Owning a defective product and dealing with a company that doesn’t want to acknowledge it, can not only be frustrating, it can cost you money too.
A couple of weeks ago, I was reading an article about ways to successfully get results when you have a complaint about products and services. One of the tips was to request to speak with a supervisor if you find a custom service agent unresponsive. My late father always used that tactic and it worked every single time. I didn’t give the article much more thought, but last week this little kernel of knowledge came to my rescue.
Two years ago we had new windows installed. They’ve been great but when the weather turned chilly, I noticed the casement window in the family room seemed to be letting in lots of cold air and ice was forming on the inside of the glass. As the windows have a lifetime guarantee, I decided to call the service department to make an appointment for someone to take a look at it.
So on Monday, a window technician stopped by, made a few adjustments and was swiftly on his way. The window still continued to let in cold air and I was worried that the drafty window as wasting energy and yes, money. Once again I called the company and got the usual response, ‘there’s nothing wrong with the window and there’s nothing more we can do’. After a few minutes of me starting to get peeved with the customer service agent’s bad attitude, I decided to try the ‘let me speak to your supervisor, please’ tip. I was put on hold for about 15 minutes and was starting to think this neat little trick wasn’t going to work for me. However, I was wrong. While the supervisor didn’t materialize, the customer service agent told me the supervisor for window installation would be out to my house the following day to see what he could do.
Just as promised, he stopped by, didn’t argue, didn’t deny there was a problem, he just said the window was obviously defective and has ordered a new one. It might not work every single time, but asking for the supervisor, can’t hurt. Try it next time you meet with an unresponsive customer service agent.
Happy Holidays.
