Won't You Hire Some Competent Help!

REALLY?

I guess I am still puzzled by some customer service today.  With so many people out of work, can't companies find enough qualified folks to provide timely service?   Are the people who are hired that incompetent or don't they really care about how they treat their customers?  In the past I've related a number of bad experiences that  I have had in trying to get service - but here are a few more recent ones.  Now I guess I understand why it takes about eight weeks for my wife to get an appointment with a surgeon  - surgeons are limited and in demand.  But I order a pair of diabetic shoes every year from Foot & Ankle Associates of Lancaster.  Now maybe I can understand why it might take six weeks for them to arrive.  But then I need an appointment to try them on and pick them up.  These are the very same shoes I've ordered for the past four years - no changes.  But it will be five more weeks until I can have a 10 minute appointment to do this - five more weeks!  Now this isn't surgery - a clerk or a nurse could do this. Hire a person rather than make your customers wait so long. So I canceled the order with them and went to Foot Solutions in York.  They should have my shoes in less than two weeks and I don't need an appointment to pick them up.  Then try to get an appointment to get your contracted air conditioner annual checkup done - how about the end of June until a service call can be scheduled.  Hire another technician if you are backed up that far.  Oh yes, when I received my bill from Leffler's for my annual ac contract, I was shocked to see that it had gone up 48%!  I called to inquire about this and was told that information had been sent out to me about the increase and I must have missed it.  It was my fault. I discovered that they did have a less expensive plan so - since she said that I didn't read my mail - I humbly asked to have copies of both plans sent to me so I could review them.  When the mailing arrived I found that she had only sent information about the expensive plan.  So I called and this time I did get a helpful rep.  She said that I probably didn't get notified of the changes since it was done by e-mail and they don't have my e-mail address.  She said that because of this, they would give me the more expensive plan this year at the price of the less expensive plan.  Now that is great customer service.  And then there were two other companies I dealt with in the last few weeks.  The one told me my work would be done within 24 hours - the first job was done five days later and the second three days later - maybe they are using different clocks ... or calendars.  The other company called and told me that the work would be done that afternoon - it was finally done two days later.  Not enough help?   Incompetent or dishonest?  You are only a customer?  Not sure.   Oh yes, of course there is still the matter of our car accident on January 8.   The lady who hit us is still lying about what happened and we will probably lose since it is now her word against ours.  We have been promised from the beginning that Liberty Mutual would keep us informed, but since the first week all contacts have been made by us, none from them.  We were also told that arbitration would be held April 1 - maybe that was an April Fool's Day joke since we still have not heard anything about that.  Well I could share more stories, but that is enough for now.  I guess we just need to adjust to these times when integrity, pride, and competence might be a thing of the past.