As you may know, I love supporting local businesses but every once in a while there is a local business that gives me a rough time and I’m not crazy about. I had an experience with Bacson printing that I tried to give the benefit of the doubt to and thought maybe the person answering the phone was having a bad day and because of that, was lacking in customer service skills – not that I even feel that is right, but you know, it happens sometimes and is usually forgivable when you call back another time and they are back to being nice.
I’ll try to condense my story and say I somehow made a mistake and paid an invoice twice without noticing, granted it’s not much (a little over $20) but still, why pay for something twice. So I called and said something like “Hi, I made a mistake and just realised I somehow paid an invoice twice and I see that both checks have been cashed” and the girl on the other end of the phone was just silent, which was akward. I said “So…” waiting for her to tell me who I need to talk to or ask me the invoice number or something but just got more silence “…I’ll need to speak to someone about that” and she just said “I’ll have someone call you back”. So I gave her my name and number and that was that.
I assumed she meant someone would get back to me sometime that day but no one ever called back so I called back at the end of the following day and said I was calling because someone said they’d have someone call me back and I haven’t heard from anyone and it was the same girl and she just said “Yeah, we’re really busy” and then was silent and to make sure she was done, I sat there too for a few seconds and when I realised that was the end of her statement, I finally said “So, I can’t talk to anyone about that?” and she said “we’re just really busy so someone will get back to you when they can” and I said “Okay, so should I call you guys next week if I don’t hear from you this week?” She said “You can, but someone should get back to you eventually”. I was hoping for some sort of time table and just wanted to clarify and I said “eventually?” and she just said “Yeah.” and then was silent. Like I was supposed to know when I first called the day before how busy they were and that I needed to wait for someone to get back to me “eventually”.
So in the middle of the following week, I called to check in and the same predicatble converation took place. I said who I was, what I was calling about and was responded with the usual silence, which I really feel like is an attitude in itself, especially at this point when the girl knows what my sitauation is. So after a few seconds of silence I said “So….can I please just talk to someone about this?” and she said “We’re really busy, we know and someone will write you a check eventually”. I guess I was supposed to know that(?). After all, I never even got to give her the invoice number since she wouldn’t let me talk to anyone. I said “Okay, but please understand from my end that I have no way of knowing that, I’ve only been told that you’re too busy to let me talk to anyone” and she just ignored that and said “Yup, they’ll write you a check, I mean it’s not for much, what – twenty bucks? They’ll get to it eventually because we’re just really busy”. Okay, I get it – you’re busy, jeez! I said “Well I’m glad business is so good for you and that you’re so busy” and she said “well short-staffed is more like it”. I said something like “yeah I guess you are”. At this point I’ll just stop calling and wait because I can’t stand more conversations like these.
It’s not even the waiting that bothers me. They could’ve told me someone will get back to me in the next two or three weeks, I don’t care, it’s the lack of information I was given and then I just hate calling a place I gave some business to and I feel like a jerk for calling. To just get silence and an aloof attitude gave me the feeling that I was a bother to them and I shouldn’t have added to their workload in the first place.
Someone told me that when it comes to printing the kinds of things they do that they’re “the only game in town”. But I’m not a fan of places that don’t care because they don’t have to.
I don’t think they’d like it if I ordered something else and didn’t pay the invoice and then when they called asking for a payment from me and I’d just be silent, make them repeat themselves and then finally respond with “Yeah I’m just really busy, you’ll get paid eventually – I mean it’s only for what- twenty bucks?”.
Anyway, I’m sure people like Bacson since they’re the “only game in town” but that was my experience with them.
