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What did ACS say when you reported the problem? All contact I've had with ACS directly has been very positive and they have been very helpful. I aslo know of people who have had ill-fitting sleeves and ACS have sorted it for them.
Well, I was speaking to the client service at ACS NY. She pretty much said that the item is not in and that is all the information she had or could get. I have heard nothing but stellar things about ACS from the UK side, which made me decide to go with them. I think the US based, or NY client service is just lacking.
I am debating calling the UK directly and seeing if I could just work with them.
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I hope you do realize how difficult it is to provide perfect customer service for everyone. I'm speaking from experience. For the rep to not know all the details is to be expected - she works at the desk, not in the lab. With the volume they probably see, your order would go along the normal process and not receive particularly special attention as for notifying you. Do you know how many other people they need to reply to in a day? How many notifications they would have to send out if they documented the entire process via email messages? A lot, I tell you. Your CS department has to be efficient, otherwise you're wasting your time and money by needing to hire extra employees. That drives the cost of the products up.
I don't mean to defend ACS in particular, but just CS reps in general. They put up with a lot of crap. Some bend over backwards for everyone, and some don't. It also depends what all your job includes - for myself I'm accounting, shipping, management, and CS in one. I run the show. It gets crazy, and 24 hours simply aren't enough in a day.
But, all we can do is try our best. You pestered her enough that she went and bugged whoever she bugged for the details. You see, she does disrupt the work of that person, and if she did that for everyone then nothing would get done. This is why things work when everyone's order gets equal treatment and things move along the usual conveyor belt rather than being carried along by a dedicated pigeon.
Of course, this is not intended to offend or attack you, my apologies if it does seem that way, but I'm just putting in my 2 cents I've gathered from working in the industry.
Not offended at all. I actually do know what it takes to be in client service. I am the manager of Account Management (Client Service) for a software company. I have been doing this for 10 years and my team went from a team of 12 to a team of 4 because everyone thinks that India can do what we do.My experience with the worker at ACS makes me finally get why many people think anyone can do CS.
The fact is that I had called her three times about the delay. Any time I get more then 1 call from any client, I make sure to keep up to date on their situation. Second, all 3 times she told me she would contact me with an update. All 3 times I waited 1 week for an update and heard nothing so I called to see if there was any update. In all 3 instances it was clear she just took the call and did not follow up to see what was happening. When I handle my clients, if they are waiting for over 1 day, I will call them to say, I have been following up but heard nothing, but I will continue to follow up.
On top of this, this was the same lady I called the first time before purchasing anything just to check on some things. She could not answer a single question I had. They were all questions related to the ACS Business. Small questions like, can you do full conch, can you do over the ear, can you do different colors. The first call, she said I don't know sir. That is it. The second call, I pushed her and she transfered me to her lab after me prying. At the time she told me the person who I was speaking to was her manager. Yesterday, she said he was a lab technician when I asked to speak to the same gentleman who earlier she said was her manager. She also tried to pull the I am the manager here. Not sure if that is true or not. But she seems to be very unknowledgable about the product to be a manager.
If anyone at any time said anything to me about 7 or 8 weeks being the norm. I would have patiently waited for the 8 weeks, and would have been ok with 10 weeks. This is because I know how these things work. When people say 3 weeks, and your at 7, and the client service person/manager says they don't even know where in the chain your product is, is unexceptable client service in my eyes.
I know that CS people do multiple things. In my line of work, I handle phone calls, the helpline, installs, troubleshooting, data questions for data that is not even our data, billing, custom data loading, trainings, and in house visits. However, I do take the time to do what I need to do to service my clients the way they should be serviced. It is a simple concept that I have. I am the face of the business. What I do represents my company as a whole. If I am poor, then the client will think my company is poor. To me, ACS in the states seems at the very least overwhelmed by the process and cannot handle the orders. I see this because of the CS representative.
All I really wanted from her is:
1- A phone call stating, sir your product will take longer then normal because of your custom order. I only got this 6 weeks in after I got rude and pushed her for answers.
2- What is the timeline, when could I expect the product. I still don't have this answer after 6 weeks.
So, I understand what your saying, however, I also think that CS at least in NY is horrible. Picking up a call and not providing any information is not client service. A live voice is not client service. To be honest, if I was ACS, I would get rid of this lady and get 3 people in India to do her job. They can do exactly what she did but handle 3 times the amount of calls. Either that, or get rid of her and hire some one just to do anything besides her CS responsibilities and hire 1 person in India to do her job. I would even take an online system that at least tells me if my item is in production. Anything. In 6 weeks since the fitting, I have no more information then I did day 1.
