Human Customer Service Exists — I Found it!

A reverse rant — 3 cheers for Rooms to Go furniture store

Since I write so much about customer service nightmares, I thought it only fair to write about not just a good customer service experience, but a spectacular one.

In July 2022, I moved into a new villa (Moving is NOT For Old People). Since I had sold my furniture after my husband died and had been living in a furnished condo for 6 years, I needed a lot of furniture.

I’m 74 years old. My friends are between 70 and 85. No one is going to be abusing my furniture by jumping on it or having sex on it, so I reasoned that buying high-end, expensive furniture was unnecessary. And impossible, given my budget.

I opted for a company called Rooms to Go that sells mid-quality furniture in my modern/traditional taste, in affordable package deals. Considering my age and a woeful lack of sexual activity, it will surely outlast me.

I found a set that was perfect, not only for my taste and budget but for my small villa. As well as being realistic, I am creative, evidenced by my ability to split up the purchased furniture into not one, but two rooms.

Because Florida is a transient state, with people moving into, out of, and around it all the time, furniture companies are usually good about delivery times. Thus as expected, the furniture was delivered on time. But OOPS. There was an issue with one of the end tables. The legs were defective, thus making assembly impossible.

No problem, the delivery man in charge assured me. Customer Service will reschedule a delivery date for a new table.

To my delight, a human being, not a robot, from Customer Service called to inform me that the table was out of stock and would be delivered as soon as it was restocked. My delight was replaced with incredulity when I was told the delivery date would be in……. JANUARY.

JANUARY????? This is JULY, I told her. I was given the option of picking out a different table, which I was planning on doing, but I got busy.

Months went by without me making it to the store to pick out a table.

Last week, it suddenly occurred to me……..It’s January. I don’t suppose I’ll ever see that table, but I should call Rooms to Go anyway.

NOW FOR THE SURPRISES — ONE AFTER ANOTHER:

1. Before I had a chance to pick up the phone, I got an email informing me that my Rooms to Go delivery was scheduled for January 24th between noon and 4 PM. I could not believe it. The table did come in January, and they were going to deliver it to me just as they promised six months ago. Finding out this information without having to go through hours of telephone “bots” had me walking around the house shaking my head in delighted disbelief.
2. For the next three days, I received texts informing me of the delivery status and asking me to click “confirm”, which I did so enthusiastically.
3. Because I am the suspicious type, I wasn’t sure if my “confirm” went through, so I called Customer Service. After a few rings, A LIVE HUMAN BEING who spoke perfect English came on the phone, looked up my order, and confirmed my delivery. I thanked her profusely. She thought I was thanking her for the information. In reality, I was thanking the woman for being human.
4. As soon as my eyes were open on the morning of January 24, I received a text informing me of my place in line for delivery. 8 stops away — delivery between 11 and 3. I continued to receive updated texts until the final one, at 12 noon, informed me that the truck was on my street.
5. The delivery man parked in front of my driveway, took the package out of the truck, opened it, assembled the table, followed me into the house, and placed it exactly where I requested. I was practically speechless.

But not so speechless that I didn’t ask if he could look at the table delivered in July that was wobbly.

He touched the table to determine its wobbliness, reached underneath without even looking, tightened a screw, and that was the end of the 6-month wobble.

I not only thanked him enthusiastically for Rooms to Go’s expert customer service, but I also let him know how much I appreciated his company’s human interaction.

In contrast to an entire day of trying to navigate through my cable company’s bot system (Your Cable Company’s “Bot” System is Leaving Seniors in the Dust), which left me angry, stressed, and determined to try to find a way out of doing business with that company, my Rooms to Go experience was a joy.

I am cranky about customer service, not naïve, so I understand that most companies use the “bot” system because:

• They are in business to make money, and the money they invest in a robot system is cheaper long term than employing and paying humans.
• Most companies are huge, merged conglomerates that are “too big to fail”, so are unconcerned that the bot system may anger, frustrate, and alienate its grouchy old customers who are reluctant to jump on the “bot” wagon.
• In twenty years, anyone who could recall a time of human customer service will be dead. Large companies have the time to wait for us to die out, so they will no longer be bothered by our complaints.

In the meantime, I am enthusiastically singing the praises of Rooms to Go Furniture Company and their human customer service agents.

FYI:

Only TWICE in the two years that I have been writing stories for my website (Talktimewithjoan.com) and the Internet platforms, Medium and Vocal, have I experienced customer service worthy of a positive review -Customer “Service” Revisited and I Earned an “A”. You can check out all of my Customer Service stories under that category in my Medium Table of Contents.

Important Note: I am receiving NO compensation from Rooms to Go for writing this glowing review of their customer service. They are not aware of it, although maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to send a copy to their CEO.

©Joan Gershman 2023

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