Care

So, I did get a response from BBBY (Bed, Bath, and Beyond):

Thank you for bringing to our attention the issues you experienced with our customer service team in-store and online. We are truly disheartened to see that any one of our customers had such an experience. At Bed Bath & Beyond we strive to deliver excellent service, however, in this instance we fell short of our expectations. Please rest assured that we will use this example to retrain our staff, to ensure no customer receive this type of service again, because this is not acceptable for any of our customers, and especially not acceptable for Bed Bath & Beyond standards.

We see from the situation you described how it can leave the impression that "the entire corporate culture is callous", but nothing can be further from the truth. Our first and highest priority is to always take care of our customer. We take every customer feedback seriously and act quickly to ensure we improve how we deliver our services and make every effort to retain our customers. We would like the opportunity to resolve this matter to your satisfaction and keep you a satisfied Bed Bath & Beyond customer. We have the phone number you provided on your original email and I will contact you by phone tomorrow morning.

We sincerely apologize for the issues you experienced and look forward to speaking with you soon. Please feel free to contact me directly at [redacted]. I am in the office Monday through Friday from 8AM to 6 PM EST.

Best Regards,

Raj


See? That's what I wanted. I think any wronged customer would want that, that their complaint is heard and the company is taking corrective action.

I did reach out to Raj, and the phone conversation was a reasonable one. He told me his efforts to determine how things went wrong, and what he was doing to make them right.

After several missteps by BBBY, Raj made every corrective effort.

What were the missteps? That I asked to be treated as a person who wanted to do business with them: a customer, and instead of treating with respect, they processed into their workflow, and when the square peg (that is, me: a human being) didn't fit into their round hole, they tried to make me conform.

But I'm not a BBBY employee. I am a customer.

That's where they screwed up. "We didn't provide the service we said we would? Fill out this complaint form." "You filled out the form incorrectly [I didn't]. Fill out the complaint form again with the same information." They didn't want my business, they wanted to punch the ticket and move the work from the inbox to the outbox.

Raj, however, threw out the processing aspect of the business and met me, person to person, talked the situation over me and addressed my concerns directly.

Then he offered to change BBBY by adding an entirely new SKU so I could buy the items I was originally promised.

But the problem here for me was: what did I do the second I got out of my car at my house after BBBY showed me they weren't good for their word? I went right to the Yankee Candle online store and ordered the candles myself, like I should have done a week prior instead of getting in my car to get not 'no service' but the 'brush off.'

But what have I been harping about in these posts? I've been harping on 'diligence' and 'dignity.' I've been demanding BBBY employees do their job, for a change, and treat me with respect, for a change.

Raj did just that.

So what did I do when he asked for my credit-card information so he could place an order of Yankee candles for me? Did I give him the brush off? No.

No. I had made all these demands, and BBBY listened and followed through, exactly as I asked. So would I reward their diligence with what?

I do not Raj going back to report on this with a half-hearted response and a zero-result. I want him to go back to his boss with no reservation, knowing he did everything he could to make things right, and he did make things right.

Why?

Because, at the beginning of each day, I look into the mirror and see a man there, and ask him: did I do what I said I would? did I do what I asked others to do?

Today, I can say 'yes, I did.' Because, today, somebody in BBBY, and not just somebody, but Raj from eSupport said 'yes, I did,' too. I answered his 'yes' with mine.

Thank you, Raj. And thank you, Bed, Bath, and Beyond, for listening to me, and following through.