I really wasn’t going to write about this topic this morning….but sometimes you can’t get something out of your head, so you know whatever other topic you try to talk about is going to get tinged with the stink of what is on your mind.  So here goes.

I pre-ordered something online on Friday.  A rather expensive something.  Due to heavy demand my email confirmation would come within 24 hours.  Fine.  I’m a somewhat reasonable person (really…..I am) I can wait the 24 hours.

Well, 24 hours, came and went- but I let it slide (I was going to see a Bee Gee’s heavy metal cover band- FYI they also do other songs- I’m going to say a highlight of my life was hearing a heavy metal version of Country Road, Take me Home, sung in a club located in the birthplace of the Hipster movement, in a room where half of the people where in Halloween costumes-I think, it is NYC you know- and the entire crowd sang the entire song- it was a perfect 3 minutes that will never be able to be replicated)

But I digress….

So 24 hours- I wait till Sunday morning and I get on the I’m system the company uses.  I tell them that I placed an order, I never received the confirm, I want to make sure there is no problem…you know- the usual stuff you do when you order something.

After 45 minutes of back and forth- “Steve” says that his department is unable to help, and he will switch me.  He comes back a second later and says all representatives are busy and I need to call a different number.  Now- I did the “Chat Now” because I was trying to avoid the actual phone call- believe it or not, I can get a little hot headed with customer service representatives.  I told him that was unacceptable, and I wanted to speak to his supervisor.

Remember- I’m looking to have a confirmation email resent to me.  Resend a confirm.  You know, like you resend, I don’t know, about a thousand things every day……  This is all I’m asking- a confirmation email to confirm the ridiculous amount of money I just spent on something, and that I am indeed going to eventually receive a product, and perhaps an approximation of when I’m to expect delivery.

Eventually, 30 minutes later, “Casey” says that a confirm will be sent within the hour.  Fine.

Husband and I go on our afternoon date- lunch and  a movie.  After movie ends, we both check our email (I’ve requested it to be resent to both of us).  No confirm.  Shocking- I know……

On the walk home in the torrential rain, I asked him “Do you want to call X or walk the dog?”  Remember, these were build an ark like conditions, and without hesitation he says “Oh- I am so walking the dog.”

So I call.  I repeat my request- confirm email.  Now- I have a confirm number, but I like to have an actual receipt- I like to have formal written acknowledgement of the transactions.

After 20 minutes, she says- OK here’s your confirm number.  I say that I have that, I would like the email resent.

She doesn’t think they can resend one.

Why?

She doesn’t know.

I ask if it is an unreasonable request to expect a physical confirm of something I purchased.

She goes “Ahhhhhh”

She puts me on hold about a thousand times.

After an hour- I ask to speak to her supervisor…. she puts me on hold…..

While I’m on hold, I have figured out the nomenclature (not sure if that’s the right word) for how this company configures it’s corporate email addresses.  I look up the executives in the company, and starting from the top down, I email the top 20 executives in this company, explaining my problem.

Call center person (when I asked if I was speaking to customer service, she kept saying that they were a call center- when I asked what the call center did, she said their job was to help customers……potato, potahto….) told me that they do not have the capability to resend emails- hint- this company is an internet service provider- so seriously- they can’t resend an email?

In utter frustration, I hung up the phone.  This is where I hate cell phones, because touching an off pad does not have the same satisfaction as slamming down a handset.

Ten minutes after I finished with the call center, I received an email from the 5th highest executive in the company, telling me that she would have someone get back to me reading the issue.  Within a half hour of that, said help had sent me an email asking for a good time to speak with me today.

OK- I got that off my chest! Whew…. now on to todays actual post…

kidding….

I have a low frustration point when I ask for something, and I do not receive a clear answer as to why it can’t be done.  If anyone at this company was able to give with an answer as to why not, I would have been ok- but I was left with “ahhhh, because we can’t”.  What does that mean?  Why can’t you send an email confirming a purchase?

I’ll fill you in on what I’m told today.  Thanks for listening!!

 

 

 

45 thoughts on “Customer Diservice”

  1. This is the second post among the few people that I follow on wordpress regarding the “customer service (disservice) “. It can seriously rub you the wrong way. I recently called up a hospital to confirm my appointment and I had to hold the line for 10 minutes to even get through! I was just getting transfered from one dept to another. phew! And the only information I wanted was a “yes” or a “no”.

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    1. Exactly. It’s the protocol. There should be written guidelines with answers and solutions to common problems/questions. I get if something odd happens, but the response should be “well look into it. Is it possible to contact you x date and x time with what we’ve found out

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  3. Phone customer service can be aggravating to be sure. I have also been on the other end when people just find a number in the company to call to get their problem solved( some of which are no fault of their own and a great number are not even problems and certainly not mine). This is now putting me in the position of trying to find out what happened through the company and try to solve it and by doing so I am shorting MY customers who came into the store. People assume that since we all work for the same company we all have access to the same information. Because so many people are now shopping on line, stores are cutting back on physical help so now the problem has a new wrinkle. You are right in the respect that you should have had a confirmation email, maybe the call center did not have the right to send a confirmation email or even the access to the file to do so. I am hoping the company is using this as a learning tool but more than likely someone just got fired. Bad company set up. Sorry you hit a nerve. I am really getting sick of being yelled at for things that are not my fault and not thanked when I go out of the way to help.

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    1. Oh…I get the being yelled at thing, for something not your fault (that’s being a parent….) but companies, especially large one which are strictly consumer based, should have a really good protocol in place to deal with situations. What really frustrated me was the reluctance to give me a supervisor. If someone can’t fix something, send me to someone with more knowledge/ greater authority.

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      1. As I am one of those people who would be called a supervisor I know people want the problem solved right then and there and it is my job to make them as happy as possible. I find that the nicer I am with customers or with reps when I have a problem, the better results I get. Unfortunately, there are very few training programs for customer service and it has a high turnover. Dealing with big companies ( which I work at) has taken the human contact out of the equation and we are all suffering. It is very frustrating I feel your aggravation.

        Liked by 1 person

  7. I once spent over an hour on the phone with a CSR for Sprint, trying to sort out my phone bill after they overcharged me when I added a new line to my plan.

    She hemmed, she hawed, she detailed out to me what she could see on her screen. Eventually, we agreed that my billing was a mistake. I asked her to adjust the bill accordingly.

    I think that translated through to ‘I want to offer blood sacrifice using your first born…’

    she was so horrified at the possibility of MATH – I ended up prorating the bill for her…did all the calculations and told her what number to put in the credit box.

    When I got my bill next month, the credit was there, and a higher number than I’d quoted her. Guess they decided to pay me a little extra for doing her job for her.

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  8. Customer service is one of my biggest pet peeves. I will never completely understand how companies can manage to stay in business if their service is crap. We just keep lowering our standards. Service, quality, basic human decency… yeah, I totally understand where you are coming from.

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  9. Oh my god how I hate talking to customer (dis)service. I always assume I have to invest at least an hour and not just a few brain cells. Your request seems pretty straight forward, reasonable, and doable… what could go wrong? Good suggestion about contacting people at the top. The last thing they want is to spend their time dealing with customers so they are motivated to make you go away.

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  12. LOL on your husband preferring to walk the dog, that would have been my choice too 🙂 I hope your item arrives in a timely manner on the day it’s supposed to. You shall have to tell us how you like it 🙂

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  16. This reminds me of a call I made when I needed help setting up my wireless printer. It was so very long and frustrating not being helped by customer support. Equally frustrating calling to make a doctor’s appointment and getting a recording to leave your name and number for a call back that may not come until the next day. Why can’t anyone answer the phone any more?

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  17. Fight the good fight! Just yesterday I found myself shouting the f-word AT A MACHINE in order to actually even get a real human. I finally beat it and the human who finally timidly said he thought he could help. I got what I wanted, but it was almost not worth it.

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  18. That does sound very frustrating indeed. Sometimes I can’t fathom why some online stores cannot do simple things like what you just described up there, or even ‘calling up the customer before they attempt delivery’. I don’t know how many times I must have missed a delivery because Amazon didn’t have a policy of calling up their customers, and then making frantic phonecalls to have it resent, and then wait the whole damn day at home so I can receive just one package! Please let us know what happened next. I hope you get your confirmation today 🙂

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  19. I’m with you… just tell me why you can’t do something so I understand and I will be fine but to give me the run around with no answer is unacceptable. Good for you for contacting the Exec’s… they obviously don’t know what is going on within their company. Most people just give up and then things never get fixed because Exec’s don’t know what happening!

    There are 4 different generations in the workforce right now and people working with the public need to understand how to deal with different generations because what they each want to know/experience is completely different!

    PS I liked The Nest but not the ending (I would give it 3 stars)… Am now reading Dan Brown’s new book and love it!!!

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