Bad Service – Villa4UFlorida

Today I continue my reports about Good, Bad, and Ugly customer service experiences.  Today’s story is about a recent experience my family had while on vacation last month in Orlando, FL.  While this experience doesn’t qualify as Ugly, it does have several qualities that place in the Bad category.

We traveled to Orlando with my parents for baseball’s Spring Training.  We decided the best thing for us was to rent a home.  We ended up booking with Villa4UFlorida – specifically selecting a home co-owned by a work colleague of my wife.  A couple months after booking, we learned that a long term contract for the home was extended, thus we could not have that particular home.  Villa4UFlorida booked us for a similar home about 15 minutes from Orlando.  No problem – we actually appreciated the effort they went to to find us another option.

Many of the homes for rent have private swimming pools, and we learned, the option to have the pools heated.  The biggest decision was the fee to heat the pool.  The charge is $25 a day for the length of the stay.  Since our plans involved being out at games most days, we were not sure if it was worth the cost.  Factoring in the bad winter we had on the East Coast, and given how much my daughters love to swim, we decided (a few days before the trip) to pay the fee and have the pool heated. 

So, my wife contacted them two days before, left a message since no one answered the telephone, and requested a confirmation call to her cellphone.  To cut to the chase, she never got a call.  Making matters worse is the fact that Villa4UFlorida doesn’t have a office where you check in.  A week before a renter arrives, and after final payment has been received, they send you an e-mail with a code to a lockbox that contains the key to the property you are renting – so there is never the option for a face-to-face meeting with any representatives.

When we got into the house we found the instructions for the pool.  Each night we were to place a plastic cover back on it to help keep the heat in – which we did.  Attached to, but slight elevated above the pool was a small spa.  The instructions recommended that we run this approximately 40 minutes prior to using – we assumed to get it good and heated.   We tried this the first couple of evenings and really saw no measureable result.  That first evening, our daugthers went into the pool and really seemed to enjoy it – but considering it was 30 degrees when we left Delaware that day, anything above 50 degrees would have felt great.

Unfortunately, over the next couple of days, the temperature in the pool seemed to be on a major decline.  So after day two, my wife contacted Villa4UFlorida.  When she called to see if they had gotten her original request, she was told they turned on the heater before we arrived.  When she expressed concern that the pool was not warming up – the nasty response she got was, “You must be doing it wrong!”  No apology, no offer to have someone look into it, just a condensing answer that pointed blame at us – the customer.  Considering I was paying $175 for this simple service, we expected more. 

Figuring we were not going to get any assistance, we continued to follow the recommended procedures the next few nights.  The only measureable difference we could see was that the water temperature was getting colder.  So cold in fact, my daughters only spent 10 minutes in the pool each of the last two nights – very disappointing.

Now it is true we never called back that week – but would you have?  We had two main reasons for not calling again.  First, no one is at the rental company beyond normal business hours.  Since we were at baseball games after the first two days, we were never at the house during business hours.  The second reason was the lack of responses we had gotten to that point.  Remember, my wife never got the confirmation telephone call she requested when we asked that the pool be heated.   Then, when we called to express concern that it was not warm, we were told we were idiots.  So why would we attempt to call again?

When we got home, we called to request a credit since we did not believe the pool was ever heated.  As you can expect, the co-owner of Villa4UFlorida basically told us we were liars.  She informed us that her husband had come out the day after our call questioning if the heat was turned on.  She informed us that the pool was “a lovely 82 degrees.”  We found it very interesting that someone from the company had come to the house, and potentially into the house, and never left a note indicating they were there or what they did.  What I know for sure is, that pool was no where near 82 degrees. 

After several communications, Villa4UFlorida still claims the pool was fine, but said they received complaints from other renters at other homes that same week.  That tells me a lot.  But when questioned, they have been rude, avoided calling us back, communicating solely via e-mail, and has only offered to give us a $175 credit on a booking over the next 12 months.  If they feel compelled to offer us a credit in the future, they should be willing to make it right for us now.

Given the treatment we received, the lack of personal communication, and their failure to professionally address our problem, we have no interest to rent from them again.  Therefore, I am now using my power as the consumer to add them to the bad list of customer service experiences.

Do you have a similar experience with this company, or another rental organization, please share!

Update: Service Recovery from McDonald’s

If you read my blog this past Saturday, you know that I did some venting about an unusually bad service experience at the Northeast, Md. McDonald’s this past weekend.  In this blog I detailed my experience and suggested that we the consumers in America should take more proactive actions when we feel we have not been treated fairly.

I totally believe this, and plan to continue this theme within my blog for the short-term.  I also want it noted that I will also be recognizing the good experiences as well as the bad and the ugly.

Which brings me to this update.  After blogging my experience on Saturday, I continued my venting by posting my experience to the McDonald’s Corporation website – and yes, I did share with them the link to my blog site – which they apparently read!

Earlier this evening I had a conversation with the area supervisor from McDonald’s – Mr. Greg Uggo (Greg, it dawns on me that I never asked for the proper spelling of your name, so please accept my apology if I got it wrong).  Greg was very interested in hearing my experience and wanted to communicate to me that what happened is totally unacceptable and that he is very embarrassed.  He told me that he knows that many families like mine come into this establishment on their way to or from their children’s activities (dance class, sporting events, etc.), and that McDonald’s mission is to service the consumers efficiently and effectively so we can continue on with our afternoons.

I know many of you might be thinking, “Not enough!”  For me, I am very satisfied.  As I communicated to Greg, I had no problem with a short wait on Saturday, I just would have appreciated being acknowledged – to know that my business was important and that they wanted to provide a quality service to me.  Greg did an excellent job of “Service Recovery” by taking responsibility, apologizing, and pledging to address this with the manager whose behavior was out of line with the expectations of McDonald’s.

For his efforts, I figured Greg deserved immediate recognition and his actions to be published in my blog.  I will follow-up and report my satisfaction on the McDonald’s website.

As a parting thought for today – I think this proves the power of the consumer.  Greg indicated that they take any negative comment seriously – but the fact that I put it in writing on my blog was particularly concerning to him.  He felt it sent a message to the community that McDonald’s doesn’t care about them.  I know this is not true, and he shared with me some of the good things they are doing in the Northeast, Md community.  I found this very pleasing.  Because he is so concerned with the long-term potential impact, I am very confident that the issue will be addressed in the appropriate manner as they do not want someone else to experience the same thing my daughter and I did.

So, if any of you reading this question what telling our stories can do, hopefully this experience proves to you the power we really do have.

Next time, I will share an ongoing issue we are having since our family vacation to Florida a few weeks ago.  That experience falls under the Bad category of the Good, Bad, and the Ugly.  Until next time…

Service with a Smile…Or Not – The UGLY at McDonalds

For sometime now I have not paid much attention to my blog site.  Truth be told, I have been busy with work, family,…life!  But with baseball season starting soon, I figured I had a good topic to get me started again in April. 

However, today happened – and now I have a different mission to sink my teeth in.

See, in recent weeks, I have had the opportunity to experience the good, the bad, and the ugly of customer service situation.  Today was down right ugly, so I have decided to use my blog as a means to highlight some of the experiences I have had, and hopefully encourage others to do the same.

During most of my adult life, I have worked in one form of service or another.  Be it waiting tables in college, working at two different stores at the mall, serving as a customer service telephone representative, and for the past 18 years as a corporate trainer; I know the importance of good customer service skills.  During these experiences, I have also learned to be tolerant of people who serve in these roles.  Sometimes they can be a thankless job.  But despite this tolerance, there is no excusing my experience today.

My 13 year-old daughter and I had a busy day.  We are in the process of High School selection for her, and she spent the morning taking a practice entrance exam at one of our targeted schools.  Immediately after she finished, I had to drive her from the city of Wilmington, DE to Northeast, MD so she could attend her Music Theater class.  Unfortunately, there was no time for lunch before class. So when she finished, and before her dance theater rehearsal, we went to the McDonald’s in Northeast, MD on Route 40.

When we entered the lobby there were a few people strolling around, but no one in line.  As I looked at the counter with three registers, two of the registers had employees filling up the change dispensing units.  The center register was not being used.  Watching over this was the manager for the shift whose sole purpose was to “supervise.”

Not being sure where I should go, I stood about 8 feet back and waited for someone to invite us forward to take our order – but no luck.  They saw us standing there, but offered no apology, no “we’ll be just a moment”, or any acknowledgement at all.  After about 90 seconds, three other groups had gathered behind me.  Obviously not sure what was going on, the guy behind me inquired if I was in line.  I am certain the manager heard him, so I made sure she heard my answer as well.  I said loud enough…”Yes.”  At this point I looked at the manager who was giving me a look, and quietly shook my head a bit.  I was giving her the opportunity to do the right thing.

Instead of doing proper “Service Recovery” elements, she decided to vent at me.  Loudly she said, “I have to get change ready sir!  What would you have me do?  We got slammed at lunch and I must have change.”  This was totally uncalled for, and totally the wrong approach to take.

At this point, I turned my daughter around, announced loudly that we were leaving and going somewhere else.  I then shouted back, “With a smart-ass comment like that, you obviously don’t need my business.”  As I left the restaurant, my 13 year-old, obviously way more intelligent than this manager simply said, “There was no reason for her to be rude like that.  That was so uncalled for.”  Such brilliance from a brilliant girl!

I can only hope that a few of the others in line, and in the restaurant took notice and did like I did.  I must admit that I was stunned.  I can appreciate they were busy, and that maybe they fell a little behind.  I was even willing to wait – all I wanted was a little acknowledgement that I existed.

That manager was totally out of line.  She may not have cared who I was – but I promise you she will.  See, the power of the consumer is a powerful thing.  I think it is something that many of us don’t use enough.  There are nearly 50 families who are part of my daughter’s dance group – many of whom frequent that McDonald’s.  My daughter and I plan to let many of them know about our experience.  Afterall, they are not the only game in town.  Add on to that this blog, Facebook, Twitter, Buzz, etc., I have many opportunities to share my experience and to caution others from going to that particular restaurant. 

Will I shut them down?  Of course not!  But I will feel good venting about it, and maybe, just maybe, I can create some awareness about a McDonald’s that needs some improvement.

I invite you to pass on this story, comment about your own experiences, and share your personal good, bad, and ugly service experiences.  Let’s all start to use our voice!