They came good

It's not often a company turns things around - I mean, can take an unhappy customer and make him positive again.

But following my electronic altercation with Rubicon Wines, that's exactly what has happened here.

They have come good....Here's the email trail so you can read for yourselves....

This is a great example of customer "centricity" in action:

From: Platinum Wine Club
To: smith@yahoo.com
Cc: darrenfrommaryport@yahoo.co.uk
Sent: Sat, 26 March, 2011 22:01:50
Subject: RE: Platinum Wine Club - New Orders Received - Order Ref No. 983

Darren

Apologies for any potential misunderstanding, but vouchers do not apply to
the Moet & Chandon Champagne . (I have requested of my marketing and IT staff
that the potentially confusing wording be changed.)

As a compromise, we can offer the same champagne without gift box at SGD64/
btl or SGD256 for 4. This saves you SGD20. Alternatively we can void this
order and you can order from the selection of wines that are eligible for
coupon utilization.  Please let me know you preference and we will process
the order accordingly.

Best Regards
Stephen 

_________

From: Darren Smith [mailto: darrenfrommaryport@yahoo.co.uk ]
Sent: Sunday, 27 March 2011 4:11 PM
To: Platinum Wine Club
Subject: Re: Platinum Wine Club - New Orders Received - Order Ref No. 983

 

Stephen,

That's a bit annoying.
Why does your online ordering allow it then?

Void the order.
I can get Moet cheaper elsewhere.

Disgruntledly,

Darren

PS You may want to read just how disgruntled I am on my blog...!

__________

From:	Platinum Wine Club ... Add to Contacts
To:	Darren Smith
Cc:	Natasha Ford

---

Darren:

 

I appreciate your disappointment. Our arrangement with AMEX is that we manage and sell wines via the Platinum Wine Club. We try and offer AMEX customers value. To do so, some of the products offered are not eligible for further discounting.

 

(I won’t bore you with the technical details, but changes to the wording on the site must be agreed upon etc. This takes time. In looking into this situation, I’ve notice several things that arguably could be clearer to the customer.)

 

As a business person, I’m sure you appreciate our need to manage this line of our business profitably. (Making it up in volume by selling it at a loss doesn’t work!)

 

I want to challenge you – find Moet & Chandon in Singapore (duty paid lah!) at less than SGD64, delivered to your door and I’ll pay you the difference. But the difference won’t be much and probably won’t convince you to work with us in the long term. But by all means feel free to do the due diligence and let me know!

 

Our business has been built one customer at a time. So I need to do something to make you happy. Rubicon Reserve Wines recently did a promotion with Groupon where for SGD38 people received a bottle of wine and were invited to attend a Sabrage course (using a saber to open a bottle of champagne.)

 

The marketing guys will get upset with me for mixing sales channels, but I’m inviting you to attend this course the next time it’s offered. I’m cc’ing Tash who’ll be in touch once the next session is confirmed. I’ll offer you the promotion price of SGD38 dollars for a bottle of wine & a bottle of sparkling wine, but you have to pick up the wine and attend the course to get the sparkling wine! Or just attend the course, gratis and I’m sure you’ll get a glass or two of bubbly!

 

(BTW, we won’t be using the Moet for this course, but if you find a bottle for less, you’ll have a great story to tell as you expertly pop the top with your saber – or carving knife!)  

 

I look forward to hearing back from you and I hope you are slightly less disgruntled

 

Best Regards

 

Stephen 

___________

From: Darren Smith [mailto: darrenfrommaryport@yahoo.co.uk ]
Sent: Monday, 28 March 2011 4:09 PM
To: Platinum Wine Club
Cc: Natasha Ford
Subject: Re: Platinum Wine Club - New Orders Received - Order Ref No. 983

 

Stephen,

I work in market research and do a huge amount of customer loyalty work.

It is not often that "dissatisfied" customers are tackled head on and even less so that their disappointment is transformed into delight.

I am impressed that you took the trouble to answer my points AND offered something over and above to regain my loyalty and, potentially, my renewed trust.

I will take you up on your Sabrage offer - gladly - it sounds like fun.

I will of course be updating my blog to put the record straight on how Rubicon Reserve Wines recovered this situation in an innovative and customer-centric fashion.

THANK YOU.

Darren

PS The search is now on for Moet at less than S$64....!  Will keep you posted.

________

From:	Platinum Wine Club ... Add to Contacts
To:	Darren Smith

---

Darren

 

Thanks for your note. (Most of the notes I get are of the ‘where’s my wine?’ nature.)

 

We’re not perfect, but we’re always trying to improve.

 

I’ll cancel the order and reverse the AMEX charges tomorrow.

 

I look forward to meeting you, and perhaps suggesting a few other champagnes or sparkling wines we carry, that may impress you more from a cost / benefit perspective!

 

Cheers

Stephen  

__________

PERFECT RECOVERY!!!!!

Thank you Rubicon Reserve Wines

Thought I'd beaten the system

When something seems too good to be true - yes, unfortunately, it usually is.

I have vouchers for a wine club here in Singapore (Reserve Wine Club with my Platinum Amex) and they promise S$50 off your purchase providing you spend S$250 or more.

So I checked the price of Moet - yes I like a sparkling tipple or two.  And when I bought 4 bottles applied my discount it worked out at a very nice S$59 per bottle.  A bargain.

Or so I thought...

Nowhere does it say I can only buy certain types of wine.  But then I get an email from the Sales Department stating that the coupons are not valid for this type of purchase.  WTF?


Read the small print - that's all I can say.
And did the company in question (Rubicon Wines) honour my purchase?
Did they hell...!

I feel another boycott coming on.  How dare they make me pay full price for Moet - it's not that bloody good.
Now Bollinger?!  Now that would have been fair.

Don't you all agree?

Christmas cheer?

What should I do?
Customary round robin - although it's not customary for me.
Send lots of paper cards - stopped really doing that a number of years ago; and it's environmentally challenging.
Blast an email or post on facebook wishing all and sundry the same simplistic Yuletide Yahoos?

Well, I have plumped for a slightly less impersonal but easier to disseminate blog update.

Now that I've established the medium, what about the content?

Should I rant on about what a wondrous year it's been?
Reel off ad nauseum the number cities and other places I've set a tick against this year?
Tell the readers to distraction how lucky I am to be who I am and where I am and what I am doing?

No, no, no.

That would be tiresome enough for me to type, let alone for you to plough your way through.  I think I'll make myself a cup of tea and hope for inspiration.

***

I'm back, having spilled the demerara sugar all over the work counter. 

I have had a "problem" with ants all year long and only recently managed to keep them at bay with more thorough washing down of my work surfaces, using the dishwasher more and keeping a tight lid on sugar and honey containers.

Then I go and advertise my sucrose abundance for all sugar-loving insects to wiggle their antennae at.  Sigh.

Well it's cleaned up now & hopefully my mince pies will remain vermin-free.

What did I go to the kitchen for?

Ah, yes inspiration.

Not sure I found that - but the perspiration definitely started.

And this on top of leaving the flat without my keys this morning, verbal fisticuffs with my bank about verifying my identity, wine being delivered to the wrong place, and a thumping headache from indulgence the night before.

I ought to be humming Deck the Halls or something but find myself rendering Gloria Gaynor miffed hoping I Will Survive.

Now the man below has started drilling.  DRILLING on Christmas Eve - what the eff is he drilling for!?  Installing a coat hook for Santa's gown?  Putting up a hook to dangle his devilish pentacle on?  Oh, honestly I give up.

Bah humbug....I'm a Christian, get me out of here.

***

Let's start again.

I *have* had a good year.  There have been the usual tribulations and a few zeniths to counterpoint a sprinkling of nadirs.  Let's see if I can get a calendar filled:

January saw a fab New Year at Forlino's with friends and a fleeting romance.  Then a cold birthday in Montreal and New York.

February had me rush back to Maryport to visit my grandmother in hospital.

March took me back to say goodbye to her - and remember her wicked sense of humour and the love she showed me.

April roared with beasts on safari in Kruger, South Africa, we slurped wine in Franschoek, gobbled down zebra in Cape Town and basked in the wonderful sunshine of Camps Bay.

May turned pink in Singapore and I had the worst ever reaction to cat fur...yuk!

June led me to a bar and a man.

July allowed me, thanks to subsiding ash clouds, to zip to Reykjavik with a good friend: rocks, raw nature, thermal springs and a reindeer pelt.

August opened up Manila in a whole new way for me - a surprising realisation of a city with more to offer than you might initially think.

September saw birthday coffee and cake, a Filipino wedding, and a volcano through the mist in Tagaytay.

October had my parents visit Singapore - yes, the entire month - but they're so low maintenance it's unreal.  Also, managed a *weekend* in London - yes a weekend ;-)

November bestowed a work trip to Bali on me - how cool is that?!

December took me to Hong Kong and my heart on a new journey.  Christmas in Singapore, New Year planned for Sydney and spending lots of time with friends and several glasses of plonk.

Well, I've done what I set out NOT to do.  Round robin it is....!

Hope you enjoyed the 2010 - as much as I did.

Here's hoping that 2011 will be tremendous.

A few pics below (also 12 of them) which almost match the events above.

D

Wishing you a splendid Yuletide filled with love and peace.

Of puppets & boot polish

I've been holed up over the last couple of days with a relatively mild bout of flu.

And while (naturally) I've been convalescing, there is always energy to type a few search mnemonics to keep the mind occupied.

I was thus tempted and ultimately intrigued to find some delightful memories of my teenage years and before on YouTube.  Do you remember Spitting Image?  I was once again engrossed in the lampooning of everyone from Margaret Thatcher, Neil Kinnock and Emelda Marcos, to some of the perhaps less offensive faces from the 80s, including Andrew Lloyd Webber and Desmond Tutu.

I smiled to hear the Chicken Song and equally nostalgic about I've Never Met a Nice South African.  They were great skits indeed.



Another childhood memory was stirred by The Black and White Minstrels.
This was a classic BBC masterpiece that ironically had white men black themselves up and then serenade white women.  All kinds of dancing and singing had white girls fawning and ultimately (symbolically of course) fornicating with the boot-polish clad young white/black men. 

Forget the PC-vomiting middle classes' views on this - I find it great forward-ahead-of-its-time support for inter-racial relationships - or am I being a tad myopically revisionist?!  No replies needed on that - my tongue if firmly wedged in my cheek.

Will leave you with a single link and you can YouTube search the rest.  This link combines the above two memories with a splendid rendition of the Black and White Minstrels as the South African Apartheid government of PW Botha and nicely-done white on white mocking of the regime back then.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_eSUQgLZXg

And remember only a few days left til Christmas...mine certainly won't be white - but I'm hoping it won't be too black either.  Keeping my chin up.

Keep yours up too.

Management fees? Agentic forces amok....

I have the grave misfortune to have one of my properties managed by a company called HML Hawksworth and every interaction with them is a source of lime-juice-in-an-open-wound kind of smarting.

And I correspond with them in the most ascorbic of English whit to no avail.
My latest "letter" - although it's more of a ranting vent - curses the fanciful increases in management fees and I fear the proverbial seed will fall on barren ground.

Here's what I said ( I do hope it was not only clear, but scathingly abrupt to jolt them into action) :
-----------------------


Pam,

I trust you are doing well since our last exchange.  There was one item left unanswered and now it's raised its irrepressible head again.

It was the question of email correspondence.

I asked if I must request each time a letter is sent to my parents to have that sent by email - which in all logical sense defeats the object of email communication.
But since the "papyrus" has once again thudded against the lobby mat of my parents' house, I feel compelled to ask the question a second time.

Why, oh why, in 2010 can I not have my (sometimes extortionate - and more on this anon) demands requested of me by email directly without the archaic apology for interaction that is Royal Mail being deployed so religiously?

My second intriguing question is on your increase (yet again) in charges.
Some points to answer please:

a.  What was the nature of the fire?  I did not see any other communication on this from either yourselves or my agent.  Shouldn't we sue someone?
b.  7% is abominable in these times of austerity - indeed I said this last time and my words fell upon deaf ears.  Please comment.
c.  Did no-one else complain at this Alice-in-wonderland kind of increase?  If so, what is being done to address the communal concerns about annual above-inflation increases?
d.  I find it incredulous that you "look[...] forward to receiving prompt payment" and then wish us a "Happy Christmas" when all we have to "look forward" to is more outlay.  No need to comment on this point.

I, equally and impatiently look forward to *your* prompt reply.

Disappointedly, again,

Darren

Agents and their egos

I love telling you all about my letters I write.
I recently had missed a notification of some management charges for an apartment, that Baxter and I own in the UK.

I pleaded with them to waive the charges as getting mail to Singapore can be a tad challenging and also to jolt themselves into the 21st century and perhaps adopt email as a means of notifying owners of their liabilities.

Below is the reply from the company and my answer....hope you enjoy my not-so-subtle sarcasm - I'm sure it's bloody well lost on Pam Dhillon.!!!!

__________________________________________

---

From: Pam Dhillon
To: darrenfrommaryport@yahoo.co.uk
Sent: Tue, 16 November, 2010 17:11:47
Subject: Service Charge

Good morning

Thank you for your email, I can confirm that the charges cannot be waived, I did request this to my MD.

We will send demands to the address provided by yourself.

Kind Regards   

Pam Dhillon Senior Property Manager HML Hawksworth Ltd Gillingham House 38 - 44 Gillingham Street London SW1V 1HU Tel: 020 7802 0000   Fax: 020 7802 0001 Email: info@hmlhawksworth.com   Web: www.hmlhawksworth.com

MY REPLY:

Pam, I should thank you for your email - even though I had to chase. I'm disappointed (yet again) at HML's intransigence and inflexibility towards overseas landlords who need to be made aware much more in advance than UK-residing owners. When you say "cannot", I believe your MD and HML actually mean "won't".  Thanks for not-a-lot. BIG SIGH. Anyway, I won't get anywhere with such a rules-driven, non-customer-friendly organisation - will I?!!?  Unless, you're going to prove me wrong....could you!?!? Finally, please confirm when you say "address" you mean email address as requested.  I have to ask clarification on so many points. Thank you in advance, Darren - disgruntled and deflated.   Tel: +65 6501 9808 - work / +65 98717903 mobile

Is lining up for so long really worth £80?

Leaving the UK, is always bitter sweet.

It's nice to get away - there are so many things that really are quite annoying.  Some of my betes-noires include: unfriendly underground staff, strikes, 12.5% service charge on just about everything and chip and bloody pin...!

[On an aside about service charges; it feels like you're charged a service fee for even sneezing.  When I checked out of my hotel two days ago (very nice hotel, I must admit: Ten Manchester, near Baker Street) I noticed 4 service charges for £3.56 each and queried them.  I was politely informed it was a "service charge" for each of my night's rates - calculated at 3% but I wasn't "obliged to pay" and it was completely "discretionary".  Well I was relived for the chance to opt out.  We compromised: I paid for 3 nights and since I didn't want any loose change rattling in my pocket, she took off one night's fee and kept the difference.  What a pollaver (sic)!]

And on the flip side, I know there are many things I will immediately miss.  Didn't even get to scoff down my beloved fish and chips this time.  Not to mention a good curry in the West End.  The opera (which I did manage to sample this time) is always lamented when I leave Britain and I do miss the seasons (despite the drizzle) immensely.

That said, one big advantage of living outside the EU, is being able to claim your VAT (value added tax) back - well most of it.

I had planned well in advance of this little trip to London (actually to help a good friend celebrate her 40th birthday) and knew I'd be swiping the credit card with vigour all weekend.  So when I lurched into terminal 3 at Heathrow, I headed straight for the VAT-back counter.  Dismayed by the length, yet motivated by the lure of £80 back in my pocket - as opposed in the coffers of a "needy" exchequer - I took my place in a very long line.

It amazes me every time I subject myself to this torture how many stupid people don't read the instructions, don't sign their forms, don't have all the paperwork ready, don't know the different refund methods etc. etc.  Everyone stands patiently in line with no management of types of claim, quantity or eye on accuracy of completion.  Some facile observations on my part, I think would speed up the process for most people - and even may help the morons who can't follow instructions (in FOUR key languages, I might add).

1.  I've noticed at certain airport passport control for example, and at my local mobile waiting area (intermittently) they have what I would call "checkers".  These folk scurry up and down the queue checking that all the documentation is in order.  This would save invaluable time at the actual counter and allow for one of the behind-the-counter staff to double up as a checker - no extra manpower needed.

2.  Adding a filter based on the number of claim forms would also help.  This would be like the 5 items and less checkout counters we see at supermarkets.  Again, no need for extra staff: just a dedicated "fast track" line for let's say less than 3 forms.

3.  Finally, a more radical option would be to offer a super-fast track line - where travelers could choose to forfeit, say, £5 from the total refunded to have their forms processed with priority.  We can pay for speeded up service in virtually all other walks of life - why not here?!  I actually saw at least 3 passengers either leave the queue seeing it was taking too long, or didn't even both to join it in the first place.

I've no truly validated view on how much processing time the above measures would save, but having stood in the line for 1 hour, with approximately 24 people processed before me and 4 tellers on the counters even if this managed save 25% of the average processing time (reducing from 8.25 passengers per hour to about 6.3 per hour) I would have zipped through the VAT back process in approximately 36 minutes.  Almost halving my pain-time...!

Still, at the end of the day I was queuing to get my £80 back - and that I did.

Mind you, I always thought I was worth a lot more than 80 quid and hour....!  Funny how airports are a great leveler.