Showing posts with label Home Improvement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Home Improvement. Show all posts

Saturday, September 9, 2017

Open Letter to Home Depot Canada

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To the Home Depot Customer Care Team:

On September 6, 2017 I ordered a Samsung Refrigerator Water Filter and the Order Number is ***********. For some strange reason, this disposable filter was considered as an appliance and I was charged $49.98 for the delivery of this “appliance”. I shrugged because this must be a mistake and I decided to call your customer support line. I first called 1-800-628-0525 and I was on hold for 10-15 minutes. Someone picked up and asked for my order number yada yada, only to be told that she couldn’t help me because this was an Appliances Department issue and she has no access to their files/records as they are a complete different entity despite me purchasing the water filter and a furnace filter on the same website, HomeDepot.ca. After a big sigh, I decided to call 1-800-759-2054 which is the appliances department apparently. Waited another 15 minutes while the automated recording kept providing me false reassurance that my phone call is important (yeah right). I decided to use another phone to dial in and after 10 minutes of waiting on that line I actually got a hold of someone first on that line and decided to hang up on the first phone that I was calling from. This irritates me because I could have been on the other line and would have been waiting while other callers can go through another agent, while I’m still waiting for like an eternity. This unhelpful lady, who sounded like she hates her job said she couldn’t help me and gave me a number (which I now forgot) and asked me to dial the extension 4. So it was the same recordings as the Appliance Department. I pressed 4 and to my disappointment, it was the project support line, basically the appliance delivery team.

This may seem to be an ongoing rant on how horrible my experience was with being bounced off from one customer service representative to another who does not have a clue of how they should do their jobs nor did they take ownership of helping me with my issue. However, my experience turned around for the better when I was connected with Patrick. Patrick was very calm, polite, and went above and beyond to help me de-escalate and actually solve my problem. I expressed my frustrations with Patrick of the Project Supports Team, Appliance Delivery division (I believe that’s what he said). You see, unlike the 2 ladies who bounced me around, Patrick was honest and said that he hasn’t encountered this problem before. This isn’t the right department that I should be talking to as this is the delivery department and not the order processing department. Patrick understood my frustration and empathized that I shouldn’t be bounced to another department that might not know the answer as well. Patrick showed great dedication and offered to make the call for me to the other line so that I don’t have to wait and have to start all over again: what’s my order number, what’s my name and address, what is my problem, etc. Patrick didn’t know the answer but helped me find that answer. Patrick explained why there was a delivery cost of $49 (special courier fee) and offered to work around the delivery fee. Patrick did provide another option, where I can just pick this item up in a local Home Depot store as a special order. I thanked Patrick and asked him to just cancel my order. Patrick apologized because I had to call a different department to cancel my online order. I spend 2 hours on the phone and Patrick understood that no customer should waste their time on the phone to be speaking to random individuals who may or may not be able to help you. Patrick, as super that he is, called the appropriate department on my behalf and cancelled my order and informed me that I will get my refund in X-number of days.

Home Depot, my online shopping experience has been horrendous, but my frustrations were quickly replaced with relief because of employees like Patrick who goes above and beyond their duty to make things right. I wanted to speak to Patrick’s supervisor to commend him for such an excellent job but the supervisor was busy with another escalation. Your employees are what makes or breaks a company, and Patrick is a model employee that all your other employees should follow as a role model. It is quite rare to find someone like Patrick. Please extend my gratitude to him and let this be a shining recommendation for his future performance appraisal.

Samsung Water Filter Guy

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UPDATE: Home Depot actually responded and thanked me for the feedback and is making sure that Patrick recieves the praise and recognition that he deserves.