Customer Service gone BAD

It’s been a very long time since I have written here due to a couple of other activities in my life that have consumed my time. Work has sent me to various places – Boston, Orlando, Detroit – and I have been spending my time posting on our corporate blog. While that has been rewarding and a terrific experience, I have missed my own personal blog. BTW – I did not make it into the Hall of Fame this year…but am elliglable for the next 4 years.

This post is not one of those insightful, meaningful, confusious-esk ideas that normally come to me once a year, this is really a post to vent about an experience today with a local, Cincinnati owned Heating and Air company affectionately known as “the Comfort zone,” Recker and Boerger.

I live in a condo, that has five units in one building. My unit is on the first floor and my neighbor Lisa lives above me. Her 10 SEER unit recently stopped working and she asked for my recommendation for a company to replace hers. Last year, I paid $3700 from 24hr Afforable (Loveland, OH) for the government regulated, 13 SEER unit made by Carrier. 24hr Affordable had great people, easy to work with, LOVED THEM! I saw Lisa at lunchtime today and asked her if she made a decision. Next Wednesday, Recker and Boerger will be replacing her unit. While standing with Lisa, I got the number and called; asked if the men who install her unit could service my unit at the time. Mind you, the units sit side by side right outside my patio and with the price of gas, why not combine a trip?

The woman informed me that installation and service are two different people and they could NOT schedule a combined service. They were only accepting service calls for June 25 or later. I am not an expect however I watched the installation of my unit and asked many questions, always intrigued to learn something. I know for a fact that the same tools used to test the units after they fill with chlorofluorocarbon and hydrochlorofluorocarbon refrigerants (or more widely known as Freon, coined by DuPont) are used to service them.  I kindly told the woman that I will take my $85 elsewhere and will NOT use Recker and Boerger, ever. 

You may ask, if I was so happy with 24hr Afforable, why didn’t I just call them? Honestly, I have been too busy, hence the explanation in the beginning of this post.

If there was one thing about customer loyalty I learned from my late grandfather who spent 30+ years as a meat cutter at Fisher Foods in Cleveland, it was first impression. Recker and Boerger lost a potential customer, one that might build a house in the future and will need to select a company to do all the heating and air. They made a bad first impression and gained a blogger who is very willing to write about her experience for MANY people in Cincinnati to read about. If I had the time, I would do some competitive bidding for Lisa and NOT let her use Recker and Boerger. Any others who had bad experience with them?