MES Customer Service - The Rest Of The Story

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thin blue smoke

Fire Starter
Original poster
Dec 13, 2011
67
12
Piney Woods of East Texas
I own a MES 40 with the standard small chip tray. I called Masterbuilt and asked for the retro-fit larger chip tray, which they gladly agreed to provide at no cost to me.

I provided my address and was told the retro kit would be shipped via UPS.

After waiting about two weeks, I called MES to inquire about the retro kit. I was informed that UPS had returned the package alleging that the address provided was not a valid address.

Using the tracking number provided by MES, I also read that UPS had attempted to send me a post card (presumably to the invalid address requesting a valid address).

BTW--the address given to MES and used by them for shipping is a valid address. Granted I live in the country and my house is not the easiest to find, but I have received many packages at this very same address from both UPS and FedEx. In fact UPS delivered a package to this same address on Monday.

I called the 1-800 number for UPS and while they were helpful, I could not speak directly to the local UPS distribution center to clear up any confusion regarding my address. They did take my number and promise they would relay this info and my cell number to the local facility.

After several days of no call from UPS, I called MES and asked them to send my retro kit to the exact same address via FedEx. It arrived four days later.

The real reason for this story is that today I received a call from Jessica at MES expressing her concern with whether I had received my retro kit and what she could do to make sure I was satisfied.

In this world of no customer service, it is refreshing to know a company and especially it representatives (aka Jessica) are concerned about its customers and are willing to go to this extreme to make sure I was taken care of. Keep in mind this was a free upgrade and MES made nothing with this transaction.
 
Did it come from a real FedEx truck or the post office?  Both FedEx and UPS have been using a lower cost partner program with the USPS since last fall.  I've had problems with packages lately also and I've lived in the same location for 14 years and received hundreds of packages from the "real" UPS & FedEx trucks.  All the ones I had issues with were USPS partner shipped. The "real" shipper delivered the packages to the regional postal center and that's where things went sideways (twice now).  Strangely after I started calling the USPS tracking center daily they miraculously found my missing packages a two or three weeks later.  Low cost shipping indeed!

I bet it was a partner shipped item.

And a big thumbs up for Masterbuilt for showing customer service still matters even in today's cost and corner cutting world.
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MB customer service is the best.  After monkeying with my mes 40 for almost a year, it still never worked like it should.  Jamie in customer service sent me out 2 new control panels, a new burner, & finally a new mes.  That seems to me like a company that goes above & beyond for what's a relatively small purchase.  With the new units she told me they no longer use UPS due to so many getting damaged.  
 
Thin Blue Smoke, thanks for posting your CS experience with Masterbuilt.  I like that y ou were patient but you yourself followed through to make sure things were actually happening.  It does appear that many companies often fail in CS, so do customers who lose patience and or don't follow through themselves, not accepting that it isn't a perfect world and as the saying goes "s_ _ _ happens".
 
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