Schlage – Dumb as a Tree Stump
Here is an example of how not treat customers. In fact in an example of how to work yourself out of business today.. Lets face facts. I always try and do the right thing. Especially today because with the internet you never know who you could piss off and YOUR company could get a well placed and high ranking blog post like this….
I recently went to Lowes and purchased a fancy new lock. Its pretty damn cool. It has an electronic keypad so that i can input codes, The company that made it.. Schlage . Sounds like a reputable name doesn’t it? I’m sure they have been around for awhile.. I’d just but, i just don’t care how long schlage has been around.
My cool new lock was $300. It hooks to the internet and allows to me open and close my door from my phone and the internet. Schlage also allows me to add codes for people. Its pretty cool the service is $13 a month though. So I quickly paid someone to install the lock since i needed to drill new holes in the door and i’m not “that” handy with my hundred year old door.
During the install it seems some Schlage drunkard who had too many beers during packaging and or was too young to read in some far away land mixed up boxes and put the wrong codes and KEYS in the box.Lucky for me the right codes to open the locks were on the back of the lock but I’m still without keys and since it was already installed when we found out I just left the lock in making a crazy ASS-U-Suption that “keys are cheap” and of course Schlage will do the right thing simply send me some new ones.. NOPE
here is my experience so far..
…Day 1… took forever to find a way to email.. no phone number can be found.. so i email some who barely speaks English. the response 2 days later.. “go get a locksmith”. My thought is.. are you crazy i should pay someone $60 bucks instead of you sending $1 worth of keys?
…Day 3… I send back an email saying NO.. they ask for info.. I send them a LONG email… They respond back.. “go get a locksmith”. I then call the number on the bottom of the email after spending an hour email who knows who?
…Day 3… Phone Call… I talked to someone.. they spend 15-20 min. gathering info. I think i even told them about the birth mark on my ass. I went of over the math $300 + $13 a month (or $150ish a year).. OR $1 in keys.. They asked me to disassemble the lock on my door and get them the serial number. I said as soon as you agree your going to send me keys..i’ll be happy to do that.. You see because of thier blunder. That would have been the 4th time i had to take the lock out. Not hard. Just annoying.. They refused to agree to the keys… They said they would call back after they said “go get a locksmith 3 times”.
…Day 4… The customer service agent called back. Wanting more info.. and more work out of me. Still however they are unwilling to send me keys. It seems they are only interested in finding out where mixed up to boxes so they can solve the problem for someone else. It seems pretty clear to me that they are never going to give me $1 keys. Despite my obivious use of the lock since i have an online account with them. They have my credit card numbers, and can see when i enter and exit my house. (kind of scary).Oh yeah… they suggested I “go get a locksmith” once again”.. sigh…
I’m going to have to either get a locksmith but, more likly i’m going to take that lock back and order a RESORTLOCK.com.. For $50 extra there is NO monthly fee. A much better deal and If i’d know in the first place i would have done this.
This is simply a bad move by Schlage their in fact to simply solve the problem would take less $$$ than to argue about it Each call to the call center with overhead on average approx $20-30… Since i’ve had 2 calls already they could have save $60 by simply asking the kind gentleman India to send the keys not to mention a few email exchanges add $10. In fact this run around has cost them their profit margin or more i assume. Once i return the lock they are now in the hole. Not to mention as many of you know I’m getting ready to write a best selling book (i’ve already got 5000 copies sold and I’m not even done yet) This is what i can tell you. If I don’t get my keys in the next few days I’m going to use this blog post in that book to warn my fellow country men and women of the danger of doing business with tree stumps. It just seems like the patriotic thing to do. Since Schlage has offer to be the poster child for stupid.. Thanks Schlage for the content.
…
Loading...
By Peter Chee, December 31, 2009 @ 9:53 am
I agree, just do a good job the first time and you don’t get a bunch of customer service calls that cost you more money in the long run! Did this new door lock go on your office door?
By Ross, December 31, 2009 @ 12:49 pm
It’s a classic corporate move. They figure it’s just the cost of doing business to redirect any problems you have with the product back to you because although they will loose your business, they also figure that no one else will find out about your interaction with the company. I have run into this more than a few times. Things are a changing though. With the advent of customer reviews on places like Amazon.com and Eopinions, these issues with different companies are coming to light.