Why can't companies teach employees to say "We're sorry"

KathyPet · ‎03-09-2010

I have two unsatisfactory interactions recently with large companies. IN the first incident I received a Past Due statement from Kia Finance where I have a car lease. THe past due statement was for half of the personal property tax I owed for the 7/1-12/31 time frame. IN Dec I received a monthly statement which included this car tax along with my regular monthly payment. I sent them a check for the monthly payment plus the tax in Dec. When I called them about this notice I discovered that for some unknown reason they only credited me with half the tax due. THe rest of the tax payment they applied as a additional principal payment on my lease and then continued to bill me for my regular monthly lease payment. I waited a long time on hold and then had to talk with customer service and then be transferred to another dept to have them correct their mistake. DId anyone say "We're sorry this happened and that you received this past due statement in error." ? NO, they did not.

Today I was supposed to have the service tech from a company that I have a maintenance contract with for my heating and AC systems come to do the semi-annual check up on my systems. ARrival time was supposed to be between 4-7 PM. AT 6:30 I got a call from the service tech telling me he was about 20 minutes away from my house and had just discovered he had left his tool box at his last appt. He would need to go back, get his tools and then drive to my house. IT would be 7:45 before he arrived. I told him to forget it. I called the company to reschedule and told their customer service person what happened and that I was not a happy customer. ONce again no apology for from either the service tech or the CSR for the inconvenience of having to reschedule and plan again to be home to wait for them to show up.

What is it with these companies where they cannot train their employees to apologize for their screw ups? A simple apology can go a long way. SOmething these companies need some serious lessons in.

catwhisperer · ‎07-11-2010

Because they don't care.

I promise to remind myself every day that I am strong, courageous, and resilient.

GSPgirl · ‎01-03-2012

They might be training them to not apologize. They don't want any liabilities. That's why we no longer do business woth Time Warner. Rude and unapologetic.

catwhisperer · ‎07-11-2010

AT&T is the worst in my book.

I promise to remind myself every day that I am strong, courageous, and resilient.

suzyQ3 · ‎03-09-2010

@GSPgirl wrote:
They might be training them to not apologize. They don't want any liabilities. That's why we no longer do business woth Time Warner. Rude and unapologetic.

Interesting, @GSPgirl. We've always had excellent and very courteous experiences with TW.

~Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle~ Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

catwhisperer · ‎07-11-2010

Businesses are all about making a buck, and customer service has flown out the window for many, unfortunately.

I promise to remind myself every day that I am strong, courageous, and resilient.

Annabellethecat66 · ‎03-12-2010

I think people don't know how to apologize and no one is responsible for their actions anymore.

No one gets in trouble for what they do. Just a fact.

millieshops · ‎03-09-2010

Just because they all don't say it doesn't mean they weren't asked to say it, told to say it.

Overall, I think the people doing CS are the same as the posters here and people everywhere. Some are very respectful most of the time, some almost always think the world should revolve around them. If that's the kind of CS rep you hit, you know what's going to happen.

Just last week I went through a long, hard call with a Cablevision rep - he was apologetic and went out of his way to be helpful. By the end of the call I had saved nearly $250 and I came away happy! Angel turned out to be an angel.

catwhisperer · ‎07-11-2010

@Annabellethecat66 wrote:
I think people don't know how to apologize and no one is responsible for their actions anymore.

No one gets in trouble for what they do. Just a fact.

@Annabellethecat66....sad, isn't it? Many companies talk off a script when you talk to them on the phone, (at least it sounds like that to me), so even if they did apologize, it would most likely sound phony anyway.

I promise to remind myself every day that I am strong, courageous, and resilient.

september · ‎03-09-2010

Amazon employees always apologize when there is a problem. I order a lot from them, and usually, everything goes well. I had to call them this morning about an item that was out for delivery yesterday, that did not come. The rep. put me on hold, called OnTrac, then came back to tell me my item had been put on the wrong truck and would be delivered today. It was. I also got an extra month of Prime for the problem.