The Morton Learning Center on High Street in Worthington just gave me one of the worst customer service experiences I've ever encountered.
I came in, signed up to take a class and was charged $250. In the end I decided not to take the class and called to cancel. They told me I would be refunded $200 and that the book was $50 and nonrefundable. I told them I didn't think it was fair to enact such a policy after the fact without transparency from the start. They said I'd have to come in and return the book and that if it was undamaged I could talk to someone.
So I drove to the center with the book (a binder with photocopies that had been hole-punched) and dropped it off while explaining my situation once again. I was told the policy again and informed that a note would be left for the office manager, who would return my phone call in the morning.
I waited until this afternoon and receiving no call, called the manager. I described who I was and tried to explain the situation: basically that no policy was stated about a non-refund and how was I to know?
At first, she made the point that all books are non-refundable, which I corrected, since Barnes and Nobles does take refunds.
At this point, the conversation became more about her telling me that I was in the wrong than accepting the courtesy that I was extending her. I was told that I could have been making photocopies of the information to give out and sell (nice customer service ploy, accusing your customer of being a thief, I'll have to remember that one), that I should be charged an additional $50 because the registration for the class should be non-refundable (not only do I deserve to be punished, I deserve to be punished MORE!) and that in her ten years of working there she's never had one complaint about the policy.
I don't know, maybe most people would just accept paying $50 for the benefit of carrying around a binder for a week...
I tried to explain that I was calling as a courtesy to let her know that steps could be made to better their explanation of policy.
I tried to explain my problem wasn't the policy, it was that the policy was not stated.
I tried to explain that I wasn't accusing her of trying to steal from or trick me (although she had accused me of the same not two minutes prior to that.)
In the end, I was interrupted each time because: "it's not worth the headache and hassle to argue with you. I'll just refund it."
Either way, I don't know about the classes, they might be the greatest thing ever.
I do know that their business transparency is pretty lame and that their customer service, in my experience, was good until I encountered the office manager. It went quickly downhill after that point, as described above. read more