Chico's Bad Customer Service: Bad to Worse to Indifferent

Note: If you want to skip the saga, read the poem at the end.

OK, I promise I won't write about this after today. Sparknotes version of Chico's saga:

1. Ordered something on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Got acknowledgment.
2. After more than a week w/out shipping confirmation, I called.
3. Lengthy hold followed by "We didn't get enough of what you wanted."
4. After more than another week with no cancellation, I wrote an email.
5. Response was "Sorry you feel that way" form letter.
6. Replied saying that none of my issues were addressed.
7. Followed by another canned response, with whine about being a speciality store.
8. Wrote about this on my blog.
9. Contacted by Noelle, who told me to contact her at Chico's.
10. Did so.
11. No response from Noelle.
12. Wrote about that on my blog.
13. New response from Noelle, saying she never got my email, but that I should contact Robert Konst of Customer Service.
14. Did so.
15. Mr. Konst responded that he would be happy to speak to me.
16. I said I would prefer to lay out my issues via email. I sent him copies of the emails I got from Customer Service and wrote a summary of my issues.
17. I sent my email February 6.
18. Are you surprised to hear that I received not a peep from Mr. Konst, not even an acknowledgment that my email was received?

Does all this--admittedly minor--stuff indicate internal problems at the big company?

Thinking of the indifference of the big company to my customer service issues, I am reminded of a poem by Auden:

Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
But on earth indifference is the least
We have to dread from man or beast.

Wait! This is a wonderful poem. I took the lines out of context. Truly, it is not worth wasting this great poem on a story about indifferent customer service. So here is the whole thing.


The More Loving One
W. H. Auden

Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
But on earth indifference is the least
We have to dread from man or beast.
How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.

Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn,
I cannot, now I see them, say
I missed one terribly all day.

Were all stars to disappear or die,
I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total dark sublime,
Though this might take me a little time.

Online text © 1998-2010 Poetry X. All rights reserved.