Aldemon Logistics of San Francisco – whose mission statement describes it as “customer obsessed” was arrested on May 15 for looking in the window of a customer.
According to the company’s attorney, Martin Filmore: “The company was merely attempting to ascertain the customer’s dessert-consumption habits, so it could more-fully provide the top-notch, one-on-one service that every consumer has the right to expect.”
According to the customer, who asks not to be named, the peeping incident was the latest in a series of obsessive behaviors – including over 1200 phone calls and 1800 emails asking the same thing: “What do you eat for dessert?”
“Although it seemed a bit excessive I went along for awhile,” says the customer. “But having 56 people looking in your window and taking notes is too creepy.”
John T. Pollard, a professor of Customer Relations and Superlatives at Minnesota State University, says the company got the concept wrong.
“A customer-obsessed company is supposed to be obsessed about all of its customers,” he says. “The phone calls and emails should have been divided equally among their entire base, not directed to just one household.”
As the company prepares its defense at a trial scheduled to start August 6, day-to-day operations are being handled by Sharon Wills, the company receptionist. She called in sick on May 15 so is the only employee not involved in the incident.
“I’ll be doing my best to keep things going,” she says, noting that she personally isn’t all that obsessed with customers.
