Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Exceptional Customer Service -- Direct Root

Today I purchased some AirBase Pot Drainage Inserts. These inserts are a brilliant idea. They are used in place of the rocks that one would normally place in the bottom of pots to allow for good aeration and drainage for plants. They come in several diameters to fit most pots and should last as long as your pots will last.

When I tried to remove the label, I noticed that the label was applied with a permanent adhesive thus covering half of the holes needed for drainage and air flow. I spent over 30 minutes just removing two of these sticky labels. I was not happy! I quickly did a search on the internet and found a supplier. I wrote asking where I could find the manufacturer. In less than an hour, I had a reply with profound apologies and addressing the exact concern of the permanent adhesive. The representative explained that this had been an error in the order for the labels and it is being taken care of.

I wrote back and thanked him for being so prompt and addressing my concerns. While I was writing this post, I received an email from the president of the company thanking me again for writing and hoping that I would contact them again if I needed to.

I have written to some companies online and not received a reply---ever---and I have had some customer service departments take a week to reply. The worst are the ones who send a canned reply that is obvious no one wanted to take care of a problem. This company went above and beyond what most online companies do to be sure that I knew the situation and they were working on it.

The Direct Root gets my Exceptional Service Award for the year!

The AirBase Pot Drainage Inserts are great and I'll be buying more.

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5 Comments:

At 4/13/2008 12:02 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

If you ever get this problem again, I've written a detailed list of instructions on how to remove stickers from most surfaces here: http://www.selfadhesivelabels.com/how-to-remove-stickers.php

 
At 4/13/2008 3:23 PM, Blogger Jeanne Rhea said...

I checked your list of methods to remove labels or stickers. I had tried all of those. The problem with this label was it had a plastic top (not paper), but although the plastic was strong, it was not strong enough when using that particular adhesive. So it would not allow for large pieces to be removed at a time. The plastic would not allow for any solvent to penetrate to the adhesive and then dissolve it. In my life--removing stickers from windows, stickers from paper, etc, I have never seen anything like this particular adhesive. My favorite solvent for removing labels or stickers for cost and no leftover stain from the solvent used is lighter fluid. I use it daily on paper of all sorts. It works like a breeze on most labels and stickers with no damage or stain.

 
At 11/07/2008 4:07 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Direct Root has the worst customer service I have ever experienced when dealing with E-commerce. I love product but will not put up with power tripping company policies when dealing with the customers money.

 
At 11/07/2008 4:54 PM, Blogger Jeanne Rhea said...

I am sorry to hear that you had a negative experience with Direct Root.

 
At 11/29/2008 5:32 PM, Blogger Jeanne Rhea said...

Anonymous,
I should have probably deleted your message as you did not sign your name. Anything that I write, I take responsibility for it and I never post anything anonymously.

 

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