Last week, I reluctantly purchased a television* from Amazon. Typically, Amazon ships with FedEX or UPS or the USPS. This time, however, they shipped the TV with CEVA Logistics, an outfit I’d never heard of. And it was not a good experience. For two reasons.
1. Where’s my package?
I love the package tracking feature that the big delivery companies use. I, like anyone who orders a package from Amazon, obsessively tracks the package’s progress from its origin point all the way to my doorstep. It’s fun.
But CEVA ruined my fun.
According to the package tracker, my package sat in Chicago for seven days! It was even listed as being in Chi-town on the day that it was actually hanging out in a warehouse in St. Paul! There was no fun to be had here. Only anxiety. Is my TV going to get here by the estimated delivery date? Is it really in Chicago still? Where’s my TV???
2. The agony of arrangement
It did arrive in St. Paul on time, despite what the tracker said (the tracker was post-humously edited to indicate this). I wasn’t made aware of this fact by the delivery of my TV, but by receipt of an email which prompted me to call a phone number in order to arrange delivery to my home. So I picked up my phone and began on a blessedly brief but no less maddening journey of frustration.
My call was answered by a receptionist who identified the company she was working for and asked how she could direct my call. This is typical for a receptionist, only the name she gave wasn’t CEVA.
I told her that I was calling to arrange delivery of a package from Amazon. I was surprised to learn that she didn’t know who exactly to connect me with. But she made a guess and put me through to a department that handles deliveries. Unfortunately, it was the department than handles Target.com’s deliveries.
After explaining my request a second time, I was informed by the Target person, that I should have been transferred to the Amazon department in Seattle. Seattle? I asked, and was promptly given an 800 number to call. I took it down and hung up.
Seattle? Why would I call Seattle in order to arrange delivery from a St. Paul location to a Minneapolis residence?
Answer: I wouldn’t.
Irritated, I called the receptionist again. This time, after the third explanation of my situation, I was a little more insistent with the receptionist. This time she went with another guess and put me through to one of, apparently, many customer service departments within CEVA Logistics.
For the fourth time, I expressed my desire to have my TV delivered from St. Paul to Minneapolis. The rep on the other end of the line told me that I needed to be transferred to the customer service department that handled residential delivery. Well, that made sense to me. I asked to be put through to them, please.
I reiterated my request for delivery for the fifth and final time to a man in St. Paul, who happily pulled up my paperwork and arranged for a delivery the next day. I hung up.
And, after a deep and cleansing breath, I got on with my life.
The part that makes me mad
I wanted to learn more about this CEVA Logistics with whom I’d recently gone round and round with. Their company name gave me no real clue. So I did a Google search and found their site.
And suddenly, I realized why the receptionist was so completely without a clue as to who or how to direct my call. Apparently, there is nothing that this company doesn’t do. I imagine this gets confusing for young receptionists who get stuck alone behind the phones on a Friday afternoon where everyone else has left early.
Curiosity made me click on the CEVA Brand Promise link. And what I found there made me sad:
Company Mission Statement
CEVA stands for operations excellence by instilling a LEAN operating culture and by empowering front line employees to anticipate customer issues and needs.
We provide the most suitable solutions thanks to an in-depth understanding of our customers’ business, based on the expertise of the sectors in which we work. ?>As a company, we are easy to work with: open, honest, responsive and providing quick access to senior decision makers.
I call bullshit. Complete and utter.
You certainly seem to get the oddballs. Interesting how the world of business works (or not).
That’s funny. My fav is the line about the “empowering front line employees” when the poor receptionist didn’t know what to do with your call at all!
Also, congrats on the new telly.
I ordered a vanity for my wife from Amazon. CEVA was supposedly the company that was to deliver the furniture. Amazon tracking said that it was to be delivered today ( 8/6/2010 ) around 3:00pm. I then put the waybill tracking info into the CEVA Trak website and saw that it said 5:00pm instead. No big deal… Until I called to inquire about the delivery. The lady said it shout be there in the next 30 minutes (at this point it was 7:00pm). I waited and waited the called again; they said that I could put a note on the door for them to just leave the package on the patio. I did just that, went out to dinner and drinks and came back around 10:00pm and still no delivery! I called shortly after 10:00pm tonight and the lady said no one works on the weekend you’ll have to call back on Monday! Wow, how ridiculous! My wife then calls them right back and was hung up on twice, then finally got through to a lady. She heard my wife out and then asked for a phone number and told my wife that they will deliver it tomorrow and would call ( which would mean Saturday, the weekend wherein they don’t work). This company is run by complete morons! We may never get the item that I ordered from Amazon!
You have my pity.
Ceva is not a bad Company,they just hire temps to do the work of perment people.They are just,what they say they are lean.Which means run the Company as cheap as possible very cheaply.Their are some good people that do work for this Company.The guy that pays the checks..