Customer Service in the Age of Trump

I’m trying to order some parts for the BBQ that is on the upper deck for the renters, hoping to freshen it up with a new grill surface and heat diffusers for less than the cost of buying a new grill entirely.

When my online order wouldn’t complete, I wound up on the phone with a customer service agent.

Phone Call #1:
CSR: (Unintelligible) Grills
Me: Hi – I’m trying to finish an order on your website and I keep getting the message to call this number first.
CSR: OK – can you give me the SKU or order number?
(information given)
CSR: OK – we have to import that part into this country – erm, I mean, into this warehouse – so it will take about two weeks to get to you. Is that ok?
Me: Yes, I can live with that. Will the price go up?
CSR: No, it will just be delayed. Please give me a moment.
(keyboard keys clacking)
CSR: OK, if you refresh your screen now, the order should process properly now.
Me: Great – thank you.
CSR: No problem.

It wasn’t clear to me during this conversation whether I’d called the US or Canada. The person didn’t have any particular accent that I could place and the 877 number could be anywhere in North America.

I proceeded to the shopping cart, confirmed that the price hadn’t gone up, and hit “submit”.

In the “Thank you for your order!” confirmation message, the price had doubled and I nearly fell over. What was a $40 part with $7 shipping was now over $85.00. Huge increase in shipping that was not reflected earlier EVEN THOUGH the system had my address.

Phone Call #2:
CSR: (Unintelligible) Grills
Me: Hi – I was just on the phone with someone about an order I was trying to make. Was that you?
CSR: (pause) Yes.
Me: Well, I thought you said that the price of the part wasn’t going to increase …
CSR: (interrupting, defensively) It didn’t. The part itself is still $40.
Me: OK, but …
CSR: (interrupting, defensively) You are in Canada, right? We are in Florida. Shipping into Canada is expensive and YOU have to pay for that.
Me: OK. Can you cancel my order please?
CSR: What?
Me: Please cancel my order. I had no idea the increase in shipping would be so dramatic.
CSR: (snippy) Fine, I’ll cancel it.

This isn’t anywhere on the scale of detention centres for children or cutbacks in health care or education. But I have to wonder if it is on the spectrum of “Trump as a leader brings out the worst in people, not their best”.

Once a significant segment of a population has permission to be at their worst, anything can happen. And has.