Awful experience at Ace Hardware Pondok Indah

I’ve often said that Ace Hardware is “Housewife Heaven” here in Indonesia. It’s the closest thing we have to and SM home – though nowhere as cheap! I usually go to Ace Hardware Pasaraya but with my recently improved mobility, I’ve been going to the one in Pondok Indah.  I love it there because the product mix is better and there are nice items which I don’t find in Pasaraya.

 

I’ve often said that Ace Hardware is “Housewife Heaven” here in Indonesia. It’s the closest thing we have to and SM home – though nowhere as cheap! I usually go to Ace Hardware Pasaraya but with my recently improved mobility, I’ve been going to the one in Pondok Indah.  I love it there because the product mix is better and there are nice items which I don’t find in Pasaraya.

However my experience today with their customer service people was horrible. I purchased a step-ladder which was too big for me to carry around the mall. So I talked to one of the supervisors and he was nice enough to say that after I had my lunch, I could  call up their customer service and look for Sutiyono Paint, and he will bring it down to Pondok Indah Mall 2 or PIM2 at the lobby that I instruct him to go to. *Note that I had to repeat this many times in my broken Bahasa to be sure that we understood each other. Ace is in Pondok Indah 1 or PIM 1 so it was indeed very nice of them to be willing to bring it all the way to PIM 2.

CALL 1 & 2

The problem was when I called Ace Customer Service a woman answered (I found out her name was Citra) and she kept putting me on hold. After 2 mins of holding the line would inevitably get cut! What the heck?!?!  This happened TWICE.

CALL 3

A man answered and I was just so thankful he could speak english (his name is Andam or Andan) and I asked him for Sutiyono and told him to please not put me on hold! The problem was that my car was already at the lobby.

Finally with Sutiyono on the line, I told him since my car is in the lobby already, I will just drive over to PIM 1 (even if I had to pay extra parking there  because they don’t have the 15min grace period for parking here) so he wouldn’t have to walk so long and to save time. HORRIBLE MISTAKE.

He told me to wait in Pintu Tiga or Gate 3, so we wasted some gas and drove over to the other building. I went down to the entrance and had the driver go around while waiting. I mean, how long can it take. Pintu 3 was just 2 or 3 escalators down from Ace.

I waited and waited. And when I felt like it was way too long already (I could have gone up and back several times already) I called Ace back.

CALL 4

The same guy (Andam or Andan) answered me and informed me brusquely that Sutiyono had already gone down. So I waited…And waited…and waited.

CALL 5

Same guy (Andam or Andan) answers and tells me in an annoyed voice that he has gone down and for me to just wait. And I ask are you sure Sutiyono said I should wait in PIM 1 Pintu 3?? I repeated it twice and he said yes.

The worst thing was that he was neither polite nor helpful and EVEN SOUNDED ANNOYED AT ME! What an idiot right? I am not calling, because I am impatient, but 15 -20 mins has passed since Sutiyono said he would go down, and I’m afraid that he might be in the wrong gate or vice versa. I just wanted to sort it out and the guy wanted me to just wait??? I’m not stupid and I know how long it takes a guy to go down 2-3 escalators. I wouldn’t be calling if I didn’t think there was something wrong.

CALL 6

This time it was the girl, Citra, who answered again, and I asked to talk to the manager and for her to NOT PUT ME ON HOLD. And what does she do??? She paused…. AND PUT ME ON HOLD. AGAIN. @*&%!!! Seriously?!? Why do they put someone like her in customer service anyway???

I had it! I decided to climb up to Ace and give them a piece of my mind!!! 

I was frothing at the mouth when I got to Ace. I asked them why they kept on dropping the phone (3 FREAKING TIMES!!) and where my step-ladder was. Citra didn’t even bother apologizing even when we were face to face. Andam/n took charge but was the worst person to talk to any irate customer. All I got was this:

Andam/n: (Imagine an emotionless face and monotone voice) We are sorry ma’am. Sutiyono went to Pintu 3 ten minutes ago.

DW (Diplowife): I’ve been waiting in Pintu 3 for the last 15-20mins and he’s not there.

Andam/n: (emotionless face and monotone voice) We are sorry ma’am but he is there, you should just wait there.

DW: I am telling you he is not there because I was waiting there. And my driver has been going around and around the mall wasting gas. When I call you to inform you, you put me on hold and drop the call. Then now you are telling me he is there when he is clearly not there. What am I supposed to do continue waiting like an idiot when it’s obvious that he is not coming?

Andam/n then proceeds to check with the other staff on where Sutiyono went and finds out that he went to PINTU 3A. He should have done this from the very beginning instead of answering my complaints mindlessly. A good customer service person gets to the root of the cause so they can help he customer. What he should NOT do is just throw back the problem at the customer – which is what this supervisor did.

Andam/n: (emotionless face and monotone voice) We are sorry ma’am but he is in Pintu 3A not Pintu 3. Do you want to wait here for the ladder or do you want to go with me.

DW: Then why did you say Pintu 3 when he is apparently in Pintu 3A?

Andam/n: (Imagine an emotionless face and monotone voice) I am sorry ma’am. Sutiyono went to Pintu 3A. Do you want to wait here for the ladder or do you want to go with me.

DW: I’ll go with you. (momentarily pacified because he was taking me to my step-ladder)

Andam/n walks with me to exit the store and talks to a staff member and tells him to go with me. The staff then runs off and doesn’t even wait for me. I ask Andam/n,

DW: “I thought you were going with me?”

Monotone Andam/n: “No ma’am, he is.”

DW: But he ran off, what if I lose that guy then where will I find my ladder? This is taking so long and is wasting so much time and gasoline. How about you just refund me?

Monotone Andam/n: “Sorry ma’am. Okay, please give me your receipt.”

DW: And by the way, you are not really sorry. You are nowhere near sorry. You don’t sound like it. And you are not acting like it. I deserve better customer service than this. Can I talk to your manager?

This “supervisor” (Andam/n) should not be working the customer service desk at all.

• Not only was he rude to be annoyed at me because I refused to wait more than 20 mins for a 5 minute task.
• He did not take the time to THINK. He was so lazy that a customer waiting 20 mins did not merit his attention. And he wanted me to WAIT SOME MORE!
• No desire to solve an obvious problem. Hi attitude basically told me “Hey there’s no problem. If there was a problem it’s yours.”
• An emotionless zombie who shows no regard for customers satisfaction is not fit to work customer service
• And DO NOT PRETEND THAT YOU ARE GOING TO GO WITH A CUSTOMER TO LOOK FOR YOUR MISSING PERSONNEL WHEN IN REALITY YOU ARE GOING TO JUST SEND SOMEONE IN YOUR BEHALF – that’s FAKE helpfulness!!

When I finally to the assistant store manager Diane, she listened to my complaints and responded in a helpful, courteous, apologetic manner. This calmed me down A LOT. Finally. It only takes very little to make me, your customer happy… a little kindness, sympathy and sincerity in your apology would have gone a long way Andam/n.

Assistant Manager Diane gave me the feedback form to fill up and apologized for Citra because she was new. For me being new is not an excuse because management should gauge if the person is ready to take such an important function as Customer Service and Citra is obviously not ready.

What did I say on the complaint form for ACE Pondok Indah Mall?

1. Ace PIM should make sure that Citra learned some basic english and had more customer relationship training before letting her handle the phone. Pondok Indah Mall is in an area where a lot of expats live and where the Jakarta International School is, I would think that some basic english skills is required of someone from customer service. And it should be standard that if the person answering the phone does not understand the person on the other line, then an english speaking person (NOT Andan/m) should be on stand-by.
2. PLEASE look into your telephone system, because when they put an outside call on hold it automatically gets dropped after 2mins and if this can’t be fixed, they should just NOT PUT PEOPLE ON HOLD. It’s a terrible waste of peoples money and time to hold for nothing, and then have to call back to repeat that process again and again.
3. Supervisor Andan/m should never be placed in the customer service desk. It doesn’t matter if he speaks english because he neither has the correct attitude/personality and severely lacks in customer relationship skills. He should undergo intensive customer service and communication training.

By the time I finished the form, Sutiyono was back to Ace with my ladder and he assisted me in bringing it to my car. I wanna thank Sutiyono, who was nice and so enthusiastic about the task of helping me bring my purchase to the car. (Andan/m can learn a thing or two from him) He made an honest mistake because in Bahasa “three” is “tiga” and the letter “A” is pronounced “ah” Perhaps  when I was confirming “Pintu Tiga,” he honestly thought I said “Pintu Tiga Ah.” That was a pure and honest mistake.

I also wanna thank the supervisor who sold me the step-ladder (I didn’t get his name), who was also very nice and accommodated my request, and Diane the assistant manager who was wonderful to me.  These 3 people are what makes Ace PIM a good place to go. It’s just too bad that there are other Ace staff who make it a horrible experience for customers like me.

Apparently this is not an irregular occurrence because 2 days before (told you I was a regular!) I saw an Indonesian lady throw a fit as well. And since she was speaking to them in Bahasa, you can’t blame miscommunication for that one, I am sure. She was shouting in English and Bahasa in the store that the staff had promised her that they would do something and when she arrived they had failed to do anything.

I hope the Store Manager of ACE Pondok Indah Mall reads this and improves the customer service of their store. I didn’t get anything for my wasted mobile phone credits (6 WASTED CALLS!), extra parking payment I had to make to cross over from PIM 2 to PIM 1, and all the gas money that was wasted being on stand-by for a task that was supposed to be so simple. I am never going get those wasted 40 mins of my life back. If we were in the USA, my step-ladder would be free by now… or something like that.

Click here to find out the store managers response to my complaint and judge for yourself if I should be satisfied.