customer service
I just spent the last 20 minutes on the phone canceling my qwest service at our house. Those many minutes on hold led me to start thinking about customer service, or the lack thereof. Can you think of a place you’ve been recently that has offered you terrific customer service? All I can think of is places that I refuse to go because they’ve treated me so poorly (Circuit City!) I understand that working in retail can have it’s difficult moments, but I also understand that every human being is entitled to a certain amount of respect. And I don’t feel bad about expecting it.
I’ve been thinking about this because of my recent debacle with my internet, phone and television service. We decided to stop paying for both home and cell phone service and go cell only. Because of that, we thought we’d just switch over to cable for our television and internet (hence the canceling of qwest.) I was in California when the cable guy came to hook up our service. I asked Jim to record Grey’s Anatomy for me because I’d be flying home when it aired. He thought that he got it recorded, but when we got home, we couldn’t figure out how to access it. So the next day I called Bresnan to ask them how to access my show and discovered that we don’t even have a DVR.
Apparently they’re out of DVR’s. Of course the installer didn’t bother to tell Jim that we weren’t getting a DVR. Wasn’t that nice of him? I have to admit that I felt really silly about throwing a fit about my television service. It’s not like we’re without heat or something. But if I’m paying for it, and if I’m told I’m going to have a service, I expect to get what I’m paying for. It’s not that hard. They did offer minimal compensation, but in the meantime, we’re without a DVR.
The biggest problem is that I haven’t watched Martha all week and I’m starting to go through withdrawls!
Category: daily 6 comments »
February 24th, 2006 at 10:49 am
you know, i was just having this conversation with a friend of mine. i don’t think customer service even exists anymore. example: i called the nat’l 800 # for HR Block because i got a letter that there was a mistake in my 2004 filing and i owe money and they’re the ones who did it. after waiting over 18 minutes to finally speak to someone, the cust. service guy i got must’ve said, “well, bless your heart” in this thick southern accent about 5 times. (in case you don’t know – that’s southern speak for f*ck you or go to hell) i asked him to stop saying it and he acted like he didn’t know what i was talking about, bless my heart. so frustrating.
February 24th, 2006 at 12:36 pm
As a bright spot … We ordered furniture from Ikea and it was delivered on Wednesday. Well, it was a lot of stuff and we are just now getting around to opening some of the boxes. One of the mirrored doors was scratched. Hubs called and left them a msg with our delivery order # and what was wrong. They called back within a couple of hours and said …”When would it be okay for us to deliver a new door and pick up the scratched one?” No questions – no … what’s your address … they had all of their stuff together.
Oh, and they have baby changing stations in the MEN’s restrooms.
I happen to really like their meatballs to – but that has nothing to do with customer service really.
I do IKEA like you do Old Navy :)
Okay, off to put together more bookcases …
February 24th, 2006 at 2:06 pm
I’m in customer service, which makes me the toughest customer service critic on the planet. Like, I understand that we’re all down because the last thirty people have treated us like sh*t(which, trust me they have, this is not one sided negativity), but we’re paid to be nice, so we have to suck it up for the next guy. Could I have used more commas in that sentence? I find if I refuse to go somewhere because the customer service stinks, I tell them and I tell everyone else I know. The closest yarn store here is about 60 miles away, and as people I know were learning to knit they would ask me about it and I would tell them not to go there. The owner actually used to stand in front of me when I came in the store to make it hard for me to buy anything. I think she thought I was planning to steal stuff. But one day I had to get something that had to be done for a project right away, and so I sucked it up and went there and the new clerk was really nice and I told her that. She said that the store was about to go out of business because there customer service was so bad that nobody came, and so they were trying to change that. I actually felt a little triumphant, I had a hand in that. I told everyone about it and we all laughed, but we all try to shop there whenever they can because theyare so nice.
Oh, my point, businesses absolutely learn if everyone has the fortitude to show them.
February 24th, 2006 at 2:24 pm
The BellCanada guy called me a liar when I told him I had called five months before to change my service and I just noticed it hadn’t happened and we overpaid about $120. I was about 8 months pregnant at the time and hormones made me get really nasty to him on the phone.
I just realized you asked for nice customer service. Yes, I have received nice customer service. I was supposed to fly out to Florida (American Airlines, I think) at the end of December but I had to cancel and was regretting having to pay a cancellation fee but when I called, the lady took charge and the only money I was out was the $15 Expedia fee.
February 24th, 2006 at 2:37 pm
Yeah, I hear ya and I agree, you should get what you pay for and if you’re not getting what you paid for, you should be told at the very least!
I was thinking about you yesterday as I went to return TWO pairs of sunglassed from different stores that had warped lenses. (I really hate returning stuff, actually!) Fortunately though the people who helped me actually helped me and I’m not so scared of returning stuff any more : ).
February 24th, 2006 at 10:53 pm
Customer service is dead unless you go to small midwestern/southern towns.