Pause, rewind.

My car window exploded. I took it to the dealership to have it fixed with no real expectation that it would be covered by warranty. From the time of the first phone call it took over six hours for the dealer to discover that the mother ship would not cover the freight. Now ask yourself – as I did – why was I still sitting at the dealership? Why was I not at home, getting work done, with a rental car sitting in my drive way? Explain, if you can, why no one offered to help me get on with my day? I knew my car was not going to be fixed that day and they knew I was not taking it home with a bandage solution. Why not send me on my way and work out the details later?

Good question.

I think there is a part of me that is masochistic. I think sometimes I want to see just how bad the pain can get. Still, is it the customer’s responsibility to explain not only the problem but the solution? Or is there some onus on the business to anticipate the customer’s need?
Customer service – I think not. Why not call it what it is – holding pattern in hell.
So to cut to the ugly chase. I had a small melt down while the customer service person tried to tell me that she knew how I felt. Which she clearly did not. I was given a phone number to head office customer service. I tried calling it and was put on hold – electronic holding pattern in hell.

I tried to articulate my intense frustration to the counter person through a volley of apologies and excuses and the whole time I wanted to scream – does anyone have any idea why I am mad?

I involved my salesman – because I know him – and the sales manager became involved because they had a crazy lady (me) on premises.
Two deep breaths short of a heart attack I thought I got through to them. I am extremely busy, I want to rent a car and get on my way. I don’t care about the freaking warranty. The manager called the nearest car rental place, arranged for a car (I could have taken care of that myself) and my salesman dropped me off.

So – all’s well that ends well. Except I am still annoyed that I allowed myself to get sucked into that mess. I keep replaying what I should have done or said – so if that is what you are thinking you can just stop. I’ve already figured out how I could have derailed the whole thing by simply making car rental arrangements right off the top. Or by clearly stating the viable alternatives. Or perhaps simply not taking the broken window to a car dealership in the first place. Helpful friends and family have pointed all of those things out to me.
But every time I berate myself for being ineffectual I pause and wonder – did the dealership give this a second thought? Did they pause and ask themselves how could we have handled this better? Did they ever really understand what I needed?

I guess not because in the end the dealership paid for my car rental. Nice touch and I appreciated it. But that wasn’t the issue either. I was on an expense account. I just wanted them to care that I was being inconvenienced because the car I leased from them was out of commission. Let me say it again.
I just wanted them to care.