I believe on occasion I have mentioned how much bad customer service makes me want to pull my hair. This is partly because being a customer is frustrating. The vast majority of my customer service "thang" is because I used to be nice for a living. At that stage of my life I hated customers. Sorry, there is a big disconnect...no pun intended....immediately when you speak to someone on the phone. The statistic then, wonder who they paid to determine this, was that only 40 percent of what you are saying is conveyed by words. The rest is communicated through facial expression and gestures, body posture, etc.
When someone speaks to me in customer service they are 100 percent aware of what I am saying. I learned from being on the other end that you speak slowly. You repeat things twice, like your name, You spell that for them upfront if it is an unusual spelling. If they are good at their job they will write or capture this information on a terminal first time. Then you explain simply your issue. Do not start off angry, then it has no power. Be nice, then lose it when you realize the person you are talking to couldn't get out of a box.
I don't normally name names. I have waited a month or so to get over my experience with Trane, but no, today is the day I am going to express my displeasure with Trane Air Conditioning. You're welcome up front...
Five years ago I purchased two Trane Air Conditioner units to keep my home cool. Bought my home in 1993. Fell IN LOVE with the soaring ceilings and the turned stairs in the "great room". AND the skylight...squeal. Then walked into the master bedroom and shivered. 28 foot ceiling. Crown mold, ooooh. Please, may I buy this one????
Then I moved in July. Those real tall ceilings? HOT. Real HOT. My house faces WEST, due west. HUGE windows all facing WEST. That's my fault. Bought a house that is like a magnifying glass to ants.
The house came with the builders York AC units. A big one for downstairs, a smaller for upstairs. Yeah, BTUs, tons....blah, blah, blah, man talk. Never enough cool air. I always kept the AC units and furnaces on a maintenance contract with the company who installed them. They are an awesome company. The first time the Yorks were serviced the tech explained that the units wouldn't really last very long. They were cheap, builders units and that is why the house is too hot. The units really weren't sufficient to cool hell.
Ergo, five years ago we painfully hacked up fourteen thousand dollars....not credit...dollars, we had saved to have Trane units, better duct work, etc. installed in our house. I got out my sweaters. I was going to be cold. Then I bought solar screens. Then I had a friend build solid shutters to cover the windows in the master bedroom. That sucker is a cave. My Trane units hummed along.
Last summer, on a Friday afternoon where the heat WAS the news it seemed hot downstairs. I fearfully looked at the thermostat and the clock. 82 degrees in my house at 4:42 p.m. I called my maintenance company and explained my problem and promised I would stay up all night if only they would fix my five year old, under warranty unit. Saturday morning they arrived. My tears were a little embarrassing. We were going to be cool again. NO, we weren't. "These capacitors don't hold up in this heat." said the poor man who was about to understand that I found that to be incredulous. "So, you have one in the truck?". Of course not, those have to be ordered. I was cool by Tuesday afternoon.
OK, once the cool was with me, I got over the capacitor issue. Until this summer when it happened to my upstairs unit. Excuse me? That is simply wrong. Called my maintenance company, told them what happened, bet them it was a capacitor and asked for a phone number for Trane Manufacturing. I swear they misunderstood and thought I had asked for launch codes to release nuclear warheads. I could her a truck racing to my house to fix my unit.
No, I wanted to express my displeasure to Trane and explain that the lowest bidder is not always the best choice. They are installing capacitors in AC units. They should tolerate HEAT. Pretty simple. After really begging for a phone number I got Trane customer relations.
Admittedly, I was already irked and getting HOT. Then I spent ten minutes being told how important my call is. I always time my wait just in case I need to mention it at some point in the conversation. This young man answered the phone by announcing his name and he was Customer Relations. I told him I had waited 10 minutes to tell him that you can indeed stop a Trane. He told me sternly that there slogan is "It's HARD to stop a Trane". I replied, "not with those cheap capacitors you use. I lost my second unit in two years. They are only 5 years old." He told me he didn't have to talk to me with my attitude and hung up on me.
BIG MISTAKE. I called back. I asked to speak to the most senior, important person in the facility. The name at the top of the organization chart. "We don't really have anyone like that", was the answer I got. "Really, there isn't someone who walks in the door and suddenly everyone looks busy? That is the person I want to talk to". I was sent back to customer relations. They connected me to SALES. I called back.
Now I was done with snide. I was pissed. "I need the name, email address and mailing address of the CEO of Trane, please. I have a letter to write and follow up emails." "We don't have email". "Then the physical address and name please". "You know", she said, "I'm not sure who that is and I don't have any kind of address for anywhere but this location". "You don't know the name of the person who runs the company you answer the phone for?". "Well, I'm kinda new". "Like from the womb new?...let me please talk to the HEAD of customer relations, not a rep, the BIG person in customer relations". I could see her twirling her hair and chewing her gum as she worked very hard to transfer a call.
This customer relations woman gave me a name and phone number for a location in Tyler. THANK YOU. Called that number asked for the person Scott somebody. "We don't have anyone here by that name". I was silent for a moment. Good one. They were beating me at my game. "Then may I please speak with your most senior, important Grand Pooba?" "If you ain't got a name, I cain't help you". Click.
Trane Manufacturing, you win the customer service run around award. You have the worst customer service I have ever dealt with. AND I have dealt with all my parent's creditors and financial institutions and the HR department that holds all my father's retirement information. Congratulations. They just merely sucked. You are the HOOVER of customer service. NO, you are the DYSON of customer service.
Allow me to use this forum to simply explain: Air Conditioning is to keep one cool. The parts used to make the units should be able to withstand heat. See, that wasn't so bad, was it?
Lillybell Blues, from hell
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