LATELY I HAVE BEEN DEALING with a balance board vendor and several employees of a company paid by the residents to “manage” the community.
The two are worlds apart in their approach to customer service.
THE GOOD FIRST
Some assembly required.
Stick some handles on poles. Stick the poles into the base and secure them with provided pins. No brainer.
Ahh, but there is trouble in paradise.
One of the handles won’t lock into place. The handle has a push pin that slips into a hole in the pole. One handle was fine; the other missed it by that much — less than a millimeter.
I contacted 60uP’s customer service.
After a few back-and-forths, I got a phone call.
Normally I don’t answer calls from unknown numbers, but this time I did.
The caller turned out to the Dan Metcalfe, the company president.
Metcalfe assured me that a pole with handle assembled (so we know it locks into place) would be on the way shortly.
Shortly turned out to be longer than expected and I had another email exchange with a 60uP Customer Service Rep (CSR). I asked for a tracking ID. After that I heard no more from the CSR.
I DID, however, eventually receive an email from a fulfillment service CSR with the tracking ID.
Shortly after I received an email from Metcalfe.
Am I impressed? You bet.
A vendor that cares about both product and customer.
I like to brag about vendors whose products work as advertised. 60uP is that type company.
THE NOT SO GOOD
The subdivision where I live has a Home Owners Association board, an “HOA.”
The HOA hired a company called Associa. Google lists Associa as America's largest homeowners association (HOA) management company that specializes in nationwide property management and community management.
The company IS large, with numerous regional divisions. It is headquartered in Dallas TX.1 The local office is Association Services of Florida, an Associa Company, and although the sometimes-on-site representative lists the address as the gatehouse, the real office is in nearby Miramar FL.2
- Am I being unfair writing “sometimes on site”? Hardly. The on-site person’s email signature block (sig) below makes my point.
Quick! If you have a “regular” job, where are you between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.? At work, of course.
If you happen to be retired and need a form or have a question, the sig boldly states: No Walk-Ins: By Appointment Only. So that there is no question, the statement is in boldface, just as shown above.
But there is a “catch.”
Not only is the on-site person unavailable to most residents, when a resident calls for an appointment, the call is not returned.
Email? They go unanswered. If there is a “Read Receipt” attached, the email sender may get that back, but a response?
Emailers probably are better off sans a response. When responses are generated, they are “snippy”; as if the residents work for the Associa employee. I’m certain the paycheck shows either Associa or Association Services of Florida, but in truth, the money comes from the residents’ monthly donations to the management group.
Recently Associa, the same by any name, sent out batches of “violation” letters, “approved by its lawyers.” Each “violation” generated a separate letter. Each separate letter also generated a fee for the lawyers. Never mind that the letter was a form letter with only the resident’s name and the violation changed from letter to letter. Some residents received five separate certified mail letters. (Guess who pays the postage.)
Comparing post marks to the missives’ dates, it seems many of the letters were dated several days before they were sent.
The Lawyers said
I had the unmitigated gall to complain that a YOU ARE IN VIOLATION letter was premature. A polite note from the HOA board — also residents — suggesting that this or that needs attention wold have been sufficient for most. If the kindly worded suggestion was ignored and the non-complying resident offered no reason for failing to address whatever the problem, THEN bring in the lawyers.
Associa needs to work on its public face. Harry S Truman had a sign on his desk stating The Buck Stops Here.
Perhaps Associa’s senior management wants the company and its employees to be disliked. It’s possible that it no longer wants to be known as the America's largest homeowners association (HOA) management company (ibid.) If that is the case, it is well on the way; insulting and treating the customers as the local office representatives treat homeowners.
I know it is petty, but it would be nice if Associa would hire educated people to check emails and letters from staff. Again, it’s just “image,” but poor grammar and misspelled words from my employees — remember, my dues pay Associa salaries — embarrass me.
This entry was composed in LibreOffice Writer which has spell check. Even though I wrote professionally for several decades, I still use spell check.
Sources
1. https://www.associaonline.com/locations/contact
2. https://tinyurl.com/y6f6tasn
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.
Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.
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