Rant & Saves

It feels like a good day to do a little ranting. But I don’t believe in just ranting; I’m one of those “If you’re not part of the solution, then you’re part of the problem” folks. So I’ll give you my rant (the problem) and my save (the solution) that I’m hoping you’ll use if ever a similar rant comes upon you.

My son plays collegiate tennis. He needed new racquets before the tennis season started in February, checked out a few places and decided to go with Golfsmith in San Jose, CA. They had a good demo program (try before you buy), a good selection of racquets and seemed to know what they were doing. Notice the word “seemed”? That’s right! These folks were CALUUULESS! Unfortunately, we found that out a wee bit late.
He ordered his Babolat racquets in January (Babolat is used by Roddick, Nadel, Moya) and was told they’d be in within two weeks. 2 ½ months later, the racquets, the WRONG racquets, arrived. We only discovered they were the wrong racquets once we were in the store. Did I mention the store is approximately 60 miles away? Did I also mention gas is $3.35 per gallon here? Well, they said they were sorry, would do a rush order and would make things “right” and, one month later, they hadn't. They also NEVER returned phone calls (12 different instances) when my son would call to check the status of his order and place him on hold for up to half an hour at a time (6 different occasions). And whoever answered always sounded annoyed that he’d call & he’s a friendly, easygoing person. IMHO, not the least bit professional. So here’s my son, full tilt into the tennis season, getting ready for a very substantial tournament and he still has no racquets because he’s been, forgive the pun, strung along by GolfSmith for sooo long.

The solution: Call the CEO of Golfsmith. A little extreme, you say? Well, I’m sure he wants his customers to be happy. Otherwise, Golfsmith may never brake over $10.00 a share in NASDAQ trading again (they ended trade on 4/27/07 at $7.37 a share). The CEO, a fellow named Jim Thompson, was easy enough to find (1.800.813.6897 and then type in T-H-O-M-P-S-O-N on the keypad, then hit 2 and #)

I’m sorry to say he never returned my call, also not professional IMHO, but I do believe he made the calls needed to resolve my son’s problem because less than 24 hours later, Golfsmith called with the delightful news that the racquets were in and strung.
The point of all this is life is simply too short to let some company foul up your day, week, or even months. Before it gets that far, go for the head guy, the jugular. S/He is truly there to serve YOU whether s/he knows it or not.
OH! Golfsmith strung one of the racquets wrong and didn't string either of the racquets at the right tension.
So here’s what you do:
1) Look up the company in question on the net.
2) Go to the “About us” page
3) Go to the management page. No management page? Try Investment relations
4) Look up the name of the CEO, CFO (I like the CFO because that’s a real look at the bottom-line dollar position & they better understand what it means to lose a customer), or President. The higher the better.
5) Remember that you are the client and decide you are so worth making the call.
6) Pick up the phone and call this person up.
7) There’s a good chance you’ll actually speak to the head-of-company’s Administrative Assistant. These people are just as effective at getting the matter resolved, so go ahead and discuss this issue with this person.
8) Be your own advocate when placing the call. Rants, screams, and cries are highly ineffective. Just pretend to be Mr. Spock presenting the situation to Captain Kirk.
9) Once you've stated the problem BE QUIET! Let the other person respond. One of my other favorite sayings in life is “He who speaks first loses” and I just hate to lose.
10) If the fix is acceptable, BRAVO! Move on, get the particulars, and write them down. If not, let the CEO know what outcome you expect.

This is another “everything starts with a decision” instance and you’re the one making all the decisions. Decide what you deserve, like receiving merchandise on time, working properly, and being treated in a professional manner, and you’ll receive it.
FYI: This is not the only instance of my going to the top to get an issue resolved. I did it to have Kitchen Aid replace a horrible washing machine, Electrolux replace a faulty stove top, Earthlink resolve our ongoing DSL issue, etc. etc. This works and saves you time and frustration.
5/1/07 update: Jim Thompson called back and apologized for the very bad experience my son had.

This is just a test...

My first blog entry. Hmmm. Well, it really IS a test, isn't it. And just like the enthusiastic contestants of a game show, we are all here to participate. Sometimes the results are spectacular, in both the best and worst sense of the word. Those are the times that etch our souls. Then there are the average times. I view those times as the ones where I can catch my breath