Thomas Garvale sent a message to Laura Alber that said:
Dear Ms. Alber,
Allow me to apologize. This customer service complaint in all rights should have been addressed at a supervisory level. As the CEO of a major corporation, your time is valuable and better spent with other matters. However, efforts to twice bring my issue to a customer service supervisor have failed and I have been left with no alternatives.
My circumstances began simply enough with a non-working pepper mill we purchased at Williams-Sonoma some years ago. We wished to get this replaced under the lifetime guarantee and I contacted Jennifer from your Ohio customer service center on Sept. 18, 2018. She obtained our information and stated our new mill would be mailed out that week along with an email confirmation and tracking number.
A week elapsed and no pepper mill, email or other information was received. We recontacted W-S customer service who had no record of our contact. Are you familiar with the term "bum's rush"? There is no good way to explain our surprise at being summarily dismissed - Jennifer outright lied to a customer. I can't even qualify that statement with an adverb of apparently or maybe. In her eyes, we were not worthy of her time to research or address our concerns.
On October 17, 2018, I contacted LaQuan (sp) from your Dallas customer service center and asked to speak with a supervisor concerning Jennifer. We were informed we would be recontacted by telephone in approximately 10 minutes. No call was ever received, not in 10 minutes or as of this date. Lie #2.
On October 18, 2018, I contacted Lacey (sp) from your Oklahoma customer service center and again asked to speak with a supervisor. We were informed that a supervisor by the name of Tracey from Georgia would return our call within 24 hours. No call was ever received as of this date. Lie #3.
In your interview with Kate Taylor of Business Insider on Sept. 14, 2017, you seem to really take an interest in customer service as the cornerstone of Williams-Sonoma success, stating "...Williams-Sonoma is investing in customer service to better compete as digital sales rise across the US."
I agree with you completely. Having been a small business owner for 14 years and in public employment for 26 years before that, I know the importance of customer service. Each employee is your "face" that customers will associate for the better or the worse with your business. However, without supervisory oversight, quality control audits, training and remedial correction, customer service becomes meaningless.
Our pepper mill problem has been resolved. In fact, not all of our contacts with Williams-Sonoma were negative and I'd like to give credit when due. My second call to Matthew Norwood of W-S, Oklahoma, quickly resolved my issue and the pepper mill has since been replaced via Cole & Mason.
Please let us know how this Jennifer problem was addressed and, more importantly, how it can be prevented from occurring to another customer in the future.
Thank You,
Mr. Thomas Garvale
Okemos, Michigan
Carpe Diem
