Poor Customer Service

Scene 1 (November 3, 2005):

I usually bring packed lunch to the office. But yesterday, and today, there wasn’t any prepared food at the house when I left so I had to buy. Yesterday, my officemates and I ate at the building cafeteria, and today, we decided to have lunch delivered. After several discussions, we settled on KFC. Food at KFC is really delish, and they also make very good commercials to entice you to try out their new products, and patronize the old ones. But their customer service is almost non-existent.

Granted that lunch hour is rush time, so we ordered food early. We called the KFC Makati Cinema Square branch (it’s the nearest branch to our building) but we were referred to their Delivery hotline: 887-8888. So we called the hotline and ordered. We were advised that the food will be delivered in 30-45 minutes. Sounds reasonable enough, taking into consideration different factors. (After all, they are not Pizza Hut with 30 minutes or less guarantee). 45 minutes went by and still no food. We dialed the hotline again, and we were advised that the rider from Makati Cinema Square had just left. When they said 30-45 minutes, we expected that the food will be delivered within the time allotted, not how long before their rider would leave with our food! So we called the Makati Cinema Square branch to verify. Ordinarily, we prolly would have just waited but we were so so hungry already. The MANAGER confirmed that the rider had just left, and would arrive within 10 minutes. I know this for a fact since a ride from Mantrade cor EDSA takes less than 5 mins. 10 minutes passed and still no food. We were already fuming by this time, and contemplated not receiving the order if only we werent so hungry and couldn’t find an immediate alternative. We waited a few minutes more and at last, their rider arrived.

Upon paying, the rider gave us 70 pesos worth of 5-peso coins. Not only that, it was short 10 pesos of the 80 pesos change! Are they doing this on purpose or what? My officemate, took the food and said, we won’t be paying till you give us our proper change. She said we know that it’s not his fault, but it is also not right for us to be treated badly. The poor rider, afraid of my already fuming officemate, decided to shell out 10 pesos from his own money just so we would still pay for the order.

Upon getting back to the office, we were waiting to see if the manager of the particular branch would call back to see if the food got through properly, or maybe even apologize but he didn’t.

We weren’t aiming for free food, or anything, just a simple apology would have done, but the actions of the Manager leaves anything to be desired.

Scene 2 (November 3, 2005):

One of my officemates have recently applied for a PLDT phone line for their house. After a few days of getting connected, the dial tone just died. They reported it, but got nothing. It got re-connected after a very long time. Then the bill arrived for their non-existent service. My officemate was just about to call them (from her house) to complain of this fact but their dial tone died again! She had no choice but to report the incident from our office telephone. She dialed 173 (Repairs) but got no answer (would you consider an answering machine an answer??). So she dialed the Billing Dept but was promptly referred back to 173. They said they couldn’t do anything about it. Ok, understandable, so she dialed 173 again. The answering machine picked up, saying: There is no available person to receive your call. Your call is important to us so please hold. Then their song, or jingle began playing. Every few minutes or so, the recorded message would be played back. It is now two hours and counting, and still NOONE has picked up.

Do you remember the time when it took years for your application for a line for PLDT to be approved? Nothing much has improved.