Very wrong but very funny

I don’t quite know whether to laugh or cry.

This is undoubtedly very unprofessional. It also happens to be very funny. My most sincere apologies to the person who received this customer service from us. It really isn’t good enough. For those of you who previously requested more of the inside stories from within mag nation… here you go.

This is what happened. I have disguised the name of the people involved.

A customer called up last night asking whether we had Inside Triathlon on shelf. He rang the Elizabeth St store in Melbourne, but wanted to pick up the mag from the Greville St store. One of our staff members called Dave gave him the number for the Greville St store, but in what he deemed to be a harmless prank, told the customer to ask specifically for Mrs Jane Phelan. Dave was very specific… “you really must ask for her by full name” he said.

There is no Mrs Jane Phelan. The guy working at Greville St at the time was Peter Phelan. This was a silly inside joke between Dave and Peter. Stupid of Dave to involve a customer in this but no real harm yet.

The customer then calls Greville St, and asks for Mrs Jane Phelan. Peter, who picked up the phone, thought it was Dave on the other end of the line. Here is what he said, word for word:

You know how I asked you for that roll of gaffa tape and that 12 inch dildo… well, let me tell you what I am going to do with it.

There was silence on the other end of the line. The customer responded:

Aaahh…. Ok….um….. yeah, well I just wanted to know if you have any copies of Inside Triathlon on shelf.

The penny dropped for Peter. He was mortified. He was so shocked he didn’t even think to apologise. He simply said he would go and check.

The customer came in this morning to pick up the mag. He was of extremely religious orientation. Outwardly dressed as such.

Sir…. we are so very sorry. Notwithstanding that it is somewhat funny, it was offensive and we are incredibly grateful that you were still willing to deal with us.

I take our brand very seriously, and this is not good customer service. However, no harm was intended whatsoever. It was a silly little prank that backfired.

As I said, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. But given the tears that have been streaming from my eyes all morning, you would be forgiven for thinking that I have been doing both.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 24th, 2009 at 1:53 pm and is filed under The Inside Story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.