I often write snarky bits about crappy customer service - because weve all been there, right? BUT, I think its important to be just as outspoken when it comes to excellent service. Im making a major purchase from a tool company in North Carolina - ShopBot Tools, maker of state-of-the-art CNC machines, just in case youre wondering. This isnt really about them, but I do want to say that ShopBot also has OUTSTANDING customer service and support. Should you be in the market for advanced computerized machine tools, you couldnt work with better people. No, this is about PayPal. I know a number of folks dont especially care for PayPal, either because of a bad experience in the early days, or because of various political issues - such as PayPals stance regarding the crowding funding efforts in support of various controversial figures. Ive heard many horror stories about PayPal. I use a PayPal business account and a Master Card based PayPal business debit card for my business transactions - all those things involved in my writing, woodworking, and artwork. All of my online transactions are managed through that account. And I have a PayPal swipe reader attached to my phone so that when people buy things from my studio face to face, they can just swipe their cards. I hate cash and checks. PayPal makes it easy for me. I can access them from anywhere and every transaction is itemized, sorted, and instantly searchable. When it comes to tax time, its all ready to go with the push of a button - and that makes my wife, the accountant, very happy. Ive NEVER had a problem with PayPals business card - until today. ShopBot billed my card and it was declined. Hmmm. I checked everything. I saw no reason why the purchase should be declined. Here we go, I thought. I gamely called the number on the back of the card. An automated system picked up. Uh huh, I thought. It was one of those voice systems, which I prefer over the damned Listen carefully for each menu option, enter the square root of the diameter of the universe for problems with your... Anyway, the voice system was pretty advanced. It didnt try to sell me anything and it didnt mince words. It asked me to describe my problem. Um, well, I had a purchase declined and I need to talk to somebody about that, I said. Refused purchase, the computer responded. No problem, let me connect you to a resolution specialist. Hmmm, pretty good AI and voice recognition, I thought. Were experiencing a high volume of ... Oh, hey THATS more like it, I thought. Yep, Ill be on hold until my cell phone battery dies. Great. Less than a second later however, Hello, this is Tom, I see your phone number is .... Ive got your account data. Can you confirm your identity by ... Tom sounded like he might be in India, but he spoke perfectly understandable American English and he confirmed my account in a jiffy and asked what he could do for me. I described the problem, major purchase, more than sufficient funds, transaction declined. Youre using a PayPal debit card, he said, Let me transfer you to our debit card department. Uh huh. Yep. Here we go, the run around. Less than a second later , Hello this is Amy, how can I help you? I described the problem again. No problem, that purchase is over your daily limit. However, let me adjust that for you for this purchase. Done. You should be good to go, Sir. Anything else I can help you with? I was taken by surprise at the speed and efficiency of it all, uh, well, ur, no thats all I needed. Great, glad we could help you, have a great day! Well, okay then. I called ShopBot and asked them to try it again. Thirty seconds later I got a completed invoice via email. Done. Machine is being built to my spec and will ship in two weeks via freight forwarder. Meanwhile, heres a link to the software and confirmation code to enable it. Youll get the software on disks with the machine, but you can download it right now and start designing your projects immediately so they are ready for production runs as soon as the machine arrives and have a great day. You know, like that old Meatloaf song, Im all dressed up and Ive got nowhere to go. I was ready for the usually rigmarole, ready for the usual shitty service, and in less than two minutes it was all squared away and Im sitting watching my 3D prototyping and machine control software download. I love online banking for this sort of thing, it makes my life infinitely easier. Say what you want, but PayPal has always treated me right and today they once again made me a satisfied customer. How about you? Where have you found good customer support and service?
Posted on: Fri, 18 Jul 2014 20:06:47 +0000
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