Thursday, October 21, 2010

Not again...

You don't even have to ask...doors, again. So, we were notified by the store where we purchased the doors that the replacement panels for the front door and the guest bedroom doors were all in the ware house here in Crete and that they would schedule the installation. Schedule is a very loose word here, as they then called and spoke with Alex one day around 12pm and said that the technician could come to the house right now, or they did not know when he would be able to do it. Luckily, we had his father available, since both Alex and I WORK during the day. Well, the guest bedroom door panel was correct and installed, but the front door was wrong, again.

This time the door design was correct, with the glass windows and iron work. But, the glass was clear, not frosted like the one we originally had ordered. So, Takis told the guy not to install it and to have the shop owners contact us on what happened. We heard nothing for a day. I am sorry, but good customer service entails that you call your customer as soon as you hear about a problem. So, I decide to initiate the inquiry, like I always do. I emailed the wife, and very politely asked what had happened and for her to update us ASAP. I also added that last minute arrangements for installations do not work with Alex nor my own schedules. She responded the next day confirming what I already knew, that the glass was not correct. Nothing about who dropped the ball on this one or what the company had said. She did apologize for the last minute notification on installation and agreed with me that we were lucky to have Takis available. Ummmm....what the hell kind of response is that?

I waited a week, neither email nor phone call had come our way. So, yesterday I was able to get out of work a bit early and decided that I would pay her a visit face to face. No sooner had I entered the shop , when she tried to disarm me with a " Jennifer, so wonderful to see you, I just now have gotten an email response from Doral." It was just past 1pm and she said the email was at 12:34. She claimed that she had emailed them everyday, and that this response contained an apology as the director had been out of the office for several days. Whatever. She then tried to distract me with "small talk" about work and the summer, and was probably surprised that I did not follow her conversation. "Back to the doors, C-, what does Doral say ?" Noting my irritation, she did own up to the fact that she is the one who had ordered the panel incorrectly, although she blamed it on the order forms from the company. Kind of reminds me of how she wanted to share the blame on the original misorder to begin with.

So Doral said that there is a film that can be applied to the windows so they look frosted. Thank you, but no thanks. That just sounds cheap for a rather expensive door. They also said that the glass could be replaced, but only in the factory up in Thesoloniki, and with some difficulty. I dared to ask, " Would it be easier for them to make a new one that is correct?" C responded that she did not know and that it would be up to Doral to determine that. I left the store explaining to her that all we are interested is that the door is corrected. Does not matter when, but it needs to be done and it needs to be done nicely. I don't want a door that looks terrible and has problems do to it being taken apart and put back together again. We shall see, but let us hope that the third time is a charm.