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Thread: Canadian customers rejected by company Web sites.

  1. #1
    CaLoonie Buddyboy546's Avatar
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    Has anyone else been frustrated by company Web sites which don't handle non-US customers? Here is an example, but it happens repeatedly.

    I bought a LG dehumidifier. The instruction book said to register and referred me to the company website site. That site asked for my address but it was all US. Unless I specified a US state I could get no further, so I put my full address on the road line and selected Alabama. On completion, though, I was unsure if the registration was properly completed so I sent an email to the Contact link. They replied that I needed to register at the Canadian site, they were sorry but they could not assist, they were at the US site. They gave no contact reply address for themselves (it came with a do not reply address) so I was unable to tell them what I thought of them (why would they not just forward my enquiry to their Canadian counterparts), but they did send the URL for the Canadian site. I clicked on it to find it was a dead link!

    After some detective work I found the correct page and completed the registration. I then filled out a contact us form to tell them what I thought, detailing all I have written here and more. At the end of the form it had a button which said to click here if you want a reply. I clicked. It took me to another blank, yes blank, form for me to start all over again. Being tenacious in such circumstances I did just that. I am now waiting for a response from LG.

    Are these companies nuts, or do they just not care about customer experience? Examples like this abound. Yesterday I was at Walmart in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia. I took the assistant manager aside and said I wanted to compliment a cashier who is always amazingly good. To my surprise, instead of just thanking me and promising to pass it on, he asked me to "write in". No problem, I said, expecting a quick note to head office. Have you ever tried to write to Walmart on the Web? It took a full 20 minutes to find a form to submit. Look at the Walmart Contact Us page and see if you can find how to send them an email. Someone, somewhere, needs firing, likely the President who fails to stress how customers should be respected and appreciated, especially their valuable time.
    This thread is currently associated with: Walmart
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  2. #2
    CaLoonie
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    Quote Originally Posted by Buddyboy546 View Post
    Has anyone else been frustrated by company Web sites which don't handle non-US customers? Here is an example, but it happens repeatedly.

    I bought a LG dehumidifier. The instruction book said to register and referred me to the company website site. That site asked for my address but it was all US. Unless I specified a US state I could get no further, so I put my full address on the road line and selected Alabama. On completion, though, I was unsure if the registration was properly completed so I sent an email to the Contact link. They replied that I needed to register at the Canadian site, they were sorry but they could not assist, they were at the US site. They gave no contact reply address for themselves (it came with a do not reply address) so I was unable to tell them what I thought of them (why would they not just forward my enquiry to their Canadian counterparts), but they did send the URL for the Canadian site. I clicked on it to find it was a dead link!

    After some detective work I found the correct page and completed the registration. I then filled out a contact us form to tell them what I thought, detailing all I have written here and more. At the end of the form it had a button which said to click here if you want a reply. I clicked. It took me to another blank, yes blank, form for me to start all over again. Being tenacious in such circumstances I did just that. I am now waiting for a response from LG.

    Are these companies nuts, or do they just not care about customer experience? Examples like this abound. Yesterday I was at Walmart in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia. I took the assistant manager aside and said I wanted to compliment a cashier who is always amazingly good. To my surprise, instead of just thanking me and promising to pass it on, he asked me to "write in". No problem, I said, expecting a quick note to head office. Have you ever tried to write to Walmart on the Web? It took a full 20 minutes to find a form to submit. Look at the Walmart Contact Us page and see if you can find how to send them an email. Someone, somewhere, needs firing, likely the President who fails to stress how customers should be respected and appreciated, especially their valuable time.

    I've submitted many times via the Walmart Canada website without any issues. Of course, once they reply,you now have the email address to email them directly.

    Couple of reasons why they would want you to write it in rather than take it verbally....one, and is very important with the survey you see on their receipts, is feedback is now a part of their profit sharing (25%), so the more feedback a store gets the more likely they are to hit the 25% for that part of their profit sharing; the other would be there is then a written record of it that can be passed to the store and therefore make the employee eligible for a shining star.
    Last edited by ilovecats; Mon, Mar 27th, 2017 at 10:23 AM.
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    CaLoonie Buddyboy546's Avatar
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    Fair points. However, in both cases, the process very much suits the desires of the company for their own purposes at the expense of the convenience of (service to) the customer.

    With regards to contacting the company, there is no way to reach them via their contacts page other than phone and snail mail. Only if you drill down into further pages, deeper and deeper entering more information, do you discover a Web mail form to the local store. Clearly the Contact page is meant to, again, serve company needs more than customers' needs. If it is too easy for customers to reach them, they would hear more complaints. Why else would they not provide an email address contact up front? Often when I write to a company I want to send a photo to show what I am talking about. You usually cannot do that with Web mail or telephone.
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    Smart Canuck
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    Quote Originally Posted by Buddyboy546 View Post
    If it is too easy for customers to reach them, they would hear more complaints. Why else would they not provide an email address contact up front? Often when I write to a company I want to send a photo to show what I am talking about. You usually cannot do that with Web mail or telephone.
    You're not wrong... and it IS done with that purpose in mind. But Companies don't WANT to make things intentionally difficult for customers. Honestly, that's not their motif. Let's see that from their side:

    Fact is, most people don't write emails when they want to commend a company. MOST of the time it's to complain. and MOST of those are frivolous complaints like the colour of the walls in the bathroom, to too many/not enough candy bars in the checkout lanes, etc. Or, it would simply be a mass of hate-email like how Walmart is operated by Satan himself, and that they should all burn for eternity, etc etc... all because they can masquerade with anonymity behind the email.

    When it comes to legitimate complaints, they do, in fact, want customers to try and resolve their issues at the store level. If it was too easy for people to NOT confront the store, then here's what would happen:

    Corporate would get flooded with complaints that they have absolutely NO point of reference because they happened at the store level. Then they would have to contact the store... the store would not have any clue what they were talking about... and the issue gets lost and buried in mishandling. If you have a genuine problem, ideally you would address it directly with the store in question... then the problem gets resolved right where it was supposed to be resolved in the first place, the same place that it started. THEN if you get no resolve, you are then tasked with contacting corporate and explaining further how local management was unable to help you.

    Unfortunately, that DOES mean that your indicator of praise is equally harder to facilitate. Unfortunately, the local store is a position of a conflict of interest to self-generate that praise back to corporate as it does mean a potential increase in perks and bonuses. While you did your duty and told the manager, it would be more valuable to both the employee, and that store if you did "write it in" yourself. However, it becomes a catch-22 of sorts for you in this case because of how prohibitive they've made the electronic communication process.

    However, if you care enough, and are passionate enough about either the complaint (or compliment) then you'll find a way... and you did.


    As for the difference between Canadian and US support sites... bear in mind that in many cases you arent necessarily contacting LG (or whomever) directly. Even if the US counterpart *IS* the parent company (which it most likely is not either), and even though they bear the same logos, and very similar branding, you may be dealing with another company in Canada who is merely representing the original company. Again, due to business interests, and in some cases legality of international trade, they are not 'permitted' to hand off customer queries laterally to the other "outside" company.

    It's unfortunate when this happens, and frustrating, but there are logistical reasons behind it all.
    Ciel likes this.

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