Really wanted to like this business. Website looked good. Glowing review on Yelp about a woman making an appointment to get her husband with heatstroke hydrated and being treated very well by Gwen the RN.
They might be great, once you get them to your house, but I'll never find out, because their customer service and booking process are greatly flawed.
Called a little after 10a hoping to set a drip appointment for my husband around 2p that day, which seemed reasonable enough, since I read that they normally can have someone to your house within 2 hours. The online booking calendar showed plenty of availability, but I wanted to talk to a human to discuss the different drip formulas.
The phone system they use requires you to state your name and then the agent can decide whether or not they want to take your call.
I spoke with Phong, who seemed knowledgeable about the different drips offered. He advised me which drip he would recommend for my husband. So far, so good.
When I said that I would prefer an appointment around 2pm, he said he wasn't sure if he could get a nurse to our house at that time, but he would try and get her here as close to that as he could. He said she had a booking before that, but that visits can vary in length due to the fact that sometimes people need two bags instead of one. He said there might be an available appointment around 5p (that was not even close to 2) and I asked about the fact that the online schedule had plenty of availability. I was told that the online schedule wasn't really accurate (So what's the point??).
He asked if he could check with Gwen and get back to me about timing. Not an issue, said I.
An hour passed and no word.
1130a
I called a 2nd time, stated my name and the system rang through to voicemail. I left a message saying I had heard nothing back and was wondering what was going on. I added that the number he had for me was a landline, not a cellphone, so if he was texting me, I wasn't getting text messages. I again provided my landline and cell number.
12p
I waited another 20 minutes and called a 3rd time. This time, my call was answered.
He said he hadn't heard back yet and he would try to find another nurse that was available. I advised him that my husband wasn't really that gung-ho on this whole idea anyway and it would be best for everyone if we could just go ahead and get this scheduled ASAP. He assured me he would try once again to contact the nurse.
After waiting another 40 minutes or so, I called a 4th time. Again, I stated my name and was sent to voicemail.
Phong promptly texted me (at 114p) and told me he didn't have any update yet and that he had a nurse at 8am tomorrow, but was trying to get it scheduled today.
I was in utter disbelief with this whole situation... speechless, one might say. And as you might gather from this extensively detailed tale of woe, rendering me speechless is not an easy thing to do. Ten minutes later, I found my voice once again and responded with "How will we ever know if someone can come today?"
30 minutes after that, at 155p, Phong, too, found his voice again: "I'll update you as soon as I heard anything."
It had been approximately 4 hours from the time I had made my initial call.
Following the last message, I pretty much resigned myself to the fact that this was not happening. The customer service was non existent. At this point, it seemed more like some messed up mind game to see how desperate people are to book and how long they can be strung along without any sort of positive end in sight. I had given it my all and ceased to invest my further time, brain space or energy in this process.
At 5p, the phone rang. It was Phong. He said if we were still interested, he had found a nurse that could be at our house at 7p. I deferred to my husband, who at this point had lost the small shred of enthusiasm he had fostered early in the day, some 7 hours prior. Phong also said we could book for first thing in the morning. My husband shunned the thought. Phong said he was sorry about that, it was just too short notice.
Not really sure why things had happened this way, if Phong and Gwen are the only 2 employees or what, but this could have been the beginning of a beautiful and very lucrative business relationship for Drip Hydration.
At this point, we will never know.
One thing I do know is that this is NOT how customers should be treated.
The End. read more