold us hostage. We need what they offer, but we have nearly no other choice.
What do the people at the post office care if I walk out of their station pissed off to all hell? The post office already loses billions of dollars every year, what’s another $30 to them for the passport photos? I have to go back to file my application as it is anyway. And at CVS, what does it matter that the service there is atrocious? Where else I am going to go in my neighborhood (aside from Walgreen’s) to get a photo printed that is just the right size for the passport?
We’ve empowered these companies to be complete jackasses to us. We need them more than they need us. You think CVS is going to care if everyone in the neighborhood boycotts that store? Heck no. CVS turned nearly $100 billion last year in revenue. One store closing won’t do any damage to the company’s bottom line.
And the post office? Hah! That place is going to tank sooner or later. The taxpayer will probably have to bail it out, but I suspect they should try to do the least amount of work as possible as that ship slowly sinks.
It’s time to start calling out these people for their poor customer service. Demand that people whose JOB it is to help you do so.
