One day last week, I guess an agent for Purolator stopped by our place with a delivery of something we had ordered, but we weren't there, and we had no idea the delivery was coming so soon. No tag was left. We had no idea they had been there.
The next morning, we received a phone call. The caller i.d. said, "Private Caller". It didn't say "Purolator", and so we had no advance warning of what was to happen next.
An automated voice said, "blah blah blah, and your tracking number is: ************" followed by some more blah blah blah. It didn't repeat the number. We had no warning that Purolator was calling, and we were not prepared.
We had no idea what was going on. At best we had an inkling that a shipment was about to arrive.
So I called Purolator's 888 number. Fortunately, after listening to their menu, I guessed the right number to punch and ended up speaking with a real person.
She knew exactly what I was talking about when I asked, "I know it's not your doing, but does Purolator have an especially sick sense of humour?" and then I explained what had happened. She allowed that she hears this same story from customers all the time, and she said she would make arrangements for the local agent to call us.
No sooner than maybe 7 hours later, the local agent did indeed call us. She, too, understood that I was frustrated and bothered by the automated call, and she made arrangements to deliver the parcel the following day.
So here is my gratis advice to Purolator:
Purolator, Do these two things to greatly improve your customer service:
- Stop blocking the name of your company. Let customers know it is Purolator calling. Why on earth would you NOT want us to know that?
- Please, please warn customers to get a pen and paper and let us pause the message before you give the tracking number.
Purolator, you're welcome.