Unprofessional Customer Service and Management

We were having carpet scheduled to be installed on a Monday at 9:30am. When no one showed up for a couple hours I called to see where the installers were. They said they didnt know and didnt know when they would show up. Come to find out they finally tell us that they accidently scheduled it for Tuesday instead of Monday and didnt know when someone would be able to make it out. They finally show at at 2:30 and did a good job. We tipped the installers because they did a good job and they are seperate from Big Bobs. When I talk to the lady the first time I explained how this was very unprofessional and bad customer service. To have something scheduled for 930 and then show up at 230. No one apologized and I didnt think we should of been charged for the full price or should of at least gotten a credit. She said to please pay the installers the full $150 and she would talk with her manager about the credit and give me a call back. I waited 3 days and no one called so I gave them a call back. I spoke with a different girl and she asked me to hold, some guy jumped on the phone and said he was the manager, he was very defensive from the get go and said he wasnt going to credit someone back just for a mistake. He said why did we tip the installers if we werent happy, I told him we were happy with their job not with their customer service. He went on and on with a huge attitude and he sounded like he had no experience being a manager in customer service at all. After trying to explain the situation, within 2 min he tried to get off the phone. I told him no one even apologized and if they made their decision to not credit anything why didnt anyone call me back as they said they would? I called headquarters and come to find out he wasnt even the manager. His wife is and when I asked to speak to someone above him he said no one was above him. I got the name of the owner from headquarters which the "manager" didnt even provide as he should of. The customer service and the people here are just plain ghetto. They dont understand the concept of customer service. That goes hand in hand with any business. Its not so much about getting credit for anything anymore its the way he handled the situation. He didnt even acknowledge their mistake- he tried to blame it on the installers. what kind of "manager" doesnt take responsibility and tries to blame others. I told him we wouldnt be going throug them to carpet out other rooms and of course he didnt care.

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I am the person referred to above as the "Manager". There is more to this story that I believe needs to be shared in order to be fair to all parties involved.

It is true that Big Bob's dropped the ball when scheduling the 9:30am Monday morning installation. The product was purchased the day before, on Sunday afternoon, and the person who wrote the sale set up the installation for Tuesday morning at 9;30am.

What the person who wrote the above complaint did not mention is that she wasn't even our customer. Her father purchased the flooring from us. When he called us Monday morning to check on the arrival time of the installer is when we learned of this situation. We then explained that we'd call our list of sub-contracted installers to see if one of them might be able to come out and do his installation on a moment's notice. He said, as long as they can get it done by 4:30pm that day, there wouldn't be a problem. He had organized a group of people to help him move some furniture and they'd be coming over that evening at 4:30pm to help him and he didn't want to put them out and make them wait. So, after we made some calls, we found an installer who not only met this deadline, but he did such an outstanding job that the father tipped him 25% of his entire fee!

The installer was back at our store by 5:00pm that night to let us know how the installation went and to report that everyone was in good spirits and that the customer was very happy, and generous. We all felt very good that we had worked together to satisfy a customer on such short notice.

Two days later, on Wednesday morning, I received a call from this customer's daughter who tells me that Big Bob's messed up with the scheduling of the install of her father's carpet. I explained to her that we had actually met the deadline and that he was tickeled with his new carpet and the installation. She said that she felt she was deserved of a credit toward their bill. When I asked her why her father wasn't calling me to discuss this she became very irritated and started casting 'stones' about poor customer service.

After she told me that her father had several more rooms in his house to cover and that she wouldn't let him purchase from us I said I'm sorry you feel that way. Before I could finish that sentence, she had hung up the phone.

Feeling that her father may not have been satisfied, I then called him to better understand his viewpoint and he said it wasn't a big deal at all. He wasn't even aware his daughter had called and then he apologized for her tirade.

After talking to the father, it was clear that his daughter was just out for a 'pound of flesh' and was upset that I wouldn't cave to her demands.

We always try to do what's right and feel we did so in this case. I understand that we'll never be able to please everyone 100%, but that is certainly our goal.

Oh, and to clear any confusion, I actually am the General Manager of the Big Bob's in Everett, and Burlington, WA. :) Not sure who she talked to at our corporate office, if anyone, however, they'd never tell a person like this that I wasn't the GM; there would be no benefit to them one way or the other.