Apologies and Prayers from Customer Service

Customer Service Representative: "We can pray." Customer (me): "What?"!!!!!!!!

Customer Service Representative: "Well, I'm sorry.  It seems that I can't track your package all the way to your house."

Me: "That's because it is not at my house."

Him: "Yes, I know.  I can track it right up to Chicago and then....."

Me: "It is in the bottom of a deep,black hole."

Him: "Exactly!  So, you can see now why I have nothing left to offer but apologies and prayers."

Me: "Grrrrrrrr, ummmmmmmmm, ..."

And so it went for me and many others as the last 48 hours before Christmas 2013 counted down.  Who knew that thousands of customers were clutching phones connected to sleep deprived Customer Service Representatives, hoping that what they were hearing couldn't possibly be true: "I am so sorry but no, it won't be there in time for Christmas."  The Representative assigned to me, the one with the strange, sarcastic sense of humor, was just icing on the cake for me.

Disappointment, frustration and  more disappointment.  I couldn't believe that I had let this happen.  Sure, I ordered the gift two weeks before Christmas but I thought that was a very cushy, no worries lead time.  The promised arrival date came and went but I was extremely busy with work, family holiday things and ordering other gifts with really iffy delivery promises.  Bottom line--I didn't check to see where the gift was until it was too late.  It was all my fault.

Later, I learned it wasn't just one thing that tipped the Missed Delivery Boat but many factors.  I am morbidly curious to know what went on behind the scenes; so many systems, processes and variables, colliding.  At some point, I realized my interest had gone over the line when I started using newspaper articles to put together a "what could have happened" fishbone diagram.  That's just not right.  I blame it on the side of me that works passionately to eliminate on-time-delivery issues (as a part of my profession).

As I put the fishbone away,  I  thought of the one gift that didn't make it to my house and the one guy that was willing to represent his company and the snafus that were happening across an entire order to delivery system.  Words are inadequate here.  Willing isn't strong enough-he showed courage.  Represent isn't even close.  He showed respect for me as a customer for telling me the truth as he knew it and listening openly to every word I said.

He showed grace to suggest some way that his customer could spend the hours before Christmas with a hopeful heart.  Now I know that his communication was not sarcastic at all.  I also believe that he took a moment to pray for my package to arrive at my house before Santa.

Even though the gift was late, my husband swears it was worth the wait.  Lucky for me but we sure don't want to depend on that goodwill. [contact-form][contact-field label='Name' type='name' required='1'/][contact-field label='Email' type='email' required='1'/][contact-field label='Website' type='url'/][contact-field label='Comment' type='textarea' required='1'/][/contact-form]