Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Polo Response
Tracey, the Northwest district manager, contacted me and was very apologetic. I appreciated her concern and personal response to my letter. She told me that 2 weeks before she even received my feedback, she visited the store as was quite disappointed. She tells me that the store is currently cleaned up and in line with what to expect at a Polo store.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Polo Ralph Lauren
Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation
Human Resources Department
625 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10022
April 20, 2008
Brian Mason
Monday, April 14, 2008
Zappos
Are they powered by service? I have never used them before, but a friend of mine passed along their box branding.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Ruby Tuesdays
Earlier this year, I ate dinner at a Ruby Tuesdays in Indianapolis. I was so pleasantly surprised! For some reason, I was thinking them similar to Chilis. They were so much better. Clean menu presentation, excellent salad bar, good service, and really good unique food. I wrote them a letter to thank them and let them know how great our experience was at their restaurant.
___________
Ruby Tuesdays
150 W. Church Avenue
Maryville, TN 37801
Dear Ruby Tuesdays,
I wanted to take the time to write you to let you know what an enjoyable and positive experience I had in your restaurant last month!
I was traveling on business and stayed near your restaurant at the Pyramids in Indianapolis. My colleague and I were looking for dinner within walking distance from our hotel. Our options included a Cracker Barrel, a Chinese restaurant, BBQ, or Ruby Tuesdays. We chose Ruby Tuesdays spontaneously (I had never been to one before). I was expecting it to be similar to a Chili’s… but I was pleasantly surprised to find it much better!
Your menu was one of the best aspects of your restaurants. It was simple, crisp, and the items were presented in a way similar to an upscale restaurant. Too often I feel like I am bombarded by glossy pictures and bright colors all over a menu that are supposed to excite me or draw me in. Your menu was calm and gave an impression of simplicity and quality. I could not wait for the food to get to the table.
The food did not disappoint us either. Your salad bar was one of the best that I have ever experienced – a clean presentation and really good quality. Our waiter was upbeat and a pleasure to interact with. We felt valued and left with a really good vibe for your restaurant.
I look forward to dining at Ruby Tuesdays in the future. Thank you for creating a great experience and understanding your customer.
Cheers,
Brian Mason
___________
Ruby Tuesdays
150 W. Church Avenue
Maryville, TN 37801
Dear Ruby Tuesdays,
I wanted to take the time to write you to let you know what an enjoyable and positive experience I had in your restaurant last month!
I was traveling on business and stayed near your restaurant at the Pyramids in Indianapolis. My colleague and I were looking for dinner within walking distance from our hotel. Our options included a Cracker Barrel, a Chinese restaurant, BBQ, or Ruby Tuesdays. We chose Ruby Tuesdays spontaneously (I had never been to one before). I was expecting it to be similar to a Chili’s… but I was pleasantly surprised to find it much better!
Your menu was one of the best aspects of your restaurants. It was simple, crisp, and the items were presented in a way similar to an upscale restaurant. Too often I feel like I am bombarded by glossy pictures and bright colors all over a menu that are supposed to excite me or draw me in. Your menu was calm and gave an impression of simplicity and quality. I could not wait for the food to get to the table.
The food did not disappoint us either. Your salad bar was one of the best that I have ever experienced – a clean presentation and really good quality. Our waiter was upbeat and a pleasure to interact with. We felt valued and left with a really good vibe for your restaurant.
I look forward to dining at Ruby Tuesdays in the future. Thank you for creating a great experience and understanding your customer.
Cheers,
Brian Mason
McAfee
McAfee is a close second in the "most frustrating customer service experiences of the year". Their anti-virus renewal process drove me nuts for about 2 hrs before I packed up the software and returned it to Staples. I am not sure if I had a freak experience, but it seemed like they had barely tested their software with real users.
After I wrote this letter, I received a call from the customer service manager apologizing, thanking me for the letter, and offering me a free 1 year McAfee subscription. I thanked him for the call, but that I was currently using Norton and it was working fine. If anyone wants a free year of McAfee, let me know. It is yours.
_____________________________
Barry McPherson or who it may concern
McAfee Customer Service
3965 Freedom Circle
Santa Clara, CA 95054
Dear Mr. McPherson and McAfee Customer Service,
I am writing you to let you know that I am disappointed with McAfee’s Anti-Virus renewal process and your customer service. I recently switched back to Norton because of the way I was treated by your company. Thank you for taking the time to read and understand my experience.
My wife and I purchased McAfee’s Internet Security Suite (ISS) one year ago. Over the last month we were alerted over email that our Anti-virus was expiring. However, when I tried to download online I was never directed to my “log-in” page or given the option to renew online. Therefore, I went to Staples to buy a new copy of ISS. I brought the CD home hoping to easily renew my virus protection. The renewal process was the most difficult and frustrating software experience I have yet to encounter.
After following the instructions, the software refused to renew its subscription. I tried several times to uninstall my previous version and then reinstall the new CD. All of the attempts failed. I then tried to contact your customer service department. The first person I spoke with had no idea how to solve my problem. He answered my questions by reading off a script – no of which related to any of my questions. Then, he directed me to the technical service center, but informed me that they were going to have to charge me. I was not very happy. I had already paid for the software and I did not want to pay McAfee anymore to install my software. For the next two hours I called your center two other times and also tried to receive support through your downloadable chat client. Several of the agents told me different things from the instructions and the chat client was a miserable experience trying to download a program just to try to renew my anti-virus. I was desperate for a knowledgeable person to talk to.
With no one to talk to help me solve a seemingly simple software renewal process, I returned the software to the store and removed McAfee from my computer. At the same time I purchased Norton’s Anti-virus software and installed the 2008 version in 10 minutes with no problems. I was relieved that there was a company that cared about my installation / renewal experience.
I am sure you know how important a company’s customer service is to a customer. McAfee really disappointed me last week, but I am happy that I was able to quickly protect my computer with Norton. With this letter I am hoping that you empathize with my experience and hopefully improve your renewal process and customer service for future customers.
I look forward to your response.
Brian Mason
After I wrote this letter, I received a call from the customer service manager apologizing, thanking me for the letter, and offering me a free 1 year McAfee subscription. I thanked him for the call, but that I was currently using Norton and it was working fine. If anyone wants a free year of McAfee, let me know. It is yours.
_____________________________
Barry McPherson or who it may concern
McAfee Customer Service
3965 Freedom Circle
Santa Clara, CA 95054
Dear Mr. McPherson and McAfee Customer Service,
I am writing you to let you know that I am disappointed with McAfee’s Anti-Virus renewal process and your customer service. I recently switched back to Norton because of the way I was treated by your company. Thank you for taking the time to read and understand my experience.
My wife and I purchased McAfee’s Internet Security Suite (ISS) one year ago. Over the last month we were alerted over email that our Anti-virus was expiring. However, when I tried to download online I was never directed to my “log-in” page or given the option to renew online. Therefore, I went to Staples to buy a new copy of ISS. I brought the CD home hoping to easily renew my virus protection. The renewal process was the most difficult and frustrating software experience I have yet to encounter.
After following the instructions, the software refused to renew its subscription. I tried several times to uninstall my previous version and then reinstall the new CD. All of the attempts failed. I then tried to contact your customer service department. The first person I spoke with had no idea how to solve my problem. He answered my questions by reading off a script – no of which related to any of my questions. Then, he directed me to the technical service center, but informed me that they were going to have to charge me. I was not very happy. I had already paid for the software and I did not want to pay McAfee anymore to install my software. For the next two hours I called your center two other times and also tried to receive support through your downloadable chat client. Several of the agents told me different things from the instructions and the chat client was a miserable experience trying to download a program just to try to renew my anti-virus. I was desperate for a knowledgeable person to talk to.
With no one to talk to help me solve a seemingly simple software renewal process, I returned the software to the store and removed McAfee from my computer. At the same time I purchased Norton’s Anti-virus software and installed the 2008 version in 10 minutes with no problems. I was relieved that there was a company that cared about my installation / renewal experience.
I am sure you know how important a company’s customer service is to a customer. McAfee really disappointed me last week, but I am happy that I was able to quickly protect my computer with Norton. With this letter I am hoping that you empathize with my experience and hopefully improve your renewal process and customer service for future customers.
I look forward to your response.
Brian Mason
Orbitz
Orbitz has been one of the most frustrating customer service experiences over the past year. The lengthy letter below describes the situation. In brief, Jocelyn bought tickets to travel to a wedding and when she went to check in the night beforehand, she found out that one her flights had been rescheduled making it not impossible to make it to the wedding. After several hours on the phone, they could not help us get to the wedding.
After I wrote this letter, I heard back from Orbitz offering us a voucher for $100. It was appreciated, but it was too little and too late.
_____
Orbitz
500 West Madison Street, Suite 1000
Chicago, IL 60661
(fax) 312.894.5001
Dear Orbitz,
We are writing to inform you of our most recent Orbitz service experience. Last night Orbitz let us down and left us very disappointed with your service. We hope that you will understand our frustration as I explain below. We look forward to hearing from you within the coming week.
This past January, my wife (Jocelyn) purchased round trip tickets on Delta from San Francisco (SFO) to Boston (BOS) through Orbitz leaving on June 1st and returning on June 3rd (record locator above). Since we fly around approximately a dozen times each year and have always been notified of any flight changes, we did not check our flights until Thursday May 31st. Coincidentally, on May 31st we were also alerted over email of the upcoming flight. However, we were quite surprised with what we discovered.
The email stated that Jocelyn was on a new flight (new flight number) leaving SFO at 9:30pm and arriving in LAX at 11:04pm. It then stated that the red-eye flight (also a new flight) was leaving LAX at 9:55pm and arriving in BOS the next morning. We were shocked to see that there was now a 1.25hr mis-connect. It was physically impossible for her to make her connection - yet the Orbitz computer seemed to see no problem in this itinerary. Additionally, we had never been notified by Orbitz of these flight changes. Therefore, late on Thursday night, less than 24hrs before the flights, we were forced to spend 3 hours booking a new one-way flight on United down to LAX in order for Jocelyn to make her Delta red-eye flight. We paid $134 additional dollars that we should not have had to pay.
We are extremely disappointed with this Orbitz service. I spoke with an Orbitz representative on Friday and was told that Delta notified Orbitz of the flight changes on February 17th. The representative also informed us that we were sent an email notifying us of these changes. However, we did not receive this email. To be sure, we searched our Gmail messages archive (which includes every message ever sent or received) and our spam filter. There is no history of an email and it was not caught by our spam filter. We do not believe that Orbitz alerted us of the Delta flight changes. Therefore, we are asking Orbitz to provide us with evidence that an email was sent notifying us of the flight change. If Orbitz cannot provide us with this evidence, we are asking that they reimburse us with a $134 Orbitz voucher to cover our last minute personal expense.
Orbitz has provided us with positive experiences in the past. However, we are currently frustrated and disappointed with Orbitz. In our mind (as well as others we have spoken to), Orbitz failed to look after the interest of its customers. Since Orbitz knew that there was a blatant mis-connect, they should have made an effort to alert us repeatedly of these drastic flight cancellations and changes. However, Orbitz failed to show any effort to notify us - either through email or phone. Other carriers and travel services handle this sort of matter quite differently and very carefully.
At this point, we are not likely to use Orbitz for future travel arrangements as we do not have confidence in your notification procedures. We hope that our trust can be reestablished in Orbitz by responding to this letter promptly. We look forward to hearing from you. Please direct your response to our email or home address listed above.
Sincerely,
Brian & Jocelyn Mason
After I wrote this letter, I heard back from Orbitz offering us a voucher for $100. It was appreciated, but it was too little and too late.
_____
Orbitz
500 West Madison Street, Suite 1000
Chicago, IL 60661
(fax) 312.894.5001
Dear Orbitz,
We are writing to inform you of our most recent Orbitz service experience. Last night Orbitz let us down and left us very disappointed with your service. We hope that you will understand our frustration as I explain below. We look forward to hearing from you within the coming week.
This past January, my wife (Jocelyn) purchased round trip tickets on Delta from San Francisco (SFO) to Boston (BOS) through Orbitz leaving on June 1st and returning on June 3rd (record locator above). Since we fly around approximately a dozen times each year and have always been notified of any flight changes, we did not check our flights until Thursday May 31st. Coincidentally, on May 31st we were also alerted over email of the upcoming flight. However, we were quite surprised with what we discovered.
The email stated that Jocelyn was on a new flight (new flight number) leaving SFO at 9:30pm and arriving in LAX at 11:04pm. It then stated that the red-eye flight (also a new flight) was leaving LAX at 9:55pm and arriving in BOS the next morning. We were shocked to see that there was now a 1.25hr mis-connect. It was physically impossible for her to make her connection - yet the Orbitz computer seemed to see no problem in this itinerary. Additionally, we had never been notified by Orbitz of these flight changes. Therefore, late on Thursday night, less than 24hrs before the flights, we were forced to spend 3 hours booking a new one-way flight on United down to LAX in order for Jocelyn to make her Delta red-eye flight. We paid $134 additional dollars that we should not have had to pay.
We are extremely disappointed with this Orbitz service. I spoke with an Orbitz representative on Friday and was told that Delta notified Orbitz of the flight changes on February 17th. The representative also informed us that we were sent an email notifying us of these changes. However, we did not receive this email. To be sure, we searched our Gmail messages archive (which includes every message ever sent or received) and our spam filter. There is no history of an email and it was not caught by our spam filter. We do not believe that Orbitz alerted us of the Delta flight changes. Therefore, we are asking Orbitz to provide us with evidence that an email was sent notifying us of the flight change. If Orbitz cannot provide us with this evidence, we are asking that they reimburse us with a $134 Orbitz voucher to cover our last minute personal expense.
Orbitz has provided us with positive experiences in the past. However, we are currently frustrated and disappointed with Orbitz. In our mind (as well as others we have spoken to), Orbitz failed to look after the interest of its customers. Since Orbitz knew that there was a blatant mis-connect, they should have made an effort to alert us repeatedly of these drastic flight cancellations and changes. However, Orbitz failed to show any effort to notify us - either through email or phone. Other carriers and travel services handle this sort of matter quite differently and very carefully.
At this point, we are not likely to use Orbitz for future travel arrangements as we do not have confidence in your notification procedures. We hope that our trust can be reestablished in Orbitz by responding to this letter promptly. We look forward to hearing from you. Please direct your response to our email or home address listed above.
Sincerely,
Brian & Jocelyn Mason
Precision Tune Auto Care
Jocelyn brought our car into a new shop over the summer while I was away for a week on business. We had previously been taking our car to a Toyota dealer. We continue to be very pleased with Tom at Precision Tune in Menlo Park.
__________
July 25, 2007
Tom Todd
Precision Tune Auto Care
1304 El Camino Real
Redwood City, CA 94063
Dear Tom,
I am writing to thank you for your excellent service. When our air conditioner stopped working, a friend of mine Adam Mack recommended your shop for repairs. We had previously been taking our 2002 Rav4 to Toyota101. However we figured we would give you a try as I had recently been dissatisfied with previous experiences.
We were extremely pleased with your professional service. After my wife brought our car into your shop in early July, she called me specifically to tell me how considerately she was treated by you and how comfortable she felt in your shop. I cannot tell you how much that says about your establishment (and how different that is from so many other auto repair shops).
I hope this letter finds you well. Thank you again!
Cheers,
Brian & Jocelyn Mason
__________
July 25, 2007
Tom Todd
Precision Tune Auto Care
1304 El Camino Real
Redwood City, CA 94063
Dear Tom,
I am writing to thank you for your excellent service. When our air conditioner stopped working, a friend of mine Adam Mack recommended your shop for repairs. We had previously been taking our 2002 Rav4 to Toyota101. However we figured we would give you a try as I had recently been dissatisfied with previous experiences.
We were extremely pleased with your professional service. After my wife brought our car into your shop in early July, she called me specifically to tell me how considerately she was treated by you and how comfortable she felt in your shop. I cannot tell you how much that says about your establishment (and how different that is from so many other auto repair shops).
I hope this letter finds you well. Thank you again!
Cheers,
Brian & Jocelyn Mason
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