[Moneyguy1]

It's the disconnect between corporate management and the customer.

I had purchased a Campbell Hausfeld compressor a year ago through Lowes. It tanked recently and, just out of curiosity I went to Lowes and asked for advice, since C-H did not have the courtesy of answering my inquiry. The Lowes representative stated that a number of this style had failed after a short time and told me to bring it back, and I could pay the difference and upgrade to another brand. I brought it back and the service dept told me I had been misinfirmed and they would not honor what the associate had told me. I wrote a lotter to the CEO of the company as well as the store manager. Wow. Apologies up the wazoo. I now have a Porter-Cable "Job Boss" style which is many times the compressor the other was. However, I heard that the individual at the store was going to be "let go" for trying to satisfy a customer. Another letter. I told the management that it was poor judgement to fire an individual for showing initiative. ANother apology. LEsson: As much as it pains me to say, go as high up the food chain as you possibly can, registered mail if necessary. Staff does not want the big boss to see real world complaints or issues. Lowes is no better or worse than any other large company. The upper management should get off their duffs once in a while and visit the real world. Without us, the customer, they would be unemployed, and who would really miss them?

Qwest was another. Repeated outages, always blamed on a problem inside our home. So, when it happened last, I totally disconnected the system, contacted Qwest by cell and had them check the line. "We are sorry, sir, but you will be charged. Our test shows the system is inside the residence". Contacted Qwest CEO. Received call from VP. The problem was fixed at Qwest's expense, and it was water infiltration four blocks away in a junction box. Don't accept poor service. Threaten, in as nice a way as possible to tear the company a new bunghole. I have found, over the years, this gets results. And, I am on a first name basis with a number of VPs if future problems raise their ugly heads.