Response from Barlow Service Experts
Hi, this is Bret. First I would like to say thank you for expressing your comments here. While they are negative if we are willing to accept them and fix our problems or procedures it will make us better going forward. Next, I want to say that I know we messed up and I am very sorry. I know we lost a customer forever and that pains me. Lastly, let me explain what I see that happend so you know I am aware of what happened, so that you know we working on it to get better. The first appointment was scheduled per your request for Monday 11/21/11 with an arrival time between 8 - 9 am. I am not sure what we could have done here to make it more convenient accept being open nights and weekends. Unfortunately we are just a mid-sized family owned business and don't have the staff to be open nights and weekends, except for emergencies. Next, as per procedure the tech called when he was on his way or about 30 mins out. This call was about 8:15 am with an ETA of 8:45 am, which is within the 8 - 9 am arrival time that was scheduled. This ETA was unacceptable as you had to leave before it was perceived we could finish with the tune up. The only issue I can see here is that we didn't do an good job making sure it was understood this was an arrival time range. Not that we would show up exactly at 8 and be finished by 8:30 so we could show up exactly at 9 to our next appointment. I will reiterate this to our team to make sure we express this clearly. Next, the tech reschedule the appointment. You choose Saturday, again as stated above it is not normal procedure for us to do non-emergency work on nights or weekends because it doesn't warrant paying overtime or keeping the techs away from their families. However the tech felt bad and wanted to please you, so he agreed. Now is where all the breakdowns occur because it is not normal procedure for us. As you can imagine from Monday morning, through having Thursday off for Thanksgiving, to Saturday morning the tech forgot about the appointment. And the office person that was handling the after hours phones from Wednesday night through Thanksgiving and into Saturday had not booked an emergency appointment for Saturday so it didn't even occur to him to check the schedule for previously booked emergencies or in this case non-emergencies. After receiveing your call he checked the schedule and indeed noticed we missed the appointment. He quickly apologized and offered to call the tech and get him out as quickly as possible. When he called the tech, the tech was out with his faimily because he had forgotten about the appointment. The tech would be able to get home, get changed, get in his service van, and get there in about 1 1/2 - 2 hours. The office person offered this but it was unacceptable. The office person couldn't do the job himself as it required a tech with all the appropriate tools,etc... I talked to the office person that was covering the after hours phones. He said the he was on the phone for quite a while and tried everything he could to help and find a solution to get this taken care of but that by that time we had messed up so bad, in your eyes, that nothing was acceptable. Again I want to express that I appreciate the feedback so we can work to improve for the future and that these were not excuse but a recount of what happened so we can find the breakdowns. In the end WE MESSED UP and I sincerely apologies. We failed to serve you the way you deserve to be served and have lost a customer forever. But we will learn from this and improve for the future. Sincerely, Bret Parkinson Owner Mountainwest HVAC