Monday, November 23, 2009

Lousy Customer Service

I took my skis into REI today to get them sharpened/waxed. This is a 30 minute operation, tops.

Today is Monday. They told me to come pick up the skis next Sunday.

While I was there, two employees were working with one woman regarding a new set of handlebars for her bicycle.

There's lots of room for efficiency improvement at the "fixit" counter at REI. Perhaps next year I'll just get waxed paper and use an iron and wax my own darned skis.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just out of curiosity, what genders were the employees?

Darren said...

Both were male.

Ellen K said...

There's your answer.

Darren said...

She was there with her husband and son.

Anonymous said...

All you need to sharpen metal ski edges are a flat file and a sense of when to stop filing the edges. Also, get an old travel iron for ironing in wax. Just keep the iron moving at all times while touching the skis so you don't melt them!

chicopanther

David Foster said...

There is huge room for efficiency improvements at many, many consumer-oriented businesses.

Ironically, the same businesses that go to great lengths to micromanage the *verbal* behavior of their employees:

"Good morning, my name is Tiffany. How may I provide you with excellent service today?"

...are often the same ones that fail to apply any intelligent process thinking to their actual *operations*.

Cameron said...

The Ski Doctor at El Camino and Fulton is an excellent place to take your skis and they never take longer than they say they will.

Darren said...

Cameron, will they say "6 days"? :-)