Is it just me, or does the majority of customer services these days suck? I’m not just talking about people being rude here, I’m talking about the corporations and their services all together. For instance, with my cell phone. They have it almost set up to where I can’t pay them. All the sudden, the online payment options just disappeared. You can pay by phone, but only if you have good credit with them. So that leaves the store, but then they charge you a fee for paying in person. But when I go to the site to pay my bill like I always have, I can’t pay it, but of course I can upgrade my plan and purchase another phone. Then get this, when you call, there is no person. It’s a computer, and there is no option to talk to a person. But if you just ‘try’ and hit 0, it will magically connect you with a person, which is usually rude. Oh well, just wondering if others has the same annoyance. Also I’m pretty fed up with laywers, but that’s another story.
acasto hi!!!
NO IT’S NOT YOU… ACTUALLY THE MAJORITY OF CUSTOMER SERVICES DO SUCK!!!
Have you considered threatening them that you’ll switch to another company???
It works in the majority of cases… 
Spyros.
Hah let me tell you what happened to me a few weeks ago:
thursday morning:
I get up, get dressed etc. Pick up my cellphone and see that I shows a message: “sim card validation failed”. So I take it out and put it back in again,… but no luck.
I get back from school later that day and check my phone,… still no worky. So I call customer service of my provider:
phone guy: “How can I help you”
I: “phone no worky, show errorski”
phone guy: “ok, give me your phone number so I can check whazzup”
I: “ok”
phone guy: “Ah it seems you paid a bill a bit too late, but fortunately the payment has arrived now so we’ll hook you up again instant… ehm as soon as possible”
I: “ok fine,… but why on earth do you cut my phone off if I payed 1 bill to late, for the first time in over 2 years that I’ve been a customer with you guys, while it is an automatic process?”
phone guy: “ehm how should I know? I only work here”
I: “ok fine, thanks”
friday:
phone no worky
saturday:
phone still no worky, so I call
phone guy #2: “how can I help you”
I: “phone still no worky, called thursday, but still show errorski”
phone guy #2: “ok, let me check this”
I: “ok”
phone guy #2: “ah my computer tells me that you send us a fax 2 months ago saying that you would liek to cancel your countract, so it’s cancelled”
I: “well I’m sorry but that is not true. I don’t even have a fax”
phone guy #2: “hey computers don’t lie”
I: “but I called last thursday and the other guy said…”
phone guy #2: “my computer says you didn’t call last week at all”
I: “yeah but I’m telling you I did call”
phone guy #2: “heh sure, but what do you want from me sir”
I: “I want my phone subscription back, with the same number”
phone guy #2: “well that won’t be possible. Perhaps someone else in your family send the fax?”
I: “no they didn’t”
phone guy #2: “how can you be so sure”
I: “because I am”
phone guy #2: “well I can’t help you”
I: “fine you dickhead”
So I ask my family to make sure noone send a fax from the fax machine we don’t even have. Or perhaps my family has been hiding it from me I dunno. Anyways ofcourse they didn’t send a fax
sunday:
phone no worky, still really pissed
monday
phone no worky, call my bank to stop payment of bills (still 1 outstanding phone bill). And decide to call my provider again.
hot phone girl: “how can I help you”
I: “heh”
hot phone girl: “huh?”
I: “ok well this is the story all about how…”
hot phone girl: “ok let me check for you sir”
I: “sure”
hot phone girl: “hmm indeed my system says you send a fax?”
I: “well I didn’t,… but I presume you keep the faxes on file, and know which phone numbers they came from?”
hot phone girl: “yes,… ehm,… let me check”
I: “great”
— 5 minutes go by —
hot phone girl: “well sir your phone number has been reconnected, and we’ll try to work out the paper work over here”
I: “k cool, bye”
And indeed my phone number had been hooked up again,… now it actually took them 5 minutes to do that. But it took me 5 days to get them to do it.
Whatever happened to “The customer is always right” ?
I will be writing a angry letter about this to vodaphone (my provider)
Well, try to see the bright side kib…
You could take advantage of the situation and get that “hot phone girl” employee, to a date and at the same time switch to another company!!! 
So instead of spending 5 days to make them do a 5 mins job, it would take 5mins to get a new company with a better customer service and… a new girlfriend!!! 
(just joking…)
Spyros.
well that would have worked,… had I not wanted to keep my current phone number 
and/or girlfriend 
I especially don’t like banks and post offices any more.
The banks don’t want me there in person, so they charge crazy fees if I set my foot in an actual bank, and I don’t get as high interest on my savings unless I hook my account up with their internet service :S.
But the really stupid thing is, they don’t sell stamps in the post office any more. Apparently there’s not much profit to be made from selling stamps to individuals, so they stopped doing that. So now I have to go find some little shop somewhere that have stamps, and then the owner tells me he quit selling stamps because he doesn’t get any provision from the postal service any more. Gaaaah! I just want to send a damn letter! Maybe the post has some sort of internet store or post order thingy to sell stamps, but then I’d probably have to buy a pack of a thousand or so…
It’s not easy for us who want to pay cash and get what we pay for, some people even seem shocked when I don’t have a credit card.
Guess I’ll just stack up on canned food and build a little wall around my house and live happily ever after.
- pofo
Don’t you have anyone to complain about?
esemple.
When I installed my ADSL it didn’t work the way it should… the phone company said there was a problem with the modem and they would change the modem version for every body who has the same model I have.
After more than 1 month calling almost everyday they didn’t do anything… Here we have Anatel (Nacional Agency of Telecomunications). Well… I called to the phone company and told they had one week to fiz or I would make a complain, and took note of the number of my complain with te phone company… After 1 week they didn’t fix… I called this Anatel (this was December 24th), and they can be very helpfull… december 26th, 8:00AM they were at my house to fix. This agency, Anatel, can make them pay you for the services you hired and didn’t work, and usually they have to pay in double, they can charge the phone company(s) and we have this kind of agency for many things.
We also have the Procom and the Consumer Defense Code. If I’m a consumer and I say that I didn’t order to cancel my cel phone like happened to you, I make a complain and the phone company has to prove I DID make that request, I don’t have todo anything, and if they don’t prove, I win. If I buy something for my computer, and find out later, like 2 months ater that this thing doesn’t work because it doesn’t math something on my configuration and there’s nthing written about this on the product, I can have my money back in exchange for returning the product (we have 3 months to return the product). If your electrecity bill comes too high, they have to find a way to prove you consumed that amount of electricity
I see people complaing a lot about this kind of stuff, I’m glad I don’t have this kind of trouble… well, I have, but it seens a lot faster to solve
Customer service… well. It’s an oxymoron. If you want to buy something; they put all their resources to make sure you don’t spend five hours on hold. If you have a problem after you bought their f crappy doo , then you spend five hours on hold talking to someone who hates their jobs because they are paid minimum wage to deal with pissed off customers who got f’ en burnt buying crap products with crappy technical manual and crappy technical support.
ha ha ha
i say don’t use big companys go to the little shop around the corner.
go to the local coffee shop not the local STARBUCKS.
na i had trouble with american express.
very long story but in short
we payed thier bill but then they hold the money for 2 days in their bank (which we were not told about they said it would be instant)
then we were told the card would be activated in the mourning cause they had the money (even though she had no debt in her AMEX acount)
in the end it took over 1 week of ringing every day (and having to go skimp on food and petrol)
we went through about 8 phone operators. i wrote about 4 emails to minidisco.com to tell them the card was not stolen and that they should try putting the transaction through the next day (and then the next and the next etc…
go to the small shop.
my next computer perchase i’m going around the corner to the local non-retail store computer manufacturers who will help for free if you just ring em up or e-mail them. 5 person company its great you always know you are getting somone who can do somthing instantly.
bye bye
Well, you have a point there!!! And ofcourse you get to know them in personall, wich means two things:
-
You will definetely get a better customer service, in case of a problem, because you know their faces and it could be easy to find them and beat them to death in case their product sucks!!! (
) -
You get to meet face to face with that “hot phone girl” they have, so your chances with her are greater…
Spyros.
local phone company,… so I can only call in my own town?
I haven’t had many customer service problems lately.
My bank? I’ve got savings, checking, a checking line of credit and a Visa credit card with them. The CC has a fairly low interest rate (as far as credit cards go) of 12.5%… They’ve upped the max balance from 500 to 600 to 700 and recently to 900 without me asking… they just do it and send me a letter telling me my balance is higher. I was originally denied my line of credit. They told me why… my account balances seemed low based on my income… I told them I was a student and paid my own tuition, they said, “Oh, ok… approved.” My checking account… this is the best part… unlimited check writing, no charge, ATM card, no charge, Visa Check Card, no charge, no minimum balance, AND I earn around 1.5-2% interest on the checking acct’s balance… something like 3.5% for savings. Oh… also, internet banking and web bill pay… no charge. Do yourselves a favor… find a credit union you can join, much better than commercial banks. I’m a member of Navy Federal Credit Union because my dad’s Navy, and my membership is lifetime. Navy Fed may not be a part of my local geographic community, but it’s a big part of the Navy and Marine Corps community. I know there are some credit unions with very low requirements… there’s one in Hawaii that only requires you live or work on Oahu, which means anyone on the island but tourists can join.
Post office? Well… there’s only one person manning the desk at the post office (the postmaster), and we’re on a first name basis, even though she’s brand new. Joe, the old postmaster, recently retired. And yes, Kay sells stamps, bought a few the other day.
Electric company? It’s a public cooperative, not a company, and my Uncle Jackie’s on the board.
Phone company? My cousin came out and turned the phone line on. Our neighbor, and one of my mom’s best friend’s husband also work there.
Our locksmith? Went to school with my mom.
Our Sattelite TV? Well… we’re subscribed to a large company’s service, but the local electronics guy is the dealer, and came out to install it… also installed our new TV antenna (you’ve got to have a big one to get any reception, just on the big 4 networks… unfortunately none of the dish networks carry the local stations in our tiny market yet :() We also bought a TV he refurbished, and he was the guy I got the stereo system from for the last vehicle I had here.
Our veterinarian? Went to school with my mom. My mom also used to work for him.
Got a local computer store too :). I was looking for a KVM switch the other week, they were out, so I cringed and went to the brand new Office Depot. They didn’t have it either, nor did Radio Shack. So, I wen’t home and called back the owner of the local store, had it in for me in a few days.
My new PS2? Local music/video/videogame store.
My doctor? I went to school with his kids.
Unfortunately, we don’t have a decent local grocery… we go to Wal-Mart for that. But, of course, we don’t get shrimp, crabs, lobster, or aligator there. Well… they don’t have aligator, but if they did, we still wouldn’t get it there, lol. We’d just walk about 50 yards to Billy’s Seafood… we’ve known Billy for years, and I wen’t to school with his kids.
Getting stuff from local places is good… not only are you doing good for your community, but 99 times out of 100, you get a better deal, or better service. Unfortunately, it’s not always an option.
Imp