AGO has a wonderful policy about not-bashing other companies- and it makes total sense; but I do hope- in the interest of consumer protection, they will allow this discussion to continue! I don't think it's bashing so much as letting other potential consumers know that their service is not up to par. PBMG's however, is fantastic.
Scott, the e-mail exchanges you got are what I've had before with other companies and it just drives me insane. It's as if they skimmed over your e-mail and gave a generic response. They are not focusing on you or taking the time to take care of you. I used to work at a mom-n-pop hardware store in high school that had a trophy case full of awards (including from organizations like J-D Power and Associates) for customer service. I remember the owner having a father-to-son style talk with me about taking care of his customers. There was nothing in the world more important to him. I watched him shrug off cussing out at a manager as "Cut him some slack he's just having a bad day", I watched him ignore a hungover employee stumbling in an hour late as "We were all dumb kids once!". I also watched him fire an employee of 7 years on the spot with no discussion when she got angry with a customer and called them an idiot to their face. This guy was serious when it came to customer service. But anyway, he always told us that no matter how busy it gets, focus on YOUR customer. The others can wait. But he would rather have 10 customers complain about having to wait on service than 1 customer complain that the service wasn't good enough- a philosophy that worked. The Customers were vocal about how much they appreciated that policy, because they knew when it was "their turn", they were going to have one employee who wasn't going to hand them off to anyone, and was going to do everything they needed until they were done. This was not the kind of store you come in, get your stuff, and get out. You come in, some employee greets you, and they'll walk you right down the aisle of the products you're looking for (if you want!), explain the products, show you how to use it, etc.
Annnyywaayyy, long winded story aside; I wish more companies adopted that philosophy. I would much rather wait to get a response 3 or 4 days later that is well thought out by someone who has given my e-mail their undivided attention, who has already addressed the issue with their management, and the e-mail is a solution to my problem. I would much rather that, than 3-4 days of going back and forth with an employee who is skimming my e-mails and only halfway paying attention to me and has to have things repeated! It's a waste of my time.
It also sounds like the person you talked to was more focused on sales than caring for existing customers. She must have been so accustomed to answering product questions pre-sale that she just assumed you were another potential customer; not bothering to read the entire e-mail. Interestingly, she even admitted there could be a potential defect (bad stitching) but didn't seem to offer ANY recourse for the problem.
Chemical Guys makes good products, I've been happy with everything I've gotten from them thus far- but they do strike me as a less-than-professional company. They are hip and cool, with cool T-Shirts and a 'man cave' in their warehouse and funky names and semi-risque descriptions ("Cleans like a mother", etc., and no, they don't mean 'like momma used to make'). But how come a company that size can't afford anything better than an eBay microphone and crappy editing software for their videos that have quiet, muffled audio firing out of just one speaker? Really wish they would invest in professionalism.
Anyway- my little Chemical Guys rant over. I'll continue to use their products because they are good, but I'll probably order them from AGO exclusively to have that barrier of protection and customer service!
Maybe you should link CG to this thread. Maybe they are unaware of the impact their customer service is having on their companies reputation. The responses in this thread seem fairly consistent with only a couple exceptions- good products, sold poorly, with poor customer service.