TUS/HMS Communication Issue Resolved by Andrew

[DJ Mango]

I agree,, sometimes,, calling is better. Reach out and touch someone!

I'm old enough to remember telephones !

 

[Ukecaster]

I'm old enough to remember telephones !

Rotary?

 

[DJ Mango]

Rotary?

Rotary .

 

[kissing]

I completely agree with aaronkb.
People saying that he is over-reacting or is being inappropriate are obviously happy with being treated badly by customer service.

It is a reasonable expectation in all situations to be able to make an enquiry via the channels the business specifically setup for that purpose, and to receive a response or at least an acknowledgement that their enquiry is valuable and will be attended to. aaronkb made reasonable and polite steps to be both kind and firm about his concerns and was completely ignored. This is unacceptable customer service.

As others have stated, TUS sell great products and I am a happy repeat customer. However, I too have encountered communications issues when the occasional thing goes wrong or gets miscommunicated. The easy excuse is that the business is booming, hence it is difficult to keep up with all the emails and DMs. But the customers should not be the ones to suffer for that. If business is booming, then the business should make the appropriate investments to ensure their customer enquiries are being attended to in a professional and timely manner.

 

[aaronkb]

I completely agree with aaronkb.
People saying that he is over-reacting or is being inappropriate are obviously happy with being treated badly by customer service.

It is a reasonable expectation in all situations to be able to make an enquiry via the channels the business specifically setup for that purpose, and to receive a response or at least an acknowledgement that their enquiry is valuable and will be attended to. aaronkb made reasonable and polite steps to be both kind and firm about his concerns and was completely ignored. This is unacceptable customer service.

As others have stated, TUS sell great products and I am a happy repeat customer. However, I too have encountered communications issues when the occasional thing goes wrong or gets miscommunicated. The easy excuse is that the business is booming, hence it is difficult to keep up with all the emails and DMs. But the customers should not be the ones to suffer for that. If business is booming, then the business should make the appropriate investments to ensure their customer enquiries are being attended to in a professional and timely manner.

I really appreciate your support on this more than you can know. Others offered some valuable insights into how I could have handled it better and I appreciate them, but it’s also nice to hear someone think I was being completely reasonable.

In fairness though, I do want to acknowledge that this didn’t involve any transaction. I was thinking of it less as a customer service interaction and more as a community member interacting with a leader in the community after being weirdly excluded, and then being completely ignored :/ doesn’t feel good to be treated that way whether or not there’s business involved.

I’m glad to hear my tone came across as polite but firm, that’s what I was going for.

 

[kissing]

I really appreciate your support on this. In fairness though, I do want to acknowledge that this didn’t involve any transaction. I was thinking of it less as a customer service interaction and more as a community member interacting with a leader in the community after being weirdly excluded, and then being completely ignored :/ doesn’t feel good to be treated that way whether or not there’s business involved.

I’m glad to hear my tone came across as polite but firm, that’s what I was going for.

I think it's very fair to still hold this under the umbrella of customer service.
The contest was conducted under the company's name, hence every interaction that comes from it falls under customer service.

Furthermore, you are their customer and everyone who participated or viewed the contest are either customers or potential customers ("consumers").

 

[Arcy]

Rotary .

But could you whistle your way to a long distant call?

 

[DJ Mango]

But could you whistle your way to a long distant call?

That's before my time .

 

[Neil_O]

Your song sounds good.
You should call them to find out what the snafu was.

 

[TBB]

I completely agree with aaronkb.
People saying that he is over-reacting or is being inappropriate are obviously happy with being treated badly by customer service.

It is a reasonable expectation in all situations to be able to make an enquiry via the channels the business specifically setup for that purpose, and to receive a response or at least an acknowledgement that their enquiry is valuable and will be attended to. aaronkb made reasonable and polite steps to be both kind and firm about his concerns and was completely ignored. This is unacceptable customer service.

As others have stated, TUS sell great products and I am a happy repeat customer. However, I too have encountered communications issues when the occasional thing goes wrong or gets miscommunicated. The easy excuse is that the business is booming, hence it is difficult to keep up with all the emails and DMs. But the customers should not be the ones to suffer for that. If business is booming, then the business should make the appropriate investments to ensure their customer enquiries are being attended to in a professional and timely manner.

Exactly this ^ I’m surprised how many people in this thread think that being ignored by a business is ok, or feel that it’s fine for businesses to pick and choose who to respond to. HMS / TUS are a very successful enterprise with a very slick website and an excellent reputation. Not to mention the associated podcasts with special guests etc. It shouldn’t be beyond them to employ someone to keep on top of communications.

And I don’t personally think it makes any difference that that aaronkb was entering a competition; businesses run competitions like that for the publicity. Everyone who entered had to tag TUS in their video, and were almost almost certainly expected to follow their Instagram account as well. It’s basically just another way of getting their name out there. Aaronkb did what was asked of him, all he expected in return was to be entered into the competition. Not unreasonable! Obviously mistakes happen and maybe his video got missed, but at that point someone should have sent him a quick message to apologise and encourage him to try again next time. It’s not rocket science, it’s just good business practise.

 

[John Colter]

A man enters a competition. His entry is mislaid. He asks for an explanation but his queries are ignored.

 

[Contrails]

If I am not mistaken the IG account is managed by the Scandinavian gentleman who used to work for them in Hawaii. I forgot his name. Tobias? I think he has gone back home and is managing the account remotely. I might be wrong but that’s what I remember from their podcast. Maybe that’s why the message got lost along the way.

It’s normal to feel upset after putting in so much effort and being excited over it. That’s human nature. Most of the time it’s just managing one’s own expectations. I have learnt a lot about managing my own expectations with my wife! Lol. Just keep playing and have fun!

 

[merlin666]

A man enters a competition. His entry is mislaid. He asks for an explanation but his queries are ignored.

Sounds like they don't have much dedicated staff dealing with Instagram. I find Instagram messy and difficult to deal with. Also entered a KoAloha contest on there once and spent many days practicing and recording. I got a thumbs up from organizers for that though the winners entry was spectacular. Dealing with the Instagram technology was challenging and annoying and I decided not to use it again after that.

 

[aaronkb]

Sounds like they don't have much dedicated staff dealing with Instagram. I find Instagram messy and difficult to deal with. Also entered a KoAloha contest on there once and spent many days practicing and recording. I got a thumbs up from organizers for that though the winners entry was spectacular. Dealing with the Instagram technology was challenging and annoying and I decided not to use it again after that.

I think where I have trouble with the time/staffing theory is that they read both messages. Not only that, in each instance they read it very shortly after I sent it. And their account usually shows as either being currently online or having been online very recently.

This all makes me think that they monitor their messages pretty closely and engage with those they choose to…. I don’t know what percentage or types of messages make the cut, but apparently a loyal community member and customer being affected by their mistake isn’t one of them.

I admit I’m curious to take another stab at trying to find out what happened, since there’s a chance my issue is really just with Tobias and it would be nice to feel like I can keep on loving my favorite shop. But I’m torn because keeping on reaching out so many times feels like psycho behavior, and after a certain point it’s just humiliating.

 

[John Colter]

Aaronkb, there is an old saying that if you keep picking at a scab, the wound will never heal. I am now wondering how much longer you are going to keep flogging this particular dead horse. (I love a good mixed metaphor).

If this had happened to me, I would have shrugged my shoulders and resolved not to get involved with such promotional campaigns in future. It would taint my opinion of the organisation that originated the 'competition', but only slightly. It is a trivial matter.

You asked for opinions - that's mine.

 

[Ziret]

I think where I have trouble with the time/staffing theory is that they read both messages. Not only that, in each instance they read it very shortly after I sent it. And their account usually shows as either being currently online or having been online very recently.

This all makes me think that they monitor their messages pretty closely and engage with those they choose to…. I don’t know what percentage or types of messages make the cut, but apparently a loyal community member and customer being affected by their mistake isn’t one of them.

I admit I’m curious to take another stab at trying to find out what happened, since there’s a chance my issue is really just with Tobias and it would be nice to feel like I can keep on loving my favorite shop. But I’m torn because keeping on reaching out so many times feels like psycho behavior, and after a certain point it’s just humiliating.

Tobias has his own IG account and may monitor others as well. It’s possible flipping between the accounts caused unread messages to be flagged as read.

 

[rafter]

A lot of good responses, although many seem a little one sided. I don’t think it’s impossible that both parties didn’t handle it well. They dropped the ball, communication-wise. You seem to be overreacting a bit. I think that’s why you’re getting such mixed responses. Some people think they need to do a better job of communicating. I agree, although I personally have not had a problem in my interactions with them. I kinda already heard about the Hawaiian culture thing, so I was prepared for that. Fortunately, it’s never been an issue in my experience. But I think you’re taking things more seriously than you should. And if nothing else, I don’t think it’s healthy for you to have this much anxiety about it. I’m not saying what happened to you doesn’t stink. But I also think you’ve made it bigger than it is.

I guess it’s up to you what you want to make of that. But I notice you seem to be “liking” all the responses that are sympathetic to you, which is natural, but also a small sign of how invested you are in what should be a rather minor incident.

My advice: if you call and talk to them, it’s likely that you’ll get a good response and probably an apology. But don’t call if you can’t handle them disappointing you again.

Also, I disagree with the opinions about them removing social media communications. If they never utilized them, sure. But I’ve been able to communicate with them through those means. And again, given their business culture, it seems like removing those options wouldn’t actually make them use the phone more (since that’s probably not why they’re lax in the first place), it would just reduce the number of options we have to reach them. Just my take.

I’ll end with this: an analogy to their business, I tend to think of them like a really fun but flaky friend who I can have good times with, but not always dependably.

 

[aaronkb]

A lot of good responses, although many seem a little one sided. I don’t think it’s impossible that both parties didn’t handle it well. They dropped the ball, communication-wise. You seem to be overreacting a bit. I think that’s why you’re getting such mixed responses. Some people think they need to do a better job of communicating. I agree, although I personally have not had a problem in my interactions with them. I kinda already heard about the Hawaiian culture thing, so I was prepared for that. Fortunately, it’s never been an issue in my experience. But I think you’re taking things more seriously than you should. And if nothing else, I don’t think it’s healthy for you to have this much anxiety about it. I’m not saying what happened to you doesn’t stink. But I also think you’ve made it bigger than it is.

I guess it’s up to you what you want to make of that. But I notice you seem to be “liking” all the responses that are sympathetic to you, which is natural, but also a small sign of how invested you are in what should be a rather minor incident.

My advice: if you call and talk to them, it’s likely that you’ll get a good response and probably an apology. But don’t call if you can’t handle them disappointing you again.

Also, I disagree with the opinions about them removing social media communications. If they never utilized them, sure. But I’ve been able to communicate with them through those means. And again, given their business culture, it seems like removing those options wouldn’t actually make them use the phone more (since that’s probably not why they’re lax in the first place), it would just reduce the number of options we have to reach them. Just my take.

I’ll end with this: an analogy to their business, I tend to think of them like a really fun but flaky friend who I can have good times with, but not always dependably.

Lots of valuable thoughts here, thank you. I think I’ve liked most of the comments disagreeing with me too, haven’t I? Maybe I missed some. The only one I recall intentionally not liking was the guy who drastically misconstrued what I wanted out of this and called me childish. Oh and the comment someone made about closing the thread, but it was a misunderstanding and we made peace after that

I especially like your analogy about a flaky friend, that seems like a good framework for thinking about it.

 

[socal16]

My two cents: Just let it go. The sooner the better. I think you will feel a whole lot better once you stop obsessing and realize it’s not that important.

 

[mikelz777]

Perhaps HMS communication isn't what it should be but it's time to move on. Ultimately this is all meaningless so why prolong things? What is it going to accomplish? It's not like they are a lying or cheating lover which might actually warrant such bruised feelings.