Last month, I wrote about baffling customer service in this blog.
This week, I again experienced terrible customer service worthy of comment.
As you'll recall, there was a storm forecasted for Tuesday night and Wednesday here. News reports on Tuesday called for anything from a trace to 2", 2-5" or up to 7" inches.
But it was clear by Wednesday morning that we'd basically missed the entire thing. There was zero snow until Wednesday evening, when a light dusting covered sidewalks. The kind of snow that requires a broom more than a shovel.
At the end of the workday I rushed home, fed the dogs and let them out, cooked a quick dinner for my toddler and myself and we drove across town for a class at a local hospital.
Whew, it was a whirlwind afternoon but we made it ... only to find the classroom dark. An employee passing by checked the schedule in her office and saw that the class was canceled due to the weather.
To the weather? You mean, it was canceled because of the lack of snow and the seasonable temperatures?
And why didn't they call us to alert us of this lame cancellation of an event due to our collective sad, pathetic fear of POTENTIAL weather, so we could avoid rushing around and ultimately wasting an entire evening doing nothing but driving back and forth?
Had we canceled the class and not shown up, we'd have forfeited the fee. Who knows, maybe we've still forfeited it because they canceled. We don't know because they didn't have the courtesy to let us know, despite having taken our phone number when they took our money.
OK, so, they didn't call. Couldn't they have at least gotten a sheet a paper, a Sharpee and some tape and posted a note on the classroom door? A number of employees walking by asked if they could help us, but none -- other than the one who had access to a schedule -- could say whether or not the classes had been canceled.
Earlier in the day, I checked the Web site's "Events & Classes" page to check on where we ought to park. There was nothing there that I could see to suggest that classes had been canceled.
I will give special kudos to the employee that helped us out by checking the schedule for us. She gave my toddler an ice cream treat. Maybe she should be promoted to VP-customer service.
In the meantime, let's hope this hospital does health care better than it does customer care.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
