I never thought I would be going to a site like this to try and get a problem solved, but here I am. The company apparently specializes in abusing senior citizens. Here's my story.
Letters to all these entities have been mailed several times and still you would think SOMEONE would deal with this. They still refuse to refund my $36 from my returned bottles. I guess I now have to use alternate means to get my refund of 6 empty 5 gallon bottles? So here I am on the internet and posting how any customer will be treated when they get Culligan water. I have already written to these 3 addresses and called them and still no solution.
Culligan
6030 Culligan Way
Minnetonka, MN 55345
Culligan International Company
9399 West Higgins Road
Rosemont, IL 60018
Culligan
1920 S.W. 37th Avenue
Ocala, FL 34474
RE: The Ocala, Florida office provides terrible service, much disappointment, lack of delivery, broken racks, incorrect bills, and similar issues for 1 referral
I gave them and another horrible issue for the second referral I gave them.
Last year, a person who had previously sold me a Crystal Springs water service in the past approached me about discontinuing Crystal Springs and becoming a Culligan customer. I was asked what I was paying, and told the price could be beaten and that the service would be superior. I was provided with a brochures with a typewritten attachment stapled on the front, promising NO CONTRACT, along with certain prices, etc. As I was very happy with the service from Crystal Springs, I was told I would pay the same as I paid there. I was told by their salesperson I could discontinue the Culligan service at any time, with no penalty, if I was not happy. I did not expect to be unhappy, after all, we are only talking about water here. It's not like your job is something earthshaking. Friends of mine have Culligan up north and they stated to me they have never had a problem, so I bought it.
I thought I would have what I had when I had Cxxxx Sxxxxxs. (REDACATED) What was that? Proper equipment to be delivered and set up, water delivered on time just as every consumer would hope for, and when something wasn't right, I hoped things would be taken care of within a reasonable amount of time by customer service representatives that understood that service is the only way you can compete with your competitors. Boy, was I in for a surprise!
Soon I would learn this is not the way Culligan treats their customers. I even contacted IN WRITING, each of the national address shown on the net and above, and still even contacting them has not yet resulted in my refund of $36 I am owed. I contacted one of their national offices AGAIN a week ago, and as a result, I received a call from Noreen at the Ocala, Florida Culligan office. She admitted on my voice mail they had my $36 and that "they were aware they had my $36" and I should call her back to tell her what to do with it. Now though I have some very creative things she could do with it, it rightly belongs to me and so I called her back and left her a message that she knew what to do with it, that it is mine, and that she needs to do some thinking about how to return a $36 refund for a customer. Still now refund.
So let's see... They cannot deliver water regularly, they cannot clean up their messes when they make them, they cannot provide any rack for the water bottles they claim they can without a a wait of many months, and now even though they admit they do have my refund for 6 bottles returned she still has no clue on how to return a lousy $36 to a customer.
You may wonder if I am hard to please. To this, let me tell you I had Cxxxl Sxxxxxs water service for almost 3 years, with absolutely no problems, regular correct bills, and excellent service. I highly recommend them, and believe me the difference is night and day with these companies. When I changed to Culligan, I thought I may also be able to enjoy the same services with their water. Certainly this did not happen. I met them at my home so they could do that "set up". The dispensing unit was put in the kitchen and supposedly "set up". I went back to work and when I returned home several hours later, I decided to make some coffee. There was no hot water. They hadn't even turned the unit on. I had to track down the sales person, wait for a return call, and then I actually had to do the "set up" myself.
Right in the beginning, I asked for a rack to hold the bottles of water, over and over. It took MONTHS to even get one bottle rack. Finally after several months, the first one was delivered. It was white plastic. One day, while I was at work, this was delivered and set up in my screen porch. The first time I went to pick up the bottle at the top, the large bottle hid the fact that the plastic protrusion was cracked and broken and it cut my hand. I called the Ocala office and requested a proper rack that was not broken and told them it had cut my hand. This was not a problem for them. A month later, I came home from work to find I had a white metal rack. The first time I needed to pick up a bottle of water they had put on the wrack, the entire rack collapsed, sending one of the bottles of water to come down on my foot. No matter what I did, that rack would not stay together and the minute I picked up a bottle of water, the entire metal shelf collapsed again. Finally, many months of starting with Culligan, I finally was brought a plastic bottle holder that was not broken. Of course, the broken metal one still sat there for months. They were just too darn lazy to pick it up and take it with them, even when they were making a water delivery. Even during their scattered water deliveries they would not pick it up, but they had absolutely no problem sending me a bill.
In regard to the billing of my account, just about every month I had this service, the bill is never correct. Every time I had to call them up, wait on hold, explain all over again, and I was told, "we'll fix that" but that didn't happen most of the time. Their salesperson told me what the charges would be rigth in front of my business associates at my office. I was told there was no charge to start except for the price of the water and the price of the water dispenser. I told their salesperson there was no incentive for me to change unless I was given the same equipment and price I had with Cxxxxl Spxxxx and the same prices. I paid $5 for each 5 gallon bottle of water, and I paid $3 monthly charge for a hot and cold dispenser. I asked what other charges there were and I was told nothing. When the bills started coming, of course, it became clear the representative misinformed not only me, but also the TWO referrals I gave him. It took forever to get it corrected and even though I received promise after promise, it was still incorrect months later. I have called the salesperson, the manager and other personnel in Ocala and even in desperation, their Canadian Service Center, and despite all this, still the bills were wrong, month after month, necessitating call after call to people who really didn't want to talk to any customers. That was pretty clear. This not only happened to me but also one of my referrals. After talking to several people at their Ocala, FL location, it was pretty clear there was no way to get a correct bill, so just once I could have a consistent bill so I could budget it. When I finally canceled them out of frustration how they treated myself and my friend, they came after months, the following:
1) the white broken metal rack they left in my screen porch for months even after I notified the Ocala office it was defective and to pick it up
2) my 6 empty bottles, each 5 gallon, and for each they still owe me $6.00 for my pre-paid deposit on each bottle which should have shown on the last bill - and of course, they have never done that either.
3) their white plastic rack, in good condition, with no defects, like the one that cut my hand was picked up
4) the hot and cold water dispenser
Of course, the items above were supposed to be picked up, but truly this Ocala office just can't get their act together. Is it a surprise to you that after making a definite and confirmed appointment for Culligan, still they just never showed up on the 29th fo December after they confirmed they would? You are probably wondering if I made proper arrangements for these items to be picked up. YES! I telephoned the Ocala office, I spoke to Pauline, and she confirmed Michael Lee had the pickup of these items on the roster for 12-29-08. They could have come here anytime on the 29th, which is what they said they would do, but they failed again. I gave them written notice of my extreme disappointment with the handling of myself and my referrals and ask they end my account and pick up their items, but since they have missed so many other appointments and their salesperson didn't tell the truth and your billing office has been continually screwed up I guess I should not be surprised they never showed up.
Now, let me tell you how really stupid their Ocala office employees are. I am a local insurance agent with many years of experience, I am very fortunate to have built a very large customer base. They are always asking me what kinds of referrals I can give them of reputable businesses to deal with, especially people who move here from other states. All Culligan had to do was meet their responsibilities to me to set up the hot and cold dispenser, provide me with one darn bottle rack, deliver my water regularily, and have a friendly attitude at their Ocala office, and I probably would have given their salesperson a nice bunch of referrals.By the way, I also asked for schedule for water delivery so I would know when they were coming. Can you believe it took forever just to get THAT?!!! As a salesperson who takes care of thousands of clients for the biggest insurance plan in the state of Florida, it's shocking that you have people running the Ocala office who cannot complete such a simple task. I have always had a high opinion of Culligan. I am very disappointed to find their concept of service is so low. I am now finding out that even though I have even written to their Illinois and Minnesota locations who are supposed to have some supervisory overview, and I have not only written to them several times, but also spoken to several people who were supposed to "deal with this". Surprise... Still is not resolved. I guess they are just really desperate for this senior citizen's $36??? I wonder how many seniors they have done this to?
Is their more proof of ROTTEN service from Culligan? Oh, yeah! On the Monday morning that my friend's appointment was scheduled, the salesperson agreed to be there at 9 A.M. Sharp to meet them and give information, set up the dispenser, and start up their water deliveries. My friend's husband has been critically ill and is nearly 80 yrs. Old. She is almost 69. They were promised the same price as mine; $3 monthly for a hot and cold dispenser, $5 for a 5 gallon bottle of water, no other fees, nothing else, except taxes. He had just had back surgery and had his follow up medical appointment on that same Monday and the salesperson was asked to be on time, so that my friend's husband would be on time for the followup doctor's visit that same day. My friend said it had to be this time as they would be gone the rest of the day for medical reasons. The salesperson never came and never even called them. They waited and waited. Hours later, they left for their medical appointments. When they returned home late in the afternoon, in the middle of their driveway, left out in the open for anyone to steal, were bottles of water and a cold dispenser. It was not even the hot and cold dispenser promised. Would someone please tell me how an 80 yr. Old man who just had back surgery can drag this dispenser in the house, not to mention the heavy 5 gallon bottles full of water? After a phone call was made to the Ocala office, they finally came out later to bring it inside their home. At that time, the person who came to their home told them if the $5 5 gallon water was too heavy, they could get a 3 gallon bottle of water instead. They liked this idea. They asked how much it was. They were told he didn't know exactly what the price was, but since it's smaller, it would cost LESS than the $5 5 gallon size. So you might wonder if they had a good experience? Were they treated as bad as I was. YES! Their bills were constantly wrong, just like mine were constantly wrong. Their unit made loud buzzing noises even waking them up at night. Finally, someone showed up to change out that dispenser, but once they left, the water in that new dispenser promptly leaked all over their brand new one week old hardwood flooring in the dining room where their employee put the dispenser. My friend called the Ocala office was given an appointment for a replacement dispenser after this incident. Surprise! Their personnel never showed up for that appointment either. (Do you see a pattern here?) In disgust, my friend and her husband called and told them to come and get everything. To think that I almost gave their salesperson alot more referrals in the beginning, I shudder to think what could have happened to others.
As part of the consideration of their services, and trying to decide whether or not I should keep the services or end our business relationship, I also considered how we have been treated when we call the Ocala office trying to get these numerous issues taken care of. We can buy water from anywhere, even WALMART, but we wanted the good service with a reputable company. This has been unfortunately lacking. How can a company stay in business when they treat people like this? Do they treat everyone like this, or do you reserve this really bad treatment to just us senior citizens?
I already wrote a letter to the Ocala office telling them I could not continue considering all their problems. I gave them written notice, which Pauline assured me they had received. I was told by Pauline that Michael Lee had already scheduled the pick up at my home of their dispenser, the 6 empty 5 gallon water bottles, the plastic rack as well as the broken metal rack they have just left laying in the porch for months. I was told they would be here on 12-29-08. Surprise! They never showed up for that either. Their inability to keep appointments seems to be a serious problem, not only for myself, but they did the same thing to my friend, as mentioned before.
As anyone can tell you, the first rule when doing business is to SHOW UP! I am sure they have had the office there for a number of years, yet, they still have not mastered this one critical element of customer service.
I have been in business for over 35 years, and find it hard to believe they care so little about the experience of the customer, but apparently, it is true. If I was in supervision with your company, I would consider recording all the phone calls at the Ocala office, and would also send Customer Service Surveys to your clients serviced by that office, because it is very clear they have certainly not only failed with me, but also failed with 2 referrals I generously gave their salesperson.
I am going to be making a complaint to the Better Business Bureau next and then build a website and start running it in the search engines.in 3 years with Crystal Springs, they never missed a delivery, they never were rude, they did what they said they would do. Culligan could do well to pay attention to how good Crystal Springs treats their customers.
When you sell a service that I can get from my kitchen sink, you should offer SOMETHING. I really wanted this service, and I don't relish the idea of buying bottles of water or cases of water at the store and dragging them home, but without any customer service, or with failing customer service people who really don't even care how they are perceived, unfortunately, Culligan has nothing to sell.
By the way, have you wondered why the second referral canceled their service also? It was the account I opened for my office. The day we went to put a new bottle of water on the dispenser and we saw a huge black bug in the water, that was the last day with that account, too.
The very best advice I can give about Culligan Water is STAY FAR AWAY from this lousy company because nobody can get it together!
Ms. B.
Leesburg, Florida
U.S.A.
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