Customer Service To Remember

Whenever I have to buy something or even get a quote, I always pay close attention to the service being offered. While I do purchase many products online, the buying experience is still an important one to me which is why, when I receive excellent customer service (and a great price) I always do my best to pay it forward. I have had some atrocious experiences with various companies and at a myriad of stores and dealerships over the years but I have also had some excellent transactions which have made the experience much more pleasant. In those instances, I also make sure to seek that sales person out when returning to the store.

My recent car ordeal was a perfect example of this as I experienced the range of interactions between the various dealerships. Once my brother’s dealership was ruled out (they don’t sell the car that I settled on), I proceeded to stop by a variety of Mercedes dealers to both talk with a sales person and see what price they could offer. My first stop was to Tom Masano in Reading where the sales woman with whom I spoke was excellent and they offered a great price. The second stop was to Mercedes-Benz of Fort Washington where they were less than welcoming and brushed me off not even bothering to follow up with a reasonable offer. The third was to Euro Motorcars of Devon where I received the same excellent experience that I had in Reading and they came back with a better price. Deal done.

More recently, I have experienced the same variety of satisfaction when getting quotes for the initial projects that we wanted to get done around the house. Some of the contractors listened to exactly what I wanted, others just went about designing something that didn’t make much sense at all. Some prices were really high and others were lower than I was expecting. However, while price was an important factor, it was the interaction that I had with each of the companies that really made the difference as some were clearly looking at the task with dollar signs in mind while others, one in particular, took the time to make sure it was the solution that made the most sense and that would be done right.

Even with regard to our banking, the way that we are treated makes a huge difference. While the hours and locations are convenient, TD Bank has continued to offer one of the worst customer experiences that I have ever encountered with a financial institution. We have already switched our primary banking and now we will be transitioning our secondary banking in the near future as these other institutions are actually pleasant to deal with on a regular basis and haven’t hampered us with ridiculous charges.

Of course, there are the basic retail sales associates that I know by name that have made many transactions much more pleasant in recent years like Dave at Raymour & Flanigan, Frank at Coins & Currency of Wayne, my cousin when I need clothes, many employees at the local Lowe’s, the entire staff at Tanner’s Sports Center, and many other people at various local businesses. Additionally, the customer support teams at Amazon and Sportsman’s Guide have been excellent as of late. Great people that continue to make things just a little easier.

Busy Day Off

A day off is never simply a day off anymore. While there are occasions when I have taken some time to travel or go to different events, lately that hasn’t been the case as there are simply too many things that need to get done or appointments that need to be scheduled. Yesterday was a prime example of this new, self-created, reality as I originally took the day off to speak at an event in the afternoon and go to my son’s appointment in the early evening. Well, that isn’t exactly how things ended up working out.

Having slept in an extra thirty minutes on Sunday, I told my wife that I would take care of breakfast for our son in the morning. It is actually pretty fun spending the time with him and he is usually pretty patient with me when it takes a little longer to prepare his meal. By the time he was done eating and I had finished waking up, half of the morning was already gone and the first appointment of the day was about to begin. When I previously said that I needed to get more estimates done for the various projects around the house I wasn’t kidding.

As I discussed all the options and what exactly needed to be done with the garage door company, my wife headed out to a local event as one of the orchards in the area with our son. After my meeting was done and the quote in hand, I got in the car and drove the ten minutes down the road to meet up with them. It was actually pretty interesting watching my son walk along the long rows of strawberries eating all of the fruit out of the small basket almost as soon as my wife put it in there. When we finished picking our pile (pile and a half when accounting for all the ones our son consumed), we got back in our cars and headed home where we finished feeding out son his lunch, played a bit, and put him down for his nap.

Just as we were about to take him upstairs, the doorbell rang and the second appointment of the day began. This time we received a quote for my office doors (and a few ballpark figures for the deck and porch that we would like to add later). Like the first quote of the day, it was much lower than the initial estimates that I received. Unfortunately, that was the end of the estimates as the third appointment had to be rescheduled for next week… honestly, I don’t know if they are going to be able to beat the price I just got from this company but we will have to wait and see.

After taking a short break when I was able to check the mail, send a few emails, and waking up our son for his snack, we got back in the car and headed north to the pediatrician’s office. It was a great checkup that I will write about later and, fortunately, the waiting room wasn’t filled with Gosselins. Like many days away from the office, time seemed to evaporate from by grasp and before we had another moment to catch our breath, the day was winding down and we were planning for the follow day. All of this and I still wasn't able to fit everything into my schedule. And, at the moment, it looks like my next day out of the office will be just as busy next week.

Mortgage Monday: More Estimates

Whenever work needs to be done at the house that is beyond my limited capabilities, it is rarely a simple process to get that job done. Early last week I was finally able to set aside the time research some of the contractors and other service providers in the area. Home Advisor was actually a pretty useful tool for this in addition to work of mouth and local publications. We have had our project list pulled together for some time now and I did receive a couple of estimates for a few things that we need done but I am never one to settle for a single quote. So, with a break in the chaos of the week, I pulled together a list and got on the phone making dozens of calls and leaving a multitude of messages. With all the research done and calls placed, the rest of the week was filled with fielding responses to my queries.

The first set of calls that I placed was to some of the reputable tree service companies in the area. There are at least three trees that need to be taken down around the property and probably a few others that will need to come down in the near future. Heading into this initial investigation I knew that this is an expensive proposition as a couple of the trees are at least a hundred feet high and not in an easy location on the property. Additionally, at least one of them is so far gone that scaling in the trunk is not going to be a possibility. Of all the companies I called I was only able to get a hold of one of them who stopped by the house on Friday and delivered an unofficial estimate at a figure that I was in line with my thought process.

The next call was to a company to replace our garage doors. While one is still serviceable the other door is useless at this point and given the age of both it just makes sense to replace the pair (as well as the motors). Again, I already have a quote for this project but it is definitely one that I believe can be beat by, hopefully, a significant margin. This is one of the companies that I will have stopping by the house this week.

The last group of correspondences were to a few of the recommended general contracting firms and smaller craftsmen in the area. The one recommendation that I did receive to install some doors to my office was booked… and when I say booked I mean that he didn’t have an opening in his calendar until February 2017. A couple of the other companies I contact gave me a call later in the week and will be coming out to the house this week as well. It is definitely going to be busy around the house with all of these people coming and going but at least I will have a few sets of numbers to work with.