Business disappointments come in many different forms, and problem resolution is a dangerous one. Some disappointments you can anticipate, and the recovery is handled well, while others take you by complete surprise and leave you baffled at how the company has stayed in business. I, sadly, have one such story that has left us baffled. Often we share stories about how a service recovery situation saved us as a customer. The initial challenge was frustrating, but the company's response to the situation was well handled and feelings were neutralized. This story does not have this result.
For over 15 years we have used QuickBooks as a main operating system for our business. In 2004, we upgraded to QuickBooks Online. The ease of their system worked well for us. In November 2015, our company address changed. When we tried to change to the new address, as expected, there was an easy drop down arrow to change the address. However, this function did not work. Here is where it all gets sadly interesting. To date we have made 6 phone calls, endured hours of hold time, have an escalated case number for faster response, spoken to numerous Supervisors, and still over 2 months later, we do not have our new address on our invoices. (Side note- wrong address on our invoices means checks are being sent to our old address, which means delayed delivery, which means negative impact to our cash flow...) But, what we do know is "the programmers are working on it." Sounds crazy, right? It's just an address change.
Clearly, the programming for this has perhaps even them baffled. However, after my call to them this past week, I was left beyond frustrated and disappointed. The first person I spoke with needed to "catch up" on the details of the previous 5 calls. After 10 minutes of her checking and asking me for case numbers, I realized this had gone nowhere. She was finally able to locate us from our first case number, and not the escalated case number, which now seems pointless and a waste of our time, but what I did learn was, "the programmers are working on it."
The plot thickens when I asked to speak to a Supervisor. I was on hold for 25 minutes. When she answered the phone, I asked for her name, and she gave me just her first name. When I asked for her last name, there was a long pause. She finally gave me a last name, and I hope it's hers, not sure, however. After she said, "the programmers are working on it," I asked for her manager's name. She very quickly said, "She's not in today." I told her that was fine, "I am just asking for her name." Again, a very long pause, and then reluctantly, a name. I explained to her that I realize she can only tell me what has been noted on the case; however, "I am looking for someone that can give me answers." She then said, "I have given you my name and my last name, which I am very uncomfortable about. I have also given you my supervisors name, there is nothing more we can do for you." Why would giving out their names make them uncomfortable?! They know our names and make a lot of money off of us (we process hundreds of thousands of $$$ with their merchant account services too!). The least they can do is treat us with respect and give us better service. Better, proactive communication, more details about the resolution, and genuine apologies with an offer to credit our account would also be a good start for improving their service.
A little dumbfounded now, I decided to tweet about my frustration. Within minutes, I am happy to say I received a response wanting our case number. Wow, that felt good. After a small exchange with them, I learned one thing....."the programmers are working on it."
Perhaps the biggest frustration and disappointment of all, regardless of the number of times we have told them that our checks are getting sent to the wrong address, this also makes us look bad in front of our customers. You know what their response is, right? "The programmers are working on it."
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