steveshepard.com » Customer Service http://steveshepard.com/blog Here writes Steve Shepard ... and why not? Tue, 23 Mar 2010 01:38:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Apology Accepted http://steveshepard.com/blog/2009/07/24/apology-accepted/ http://steveshepard.com/blog/2009/07/24/apology-accepted/#comments Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:39:50 +0000 steve http://steveshepard.com/blog/2009/07/24/apology-accepted/ When a company makes a mistake, as Amazon did when it deleted legally purchased copies of 1984 and other works from the Kindles of their customers, the mistake is usually acknowledged (if it is acknowledged) with a luke-warm statement such as

We regret that some people took offense to our actions, which, if you look at the situation our way, aren’t really so offensive.

Not so with Amazon. In the Kindle Community forums, Jeffrey P. Bezos says:

This is an apology for the way we previously handled illegally sold copies of 1984 and other novels on Kindle. Our “solution” to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we’ve received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission.

With deep apology to our customers,

Jeff Bezos
Founder & CEO
Amazon.com

Now that was an apology!

Apology accepted.

]]> http://steveshepard.com/blog/2009/07/24/apology-accepted/feed/ 0 FedEx: To the world on time–and not a minute sooner! http://steveshepard.com/blog/2006/11/20/fedex-to-the-world-on-time-and-not-a-minute-sooner/ http://steveshepard.com/blog/2006/11/20/fedex-to-the-world-on-time-and-not-a-minute-sooner/#comments Mon, 20 Nov 2006 21:34:48 +0000 steve http://steveshepard.com/blog/2006/11/20/fedex-to-the-world-on-time-and-not-a-minute-sooner/ I generally think FedEx does a great job, but a recent experience left me scratching my head.

I ordered something online and paid for express shipping. The package left Oregon on Saturday, arrived in Tennessee on Sunday morning, in Oakland Sunday evening, and in my home town early Monday morning.

There it sat for 24 hours.

The reason given on the tracking report: “Package not due for delivery.”

Sheesh.

I know that load balancing is a complicated problem and am willing to believe that Monday is a busy delivery day, but the image I’m left with is something like this:

SHIFT BOSS: Hey Vern, ya want to run this up the street?

VERN: (picking his teeth) Ain’t s’posed to be there until tomorrow. Besides, I gotta finish my TPS report.

SHIFT BOSS: Good man. Make sure ya finish that TPS report.

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