Roswell Store Redefines Good Customer Service

Unbelieveable customer service isn't just mindless rhetoric for Dave Chaney's The UPS Store on Marietta Highway in Roswell - it's the way they do business.

"We were blown away at how he came through for us," said Deborah Hardee, co-owner of Oli+Ve. "He went above and beyond."

The specialty olive oil and balsalmic vinegar store on Canton Street was overrun with customers during the holidays. At less than a year in business, the owners were thrilled with their success, except that it meant they were running out of bottle seals. The seals allowed the store to properly package bottles for customers who planned to travel over the holidays.

The store ordered a new shipment of seals from California on Thursday, Dec. 20 and hoped a dwindling meager stash would be enough to tide them over until the shipment was scheduled to arrive on Friday, Dec. 21.

But a major storm in the midwest put a kink in the plans, delaying all UPS air shipments nationwide.

By the time the bottle seals arrived in Atlanta on Dec. 21 it was too late for delivery and UPS made a corporate decision to focus resources on delivering parcels to residential addresses the following day. This left Oli+Ve scrambling, halfway resigned to the fact that the holiday would be over by the time they got their critical shipment.

"Without their bottle seals Oli+Vi couldn't sell product on their biggest sale weekend of the entire year," said Chaney.

Their seals sat on a trailer with over a thousand other parcels. It seemed an impossible situation.

After being contacted by Suzanne Davidson, co-owner of Oli+Ve, on Saturday, Dec. 22, Chaney called The UPS Store special hotline, which is "operated by elves during the holidays," he jokes.

The hotline put him in touch with the terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport that had Oli+Vi’s parcel. After the situation was explained, the terminal operator agreed to send someone to search through the trailer on the slim chance they could find it among the other thousand parcels in that same trailer, said Chaney. 

Remarkably, the shipment of seals was located after a couple of hours. Chaney drove to the airport and picked up the parcel to hand deliver it to Oli+Ve.

"This is another merchant helping out a merchant," said Hardee.

Regarding why going the extra mile to help Oli+Ve out was important to him, Chaney said, "We are locally owned and everyone that works here has been part of this community much of their life. We know many of our customers' children, pets, family, hobbies...It’s our community."

Chaney said he and his employees consider the Oli+Ve owners as friends, which is why he took on the task of helping them in an area that was outside of what he normally does for them.

"While Oli+Vi isn’t one of our shipping customers, we do most of the printing for both Oli+Vi stores - labels, advertising pieces, selection sheets, etc. Suzanne contacted us because we are a UPS Store, she had a problem with a UPS package…we were just happy we could help," he said.

For more information about Chaney's UPS Store, visit the website.