Lessons in Customer Service and Deep, Calming Breaths

Some of you know (and were probably expecting updates already on progress) that we *should* have been in the midst of our flooring renovation. So, we ordered our new floors (bamboo, in a beautiful, warm, honey-oak color) about a week and a half ago from Lumber Liquidators (after some extensive research and price-comparisons). Our contractor, Danny, who did the work in our kitchen, was on board to do the work, and we were ready to go. The guys at LL "expected" the delivery to come to the Chicago store by this past Tuesday, but said it would "definitely" be there by "the latest" Wednesday. It did not come. Dave called every day, and finally Thursday afternoon they said it was in the store, ready for pick-up. This morning Danny came by to pick up our keys and went to LL to load the flooring. The plan was to bring it here so it could sit out and "acclimate" and work would begin Monday. HOWEVER, when Danny got there today, they let him know that they'd GIVEN AWAY OUR ORDER TO ANOTHER CUSTOMER. Really? Who does that?

The past few hours have been spent trying to deal with LL-Chicago's incredibly inept customer service, but ultimately I was able to convince the guy that the right thing to do would be to get his manager to call us today so we could come up with a solution, as our project has now been pushed back, and we have to now coordinate a delivery with our building for Monday (and the office is closed until Monday). All the while, I was practicing breathing techniques so as not to get ugly on him on the phone. I have always said, good customer service is easier to deliver than bad. You know what to do. You have to actively decide to give bad service. You don't have to go over the top to give great service, unless you want to, which would be nice, but GOOD, SUFFICIENT, DECENT, ACCEPTABLE customer service is really easy to provide.

SO. Long story short, the manager called us. He immediately took responsibility and took an overall discount off our flooring per square foot for the inconvenience and error on their part. He also offered to personally pick up the product so we or our contractor could come get it tomorrow. But tomorrow's my birthday, and that's not how to spend a birthday, right? So, we found our building manager in her unit (that's a story for another day) and got approval for a Monday delivery, with receipt by our contractor, so we don't have to take a day off from work. They've guaranteed Monday (on their lives, apparently), so hopefully we'll have pretty updates to share in a matter of days. This change will be fantastic! and dramatic! Now we can release the frustration and be excited again.

For now, I'll leave you with a picture of the bamboo sample of what's coming:

And now we're off to maybe order some new dining furniture!

(deep, calming breaths)