Lee Valley Experience

[Vic]

I have a rather large shipment of tools coming from Lee Valley. UPS dropped the ball on my shipment that I'd paid extra to get here yesterday. I called Lee Valley and ended up talking to a woman named Sue. As I said in the Topic Description this is very much an exception in my experience in dealing with Lee Valley. This woman seemed intent on trying to argue with me about how things move through a shipping system. I spent 16 years with FedEx and have a pretty good understanding of the shipping industry. She insisted that even though the package was on the other side of the state at 9:12 in the morning, it should still get to me on time. Anyway, luckily for supervisors, I was given credit for the extra shipping charges.

My question and reason for posting is: Should I write off my experience with Sue with the possibility she was having a bad day, or should I alert Lee Valley to the transaction? All my jobs have been customer related and treating everyone (even those bent on being ornery) with respect as well as being pleasant with them is probably more important to me than any part of all transactions. I believe great customer service is what ultimately makes or breaks a company. On my initial contacts with new customers at work I let them know that if for any reason they aren't getting what they need from anyone in our company or myself that they should definitely take it up the ladder, if they can't resolve it satisfactorily with the employee or myself.

What are your thoughts?

[DaBear]

As someone a 'customer support' capacity, and an avid Lee Valley fan (getting my latest order today hopefully), I would definitely call them up. Like you said, it's likely she was having a 'bad day', we all do.. Depending on how bad the experience was, you might mention her name, or choose not to, but in the end, I'm confident they would want to know about your bad experience, and make you happy. Having a reputation like LV has is worth a log to them, and frankly, they don't sell stuff cheap (nor do they sell cheap stuff), so you deserve to be content with the transaction..

Hope this makes sense..

My 2cents..

David

[ken_in_kanata]

Vic.

Having talked to Robin Lee a few times and knowing a few people that work in different areas of Lee Valley, defiantly give them a call/send them a note. As Robin has said more than once “our employs are Lee Valley”. He strongly believes in the value of feed back weather on there products or customer experience. As Canadian Bear said depending on how bad the experience was, you might or might not want to mention her name but letting them know your experience good or bad is what they want and need to hear.

[Vic]

Ken,

Because the package was held up in Seattle I asked that my shipping charges be dropped from the overnight charge. They did end up shuttling the packages that were stuck there into town and it was delivered. I call back to let her know to reapply the charges but, she had already left for the day. The extremely nice lady that always seems to answer the 800# when I call took the message and I did tell her that while I don't think the service representative meant to be this way, but that she was a bit antagonistic. But, I did make a point of applauding every other experience I've ever had with them. They have always given me what I consider to be the best in customer service.

Back when I trained for customer service for Federal Express, we spent a couple days just on how to check how we came across on the phone. I'm don't think many companies give much in the way of customer service training.

[elimelech12]

letting them know will, not only, better their customer service for you, but for the next guy who will need fast shipping or an understanding person on the other line! Like me!!!!

[petersb]

Vic,

I would let it go. Everyone deserves the benefit of the doubt and there are two sides to every story. If it happens again, then I would definately let them know. She called the shot right anyway, even if you didn't

like how she told you.

That's my opinion anyway.

Brett

[Bobby Slack]

Here is how I take complaints. Somebody who expresses a bad experience to a company would like the service to improve. If I don't care about an organization, I keep silent. Lee Valley is a great company in our area and we all will benefit if they handle customer service better. So, Vic, my vote is for you to call them and as you make your case, ask them to put themselves in your shoes and aske them to understand that you were looking forward to working on your project this weekend ... if done politely and in a business like manner, I think that is the right thing to do. If they don't know what to fix, how are they going to improve?

[leftylen]

You let us know, you should let them know. jmo

[Vic]

If y'all look at my last posting on this thread, I outline how I handled the situation. It's been handled already. All is well. Lee Valley has been and still is a company I admire for their great customer service.

[Guest Trace]

I usually start a complaint, "Boy, I'm really angry", but delivered in a laughing style. This gets the conversation off on the right foot. It has never failed to get a very couterious and successful resolution to any problem I may be having. Most of the time the person on the other end of the call ends up asking how the weather is and wishing me a good day. There have been exceptions, but rarely.