Social Media Globetrotter

I’ll start by stating that I work part-time for FedEx Office. I consider myself to be a good worker and take pride in my professionalism. Secondly, it is by far the most stressful and unrewarding job I’ve ever had.

Regarding your video, my opinion is that you as well the person behind the counter share equal responsibility for your negative experience. You, by expecting free use of the company’s computers and the employee for letting the pressure of the job affect his attitude.

FedEx Office is the McDonalds of the printing world. Following that analogy, there are no chefs, no waiters, no hostesses and no maitre D’s. There is just the one size fits all person behind the counter who takes the order, cooks the burger and cleans the grills.

None of us (that I know of) working at FedEx Office (or “F-Off” as we like to call it) belong to the Graphic Artists Guild or gained experience through an apprenticeship under a Master Printer. Any knowledge we have of graphics software such as Photoshop, Illustrator, PageMaker, etc, is either self-taught or something we learned prior to working here. It is not a prerequisite of the job nor is there company sponsored training for it. That is not to say that there aren’t a lot of talented and knowledgeable people working behind the counter. On the contrary, there are quite a few but like I said, it’s not a prerequisite.

So for all you current and future FedEx Office customers, here are a few tips to help make your experience a more positive one.

1. Know exactly what you want before you get to the counter and be specific. (“Poster Size” doesn’t mean anything)

2. Keep your job as simple as possible. (Think, “#1 with Cheese”)

3. Be respectful and courteous. (You’ll get way more flies with honey but once you’re on the shitlist, you’re there to stay)

4. If there’s a problem with the service that you receive, don’t berate the poor slob behind the counter, demand to see the manager right away. (The manager is the only one who cares if you come back)

5. Last but not least, bring a pdf and lower your expectations. (Business cards printed at Kinko’s look like they were printed at Kinko’s)

I wonder how many customers with an OVERSIZED sense of entitlement had come in and spoken to that particular fedex employee that day. the ones who don't want to push the button themselves, or pretend to put the paper in the copier/fax/scanner wrong so that mr. $7 and hour will stop what he's doing and come over, wipe the spaghetti-o-s off the customer's shirt, and cater to their every whim, not because they are incapable of handling technology, but because they're the epitome of laziness and american greed.
or maybe he had just got finished dealing with the lady whose husband makes six figures, with her I-Phone and her three thousand dollar laptop, and her D&G purse, who just whined because she got charged fifty cents for the extra sheet that printed from her ONE PAGE word document.
maybe he had just been harassed by the mom of six screaming adolescents because he wouldn't break federal copyright law and make her a dozen 8X10s of the professional portraits of her labradoodle.
who knows? maybe he'd been skipped over for a promotion, maybe this is his second job, maybe his boss is an intense micromanager with a penchant for personal insult. the point is, we'll never know those things will we? I can guess to an almost certainty that he is either angry, embarrassed, or jobless at this point due to the fact that he has been "anonymously" singled out for a "training video" that shows just another example of what his favorite personality looks like: the "always right," arrogant, and perfect "customer" that he sees about fifteen hundred times a day, every day he goes to work.

NOW, put your "on the way to the gym, iphone toting, credit card having, business-card-needing-to print, patty manipulating" personality on the other side of the counter from your tired copy-jockey, and think about how you might act differently toward that person?

Nobody has his back, not even the person that signs his paycheck, not you, not his manager, and since his mom probably doesn't know what a blog is, not her either. You managed to reduce yourself from a potential human being with sensitivity down to another face, another complainer, but praise god, you got a corporate sanction on your whining.

BTW, we're all so proud of you for having your "training video" added to masses of incoherent and boring crap that we all have to listen to-just another reason to find a different job!

I'm not saying that mr. employee did the right thing. i'm just saying that our society is completely screwed if his feelings, reaction, and approach are completely indefensible. do you really believe that every minimum wage button pusher should put you on the top of their totem pole? do you honestly thing that he cares that you had spent, or were going to spend a hundred dollars? what would be your method for convincing him that this was important?

Here's a clue: be nice, be prepared, be considerate, and set yourself apart from all the other complainers; act concerned about another person for once.

I work at A FedEx Office and I was reading all the replies to this video, the one thing I noticed is that Jacob does not work for FedEx Office. The one thing that annoys me the most, is when FedEx Office emplyees just assume a customer should know how we work, how all print places work. As for the person asking why did he forward the files to himself and not the center, um maybe because he wasn't sure where he would go to print them. Maybe he was shopping around and thought hety FedEx is a great place etc... If he emailed it to the center and then wanted to go somewhere else then what? Ugh people people its a free world, Jacob can post what he likes and you can either take his views in or choose to ignore. I'm personally just upset at the negative responses. At first when I saw it I was like.. splah, but then after reading so many FXO responses blaming him , or basically saying its your fault. I feel ashamed in some way. If he had come to my center, I would have gladly coughed up the 50cents or so to get his files. Besides we are never to POINT customers to an area, but to walk them to and explain.. am I not right? Remember we work here they dont, we know the ropes they dont. That like you trying to open a social media site and asking Jacob for help and he's like um duh its like this not like that.. I dont make the software i just know how to use it.. LOL ha thats funny.. Anyway I do think alot of it has to do with the team members attitude, attitudes can make or break a deal. Either way he had a bad experience, we should all be thankful he reposted a video saying how he'll give us a second chance and promoting it to! He didnt have to do that at all..

Thank Jacob and if ever in San Antonio stop by our FedEx Office at 410 and San Pedro. We'll make you feel OUTSTANDING! ; )

But if you don't know the SOP for something like this...why not just ask first? A telephone call ahead of coming in can not only help avoid this situation, but if handled well, can be a wonderful way to find out (and from the Team Member's POV, to inform) what can make the experience better.

As for the Fedex Office Team Member...his manager shouldn't write him up, but he should have a loooooong talking to about how to interact with clients. Tact is an important thing. Very, very important thing. Customer service can be amazingly frustrating; I've had people yell at me because we couldn't duplicate copyrighted materials. Instead of just saying nope, I will try to help (as much as I legally can) find an alternative..i.e. suggest ways to get permission, maybe send a fax request. Some folks don't buy it, and some, as I mentioned, get nasty. As a human being, I can tell you that brand enthusiasm may not fix everything. Especially how I feel after being treated like dirt. Or like an idiot. Or like...?

Passionate Team Members come from a passionate commitment to those Team Members. Pep talks? No. Working with TM's, sharing skills, tips, techniques, and so on. Not talking scripts, either. Real teaching, and commitment to helping TMs push themselves further.

thanks for understanding peter. it seems as though people think i have an agenda or should somehow assume things. the issue is with value. im most likely going to reblog your comment as a separate post within a few days. thanks again!

jacob

I agree that the employee should not have made the comment he did. I also agree that Fedex should make sure their people do not quote rules but maybe explain them? Jacob was confused by someones post stating its a security issue. How is that confusing?

Your comment also of how long it takes to get on a Kinkos computer and the cost is completely wrong. Maybe before mr media man posts something he should actually go do it and investigate it? Then again he is being no different than most media like TV and newspapers so why be any better than they are?

As a customer of Kinkos let me tell you, if I see Jacob or any other customer behind the counter you will NEVER see my business again. I would hope some Fedex folks are still reading this and take my challenge to survey their employees and customers and find out how much this goes on. It will be even worse now because of Jacobs video. They may have saved his 100 dollars but they will lose thousands who count on Kinkos to be discreet and keep our files and documents secure and confidential.

Do you walk into a bank and ask them to come behind the counter to count out your own money or to do anything on their computers?
Jacob joked about jumping the counter at McDonalds to make his own burger. I'm offended that he is making jokes about something that is serious for Fedex and its many customers.

The customer is always right he quotes. Your right, ALL customers are right and this customer thinks you need to be careful of what you say and that you are as wrong as the person that waited on you. I spend a lot more than 100 dollars at Kinkos so is my opinion worth more than yours? It better be, cause I say so and hey, the customer is ALWAYS right.

im not sure how im not making this clear. i dont have to be behind the counter accessing any info. your cost/time might be right but so is mine, trust me i was there.

the point is if as a customer you want to spend $100, you shouldn't have to pay another $1.00 to get your $100 dollar, that's absurd. the customer is not always right and i dont believe i quoted that, if i did please tell me where. the issue here is with time, service, and value. all i did was share my experiences. yours may not be the same, take it for what it's worth

Why not just email it to Kinko's itself?

Jacob,

I know this may sound like a repeat of the many comments that have been posted, but since you're all about the sharing I though I would "share" my thoughts.

I find it appalling that you felt the need to rant about a team memeber who was following our company policies. You keep saying it's not a big deal when in reality your video has been shared with the entire FedEx organization, and you felt the need to expose this situation to the entire world on the internet. But it's not a big deal.

I do not understand how you have not accepted responsibility for the fact that you were unprepared. You walked into a place of business that serves hundreds of people a day, and thought they would allow you to use thier computer for free and when they did not you got upset. Do you walk into Best Buy and complain about the price and they just change it for you? And also you have not acknowledged the fact that that policy is in place to protect all our customers. To be honest I dont think you care about thier privacy. I don't think you can see the big picture. It's not all about you Jacob.

I acknowledge that the team member maybe didn't deliver the information to you in a polite manner, but let's face it, if it is not the answer you want to hear then is the wrong answer. Perception is reality.

Never have I heard such a ridiculous statement of someone not wanting to pay for a service provided. You would pay someone to fix your roof right? They provided you a service. You said that you were ready to pay, so why not pay the whatever cents it was per minute it was for the computer? Why not call before you came to the store and ask about the policy? Why did you assume? Since these business cards were so important. I would have all my ducks in a row before I walked in to place my order.

I bet you never thought, hey this is great that this place is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for my conveinience. I bet that other print shop didn't offer those hours and most likely had a much longer turn around time.

I hope next time you walk into a place of business you realize the policies in place are there for a reason and usually have substance and merit. I hope if you own your company someday that a customer of yours decides to not pay for a service you provide and posts of video about that situation and we will see how that makes you feel.

The many printers in your area are probably independents who can make up their own rules. As a corporation they have to protect not only the company but other customers as well. As a big corporation there is of course a handbook that details all the rules and regulations that employees have to follow. Part of this is Customer Confidentiality. Basically it states that we will not divulge any customers names, info, jobs that have been printed, when it was printed etc. The computers that you wanted to use has this info. They cannot allow you or any customer access on these pc's. While it is great you wanted to spend your $100 that would be a drop in the bucket if someone did what you wanted to do and stole another customers files or whatever and that customer sued us. So yes we are telling you that you can't use our computers for your personal use regardless if placing an order with us or not. It doesn't matter if you got your card in your hand or not.

AS far as the rental computers are concerned, here are a few things. You put in your card, agree to an agreement which basically states that you are not doing anything illegal and you are good to go. You don't have to put in any personal info beyond getting to your email. It is absurd that a company wants to charge for a service?

And now the employee. It is unfortunate that they were so blase about it and yes it could have been explained better. It could be as simple as he was just the bad apple of the group. Or it could be more involved resulting from the state of the company.The company has a hiring freeze and at least half the stores are short handed. So it could be that they are a good employee but have just been beaten down by the circumstances. And just because you think a policy is stupid does not make it so. They are there for a reason and most, not all but most, have merit.

Now finally, we will do everything we can to help the customer but if they are not prepared(like having a usb or emailing it in advance to the store) and they don't want to follow the COMPANIES policies and the solutions we suggest then there is little we can do for them."Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part." And if you had you iphone why did you make such a big deal over it to begin with?

And as a side note Kinkos is dead. We are now Fedex Office.

For one its FedEx Office not Kinko’s get it right! The employee only was doing his job, following company procedures on how to get your file to them. Sorry but I don’t know any merchant that would let you use their behind the counter computer to download a file from your personal email. You said you were their to spent money but yet you complained that you had to spend .25 cent to use the computer to access your personal email. This would have been a simple process for you since you had credit card in hand. You made the situation complex and stressed out the poor employee. I don’t blame the employee for what was said. You are the one that should be saying sorry and shame on you for acting like a child and making a scene over a few quarters!!

I also work at a Fedex Office. After watching both videos I do agree that what the worker said was wrong, but you did not come prepared to do business. The worker directed you to the customer computers and had you email the files to us. This is a standard procedure at all Fedex Offices(Not Kinkos anymore), and furthermore would you allow a stranger on your home or even business computers? I dont think so. These security measures are in place for a reason and beacause it took you an extra 2 or 3 minutes to log on to a computer to send us your files does not mean Fedex should jepordize their security beacuse you are impatient. I am glad to see that we can still keep your business but remember to be prepared next time.

Let's look at the bigger picture here....

While the process definitely provided a bad customer experience, it was the employee's attitude that was the deal breaker. A simple "Let me see how I can help you" followed by a sincere effort to resolve the issue would have made a huge difference.

Kudos to FedEx for taking ownership of the situation and making an effort to address it.

Amen brother! I too am a team member at a medium/large center and I have had this same discussion with customers. It is simple to let the customer know that ‘for security reasons, I cannot allow you to use this computer… but we have self serve computers available for your use.’ Some customers understand that and others couldn’t care less about policies! We have all been told and have signed a statement reading, to the effect of; I understand I could be fired if I access my personal email on any machine ‘behind the counter’ and I know there is something somewhere in the employee handbook about allowing customers to access any computer for any reason ‘behind the counter’ could result in termination.
I agree he handled it poorly; maybe he’s new or has not had much experience with retail… Either way he is NOT the standard for this company, quite the contrary! We have an oath at FedEx and all its subsidiaries, its called the Purple Promise and I believe we stumbled somewhat with you but in the end thank you to Jenny who did an excellent job of recovery and has in return restored your faith in us! Fred Smith should be proud and I know after reading your blog about this, that customer perception means everything and that we ALL have some work to do in that regard.
I know team members who aren’t excited about their job but I am, I love working here. Should we make more money and get better benefits? Probably, most of the general population thinks so, but that is not an excuse, I’ve been treated worse by doctors who make more money than God. It’s shouldn’t be about how much we make. FedEx Office is a great, fun exciting place to work and every day is a new challenge. Most customers come in not knowing what they want and look to us for solutions, I think, at my center at least, we do a great job of delivering the Purple Promise every day!

Hello. I work at a FedEx Office and found this whole exchange interesting and a little disturbing. I am an excellent employee and do everything to make the customer happy and I would never say that "I just work here I don't make the rules". However having worked in retail for quite some time, I think customers need to sometime give the store employee the benefit of the doubt. I'm sure I would get angry and never return to a store if they said that to me too, but at the same time I understand how corporations change policies on a daily basis and it is quite frustrating. FedEx is an awesome company to work for, but saying I am passionate about my job is a bit of an overstatement for me at least. I always try very hard to help and do everything to the best of my ability, but by no means is any type of retail job something I can be passionate over. I'm not trying to speak for everyone by any means, that's just another viewpoint that I'm sure many share. Posting a complaint online definately sounds like something I might do, so congratulations for actually getting somewhere with it. And thank you for not expecting your job for free, I hate that :).

All of this nonsence could have been avoided if you were just prepared before you went into a printing establishment to have something printed. If I was going to a Kinko's to have something printed, I would say to myself, how and i going to get this printed if it's located on my email. Well, I could email it to the location i was having it printed at or I could bring a flash drive with me with the document on it. Going to the gym isn't an excuse to not be prepared. It's not like you were taking the flash drive into the gym with you. You had to of gotten to the FedEx Kinko's in some sort of motorized tranportation. And secondly, FedEx Kinko's doesn't require you to "Sign-Up" for anything when you want to use a customer workstation. All you have to do is insert your credit card, wait a min for the computer to load and then access your email. The problem with people today is that they are in to of a hurry and they want stuff done now-now. I don't agree with what the employee said, but it is your fault for not being prepared.

I must express my feelings....

I find it funny how many people want everything for free. Sorry, but the fact that they send people out to the sales floor to use computers is because they are not suppose to use internet on theirs, its an automatic write up or for some site, termination. Sorry, i know i dont want to loose my job because a customer would rather do it there way than pay like everyone else. Plus would you want someone logging into your email for you? I know i dont, and i'd prefer to do it myself. I've never had a customer complain that they have to pay for the self serve computers even if just to forward us something. Its better than hearing "sorry we dont have any computers for you to use but when you get home, you can forward it to us". Its a convenience.
Every day i have customers who think that because we offer fax services that its free to the public. Come on people, what is free now a days? How do you think the fax line is paid for? I've had people who get mad at the fact that their faxes are not here when they requested to receive a fax here. That doesnt mean that we lost it, it means who ever was suppose to send it to you probably forgot and made up an excuse so you wouldnt get mad at them. (been in the same situation where companies tell me that but then i find out they didnt send it the first time).
It was unfortunate that you had a bad experience, but i guess everyone has that bad egg. You cant expect for every person within such a large company to be such a great person. Some people are great actors. As am I. I love my job, wouldnt jeprodize it for anything. I've work at companys like walmart, Target, and even a State school, and wouldnt trade this for them any day. Now those were companies that cared about money more than their customers and employees. And the school, their thing was "We come before your family" pfftt...as if!
I find it funny how many people are so clueless and such a-holes (i couldnt think of a better word). I've had people tell me off because i couldnt break a $100 bill right after i opened, people who have told me off for not copying a picture that they needed permission for (like from Olan Mills or something. Its called against the law people!), I've been told off because of the parking being taken by all the customers for next door even though we have some 15 minute parkings in front of our store that people fail to care about. Others curse at me because we dont have enough computers and the others are being used, or that their order wasnt done right yet the person who actually placed the order was the one who gave us the wrong instructions. I had a lawyer 'threaten' me one time because i wouldnt release his originals to him when another lawyer was suppose to come in an pay for the $700 order, so i gave them to him because i was so shaken up and had a line of customers building up because of this and of course no one ever came to pick up that order and we had to pay the third party who helped us with the order. Fedex Office employess deal with alot, so many people are just horrible. Sometimes i wonder how i put up with so much being that i have little tolerance for bullshit. I do it because i have a family, and i know i am so much better than these people and that i know where i stand if i was to be in line with these people. When someone is so cruel to me, my thing is to kill them with kindness. I always have a smile on my face no matter what happens. I've had someone call me a bitch because i smiled at them, and throw something at me. But i'm the end the customer is always right (as one of them scolded to me in the middle of there curses), and i'm the bad employee.

Sorry, i got a little carried away with my little rant.....

I totally agree with the fact that the team member said the wrong thing. They could have prevented this whole mess by explaining the why. But you have to understand that we have over 400 transaction per day in our center, if we allowed you to go on the computer we would have to let everyone who did not bring their files with them go on as well. it's simply not possible or secure for you or us for customers to be accessing personal email on our system, our entire network would be compromised. On top of that, the line would be tremendous and the customer service would suck. Customers need to understand that they have a responsibility to come prepared. You wouldnt go to the dry cleaners to have your pants cleaned without your pants and expect them to solve that problem for you, it's no diferent here.

hello mrs love. i used to work in retail when i was younger and have definitely had some unpleasant experiences so i understand where you are coming from.

if you wanted to get yourself a cup of coffee and there were two stores next to each other, but one of them offered free wifi, which one would you go to? most likely the store with the free wifi. of course are always going to want that little extra value add, and there's nothing wrong with that. there isn't one person to blame here, i just wanted to share my thoughts/experiences, some will agree with me, some won't. im glad that you shared your thoughts on here though, thanks for stopping by!

So where is your video about bad service at other places?

I think most people have computers at home and if a file is in email would use Kinko's email or their online ordering website to place the order in the first place before even comming down to the store. If you are of town, get more prepared next time. The comment sure wasn't the best, and I've heard worse, but it just seems like it wasn't that big of a deal. I could probably go on, but just wanted to leave my few cents worth. I don't use Kinko's much, but know how to get what I want and how to get it. I don't jump over the counter at a McD's and put the patty on the way I want, etc.

I agree. FedEx Office has services such as Print Online or, if you really don't want to use an easy, useful tool, then each Center has an email. Jacob, you emailed it to yourself and you KNEW you were going there to get them printed out. Why to yourself? That doesn't make sense. Why didn't you take a couple of seconds and email it to the Center? You knew you were going there...you knew you were going to place an order. Print Online takes you step by step in placing your order and sending your file(s) to any Center in the USA...how simple can that be? But you had to give the person behind the counter a hard time...probably made you feel really good too. The customer is ALWAYS right, even when they are horribly wrong. Step into the person's shoes that is behind the counter. Do you know the rules and policies of the business? I'm not just talking FedEx...I'm talking any business. Yes, giving good service to a customer is a must...but how about treating the person behind the counter with respect instead of giving them crap for doing their job? Yes, you are important...all customers are. But policies are in place for a reason. You wanted someone to access your private email to download your files for you because you were special and wanted them to access your email, not yourself, which not only puts a store's computer system at risk, but also can violate confidentiality issues and can also tie up a system that may be needed. There is a reason that there are public computers for use. No, they aren't free, but what is 50 cents when you aren't prepared to place your order anyway?

definitely wasn't a big deal. however, it was irritating enough where i wanted to go elsewhere to get my cards printed and the only reason i didnt is because i was able to forward my email via my iphone. unfortunately ive also heard worse. the point of all of this was just to share my thoughts, some people will agree some won't. im not expecting perfection from any business/company.

by the way i always jump over the counter and put the patty on the way i like it :)

Love Jenny's response. Perfect example of what a corporation SHOULD be doing.

If I were Jenny's CEO (or other leader), I would be happy to have her aboard my mission.

I agree, It was a perfect and she is doing exactly what should be done in a situation like this. I wonder if Fed-Ex has an official reaction strategy for instances like this of if she was just kind of "doing what she does best" and talking to a customer. Either way it's great to see companies (especially large ones like this) taking an interest in what's being said about them online and doing something positive about it. (sorry for any misspellings the G1 keyboard is tiny and i have big ol' geek thumbs!)

First of all I don't work for FedEx or FedEx Office!

I came across this video and the other one that you posted and have no skin in this game except for being a shareholder and want to ask two simple questions.

1. How much did you pay for the cards that got printed? Did they give them for "free" since you posted the video? I am a shareholder of FedEx and worried that the company is sacrificing profit and ROI for the shareholders at the expense of people that push the limit of customer satisfaction.

2. How much did you get paid for the rights to the video so FedEx Office could use it for training? Once again I'm concerned over the security of people like you going behind my investment, into an unsecure email to get business, and risking the company and security of other customers. I support the employee who pointed you to the general use PCs. That two minutes of use would have made my stock go up! Great marketing FedEx employee and get my vote and my support. He/she did nothing wrong as rules are made to be followed and not broken. I sure hope FedEx doesn't use this as a training video to the employees to teach them how to break the rules!

Lastly, I see you are trying to start a marketing company and assume you will get paid for these video rights. If so, that concerns me that a customer that holds a major corporation hostage for their own benefit, I don't see being a valued customer of a company that I partially own. Plain and simple.

I know you will probably erase my post here and that's OK, but my hat goes off to the employee doing their job by process and worrying about my profitability in a secured fashion!

MS

hi ms,

thanks for your candor and to be honest it really doesn't matter if you are a shareholder or not (not to me anyway), i have no reason to delete your comments, in fact i welcome them. now onto your questions.

1) the price of getting the cards printed at fedex is around $100, they did not give them to me for free and i didnt' ask them to be given to me for free. im not sure what you mean by sacrificing roi and profit at the expense of people that push the limit of customer satisfaction. you're implying that i posted this video with some sort of an agenda, which is false. i posted this video to share my thoughts, nothing more, you should be happy that fedex was listening. next, remember that it's the customers that are driving the business and providing the "roi and profit" for the company.

2) i didnt get paid for the rights to the video not do i intend to get paid for it. this statement you made confuses me
"Once again I'm concerned over the security of people like you going behind my investment, into an unsecure email to get business, and risking the company and security of other customers. I support the employee who pointed you to the general use PCs"
realize that in the social media space anyone can say anything and anyone can listen, it's 2009 my friend. dont think my video would have made the stock go up. the question here isn't about "rule" it's about customer service and about experience. if everyone that walked into a fedex had to go through my little ordeal, then you would really have to worried about the company as a shareholder. the issue here is about "living the brand" and hiring passionate people. never tell someone "you just work there and don't make the rules."

i do run a strategic social media consultancy, and again i am not getting paid for the video, nobody is being held hostage here. i would highly recommend you look up some social media case studies from some other large brands. as a shareholder you should be wanting to ENCOURAGE social media participation, not fear it.

hi JP....

I appreciate your comment towards my thoughts.

In today's world of business, the Internet brings out a media to allow everyone to make comments towards people and businesses in both positive and negative lights. I feel your comments and video had an agenda of soliciting business to slander the FedEx image and brand. Let me explain.

FedEx relies on computers at every center to track and make the money a shareholder invests in. To allow a customer to use the critical assets to check an unsecured email account and to download files and possibly risk the operational efficiencies of the business for $100 is not a risk I would be willing to make. That's why they have the walk-in computers available that were offered to you. (if you were willing to spend $100 then another $1.00 of computer time would not have been a big deal.) If any customer goes behind the count to access their personal email, it could expose the center to virii or malware that would risk and violate the physical security policies I'm sure FedEx operates on and deems critical to making a profit. Anything in that center, especially behind that counter including the computer that they rely on, is what I consider "my investment" as I own a small portion of it!

Your video did not promote but attacked the FedEx brand, even with the follow-on video, the damage was done! Most people, as you might be aware of, will not watch the second video and many customers will be lost over your attack. There was nothing positive from this except for you to add a brief highlight to your consultancy firm's webpage. This feather in your cap is very costly and nothing is will be gained from FedEx and to think some employee somewhere was doing his job that was defined by policy getting reprimanded.

I sure hope FedEx does use this as a training video but to the other intention. I can only hope they use it to show how customer can push the limits and they should not allow people to push the limits for personal gains. I feel if they do, they will be encouraging employees to "break the rules" for every customer and exposing the business to undo risk for the employee, other customers, the FedEx brand, and the profitability of the shareholders.

In concluding, I do not fear social media and do ENCOURAGE it when used with the right focus and intent. I do not see any good coming from this video but a costly endeavor to gain publicity for your start-up firm at the expense of my profit. As you will soon learn, the world revolves around profit and not social media.

MS

As a center manager at FedEx Office, I can say if this team member was in my center, we would definitely be having a conversation about Jacob's experience. We would not be discussing his sending Jacob to computer rental, because he was right to do so for the reasons you've pointed out here and more. What we would be discussing was HOW he directed Jacob to computer rental. I get this question in my center all the time. "I've got this file on my email..." We simply cannot allow Jacob, or any other customer access their email on our equipement. Aside from the virus potential, our computers hold the files being used for other customers' jobs, emails from customers, and internal documents. By consistently following these procedures, we ensure that Jacobs documents are treated with the same level of confidentiality that those before him received. The issue here is the poor attitude and lack of quality customer service. The computer rental is 20 cents per minute, and takes only a moment to sign on. There is no lengthy registration, just a simple user agreement (which is very standard). Two clicks of a mouse and the computer is active. Sign on to your email and forward the message to our email. Done! Had this option been presented in a more solution-oriented way, explained better, and had the employee not simply pointed to "over there." Jacob's experience may have been significantly different. Following the policies is necessary for us to continue to operate, being able to provide solutions and service within the policies is critical to ensuring that we are providing an equally necessary level of service.

Jacob, as a manager, and a team member, I am sorry for the experience you had, and I am happy to hear that you were taken care of. And by the way, I learned about this video from my company following through on their promise to you. And to MS, the training message wasn't "just let them use the stupid computer." It was to provide quality service in every situation.

Welcome to the internet. Everyone complains about products and brands and bad experiences on here. It's the compnaies that steup up and do something about it (like FedEx) who make a splash and change people's opinions. Social media is an opportunity to make a bad situation good agian.

Jacob did nothing wrong by putting up this video, nor does he get a "feather in his cap" by doing it either. It's not like someone is going to come by and say "you know what? He mad ea video bitching about a bad experienece... I'm going to hire him." that's not how it works.

You're extremely misguided in your thinking of his "agenda" go do a search and you'll find more. Go look on You Tube and vimeo and viddler, etc and you'll find more videos just like this. he difference is FedEx stepped up and did something about it. THAT is excellent customer service.

On a side note, I do agree with you that allowing private, unsecured, email within the corporate network isn't the best idea, HOWEVER if they have their network security in place then truly, it's not a big deal. That's what it's made for and that's why they have it installed. It's not like it's going to ruin their network and none of the financial information is even stored on the local machines, it's stored on their remote servers. So there is no danger to your "investment". He could have throw that computer out the window and your stock wouldn't drop from that event and your investment would be just fine.

There is no agenda, there was no real danger, there is no hidden attack, there is no feather in his cap, there is no extra publicity or fandom. The situation is NOT unique, though how fedex handled it was unique. They should be applauded for it and you should be happy "your investment" is doing such a good job of managing their online reputation.

MS,

you are more than free to "feel" what you wish, but at the end of the day this is my blog, with my ideas and my thoughts. I just shared my experiences with Fedex, that is all. The issue had nothing to do with spending more money, it had to deal with spending time that didn't need to be spent. A company such as fedex should pride itself on efficiency and customer service, especially if they are in the "office" space. There was lack of both in my experience. There are several things Fedex could have done:

- allowed me to use one of their computers, afterall they did download the exact same file I SENT THEM
- employee could have bypassed having me to register/sign up for an account by entering some sort of admin pw to let me forward the email

the damage has been done and fedex was able to learn something from it, hence their repeated communication with me and their desire to use the video as part of a training program. again i wasn't trying to promote anyone, just sharing my experiences, that is all, take from that what you will. at the end of the day this why this is my blog and this i why i can say what i want on it.

if you seriously think that i believe the world revolves around social media and not around "profit" well then i don't know what to tell you. profit has to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is customers. social media is a tool that allows you to more effectively reach out and communicate with your customers.

in the mean time why don't you go bring up your issues with fedex? i would feel very sorry for them if they adopted your ideas and used this situation as a way to further damage their reputation by stating that i was trying to ruin them and solicit business for myself. not sure what "feather" you speak of, and i'm curious how "costly" this was to fedex? do you have a number you can share?

restaurants aren't supposed to allow customers to use the restroom either, but many of them do...you think those shareholders are getting pissed off at them? when this happens to you, then we can chat again.

actually you might want to bring up these issues with every single company that you own shares of that has engaged in the social media space, looks like you're going to be busy for the next little while.

Employees are not allowed to have Admin passwords. Also, accessing personal e-mail on the computers behind the counter will get the employee written up and often leads to termination. Maybe you should have been prepared and brought your file with you. We understand that people are busy, but we are too. I know in this day and age people are expecting things at a moment's notice because of all of the technology but when you walk into a place of business, you shouldn't expect to walk in unprepared and then walk out right away with what you want. Part of this world is being prepared for what you need and want.

I totally agree with Wendy.
It's simple. Be prepared!
Don't expect people who make close to minimum wage to bend over backwards to help you. If they let you use their computer for free, they'll have to let the next customer and the next customer! And who knows what type of viruses they could be downloading onto that computer. Then what happens? Then they can't help ANYONE.
Take a little responsibility for yourself and play by the rules. Don't think you're so special that when you go in there you should get to use the employees' computer for free.
You said in your original rant that it was a good thing you had your iphone or you would have gone down the street to the print shop. You're right. It was a good thing FOR YOU that you had your iphone. Because I'd bet anything that that print shop would have charged you a lot more money than that Kinko's did.
So if you take anything away from this, Jacob, remember this. You're not that special. Wait in line and follow the rules. And be a man - don't go on the internet and cry about being mistreated when you don't get your way.

Get a usb flash drive it will save you all the effort in the future It is the technology to have these days.
If your going to get business cards or photos done you will need either a usb flash drive or a cd for most major companies including Fedex/Kiinkos. Other places are going to tell you the same thing, that you can't use there main computer to get the files you need.This is because it has important documents that they need as a business.
With that said you can get a 2 gb drive for relatively cheap..

all i can say to this is that if companies actually ran businesses based on the principles you have outlined here that they would be out of business, and quite soon. customer service is crucial for the success of any business and if a business is doing customer service right then people should walk in there EXPECTING to feel special, that's why they return. if i expected mediocre service then why would i go to fedex?

not sure what my manhood has to do with anything but last time i checked i was indeed still a man. crying and voicing and opinion are quite different.

i am special, and so is every other customer a every other store, understand that...

I work for FedEx Kinkos which is now FedEx Office and we appretiate you! Thank you for stopping in and we hope to keep all of your future experiences at FedEx OUTSTANDING! THANK YOU! I love this company and I love my job we want you to love us as well.

hi crystal, im glad you're so passionate about the company you work for, that's always great to hear! sounds like fedex needs more of you :)

Thanks for telling us what is always hard to hear. It helps us to step up in the areas we are weak and make ourselves greater for the present and the future. I'm just a lowly person in a center but I can appreciate where you are coming from. We are always supposed to encourage customers to explore the use of our wide range of services in our stores but not to the point on inconvenience and that, that would be inconvenient and annoying. Thanks for making it known and sticking with us to do better for you in the future. We aren't all like that!!

you are welcome. there is nothing wrong with positive or negative feedback, it's how you respond that makes all the difference in the world as jenny has clearly shown. thanks for the comment!

I am glad that Jenny took the time to respond to you rant. I think it is very important for companies to stay on the ball and pay attention to what is being said about them in blogs, forums, chat rooms, etc.
Your rant touched base with me, I have had so many issues with the FedEx/Kinkos by my house (the one on my block that I can walk to in like 1 min) that I have completely given up on them and I now drive 15 min away to go to a different place. I went to that FedEx for almost a year before giving up because of the frustration. Like you said, they wouldn't let me access my email to print something out, I had to get onto their computer and forward it to them, costing me way more than it should have!! I have gone and waited in the business with no employees in sight for 10-15 minutes numerous times. I have had them over charge me for items and I have had to point it out to them to get a refund. They have lost faxes; the list just goes on and on. And I feel that every time something like this happened, none of the employees were willing to help out.
I use to think that it was really just me; it is very nice to know that I am not the only one!!

hi chloe,

you're definitely not the only one! it was definitely great to see that fedex was listening and indeed responded to my video. perhaps this is a new initiative for them?

let's hope we will a see a change in employee attitude and brand image soon!