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Still waiting for Sunlife

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This is a follow- up to my “Staying in Business” post of last week.  Given how Sunlife was treating me, a long term customer, I wondered how they were staying in business.

Two weeks, still waiting

I began with my simple question on April 4th, after 3 failed chat attempts, one phone call with four cold transfers, 5 emails surprisingly all with responses which were sympathetic but provide no solutions, I am still waiting.

Also, I have requested assistance from the benefits plan owner (BMO HR) and they responded with an offer to help together with some follow-up questions.  That was a week ago and no further feedback from them.

Someone is “on it”

I have been told by Sunlife a senior case manager is looking into it but three business days have passed since I was told she was on the case, with no update.

Recently the Silicon Valley Bank had a run of customers leaving them, resulting in bankruptcy.  Hard to stay in business with no customers.  Sunlife, take note.

Simple Logic

My issue involves an underpayment of $3.07, which based on BMO’s published benefits guideline was clearly an error.  Based on my contacts and interactions with Sunlife their stonewalling response has cost them way more than $3.07 in labour and time, plus of course the customer alienation.

Logically, just making the correction and closing the query seems the only thing to make sense.  Yet, it drags on.  Wow.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Providing Service

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Canada is a wonderful and highly rated country, deservedly so.  Highly rated in standard of living, freedom , multiculturalism, health care and the list goes on.

I feel lucky and proud to be Canadian.  It does puzzle me though,  for some reason, in spite all the good things about living in Canada, culturally we have great difficulty giving service to others (not free or chairitable services but paid services.)

Stereotypically Polite

There is a strong stereotype about Canadians being polite.  This is held both by citizen of the country and many foriegners.  Canadians are known to be quick to apologize and work hard not to offend.

In spite of this polite and mainly respectful attitude, as a populous we find it difficult to perform paid services for others when it is our role and we are expected and compensated to do it.

Whether recieving a service from a store, restaurant or just a home delivery to name a few of the most common types I always feel the service provider is sending me a message, whether spoken or by body language, “I am doing you a favour buddy, so suck it up and consider yourselve lucky I am helping you at all.”

In this fabulous country, where life is good, why can’t we sincerly want to do what we are paid for with joy and pleasure.  Those we serve are not doing us a favour and mostly we are being compensated for doing it.

Today’s Rant

Today’s rant is brought to you by Canada post.  To my mail delivery person, I am not doing you a favour by using the mail.  When you ring my bell wait a minute for me to answer, I am old and it takes a few minutes to get to the door.

When I get to the door and call out to you as you are walking away, don’t ignore me.  It may take you a few minutes to turn around but for me the fake deafness results in a trip to the post office, a wait in a long line and more dissinterested service.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Bavarian BMW does it again

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Today’s post is a bit of a rant.  Also a warning about BMW’s and Edmonton’s Bavarian BMW in particular.  You may find it interesting if just for a chuckle.   I can only laugh it is so sad.

I will note I have owned 9 vehicles in the last forty years and none have had as many problems as the BMW .

Warning long rant coming

I purchased a BMW 335i four years ago.  It was brand new delivered from the factory in Bavaria with just 15 kilometers logged when I picked it up.

It was delivered  six weeks later than the promised delivery date – four months from the purchase date.

The blue tooth microphone for hands free cell phone use was deffective right out of the box and even though the salesperson delivering the car tried to demo it to me, so knew it was broken, he sent me on my way anyhow.

I got home and booked a service appointment so 1 week into this cars life, a service call.

But it gets worse, during the mike repair they discovered the car had not been properly prepped for delivery and a shipping lock was not removed .  This led to a part breaking.

So week two and car is back in the shop to fix a part broken due to faulty dealer prep, which I paid for.

Three months later I had a flat tire and on having it fixed (at Bavarian BMW) found out I had summer tires even though I had written confirmation from the original salesman the car was delivered with all season tires. (something you really do need in Edmonton)

I resolved the tire fiasco myself with no help from Bavaria BMW

In year two came the first maintenance .  I booked an appointment with Bavarian BMW via email and had copies of the confirmation.  The service advisor told me he had no record of the appointment but took the car anyway,  He was very rude though and kept the car all day for a one hour oil change.

In January of year three the battery warning light came on.  I drove the car for 6 months without difficulty and then took it to Edmonton BMW (the other dealer in Edmonton).  The service was exceptional.  The problem was a faulty sensor, as I expected since the battery worked fine.

For my next maintenance I went back to Bavaria, booking by email again.  This time all went as expected and the maintenance was done in an hour.

I booked the latest maintenance with Bavaria BMW on May 24th via email, for aJune11th appointment.

On May 31st the car started to display warning lights intermittently. I called Bavarian BMW and was advised to not worry about it and just let the service advisor know at my June11th appointment.  I did note it was a Saturday appointment so I knew they did not normally do diagnostics.  She said “no problem , they would hold it over if needed”

On Saturday June11th, although the advisor was clearly was unhappy about my extra problem he agreed to try and have it looked at, although the car would probably  be held over to Monday.

I kind of expected this, so not a big issue.

What he didn’t tell me was because my problem was an unplanned inconvenience for him I would not get standard level of attention (more like best effort)

So on Monday I called the service advisor after not hearing from him.  I was advised he had left me a voice mail on Saturday that my car needed a part and would not be fixed until Wednesday. ( mysteriously there was no voice mail)

After not hearing anything by mid-day Wednesday I called and my advisor clearly had forgotten about me, but did investigate and get back to me that the part was in and work progressing.  This is the best effort part.

Three hours later he called and said they were having unexpected problems and they would need to hold the car until Thursday.  He would call me mid-day with an update.

After not getting any call, I phoned to check the status at 1:15. Obviously the advisor had forgotten me again, but he said he would investigate and call me back.

Getting no call back by three I called but he was not available and I left a voice mail.  With no call by 3:30 I called again, although my advisor was unavailable I asked for any advisor or the service manager.

After speaking to another advisor I finally got my original advisor again.  They need another part and they are trying to expedite it for Friday arrival or maybe Monday.

I noted my dissatisfaction at being ignored and was told I was an extra so he really did not have time for me .

This is the best effort surprise – I wish I had been told up front.  My question is “why didn’t you tell me that on Saturday so I could have chosen to go somewhere else – and get normal service, versus best effort, if I so desired”

I should note all this work is under warranty so BMW accepts responsibility and accountability, reasonsble service should go along with that.

Most interesting to me is the fact nothing was offered to ease my pain (like a service loaner) other then a chance to pick up my broken car and use it till the part arrived.  (After already leaving it in the shop 5 business days that does not make a lot of sense.)  Also all I am going to do when I get it back is trade it in for a reliable car so I just want it fixed.

Of course I am not really surprised as given all the poor service I have had form Bavarian BMW I have had little more than insincere apologies backed by excuses.

Remember, problems occur, it is how you respond to them the dictates your level of customer sevice.

To my loyal readers

I hope you enjoyed this long rant.  If your interest is peaked as to how it ends, it is my intent to let you all know.

Will the advisor call me this time or will I need to call him again? Will the car be fixed in my lifetime?

And of course the real question is how fast can I get rid of this BMW piece of mechanical junk and buy a well built car – Audi here I come.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Poor Service Rant

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I am not sure if the older you get the less flexible and forgiving you become.  Over the years I have exhibited a very high tolerance for iffy or downright awful customer service.

As time has progressed, my patience has diminished.  In the past couple of years I have sent written complaints to the President of Bank of Montreal, President of BMW Canada and President of SunLife Canada.  All of my issues were resolved quickly.

Today I had one of my worst experiences ever.  It was with the BMW Assist call center and unfortunately for my loyal readers, I am going to rant about it a bit.

Customer Care Agents (nice title, not accurate)

I received a letter today – Sept 28th.  The letter was dated September 9th and advised my BMW Assist subscription expired on Aug 25th and this was my last chance to renew by September 24th.  After that service would be permanently deactivated and I could not renew.    Given Sept 24th had already passed this was not too helpful.

I had called the BMW Assist call center on August 11th and requested they renew my subscription so I thought an error had been made and I would just call their friendly Customer Care Agents and they would help me and fix the mistake.

Hard to Believe

The agent that answered my call investigated and told me he could not renew my subscription and I would need to contact my BMW Center.  BMW Assist did not renew Canadian subscriptions.   He was unable to tell me how to contact my BMW Center (address or phone #) but this is what I had to do.  I protested that I had renewed my subscription through this call center two years ago and when I had called on August 11th they told me it would be renewed so I was positive they could do it and if he couldn’t help me I wanted to talk to his supervisor.

Supervisor Phil (operator #7091) came on the line and I got a better story.  He clarified they could not renew my subscription because it had been permanently canceled on September 24th.  Maybe my local BMW Center could help (what that was, where it was and how it could help eluded him).  He agreed I had called on Aug 11th but had not provided renewal instructions.  I asked if my word that I had in fact provided those instructions was not good enough.  He said it did not matter he could not renew my subscription if he wanted to.  I suggested BMW Assist had made a mistake and should fix the mistake they had made.  Phil did not agree with me.

I advised Phil that I would be escalating to Andrea Piotrowski the Customer Services Manager who sent me the notification letter about the last chance to renew.   I asked for her e-mail address but Phil would not provide it.

And that’s all folks

So that is my rant in a nutshell.  Now I am off to write my letter to Andrea Piotrowski.  I am going to include the link to this post in my note to her so she can comment on this post directly if she so desires.

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

How hard is it to check a bag with Air Canada?

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Took a trip recently.

I am quite impressed with the “on-time” record for the last few flights I have flown with Air Canada., however, on the way home from this last trip I experienced a surprise.   Interestingly my daughter had the same experience in August.

As had become the norm in this age of the internet I checked in electronically well before the flight, but not having a printer at hand (nor using a smart phone) I selected to print the boarding pass at the airport kiosk.  I had to do this anyway to print my bag tag.

On arrival at the airport I printed boarding passes for both myself and my wife, but my baggage tag would not print – the message on the machine directed me to check in assistance.

It took 30 minutes to get through the line at check in assistance for my 30 second transaction to tag my bag (remember I had already checked in).  The Air Canada agent jokingly advised I had broken the machine, I guess she could read my stress level.  Basically, there was no explanation as to why I had to seek check-in assistance and given the average time with the agent for those ahead of me in the line was 5 to 10 minutes generally they did need some assistance.  It is  too bad they could not tell me why I was rejected for automatic bag check because I would definitely like to avoid this situation in the future.

Because my bag check in took much longer than expected my plan to meet my wife at the security gate got mixed up.   As one would expect, she did not anticipate my bag check could take more than 30 minutes and thought we got our wires crossed on the meeting place.  It all worked out in the end but was very frustrating.

Not as bad as my daughter’s case

In August my daughter, son-in-law and grandchild experienced the same problem at the same airport.  Unfortunately for them the more than 30 minute line-up at check in assistance resulted in missing their flights and having to be booked on later ones.  Given I was massively frustrated I cannot imagine how my daughter and her husband felt.  (I don’t think they will be sending Air Canada any Christmas cards).

And the point!

The main differentiation for domestic air travel providers is service.  Things like a smooth check-in really matter and given two cases at the same airport just a month apart I suspect there are many others.  These unsatisfied customers move to WestJet and other providers, and ultimately Air Canada’s business will suffer.  I sold my Air Canada shares a couple of months ago (for a  good profit) and I am kind of glad I did.