is customer service dead???

The small business owners have lost the plot, I fear. I tried to order a cake for my best friend's 30th birthday this past weekend, and it was supposed to be delivered on Friday. Now mind you, I called the shop a week in advance to place this cake order to make sure there's no hiccups, nothing along the way, no last minute rushing, whatever. Call, place the order, no problem, says it'll be delivered by Friday. Friday comes, I show up to the birthday dinner and I'm at the restaurant and I'm asking the restaurant people, I'm like, hey, has this cake been delivered? No, the cake has been delivered. So I try calling the cake shop at least three or four times, only to realize the shop has closed, meaning like it's closed for the evening, so they're not even answering. I'm annoyed obviously at this point, but it's clear that the cake is not going to be delivered on Friday. So I'm like, whatever, it's cool. Her birthday like event is going to be happening the very next day, so I will call the cake shop in the morning and get it redelivered. Now, annoyed nonetheless, but there's a solution in place in place. I call the cake shop Saturday morning, three or four different times and no answer, like sending me straight to voicemail. And I'm like, well, that's odd. It's Saturday, surely the cake shop is open. Now, I'm like, really annoyed because this cake is not going to get delivered for like her main birthday event and I'm just like, you know what, it's beyond my control. I've tried everything that I can. I'm surely going to call them Sunday morning and we're going to get to the bottom of this. So fast forward to Sunday, I call, I'm on the phone and finally somebody answers and it's the guy that I happen to speak with the day that I was placing the order and I'm like, hi, my name's Alyssa. I'm calling to get a status update on this cake order, like it never got delivered. What happened? I kid you not, the guy's on the phone, he's like, oh yeah, we saw you calling yesterday. So sorry, but the cake didn't get delivered on Friday. Thank you for stating the obvious. I know the cake didn't get delivered on Friday. I was there. I'm trying to figure out why did it not get delivered on Friday, but he doesn't have an explanation. He's just stating the obvious, right? So I'm like, uh, hello, but it's neither here nor there. I'm like, okay, listen, I don't really know what happened with this cake, whether somebody disappeared, the Uber deliver, whatever, but I need it to be redelivered tomorrow as in Monday, because it's her actual birthday. Like you've missed the birthday dinner, you've missed the birthday event, the least you could do is make sure that it gets delivered on Monday. He's like, I'm so sorry, like of course we'll try to make sure it gets delivered on Monday. No, no, no, not try. I need you to make it your prerogative to have it delivered on Monday. But with that also, I'd like a full refund at this point because I mean, we're three days beyond the date of delivery. The guy on the phone goes, um, we're happy to do the redelivery, but asking for a refund feels like a bit much. A bit much? It wouldn't be anything at all if you just done your job. What are we talking about? I'm so sorry. And I think like for me, what really like annoys me about the situation is just the lack of consideration, right? Like this is somebody else's big day. This is like your business, but like this is actually impacting a real relationship that I have in my life. But even more than that, as somebody who worked in services businesses growing up, like in high school, I worked fast food. In high school, I also worked as a cashier at a grocery store. I also worked as a lifeguard. And all of those roles, if a customer had an issue, especially if it was on our behalf, I was going out of my way to correct it, right? Oh my gosh, we forgot to put the sauces in your bag. Here's three. Oh my goodness, we totally forgot to add this coupon. Let me take $10 off the next time. And like where that line of thinking is for some of these small business owners, I just don't get it. And literally as I'm on the phone with this guy, like practically begging for my refund, I literally had to slow it down and I said to him, I'm like, sir, listen, I don't know where you sit within the organization of this business. However, it is in your best interest to give me this refund. Do you understand net promoter scores? Do you understand that in this day and age, all it takes is one Google review, one viral video on TikTok for your whole business to be dismantled. And I just don't know if you're considering that right now. Like I know you probably don't want to come out of pocket this 80 bucks that I spent on this cake, but I also didn't want to see my friend disappointed when her cake didn't show up. And even if you mess up, because mess ups will happen, especially in early stage businesses, the best thing you can do is correct it as quickly as possible, because the same customer who's ready to tear down your business because you didn't follow through on your side of the commitment can also become one of your biggest advocates if you just correct the situation and own it.