What ever happened to customer service?

[vianyl 1]

Seriously? So I call yesterday for a protection strip for my JSI Cut24. I never ended up getting a reply on which strip would be the right strip so I could order from UScutter or SignWarehouse. Granted now if I think about it I could have just called one of them and got an answer.

Anywho so I call up JSI yesterday and place an order for their protection strip. No problem take my information, have a nice day, hang up, day goes on. Well I never ended up getting a charge on my card yesterday for it(I have automatic notification) so I come in this morning, do my morning net browsing and decide to give JSI a call and see whats up. Talk to the guy, let him know whats up and he replies "Oh yea, those are about 3 days out we don't have any in stock so they wont be here till early next week."

WHAT? Are you serious? I guess he missed the part on the phone yesterday where I said I'm glad you guys are in GA and I'm in FL so I'll have it next day cause I'm stuck up sh*ts creak without a paddle until I get my protection strip.

Is it just me or isn't that something I should have been notified about it the minute he was aware of it? No call, no email, nothing. I'm glad I called otherwise I would have been left in the dark waiting for a week.

What ever happened to real customer service? Or am I just over reacting? Especially in todays day and age.

[MZ SKEETER 4,709]

hmmm  maybe your first question should have been.  "Do you have them in stock"?,  Alot of places do  the JIT program (JUST IN  TIME) ,and  drop shipping anymore,  They have downsized inventory, for  taxes, storage and many other reasons.  etc.

[Guest kenya]

You should have pressed 1 ((saying it in a sarcastic tone)).

I never even get to talk to anyone..... I just keep having to press buttons. Which really pi$$e$ me off.

[Guest sciondrgn]

Service is slowly declining pretty much every where.

I ordered from IW to my heat press vinyl and did so online. I received my notification email of the order but no shipping email. Then I found out I got charged twice $140+ for the same order. I had to call 3 times to get someone to do something.. And then I got the order in last night and one whole color is on back order.  At this point its been over a week and I still dont have my refund even though they say it's been issued and I'm still missing 10 yards of heat press vinyl..

[vianyl 1]

This is the main reason why I like to deal with a local supplier only problem is my local supplier doesn't carry stuff like this and only supplies M3 vinyl which I hate, seems I can't win on anything these days.

[BannerJohn 1,324]

Most companies put profit ahead of everything,including customer service. They just don't 'get it' that returning customers will make them far more money in the long run.

[sheister 1]

I used to be a customer service agent for a few years. Its possible this company contracts out to another company who handles their customer service. This can be a good thing but it can also be a nightmare. This depends  on the quality of the company handling their customer service. The bad can be a result of poorly paid agents who dont care enough to actually do their job. Sad to say, some will just say whatever to get you off their line. ( I worked for a very good company and saw this happen a lot). The separation of the actual company and those that handle the service side causes a real problem with holding these lazy agents accountable for their actions. Then you call back , get somebody else, and this time its probably the person you wished you got the first time. They tell you what you should have known , in this case that those items are out of stock for a few days. Even worse the bearer of bad news get the grief and venting from an upset customer because of what another did wrong. And thats what I would consider a mild case of bad service because it can get far worse than that. Agents will note accounts if a cust is yelling and screaming even if justified in doing so. If you call back, they read these notes and close ranks so to speak and decide to be as difficult with you as possible without breaking any rules.  Enacting some kind of customer service revenge on a customer just because nobody would listen unless he/she showed anger and discontent with how they were handled. It ends up you get nowhere and nobody is ever held accountable. In the company I worked for people who did this eventually got caught and disciplined or fired. Most cases I witnessed were because our company wasnt the only sub contracted customer service company this company employed. We would have to either deal with a cust who had a bad experience with another sub contracted company or we would be treated like this from them directly when we had to contact them. It made me wanna reach through the phone and shake some of them senseless because they would do the same things to us Agent to Agent! So I feel your pain. If you want some advice. I hate to say it but the squeaky wheel gets the oil. And it might not be your style to raise your voice and state you will never deal with them again. But sometimes thats the only way to get them to act. Also asking to speak to a supervisor sometimes works. But it can also cause a bad agent to employ another tactic to frustrate things. They will leave you on hold for a LONG time and when, if ever , somebody gets on the phone, its either not a supervisor, or a supervisor who has an attitude with you because he/she is usually friends with the agent you are not satisfied with.

Sorry for all the doom and gloom stories.

To get your way you must repeatedly Communicate, Escalate, and Perpetuate.

If you are persistent you will eventually get your way in the end. Though you may not be happy about how much time and effort you have to invest.

Good Luck

[American And Proud 2]

CS is the Same way Here too.

I buy a Brand New cutter and Several Supplies for it at the same time.

I did not mess with ebay and bought Direct from USCutter.

I get my MH871 and a roller is missing the press fit bearing end.

I told them on the phone I have Not unpacked everything yet and that I noticed the missing piece while putting the stand together and said the cutter itself was still taped in its plastic bag so I won't know if the cutter is fine or not.

But I wasn't sure how they would handle it with the missing part and called before going further into unpacking and connecting everything if they were gonna say box it up and ship it back we will send out another one. I was sent the roller out and told to go ahead and finish unpacking it all and hook it up.

OK , cool , I continue on putting the stand together and then unbag my brand new MH871 cutter bought directly from us cutter and my son and I go to lift it up on the stand and, OUCH ! as I reach under it at the end my hand grasps under the end and as we lift it it slides in my hand and I get cut and am bleeding,(luckily for someone it wasn't my sons hand) like WTF I look at the cut wipe off the blood we grab the cutter and put it on the stand and I start looking it over, I see why it cut me the bottom of the plastic end cap has a crack in it which is sharp.

I wash out my cut and am thinkin, no problem I will send a ticket as they call them explaining the side cover has a crack in it, and they will send me out a replacement like they did for the roller with the missing endcap bearing.

A few days go by and no answer to my ticket email.

Meanwhile my order of supplies is shipped (about a week after the cutter arrived) thats fine I knew they shipped from different places.

I open the box and am shorted a Light Yellow roll of the BGS 24"x3yrd roll, so I fire off another Ticket.

Finally I get an email about the first ticket asking me if anyone has contacted me, I reply no not until You.

We get on the phone then, I explain that the sidecover has a small crack in it at the bottom and it has cut me once and tell him about the other

Ticket I sent about the Missing Light Yellow BGS roll from the 12 color starter pack , placed on hold, came back and asked me "well how many rolls did you get"?

I said it was the 12 roll 24"x3yrd deal for $65.99 and it shows Two Yellows a light and a dark yellow. So missing the Lighter yellow I have 11 rolls.

Placed on hold again for a few minutes and he comes back and says he will Credit my account for $10.00.HUH? BGS 24"x10 yrd rolls are $14.00 (No option to buy a 3 yard roll) PLUS another $9.99 to ship if I go ahead and order the light yellow roll I should have recieved in the first place.

I get double talked on the issue with a side cover being cracked by asking me if the cutter is working, I say yes I think so but the covers cracked and cut me, His reply/thoughts were to say, "well we could cover it under warranty but I would advise against that". Which basically amounted to a brush off of the issue, WTF?

Keep in mind my very first direct uscutter order was $566.24 (MH871 and supplies) and I have $293.57 IN my uscutter shopping cart waiting to be bought here. And planned on a few more 300.00 vinyl orders placed within the next month to pretty much be fully stocked as a sign shop would be.

It looks as though they just did not want to be Bothered sending me out a roll of vinyl that I PAID for already, and a non cracked replacement side cover.

And there is No  mention of the $10.00 Credit I was told I would recieve in my account on 9-03-09 @ 9:58 AM by email after our phone conversation.

My order has sat in my cart since then waiting for that $10.00 Credit to be put in my Account.

On the phone it was made to sound like ok if you insist we can cover it under warranty, but I don't recommend it,(sounding like if I wanted that replacement cover, it was gonna Cost me, Shipping it back, the cutter, and paying shipping for a replacement, it wasn't actually said, but with the "we can cover it under warranty but I wouldn't recommend it" comment earlier in our conversation it sure felt implied to me it would be that way.

I just wanted my due to me roll and a replacement cover sent to me, to be installed by me. I'd have been very happy with that outcome, as I was not asking for anything other than what I had originally paid for to begin with.

Left a very Bad taste in my mouth thats for sure.

I know and can here some of you saying , but these are decent cutters for less, you gotta expect some things. To me thats just a BS excuse, there are plenty of other chinese cutters in this price range on the market, Customer Service will be the Only thing that sets one seller apart from another. ( And maybe software that comes with the cutter from a company still in business)

I had planned on placing my 300.00 order for Oracal 651 15" rolls here, then after recieving that order placing a 300-400.00 order for 24" Oracal 651.

Was even thinking about a second cutter so I would have a spare, that contour cuts, but with service like I recieved on my first 566.00 order I will more than likely be looking elsewhere to buy from in the very near future.

I was injured on the job awhile back, a union trade, and was injured to the point I cannot return to my former trade ever, so I am Investing in Myself to start a new career. I could Invest in a few of the Rolands if I wanted too, but thought I would go in at a $1 - $2,000.00 level and see were it lead me, then invest in better equiptment down the line as I got comfortable.

I will say this, that One bad customer service experience cost a heck of alot more in future sales than just sending out the paid for missing light yellow and a replacement piece of 50 cent plastic.

In this day of economic hardships for average people and Huge corporations with businesses closing their doors daily , Customer Service will need a major Overhaul as the average person, Is mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.  

The Companys Loss not mine, I can spend my hard earned cash anywhere.

[ff-extreme 6]

Customer service will continue to get worse and worse because we as customers except it. Most people (not all) will complain about the service take the run around and continue to spend money with the company because its convenient. That sends the message that its OK for customer service to suck! I generally will let one screw up happen as a oh well shi- happens 2x and I'm gone. Someone else is selling the same thing someplace.

[American And Proud 2]

I agree ff,

I bought a few Gateway computers a few years ago.

One was an extreme Lemon from day 1.

I paid for extended warrenties that also Included In Home Service, I'd call tech support over and over and they would send out a replacement part and say when you recieve it call us back and we will walk you through installing it, i'd say but I paid extra for in home repair and get an excuse every time then one service person said, "oh we would only actually send out a in home service tech IF we had to send you a complete Motherboard".

Guess who was sitting at his kitchen table with new Motherboard in hand phone in the other to completly tear down the computer to install that Motherboard.

Needless to say I was pretty ticked off, so I did some research and found a site about complaints on companies and clicked on the Gateway section.

A woman explained her dilema with Gateway and what she did about it.

I took that info and contacted the states attorney generals office NOT for MY state, but for the state that the company Gateway is in.

Any business were your wornged call the states attorny general office that the company is in to get Results.

I fought with Gateway about that computer for over 6 months.

I made that ONE phone call on a Friday afternoon and the secratary said the states attorney was not in her office and took my info and reason for my call, and my number.

I NEVER thought I would here from her not being a voter in her state, WOW was I WRONG, First thing Monday morning at 9AM I get a call from her in person, she asks me whats the problem and I explain, and have complete documentation to back my story to her.

She says give Gateway 24 hours to contact you and If they do not contact you call me back after the 24 hours.

5 hours later I get a call from Gateway, and I am told how Sorry they are and am asked if I have access to the internet, I say yes on one of my other computers and the Gateway person asks me to go to the Gateway website and to please pick out ANY computer I want, I say, I can't afford to do that, We Gateway will pay for it 100% and ship it out to you overnight at our expence for all your troubles.

Less than 24 hours later a new complete computer system at 2x's the cost of my original purchase was at my door and I had several phone calls from Gateway asking if I wanted assistance in hooking it all up and making sure it was running fine.

Next day and the next week I got calls asking if everything was OK and to my satisfaction.

I called their states attorney general back and explained everything was taken care of and Thanked her very much for her time and help .

I have no idea what she said or who she talked to at Gateway but she sure put a raging FIRE under someones azz and got things Done and Done FAST.

I learned alot on how to get things taken care of when needed.

That was a 1,000.00 purchase for that one computer so was worth the effort to find out exactly who to call and when.

Now on small things I just don't bother shopping with a company anymore and shop elsewhere, and IF everyone else did the same companies would bend over backwards to keep you as a loyal customer.

I have since bought 4PC's and 3 laptops, who lost, not I.

[vianyl 1]

I'm quite surprised to hear about your bad luck AAP especially with UScutter. That's quite unfortunate as I was looking to dump about $1500-2000 in new equipment and supplies in the coming week and after what you read I think I will be looking elsewhere. Maybe one of their employees on this board will be able to resolve your situation and gain back some of the lost trust, customer service and business.

[sheister 1]

Wow those were some interesting stories you wrote. I am sorry you had a bad experience with Us Cutters. I submitted a ticket to them and they got back to me quick but it was over an order and not a messed up cutter. I am big fan of Us Cutters but I also agree that bad service can happen even with a good company. I sincerely hope they help to resolve your issues and send you the  missing and cracked parts. Not to mention the credit for the missing roll of vinyl.

Good Luck

[Dakotagrafx 7,297]

Most companies put profit ahead of everything,including customer service. They just don't 'get it' that returning customers will make them far more money in the long run.

well said - haven't seen any employee mods on here for a while also

[knucklehead 530]

I've never had anything but Excellent service from JSI, purchased a ton of stuff from them. What would make you think you were going to receive the cutter strip the next day, even if it was in stock? I would bet you were'nt going to pay for overnight? Why is the strip so torn up in the first place? Maybe you should learn how to set the blade.

[repodon 1]

im still waiting on a call from uscutter and its been over a month and a half ago still waiting on a call sorry customer serves now adays  ill take my 8000 bucks some place else

[sheister 1]

Sorry for all the troubles you all are having. If this were handled by the company I used to work for you wouldn't even have the time to post your displeasure (most of the time). I could tell you many countless stories where we would absolutely bend the rules backwards and into a pretzel if a customer was being mishandled or mistreated. It was great to be able to turn things around for an upset customer. Sadly though, scammers learned how to imitate this and would try to call just to get free stuff by acting like they were mistreated. We usually caught these people but not always. Its these people who cause a small company who can't afford to be scammed to be too cautious about replacing parts that they cant independently verify are damaged. Unless you send the whole item back as a warranty . Which will cost YOU and arm and a leg. Its usually but not always due to scammers that cause a company to be too strict with their policies. This causes all of us to suffer. It sux but sometimes you get more credibility if you keep contacting them and keep politely explaining your problem. One contact may not be enough, so dont take the first brush off you get. Remember these are probably sub contracted out agents who dont work directly for the company and get paid 8 dollars an hour. Further they have little or no accountability so it doesnt matter if they get back to you or not.

You must  Communicate, Escalate, and Perpetuate if you want results.

Good Luck

[repodon 1]

well it is over a month and a half now and i sent in a ticket and called several more times with no call back i guess i will go some place else to spend my 8,000 bucks sorry uscutter your not cutting it any more i thought uscutter was good up until now even after i called several times left messages and even sent in a ticket with no reply back well hell with you also  i guess you made it big now and the hell with your customers i guess my 8,000 bucks isn't good enough for you

[BannerJohn 1,324]

I made them aware of this 4 days ago (as I was asked to do). Sorry they didn't respond. I have no idea why.

[sheister 1]

Well I have to admit if this thread were around when I was considering my first purchase of a cutter, I may have reconsidered. But I must state again, the one time i submitted a ticket they got right back to me and as far as my cutter goes I love it! So who knows. Is the company changing hands or going through some transition that would cause this??

[BannerJohn 1,324]

not as far as I know..but then, communication from US Cutter to us mods is minimal at best.

There have been some shortages in the tech dept due to illness and other things, but only lately.

[vianyl 1]

I've never had anything but Excellent service from JSI, purchased a ton of stuff from them. What would make you think you were going to receive the cutter strip the next day, even if it was in stock? I would bet you were'nt going to pay for overnight? Why is the strip so torn up in the first place? Maybe you should learn how to set the blade.

They are in GA and I am in FL. Anything that is shipped out same day as ordered would be here next day. No need for over night. And the strip was cut from someone else not myself. Thanks for your worthless input and assumptions though Richard.

[Guest HowardI]

I don't understand how this has happened but please email me with your order number and the status of what's going on and I will see what I can do . . .

Howard Irwin

Support Specialist

US Cutter

425-481-3555

888-298-8143

  - Option 2

(howardi at uscutter dot com)

[vianyl 1]

Whoever works at JSI better hope I never run into any of them in person cause there will be blood.

So I decide to call back JSI and order a strip from them. They say they have them in stock now. Great! So I look on the back of my machine. It has the dot punched out where it says JSI 24. So that's what I tell them I have. They said okay this is the strip you need - XD-CPS-5. I say great, send me one. $15 for one, 50% more then signwarehouse($10) and other websites. Whatever fuck it at least I know I'm getting the right thing. Payment goes through Item gets shipped.

Today is a great day my strip came in, right? WRONG!

So I install it, nothing cuts right. I haven't changed anything from removing my last strip to putting the new one in. Haven't touched the blade, same vinyl, etc. So I fiddle around a little can't get it to work no matter what I do. So I take a look at it and notice the strip is sitting below the valley and doesn't sit above it at all.... hmm that can't be right.

So I cut off a little edge and guess what, its only half as tall! (0.025" vs 0.058") So I call them up, talk to the lady, she says are you sure you don't have a p24? I said no it says 24 on the back, not p24. Well come to find out I actually have a p24, and since I already installed the strip I can't return it.

So $22 later I have a strip I can't use, still no strip I can use, they labeled it wrong when they sold it and I'm still stuck not cutting shit.

Anyone want to buy a JSI P-24?

[American And Proud 2]

I don't understand how this has happened but please email me with your order number and the status of what's going on and I will see what I can do . . .

Howard Irwin

Support Specialist

US Cutter

425-481-3555

888-298-8143

  - Option 2

(howardi at uscutter dot com)

I sent you an Email Howard.