Whatever happened to customer service?

[Tabby]

Prepare for a rant - this all started over computer issues. I upgraded to Windows 10 a little over a week ago. It has been pretty good - especially considering the issues I was having with my computer. Long story short - my computer came with Windows 8, I couldn't stand it so DS reformatted it and put on Windows 7 which didn't quite agree with my computer so it ran slow and overheated all the time (which was still preferable to Windows 8). I lived with it for about 2 years and stalled on Windows 10 installation in case it was even worse but when I finally did it, my computer became a tool I could use again - hasn't overheated or crashed once since!! However, there was a small issue with my mouse - if I touched the keyboard, I couldn't use my mouse for a few seconds until it "woke up". I googled and found a solution which seemed great - I was happy again. Until the damn thing updated itself today. All of a sudden, the mouse doesn't work again. The solution I tried last week doesn't work. I tried updating the driver and the thing got stuck on "don't turn your computer off" for over an hour. Meanwhile, I got on another computer and tried to get some help from Microsoft. Well, that was an ordeal in itself. It probably took me 45 minutes to find a site where I could enter a phone number for them to call me (no phone number to call them, of course). I'll give them credit - they called immediately, though it was an automated machine and I was put on hold but not too terribly long. Eventually I did speak to a human. He told me there was a major update happening and that I could expect my computer to be frozen for about 4 hours!!! Honestly - do you not think a warning could have come up to tell me so I could delay it a few minutes? Apparently, that is too much to ask. Anyway, I digress.

My point of this post is that we're almost used to having this kind of crappy service from just about everyone. I don't think there is a business left that has a human answering their phones. Websites are completely useless - they have these stupid FAQ pages which are the questions that are probably least frequently asked. I mean really - have you ever read one of these pages? Most of the questions they have on there you would have to know the answer to in order to get to the page you are on. The newest trend is companies calling YOU with some automated voice. I got a voice mail at work not long ago from a robot telling me my invoice was due and if I was the wrong person to transfer the call to our "Purchasing Department". We don't have a "Purchasing Department" so I didn't do anything. I gont 3 more of these voice mails before the machine finally caught me at my desk. There was an option to push "1" for more options so I did. It gave me a number that I could call back, so I did. I got another automated answering service and somehow navigated my way through it only to find out it was UPS and somebody somewhere in my organization had ordered something that came across the border and there were customs brokerage charges. But they couldn't tell me who made the order, who the item was shipped to - only who the item was shipped from. It wasn't from me so I refused to give them any information. I informed them we were a large organization with many departments, each with their own budget, and that if they wanted this thing paid they would have to come up with a name. They blasted me like I somehow stole their services!!!! I'm asking you - do you think I was out of line for refusing to respond to an automated call that was clearly in error and gave absolutely no information as to what it was about?????

This whole crap has got to stop. These companies are out there taking our money for their products and services. Their products are occasionally ok but their services suck and are getting worse!!! I have already told a bunch of people I will not ever use UPS for a business because if somebody treated my customers that way I'd be horrified. And don't even get me started on Microsoft!!!!

Does anybody at all out there in the great big wide world value customer service anymore? Or is it really that easy to cut corners on this once valuable asset to a company?

[emmalou]

Our customer service is very important to us, but we're a small company. We only have one rep, so sometimes you have to wait for a call back for a couple hours, but at least you get to talk to a real person.

I have a bit left to pay on my student loans. My interest is so low, I never bothered to pay them off. I closed the bank account that was automatically debited and have not been able to get them to change the auto debit account. Sallie Mae sold to some other company and now I'm calling India or somewhere else. They say they will send forms and never do. It's incredibly frustrating.

[Chancellor]

So, when your husband "downgraded" your computer from Windows 8 to Windows 7 did he do the bios downgrade too? I'm guessing he had to do that in order for Windows 7 to work correctly. I wonder, though, if that downgrade to the bios is causing some of your other problems?

[Spiritpaws]

I own a small company, and humans answer the phone! Customer service is a top priority. Heck, most customers can talk, text, or email the owner (me) 7 days per week.

The fundamental problem is that large companies disconnect from their customers, the end users. I don't know if it is a lack of caring as much as a focus on efficiency and profit. Smaller companies tend to be much more customer-driven.

[Paints]

Yesterday my DH and I spent a lovely afternoon exploring our new city (Hamilton). Part of our move to a city was to make better use of public transit, so we took the bus into downtown. We walked quite a distance and needed to get the bus home. We were waiting at a bus stop and were not sure we would be able to get a bus to where we thought we wanted. There was a Hamilton transit phone number at the bus stop so I called them. There was no un-automated option on their phone system, although hitting 0 did get me to a helpful live person. Who would call from the bus stop to get automated info they could more easily look up on their app?

I guess the problem is that real people cost a lot of money - but I wonder if these companies have costed the loss of customers. Not something a monopoly like Microsoft needs to worry about.

[PaulaO]

I'm a librarian and have had trouble with a journal vendor's software. I call customer service, get connected eventually to a person who is not in the U.S. and doesn't have a full grasp of English. She basically tells me to look up the problem on Google. Customer service in most business is lacking and the attitude is "just get used to it." Everything is automated and the majority of businesses just don't care. We are a captive audience and have to put up with it. Part of the issue is money--it costs businesses not only salary but benefits--but I think the bigger part is "we just don't care."

[Canyon]

I agree about the frustration of endless phone loops and service reps with whom effective communication is difficult.

I will say I am impressed with Price Pfister. We installed one of their faucet sets with a life-time warranty eight years ago when we remodeled the kitchen . Last year, the handle started leaking. I called their 800 number and was connected quickly with a rep who described an easy fix to try while he mailed out a replacement cartridge. We still haven’t needed to install the cartridge. Yesterday I called about a broken part for the soap dispenser. No problem, they’ll send a whole new unit. There were no shipping charges for either part; reps had accents but were fairly easy to understand.

[Sue B]

We are the only vet clinic in the area that answers the phone after hours and on weekends, but while our clients greatly appreciate this added services, there are a surprising number of other people out there who think they are entitled to be abusive instead of appreciative. Sometimes we think those other vets have the right idea.

I had to make a website change, and had to call hostmysite as my password was no longer effective and my email wouldn't display the email to change the password. They were wonderful; a real human answered immediately, verified my identity and made the fix that needed to be done. There is still good customer service out there. When you get a helpful person, be sure to tell him/her how much you appreciate the service.

[no.stirrups]

I bet we all have loads of examples of this! And it is very sad.

One of my most recent: I'm switching banks because PNC made a mistake. I went in to the local branch and pointed the mistake out to them and the response was, "Oops, sorry" but with no attempt to correct it. This was an error in their favor of over $600. They said they'd make sure it didn't happen next time. Next time!? What about this time? So I called the main office a few times, and was passed around a put on hold, etc. until I finally did reach someone who would fix it. All of this took several hours over several days, but finally it was fixed. Then I got my next statement and noticed that they charged me $110 to fix their mistake! Done. Opened an account at another bank that day.

My son recently called to vent over an incident with a phone operator for his internet provide in which he was repeatedly addressed as "Ma'am." Each time he repeated his definitely-masculine name and reiterated that he was a "sir," to which the operator replied "Yes, ma'am!"

I think I have PTSD from my experience switching to Sprint at the local RadioShack. I was essentially held hostage for 5 hours. At least Sprint gave me hundreds of dollars in statement credits to compensate.

The upside is that it makes it pretty easy to impress people with the customer service I provide! I just reply to an e-mail and people gush! I show up on time and do what I'm paid to do and customers don't know what hit them!

[Rockabilly]

The lack of good customer service is one of my major pet peeves. I really don't understand how some businesses stay in business. They don't know their elbow from a bag of bones! It's infuriating and AT&T are among the absolute worst. I hate to wait through robot voice after robot voice to see where I should go. Sometimes I will say to them can I speak to someone who understands English? Or they talk so fast I don't understand a word they say. I say please slow down my ears can't hear that fast. One of the best I have found for customer service is Express Scripts. Always polite and helpful and they do what they say they will do.

[emmalou]

My prescription service drives me nuts. An automated service calls me every month to refill. When a real person finally gets on the line they start with "what can I do for you?". Ugh, you called me!

[Tabby]

You know what is also crazy. These businesses who have cut back on their customer service (likely to improve profits) have also stepped up on customer satisfaction surveys. I have an account at a small bank that I only use for special circumstances. The bank has few branches and no off-side ATMs so it's more difficult to get to and I have to really, really want something to go out of my way to access it. It's perfect for what I use it for. Anyway, I have probably been into the branch twice in the last 2 years. Both times, I received a phone call 2-3 days later about a customer service survey on my experience at the branch. The first time, the woman's English was borderline incomprehensible and I had to get her to repeat every question 3 or 4 times. It took me a couple of repetitions to finally understand that she kept saying "on a scale from 1 to 10"! I finally cut short the interview and said, "My experience at the bank was fine. My experience with this phone call has been horrific."

The second time this happened, the woman spoke clear English but she was reading from a script of questions. It started off something like "Were you in the bank to (a) cash a check, (b) desposit money, (c) withdraw money, (d) arrange a mortgage, (e) arrange a personal loan and on and on and on and on like that. The choices went up to j even though I answered as soon as she said withdraw money. Then the next question was, "If you were in the bank to cash a check, did the staff provide adequate service" or something like that. The answer was, not applicable. There were about 10 questions about if I was in the bank to cash the check to which I said not applicable. Then she started the same questions over on depositing money. I said that I had already told her that I was in to withdraw money so could we skip to that. She said she had to go through each and every question. Finally, I saw my neighbour walking over so I told her I had to go. She tried to keep me on the phone - I said sorry, give the bank staff 10 out of 10 on everything but this survey business could really be improved.

So there you go - they can't afford someone to answer their phones if you have a question or problem, but they can afford to pay people to pester you with stupid surveys.

[digihorse]

It died. A slow horrible death and then was reborn in India... or the Philippines. I try to not call any more. I go in person if there is that option. Now.. I will give Amazon credit. I got a new bucket of Brewer's Yeast... and it didn't smell right... horse didn't think it was good either... I suspect it was stale. Went on the web site. Did return... new bucket came... have the print outs to send the old one back free of charge. All as easy as can be.

[westisbest]

My interenet and tv provider here, Shaw Cable must be one of the last remaining good ones I guess. Can almost always get thru to a tech they work from call centres across the western provinces. And if they are busy they have a "can we call you back within x number of minutes" you go thru the automated call back leave your number. And they DO call back almost to the minute within that time. They have helped me solve some software issues that really aren't their purvey. Had an almost hour long session with a tech last month he had to reconfigure the Outlook 13 account for me.

I didn't know that software could cause overheating, thought that was a hardware ie fan issue. Well my old HP died a slow death that way lol.

[Rockabilly]

What I find these days is that people want to talk at you not to you.

[Tabby]

I still have a mom & pop cable and internet provider. Well I sort of do. They got bought out by Rogers a year ago but they've kept their name and they've (thankfully) kept their service. You do get put on hold when you call but eventually a person answers. And by eventually, I mean in 2 or 3 minutes, not half an hour. They aren't 24/7 but there's somebody there fairly late in the evening (maybe 9 or 10 or so) and on weekends. They've also done things for me above and beyond what would normally be expected - when I bought my own PVR and returned the one I was renting from them, they actually came and installed it for me. It was pretty nice. They have sworn to me that Rogers isn't going to swallow them whole but I'm not holding my breath. My MIL's local cable provider was taken over by Rogers and she's had nothing but problems and sometimes waits 2-3 hours on hold only to get somebody in India who can't speak English. This particular kind of service sucks - especially in Canada because there are a very limited few providers in any particular area (sometimes you have no choice at all) and they all act in cahoots to keep profits high. They don't give a crap about customer service.

[goldhorse]

Wow, I had 2 awesome experiences this week. First, I took my out of warranty laptop to the Apple Store because of a video issue. It passed their diagnostics so it wasn't supposed to be covered under some extended warranty claim. I expected to have to shell out about $330 for the repair. When I went to pick it up, there was no charge They had fixed the video issue and replaced the logic board and MagSafe Board. And they installed a new battery. All for free! I was stunned.

Then today, I took a Longchamps totebag into Nordstroms so they could send it back to get the zipper fixed. Instead they just replaced it with a brand new one.

I am walking on air today

[Minz]

I agree about the frustration of endless phone loops and service reps with whom effective communication is difficult.

I will say I am impressed with Price Pfister. We installed one of their faucet sets with a life-time warranty eight years ago when we remodeled the kitchen . Last year, the handle started leaking. I called their 800 number and was connected quickly with a rep who described an easy fix to try while he mailed out a replacement cartridge. We still haven’t needed to install the cartridge. Yesterday I called about a broken part for the soap dispenser. No problem, they’ll send a whole new unit. There were no shipping charges for either part; reps had accents but were fairly easy to understand.

This is an awesome company!! My parents installed one of their taps 20 years ago when they built their house and after a couple of years the pull out head/sprayer started leaking. When I called, I spoke to a person and they sent a new one at no cost to mom and dad. Over the years they sent 4 new heads at no cost and with no grief. Once the new part was damaged in shipping, and they had another shipped by courier the next day.

I agree that customer service is seriously lacking these days. It does make companies with good customer service standout though.

[angela9823]

1) The company for which I work was awarded and excellence in customer service. Even on a day when terminals were going down across the industry (about 200k terminals!! across the US with different companies) our longest hold time was 30 minutes. Normally there is no hold time at all.
2) I love Direct TV. My service tech guys leave their card and allow us to call them directly. We've kept our service with them since 1998 because we have always got great service from them.
3) My telephone company and electric company are coops. They have been fabulous to work with though the electrical company had some major hiccups with putting in work orders recently. They still made it right.