Comments on: Company vs. Me, The Customer

By: James Wu

James Wu — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:35:14 +0000

I have to say I’m really impressed with your posts and blog overall. I stumbled on your site accidentally but am now happy I did. I’ll be stopping in to read more often now. Thanks again !
Thanks,
Lou

By: Gary Will

Gary Will — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:10:57 +0000

Well it’s good that they overly tell you they’re going to take your money. ‘Cause that was really your key point.

By: ali

ali — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:37:14 +0000

Great reply, thank you Darren. I realize that you still didn’t address the issue of why you expire credits, but at least you were kind enough to reply with a professional letter.

Sorry about how I sound — I used to make fun of my grandfather when he’d write angry letters on a typewriter to the President of Sears because they hemmed his pants too short. I am becoming my grandfather!

By: Darren Yaphe

Darren Yaphe — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:21:35 +0000

At MOBIVOX, we do our best to apply the “Golden Standard” of customer service, and are extremely transparent with our users. We feel the customer deserves to know upfront what they are receiving. We believe in a NO SURPRISES policy. This is why we are overly communicative when it comes to our credit expiration policy. The email that you received from us is our standard 30 day reminder, and all we ask is that you place at least one paid call (if only for 1 minute at a rate of 1.9 cents), in order to extend your credit balance for an additional 6 months. We genuinely do not want you to lose this balance, which is why we inform you 7 days, as well as 72 hours before your credits are set to expire. Unfortunately, you tried to call MOBIVOX when our system was down. This is an extremely rare occurrence, as we have a system availability rate of 99.9%. Rest assured, we have resolved the problem, and are taking all steps to ensure this does not happen again.

We apologize that we have “offended” you with the language in our email. This is feedback we take very seriously, and will be reviewing the email and modifying it accordingly.

Please feel free to contact me directly if you would like to discuss further.

By: Gary Will

Gary Will — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 23:55:39 +0000

You shouldn’t feel bad, you’re generously donating your time to help them improve their service. “Don’t steal your customers’ money, and — if for some reason you feel compelled to — don’t pass it off as something your accountants forced you to do (unless you’re also paying them to be the CEO of your company).” Hard to argue with that advice.

“The customer is always right” was nonsense in the pre-Web world too. My wife and I were just saying that to our 10 year old daughter yesterday.