One Durban mom who absolutely lost her cool when her dishwasher needed endless repairs found her sanity again thanks to great customer service from the big boss.
Durban, South Africa (06 December 2023) – A single mom from Durban who has had a frustrating few months with a faulty dishwasher, reached out to share how her total meltdown led her to have one of her best customer care experiences ever, and it came straight from the big boss himself.
Wanting to remain anonymous, we read her story and could totally see many South Africans nodding along, agreeing this had happened to them too. Her frustration and anger didn’t last too long, though. Using the internet, she was able to speak directly to the big boss, and before long, her faith in good customer service had been restored.
This is her story, in her own words:
HAVE YOU EVER LOST YOUR MARBLES… I don’t just mean angry BUT a total destruction of all your common sense?
I did today… over a dishwasher!
I honestly think the older you get, the more self-control you are able to harness. As a woman in my 40’s, I’ve been able to master self control for the past 10 years, but everyone has their breaking point. Today was mine, all bets were off, the chickens left the coup and for the first time in S.A we had a volcano erupt.
This morning started off as a normal good day in Durban. I dropped off my daughter at her school to write her English final matric paper, parked my car in La Lucia, and did my 5km walk to Umhlanga. Lovely day, perfect weather for walking and everything in the world was good.
Until….driving back home I received a call about my dishwasher. Some back story is needed here:
This dishwasher has been in repairs for 6/7 times in the past 2 months with a repair partner of Hirsch. I have been very calm, never lost my temper, raised my voice, or sent nasty emails because I spent 20 years in customer service and hate when people do this. I was even calm after technicians were in and out of my home 5 times repairing it. Let’s just say, the problem wasn’t sorted and I was told so during the call.
I lost all sense of reality at this point, and the person on the other end heard me use the “F” word more often than I had ever used it within a 2-minute time frame. It felt like lava was flowing out of every hole in my body. I banged on the button to end the call on my carkit, then tried to stop myself from driving into a tree due to the frustration; all that was left to do was CRY. Not just cry, but hysterically screaming and shouting cry. Everyone has their breaking point but this issue had finally achieved this for me. Perhaps to the passing motorists I just looked deranged…it doesn’t help that I’m coloured so you know we are born with a little crazy as Trevor Noah pointed out.
When I got home still shaking, I logged onto LinkedIn following trying Google, to find someone from “repair partner” to assist; after sending out 3 emails and 2 calls. I sent 6 messages on LinkedIn; one of which in my crazy state was to, let’s just say the highest level you could reach at Hirsch (the second-year warranty is the repair partner’s responsibility; not Hirsch where I purchased it). I received a response from the top-ranking person within a few minutes. He empathised with me and took responsibility for the situation and gave me his personal e-mail address to resolve it. I was in awe.
The truth is this had nothing to do with the dishwasher. During this encounter the repair partner made me feel incompetent, insignificant and dishonest. This truly affected the foundation of who I am as a human being. It’s easy to go out and buy another dishwasher but it was about the principle of the dishwasher being under warranty. Companies should always do what’s right. Today, someone I have never seen gave me back some of my self-worth that was slowly being chiselled away during each call or e-mail I had to send out, trying to get this issue resolved.
I am a strong, independent, proudly South African, coloured female. Most of us were taught that crying is a weakness so very few people have ever seen me do this. BUT in Conclusion: I AM Strong. But still, I have continued to remain calm and even offered the technicians soft drinks the 5 times they came to my house to repair this dishwasher UNTIL today. Today a dishwasher broke me and created a tyrant and a very kind man at the top of his game, saved my sanity.
We need to remember that we all represent the companies we work for on LinkedIn. I’m sad to say that most of the 6 other people I tried to reach out to still have not responded. Some read, one sent me a supervisor’s e-mail address. I’m sure they will be involved with this query from their chairman and founder. Thank you Mr Allan Hirsch. You have a loyal customer because you took the one minute to respond to me today. Even if it was you having someone to man your social media that resulted in this, Kudos to chairmen like you. Who takes the time to care about people like me and ensuring your customers are at the centre of your roles, no matter how small the issue may seem in the bigger picture of things.
Not long after the email exchange took place, the faulty machine was returned to the big boss and the mom was fully refunded and able to purchase a new, working dishwasher. So a happy ending and a tale of how good customer service can save the day.
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