OT Customer Service or lack of it.

Remember that thread (that turned out to be long) about my problems
with getting Meineke to fix my E brake on my Escort Wagon that I paid
for. Still never did get any satisfaction. I e mailed Meineke about a
month or so ago and never heard anything back, so I decided to call
them today. Of course the number for customer service was not toll
free. I called an got put on hold for a minute or so. The background
noise on the phone was promoting Meineke's guaranteed satisfaction
service. The lady finally got on the phone and said that I was pretty
much out of luck about getting any help from them because the Meineke
store is a franchise and she said that I would have to take the
franchise owners to small claims court. I am like you are the
franchisor, so can't you do anything. Answer was no. So I guess that
I am like Mick Jaggar and can't get no satisfaction from Meineke. I
even told them they could either fixt it, or give me my money back. No
dice on either. Small claims court is only $20 to file, but I would
have to take a half a day off of work to do that. Oh well I guess I
will just have to bend over. If you are ever in Cincinnati and need
brake work, don't stop at Meineke Center # 1672 at 9339 Princeton
Glendale Rd unless you have a big jar of vasoline.

"Bill Berckman" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Remember that thread (that turned out to be long) [...]
> she said that I would have to take the
> franchise owners to small claims court.

That just sucks, Bill. So what she claims is the Corporation washes its hand
and then lets the francisee deal with it. Looks like a total cluster-****. I
am sorry, but glad that you warned the rest of us.

--
So why don't we just shoot these *******s?

They really do offer nothing in terms of customer service. Here is
what it says at their website:

Customer Service You Can Count On

At Meineke, our goal is to provide every customer with quality parts, a
friendly, professional staff, and expert workmanship - all at a
reasonable cost. That's the reason customers rely on Meineke to protect
their cars and trucks year after year. To ensure your satisfaction,
Meineke offers one of the most comprehensive warranties available on
the road today. We invite you to visit your local Meineke shop and see
how we stand above the rest when it comes to serving your automotive
needs.

Dear Bill (and the Group),

You've just had a nice example of one of the major fallacies of modern
economics. The truth is, once a company reaches a certain critical
size with regard to its market and demography, it has no need to
address customer complaints -- there will always be a certain
percentage of complaints, most valid, some that are not -- and it can
be proven that the cost of dealing with complaints in an honest and
honorable fashion costs more than simply ignoring them -- blowing them
off with happy-talk or simply hanging up the phone. So they go
someplace else; big deal.

Modern-day management considers where to do lunch as Long Term
Planning. 'Customer Satisfaction' comes under the advertising budget.
And there is no Complaint Department. Sure, it destroys the company.
And yeah, it ****s the public. But in the short-term it pumps-up the
bottom line, the guy in the corner officer get his bonus and by the
time reality sets in, he's long gone.

Sears is a perfect case-in-point, or UPS as a case-in-progress.

What the public perceives as a minor error -- something easily
corrected -- in most instances is a deliberate product of management,
no matter how erroneous it may be in your particular case. Rather than
correcting it, the usual response is to simply ignore any complaint...
or any death. Because to do it right will reduce the margin of profit.
(Like the man said in the famous Pinto memo, a few deaths are
acceptable because buying off the heirs will cost less than fixing
millions of fuel tanks.)

When it comes right down to it, in modern-day economics YOU don't
count. You are merely a Consumer-Unit, not a person. You are defined
by a matrix of about 275 factors that sorts you into one of 480 groups,
depending upon each particular product or service. Inherent in that
method of definition are the thin ends of the bell-shaped curve
comprising about 4% of each population that simply does not match the
dictated standards for that group. And because they don't match the
corperate perception, that 4% is responsible for about 90% of all
complaints, errors and 'exceptions.' And in the corporate scheme of
things, 4% is small enough to ignore, especially when they are
dehumanized 'consumer-units.'

-Bob Hoover

> wrote in message
oups.com...
>
> Dear Bill (and the Group),
>
> You've just had a nice example of one of the major fallacies of modern
> economics. The truth is, [... snip the good stuff ...]

Boss: "Five percent of our customers account for 90% of the complaints."
Dilbert: "That's the five percent who actually use our product."

I thought George Foreman was in charge of customer complaints. Sue the
*******s.

href="http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=4025706&a=30209382&vt=vp">Den's
1977 Puma</a>

File the claim in smail claims court. Call their HQ and get the name of the
chairman, so the court can issue a summons for him as well. When the system
sends out the notices of the hearing, you will get a call from the meineke
folks.
"Bill Berckman" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Remember that thread (that turned out to be long) about my problems
> with getting Meineke to fix my E brake on my Escort Wagon that I paid
> for. Still never did get any satisfaction. I e mailed Meineke about a
> month or so ago and never heard anything back, so I decided to call
> them today. Of course the number for customer service was not toll
> free. I called an got put on hold for a minute or so. The background
> noise on the phone was promoting Meineke's guaranteed satisfaction
> service. The lady finally got on the phone and said that I was pretty
> much out of luck about getting any help from them because the Meineke
> store is a franchise and she said that I would have to take the
> franchise owners to small claims court. I am like you are the
> franchisor, so can't you do anything. Answer was no. So I guess that
> I am like Mick Jaggar and can't get no satisfaction from Meineke. I
> even told them they could either fixt it, or give me my money back. No
> dice on either. Small claims court is only $20 to file, but I would
> have to take a half a day off of work to do that. Oh well I guess I
> will just have to bend over. If you are ever in Cincinnati and need
> brake work, don't stop at Meineke Center # 1672 at 9339 Princeton
> Glendale Rd unless you have a big jar of vasoline.
>

Try going to one of your local TV stations, they ususally get great results.
Send them the letter you wrote to Meineke. I'll bet you'll get a response.
"Bill Berckman" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Remember that thread (that turned out to be long) about my problems
> with getting Meineke to fix my E brake on my Escort Wagon that I paid
> for. Still never did get any satisfaction. I e mailed Meineke about a
> month or so ago and never heard anything back, so I decided to call
> them today. Of course the number for customer service was not toll
> free. I called an got put on hold for a minute or so. The background
> noise on the phone was promoting Meineke's guaranteed satisfaction
> service. The lady finally got on the phone and said that I was pretty
> much out of luck about getting any help from them because the Meineke
> store is a franchise and she said that I would have to take the
> franchise owners to small claims court. I am like you are the
> franchisor, so can't you do anything. Answer was no. So I guess that
> I am like Mick Jaggar and can't get no satisfaction from Meineke. I
> even told them they could either fixt it, or give me my money back. No
> dice on either. Small claims court is only $20 to file, but I would
> have to take a half a day off of work to do that. Oh well I guess I
> will just have to bend over. If you are ever in Cincinnati and need
> brake work, don't stop at Meineke Center # 1672 at 9339 Princeton
> Glendale Rd unless you have a big jar of vasoline.
>

R.R. Kirby wrote:
> Try going to one of your local TV stations, they ususally get great
results.
>-----------------------------------------------------------

Myth

Those 'great results' are nothing more than good programming. To
understand how it works you need to see the complaints they DON'T tell
you about.

It's all about Show Biz, not consumer advocacy. They only pick
complaints that are safe & easy; the ones having good 'media values.'
They avoid all hard-ball issues, especially those involving large
corporations, any potential advertiser and anyone having deep pockets.

Printed media uses a slightly different ploy. It takes only a few
strokes of the editor's blue pencil to turn a thoughtful, well written
letter into the shrill yammering of an idiot.

-Bob Hoover

"rob" > wrote in message news:Vsoge.21975$_g1.21468@trnddc04...
> File the claim in smail claims court. Call their HQ and get the name of
> the chairman, so the court can issue a summons for him as well. When the
> system sends out the notices of the hearing, you will get a call from the
> meineke folks.

It's unlikely he will get to the Chair. Such a tactic is called "Penetrating
the Corporate Veil", and rarely succeeds.