Thought for the day.

Is it really so difficult to be in a service industry and actually provide customer service? And to go a step further, does it really make one feel better to constantly pass the buck, to never accept responsibility?

What has set her off this time, you might ask? Well, it's the tried and true cliche about women and car repairs. I called over two weeks ago to make an appointment to have our van serviced. I also asked them to note that in addition to the regular service the van needed a fog light and the third break light replaced stating that I didn't want to have to bring the car back in because for some strange reason they didn't have the parts. We dropped the car off on Monday evening so that they could have the entire day on Tuesday to perform the service and made arrangements to pick the car up first thing on Wednesday morning. At first, they were unwilling to do that because they said the service would take at best 3 hours to complete. I then reminded them that the last time I took the car in was for an oil change. A service they say should only take an hour; yet, I spent nearly 4 hours with Fidget in the waiting room while people who came in after we did left before us. That complaint was enough to have them agree to the drop-off and pick-up plan I proposed. However, when I went in to pick up the van this morning, I was told I would need to make another appointment to bring the van back in because certain parts they needed had to be ordered. As I physically felt my blood pressure rise, I did manage to stay composed long enough to find out which part needed to be ordered--just by the off-chance that they discovered something that needed to be repaired in the routine maintenance. Care to render a guess which part it was that they did not have in stock? Yes, that's right. The fog light.

Granted, dear reader, you probably think that I'm ranting again because of my flair for the dramatic. (Yes, I do readily admit that I'm a little too quick sometimes to display my inner drama queen.) However, I have yet to take the van in for routine service, during the nearly 2 years that we've owned the van, that I have received even passable customer service. AND YES, I realize that there are other places to have the car serviced; however, I prefer to use the dealer, particularly while the car is under warranty. And this particular dealer does happen to be the nearest to us besides the dealer in Greenwich, and let's just say that Honda does not attract the top-of-the-line service personnel in Greenwich, CT. In fact, I'm surprised Greenwich stoops low enough to allow mere Hondas to be sold in their humble little town.

Back to my point here...there has been something about every single service visit that has left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. So in an effort to help them provide the best possible service that they could, I tried to make this as painless as possible for all involved: 1) Make an appointment so that they would have an entire day to complete the basic service. and 2) Tell them ahead of time what parts I knew that they would have to have on hand to repair the car. They still managed to fail. MISERABLY! And why, when I dropped the car off on Monday afternoon and told the agent who was taking possession of the car and putting the instructions about what needed to be done into the computer, why didn't he make certain the parts were in stock? And why, WHY wasn't I called on Tuesday when they realized the part wasn't in and needed to be ordered? And why, WHY WHY! didn't they think to call to say the part would be in on Wednesday morning, and they could have the car ready, but would we be able to pick the car up a little later that day OR would we like to pick it up at the agreed upon time and make another appointment to have the part replaced at a later time? Am I the only one who thinks that that is a simple and easy way to head off any issues with the customer and make it seem as if you care and are trying to provide....

wait for it....

SERVICE?

I'll now step off my soap box.