Photo by Ayelie

This post was originally going to have a much more mundane title. But while I was writing it, Christine O’Kelly published Turning Sh** Into Sugar, named after 50 Cent’s more colorful way of saying “turning lemons into lemonade.” At any rate, the saying and its reverse are appropriate here.

I’ve mentioned before that I often notice synchronicities, where two or more events coincidentally happen at the same time, in a way that makes you wonder whether it was really just a coincidence.

I also sometimes notice yin-yang pairings, where opposite events balance each other out. While these aren’t nearly as eerie as synchronicities, they’re still interesting to notice.

I’ve recently had a case of bad luck where customer service made it better, and a case of good luck where customer service made it worse. It all basically evened out in the end. But the important takeaway is that I remember my experience with customer service more than the amount of money I stood to gain or lose.

Best Buy: turning sugar into sh**

A couple of months ago, I got a letter from Best Buy. Apparently the DVD player I bought from them came with a warranty that was about to expire, and I had the option of paying to extend it. I never do warranties, so I ignored it.

But the next day, my DVD player broke. I wasn’t even using it at the time. Lights just started flashing, and then I couldn’t get it to work. Well, no problem, because I had just learned that I had a warranty!

I took my DVD player to Best Buy, and they said they’d send it off to be fixed. Weeks later, they called me to say they had ordered a part they needed, and they’d call again when it was ready.

Then I didn’t hear anything for a while, so I called them to find out what was going on. They said they couldn’t fix it, so  it had been approved for a “junk-out exchange,” meaning I could get a new DVD player. Hmmm, shouldn’t they have called me?

So then I went to Best Buy with my DVD player receipt, walked up to customer service, and explained what had happened. No one really knew what to do, so they passed me from person to person. The fourth person they sent me to was in the home electronics department.

I had noticed it before, and I really noticed it then, that Best Buy employees have a very clear strength and weakness. They’re great at answering very targeted questions that fall within their area of expertise. But they really suck at understanding customers and seeing beyond their exact words. My conversation with this guy went like this:

“Hi, my DVD player broke while it was under warranty, and it was approved for a junk-out exchange. You’re the fourth person they’ve sent me to, so am I in the right place? How does this work?”

“Well, the DVD players are right here.”

“OK, but how does this work with the junk-out exchange? Do I have to get the same model again, or what?”

“How old was your DVD player?”

“I guess a couple of years.”

“Then there’s no way you’re going to find the same model. They wouldn’t make it anymore.”

“Fine, then how does this work? Do I get a credit based on how much it cost?”

“Dude, they’re not going to give you what it cost back then, because it’s depreciated. They’ll give you what it would be worth today.”

“Fine, then how much do I get?”

“Well, look at these new models, and how much they cost. Yours wouldn’t be worth that much.”

“Fine, but who’s the person who decides exactly how much I get? Is that person you, or am I in the wrong place?”

What I was really thinking at this point was “I’M SORRY I DON’T KNOW WHAT MAGIC WORDS I’M REQUIRED TO SAY, BUT THIS SHOULDN’T BE COMPLICATED! JUST TELL ME HOW IT WORKS, AND MAKE IT HAPPEN!”

I kept asking questions, including whether I could use the money on something other than a DVD player (since someone had given me their old DVD player by then). He said I could get store credit instead, and that seemed simpler. He said if I went back to customer service, they would determine how much credit I’d get.

So I went back to customer service, wondering why the previous three people I had spoken to didn’t tell me how much money I’d get, or that I could get it as store credit.

I spoke to someone who ended up passing me on to someone else. Fortunately, that person seemed to be the smartest Best Buy employee in the world. She went to work, pushing a bunch of buttons in the blink of an eye, and gave me $420 in store credit. Ka-ching!

I don’t know if that was a mistake or not. There’s no way my old DVD player (which turned out to be 4 years old) would be worth $420 today. I have a hard time believing it was worth $420 back then. But whatever. I was pleased with the outcome.

Now you’d think that would be the end of the story, but no. A few days later, Best Buy called and left me a voice message, informing me that my DVD player had been approved for a junk-out exchange, so I could come in and get a new DVD player. OK, I guess they hadn’t updated their records yet. I called back, but no one answered.

Then a week later (yesterday), they called again, saying I needed to come in to get my new DVD player. Wow, they really didn’t know I had already taken care of it. And while I saw an easy opportunity to repeat the process and get another $420, I didn’t do it. Instead, I told them what happened, spent a few minutes on hold, and read them some numbers, so they could have enough information to update their records.

It’s disappointing to see this kind of scatterbrained customer service at the company that invented the Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE), which is supposed to boost productivity by up to 35%. But I have no idea if these particular people were ROWE employees.

So this story was about having good luck by gaining money, which was made worse by bad customer service. The next one is about having bad luck by losing money, which was made better by good customer service.

Jonathan Fields: turning sh** into sugar

Last month, I pre-ordered Jonathan Fields’ book Career Renegade: How to Make a Great Living Doing What You Love. Amazon sent me an email on 1/11 saying that it had been shipped, with an estimated delivery date of 1/15.

As I patiently awaited that date, I was playfully but mercilessly mocked on Twitter by @betsywuebker and @thinkmaya, who received their copies early.

When I still hadn’t received it by 1/17 (yesterday), I looked it up on both Amazon and usps.com. It said it was delivered on 1/13! Well, considering I didn’t have it, that’s a very interesting definition of “delivered.”

All my incoming packages go through the concierge, and she said the logs didn’t show any packages for me around that date. I could only think that it was delivered to the wrong person, and they decided to keep it for themselves.

I didn’t think there was anything I could do. Amazon didn’t do anything wrong, and the post office had no liability. Maybe there was a chance that the post office could figure out where it really went, but what would I do? Go to that address, knock on the door, and say “Hey, can I borrow my book when you’re finished?”

I sent an email to the career renegade himself, Jonathan Fields. I told him what had happened, and asked if his publisher might have any extra review copies they could part with. He could have said “sucks to be you,” or that it wasn’t his problem, or that I needed to go talk to someone else. Instead, he said he’d send me another copy. Simple as that, problem solved.

(Actually, the book arrived later that day, so I told Jonathan thanks, but never mind. It appears to have been delivered to the wrong building on 1/13, but instead of walking it across the street to me, the person popped it back in the mail. I’m not done reading it yet, but it’s great so far!)

It’s interesting that customer service can turn losing a book into a good experience, or turn a surprise $420 bonus into a bad experience. So the question then…when it’s up to you, will you turn sh** into sugar, or sugar into sh**?

• Don’t Ask Your Customers Stupid Questions
• How NOT To Gather Useful Feedback From Customers