By the time I reach an actual person, nine times out of ten I've been on hold for more than 30 minutes and I AM GRUMPY. Sick to death of their endlessly looping on-hold muzak.
Poor them. I know, Covid has walloped their staffing.
Still... poorer me.
Before Christmas, I responded to an ad (nice clothing company, not LL Bean) inviting me to shop and get "30 percent off the highest priced item in your cart."
I love their clothing and so I ordered a cozy bathrobe. More than $100, but with the discount, more affordable. A lovely gift for my son-in-law.
So I called their customer support and spoke to "Adam." Gave him the order number which he dutifully looked up.
Well, of course, he said, I didn't GET a discount because I only had ONE item in the cart.
Huh?
Yup, he told me. "Highest priced item" means there have to be more than one.
I'd been on one too many holds in the last few months and I... fell silent.
"Seriously?" I asked.
"Seriously," he said.
And off I went on a rant about how this was false advertising, bait and switch, word parsing, etc. and...
He actually laughed at me. Clearly unimpressed.
THEN I said I would be calling a friend who's an investigative journalist (not lying, as you all know). She might be interested in doing a story about this bait-and-switch. Surely I wasn't the only customer who'd been snookered.
He fell silent. Then said he needed to put me on hold.
And spit-spot, he connected me with a supervisor. Who put me on hold for a bit, and then came back on to say the problem had been "taken care of" and I should see the discounted amount refunded. (And I did.)
Take that, Adam.
Have you been battling with "customer service" and who's coming out on top?
Oh, good grief . . . I’m so glad you got them to give you the discount you were supposed to have in the first place; that certainly was being sneaky on their part . . . if you must buy two items, then they should actually say that.
ReplyDeleteGenerally, dealing with customer service is aggravating and not designed to be at all helpful. But, when I finally get to a real person, I can usually manage to get my problem taken care of . . . unless I’m calling about the computer . . . those folks don’t seem to know the meaning of the word “help.”
And that’s especially if you’re dealing with the customer service online “chat” help where you type in what you need help with . . . the chat person tells me what to do to fix the problem, it doesn’t work, they drop out of the chat, and then I get an email message asking me if their service fixed my computer problem. Well, no; nothing’s changed . . . .
Soooooo frustrating.
Sometimes that "chat" is canned responses... NEVER helpful. Except to delay you.
DeleteI'm dealing with that now - those chat.
DeleteI have, this month, spent WHOLE DAYS on hold. And on typed "chats." I will only say that, if I were looking for a motive for a murder....
ReplyDeleteI'm right there with you, Ellen. I was once on hold for TWO HOURS and at the stroke of 5:00 the call terminated.
DeleteThat happened to me about a week ago.
DeleteHALLIE/ELLEN: Yes, that is so frustrating. I hate to call out the Government of Canada phone system does that all the time. On hold for 90 minutes to 2 hours, and then disconnected.
DeleteI will eventually have to call the CRA (Canada's version of IRS) to get help to file my dad's taxes this April.
HALLIE: Good for you! Using the HANK threat worked again!
ReplyDeleteYes, like you, I have been on customer service hold (hell) many times over the past few months with insurance, banks, post office, pension, phone companies trying to close my late dad's accounts.
As his executor and sole surviving family member, I have all the paperwork and ID needed to get these things done. It is frustrating but also alarming how some companies are so lax in asking for proof, where others are drowning me in digital paperwork to make some progress. Banks have been the worst. How can banks make billions of $ in profit every quarter, and yet, have such poor customer service?
Everyone should have to execute a will ... then maybe they'd find a way to make it more humane and speedy. And don't get me started on notaries who feel they have to UNDERSTAND every page of a 10-page form you got from a financial institution and don't even understand yourself except that it needs to be notarized.
DeleteThat is not the notary's business. They only need to verify that you are you and that you have either signed the document in front of them or have acknowledged that the signature on it is yours. (Guess who is a notary.)
DeleteThat sounds like a petty power play on the part of the notary, Hallie. Shame on them.
DeleteEmpathy from customer service would be nice but COMPETENCY is what I am looking for. The banks first told me all the liquidation/transfer of my dad's accounts would take 5 business days after I signed the first set of paperwork. More than 2.5 months later, the estate liquidation process has been completed. NOTE: All these delays happened between October-December before omicron started decimating staff. I hate to think how much worse it would be now.
DeleteHALLIE: Sorry about your problems with the notaries.
Oh, my God, the financial stuff is the WORST. I was the only beneficiary of Ross's 401(k) and IRAs, but the hoops I had to jump through to prove I was me, we had been married, he was dead... I was tempted to roll the IRAs over to a different company after they had FINALLY been transferred to my name, just because it had been such a hassle dealing with them.
DeleteJulia, more people should do that...remove business from a company that has made it difficult for them. We've done it. We had accounts with a particular brokerage and then we felt that we'd been talked into things because it meant more of a bonus for the broker. So, we moved the accounts. Never was sorry to have done that.
DeleteJulia, might not have mattered what company you were with. The problems we had settling my father's IRA were stupid and much of that came out of corporate counsel's office. Not where you expect wrong answers to emerge but there you are. I had to get a notarization for some of the paperwork required by the corporate attorney. Notaries aren't done in the same way in Canada. I had to find a service. It cost $50. And then it was the wrong paperwork....
DeleteJULIA and JUDY: Exactly! I transferred the money from my dad's RRIF (similar to your IRA) from the bank's account to my investment account the same day the transfer happened. They are not keeping my business after all that hassle and delays!
DeleteMy pandemic achievements, besides reading two 700 page books in a week, have included developing work-arounds to avoid being on hold. Although not always successful, this has been a worth-while effort.
ReplyDeleteFor the pharmacy, when I need to talk to a real person, I've discovered calling the curbside pick up line means I never ever get put on hold. An honest-t0=God human being answers the phone. Halleluiah!
For my doctor, who sold his private practice to one of the big medical complexes in Rochester, I no longer call at all. I send an e mail with any non-emergent questions, and I can make an appointment via MyCare/MyChart. By the way, I'm seriously into telemedicine visits. Before I have one of these, I take my own vital signs so I can relay that info. Pretty much anything else can be done from my recliner in front of my laptop.
And the best work around of all?
I let Julie deal with everything else!
Workaround for getting through the first set of hurdles they put up: I learned from my daughter, KEEP PRESSING 0 - no matter what they're asking you press 0 and you'll get transferred to a person (or put on hold... waiting for that person)
DeleteI have tried that before, Hallie, and immediately got disconnected!
DeleteSmaller companies are more difficult to succeed with that "keep pressing 0" tactic, in my experience.
DeleteI’ve tried that, only to get a canned message that “that is not a valid number”.
DeleteDebRo
I press "0" too. Sometimes you get a quicker response or a live person.
DeleteI love "The Threat of Hank" as a tool! Maybe I should use that with the Boston Globe, who cannot seem to get our newspaper to us reliably. Last week I was on hold for 35 min waiting for a manager. When they came on the phone, it turned out they managed customer service, NOT distribution. Grr! Plus they are raising the price of home delivery. I love my daily paper (actually, we also get the local local one) and do not want to cancel, but I've been on the verge more than once this year.
ReplyDeleteI will give full kudos to LL Bean, who always picks up immediately with a real human who speaks English I can understand. Always.
Can I just say, I have a wonderful BOSTON GLOBE delivery person - Ny Mahasedeth (not sure if I'm spelling it right) - and always there before I get up which these days is ridiculously earlier. Also my experience with the Globe (and the NY Times) on delivery service has been pretty positive.
DeleteAfter my father-in-law died we suddenly and mysteriously started getting a morning Cincinnati Enquirer. I did not subscribe because he always brought over his Sunday paper after he'd read it. Because we didn't subscribe, the Enquirer had no way of knowing how we could stop delivery, like for vacation. I talked to at least a half dozen people over the course of over a year. And then finally the delivery stopped, with no more reason than it had begun.
DeleteProbably whatever credit card it was getting billed to stopped being valid...
DeleteI have to confess - I have a newspaper subscription I rarely have time to read (between us, the Maine Millennial and I have three) and the only way to unsubscribe is to call during East Coast working hours and talk to a person who has been trained to do ANYTHING to keep you talking until you agree to reup. I had an awful experience last time I wanted to quit, wound up re-upping at a new low rate that then converted into an increasingly higher rate.
DeleteBut this month, my credit card expired! I'm using it as a chance to get rid of many of the accumulated subscriptions I've taken on over the past several years. Can't bill me if the card's dead.
Julia, I've done the same thing--old card-ha! End of problem!
DeleteJulia, Flora, me too! I've done that, too.
DeleteWe're at the breakfast table this morning discussing today's blog post and Irwin's first question was, "Who was the retailer?" I do not expect you to tell us, Hallie. But it certainly is possible that one of us could fall into the same trap. It's also possible that the rest of us will start mentioning Hank when we have problems from here on!
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, I was on hold for 45 minutes trying to schedule my mammogram. That's a record. But some things just need to be done. In that case I put the phone on speaker so I didn't have to hold it to my ear for 45 minutes.
Edith, our newspaper delivery guy had to take time off and the new person was throwing our paper UNDER the car parked on the driveway. After a week of that disrespect, I called the paper which seems to have outsourced delivery issue conversations to somewhere in the middle of the Pacifiic Ocean, not Hawaii. After 10 minutes of explaining that it was not a good thing for the newspaper to be thrown under the car, she finally got it. To my surprise, the paper is now delivered to the front walk. Persistence sometimes pays. And, Edith, LLBEAN and their customer service is the best!
I've found with delivery people, it pays to tip well. Remember how poorly paid they are, and how nice it is to just look out your front door and see, there on your snowy front walk, a newspaper.
DeleteI no longer allow print editions into my house. I get all subscriptions on line.
DeleteThe only thing I can add to this is that being on hold on my cell phone is infinitely better than being on hold on an old fashioned, wall-mounted land line! Nowadays, I carry my phone inn my pocket and use my earbuds, so that I can carry on with whatever I'm doing while waiting for my call to be answered by an actual human [insert facepalm emoji here]
ReplyDeleteI'm hopeless with earbuds - I find it means I don't hear as well which makes me accident prone - didn't realize how much I rely on my hearing to judge thigs like distances...
DeleteI am pleased to say that Spectrum's customer service is excellent! I never had to wait on hold for more than a minute. Except yesterday I was told there would be a wait for 13 to 19 minutes but they would call me when my place in line was reached. And they did! I've had the experience with other companies that must have "lost" my number because they never called back. Not only did Spectrum call me back exactly when they said they would but the tech I spoke to was very helpful, something I have noticed with all of their customer service people.
ReplyDeleteTo me, even worse than being on hold forever (because at least there is hope) is explaining my problem in detail only to be told they would connect me to someone else, again waiting forever, and then having to go all through the problem in detail. They always want us to go to the website and the FAQs will answer most of our problems. No, they will not.
It never occurred to me to threaten a company with "my friend, the TV investigator," but I did threaten with NY state attorney general. The representative I spoke with didn't care what I did, their rules must be followed. A week later, the attorney general told the company to make it right. Actually, I don't know what the AG told them, but I got my money.
Bravo! Wondering if you ended up "on hold" getting through to the attorney general?
DeleteLast year, when I couldn't get consistent advice about a state problem and a rep said, well, call the governor, I DID. Left a recorded message saying "I vote," and got a call back the next day, problem was resolved within 24 hours!
DeleteNo, Hallie, much worse than that: I had to complete a form and I went into a lengthy page and a half detail of who I spoke to and when and what exactly was said. Then I went to find the documentation I needed to include and when I got back to the computer, everything was gone! Just a message saying Session Timed Out. You can imagine the frustration. Did I even want to bother doing it all again? Well, $115 was at stake so I decided to have a bite of lunch and then write out in longhand just what I wanted to say. At least I had the documentation handy so I sent it in. In no time at all I received a confirmation letting me know my matter would be looked into. And exactly one week after that a representative of the company called me to let me know he had "directed someone to resolve my issue." Within 10 business days I had a gift card. I guess they don't send out checks.
DeleteEllen, I had to laugh when you mentioned calling your governor. Maybe I would have got similar results calling mine, but I'm afraid the governor of NY probably had other worries on his mind at the time.
Hallie, as if you didn't have enough stress already! I'm sorry you're going through such madness right now.
ReplyDeleteJust last week I had three nightmare service issues. Sirius XM was on my daughter's car when I bought it from her, so I kept it. It's handy to have on trips, and Sirius made me a nice offer, only $6 and change a month. In November the price went to $24 a month without warning. I decided to cancel (we aren't traveling much, anyway). There is NO WAY to cancel on their site. You have to call and speak to a "representative", aka, a high pressure salesperson who won't let you ever cancel. Except they never answer the call.
The second service issue is an ongoing problem with one FedEx delivery guy, who I've actually seen TOSS a package to the ground out at the road near our rural mailbox, over 200 feet from the house. We have the widest driveway on the road, and every other truck driver manages to negotiate it. One of the packages was a box of Christmas presents, worth over $300--out by the road, where anyone could stop and pick it up, or worse, someone could drive over it.
FedEx has a way of letting you designate a delivery spot--I think--but you have to have an account. So I signed up for one, going through all the rigamarole they require, only to have it all done, get signed on, and find... a 10-business day wait for a SNAIL MAIL passcode for using their site. Which I am still waiting for.
In November I took my mother out to lunch and we had to wrestle her walker up to a too-big table in a crowded restaurant so it would fit. While we were waiting I noticed a lady at the next table with a fantastic three-wheeled walker that folds flat and could sit snug up to the table without getting in the road. We asked her about it, and Mother decided she wanted one.
I looked up a place online and placed an order, using her credit card, but with my email contact info. Never got a confirmation, could not find any information that said our order had gone through. Mother is 92, she doesn't have years to wait for stuff, and she asked me nearly every day about it. Finally, two weeks later we decided to put it a new order, this time using my credit card (and a transposed address, which we wouldn't find out for awhile). Lots of drama, blah, blah, many inscrutable messages from the company, lots of "delivery dates" that came and went. Upshot: Saturday she received TWO walkers, one of which went to the wrong house on their street. Mother is thrilled. Now she has mobility everywhere she needs it.
And I'm a nervous wreck.
Karen: I am sorry for these troubles, but, oh my, your post made me chuckle. Horrid stories so well told!
DeleteOh gosh... what a nightmare.. and you get billed for two?
DeleteI agree with Amanda, Karen - awful experiences, but terrific stories!
DeleteYes, we got billed for both of them.
DeleteAnd thank you for the compliments. Blushing.
Karen, Sirius XM is the worst. We decided right away not to keep the subscription once the free period for the 2015 Toyota expired. They bugged us for months. Then, another Judy Singer in town (same zip code as ours) stopped paying on her account for her Audi. They called. They threatened. They emailed threats. I reported them everywhere. I called them to tell them it was a different person. They gave me codes to use to let people know it wasn't us then they disregarded the codes. They continued to harass. Finally, I blocked their email and I stopped answering their calls. I think that was my worst experience. One time I told them to just cancel the account on the Audi since they wouldn't believe it wasn't me. Argh!
DeleteHa! Happy to be of theoretical service! What a terrible job being a customer service person must be… The only people you talk to you are angry, and you have absolutely no power. So awful! Once, when we were going on vacation, the airline company called us to tell us our flight had been canceled, and we had been rebooked. I was so unhappy, and so frustrated, and her rebooking would not have worked. I was so mad! And I started to think about yelling…
ReplyDeleteBut then I realized something —and I said to her oh my golly, your entire job is calling people to tell them their flights have been canceled? And she said yes it is. And I said oh that is the worst thing I ever heard, and she agreed that it was not too much fun.
But back to your discount. One of the problems, after you get someone to answer finally, is that they have a set of things they are supposed to say, and using their common sense is not something they are really allowed to do. And think of how unmotivated they might be to do anything else but get you off the phone, you know? So if they just say no, and you accept that, they win. Simply because they don’t have to talk to you anymore.
How many times have I sat on the phone yelling “operator operator operator” or “agent agent agent” ? Way too many!
Hank, you are a generous soul. I do think those things... and I try not to be unpleasant because that really doesn't get you what you want and gives you a stomach ache.
DeleteI am TOTALLY going to invoke the Name of Hank next time I run into a consumer snafu...
DeleteA nightmare scenario for me is to have to speak instead of pressing a number. My voice shakes enough normally, but when I'm under stress it is so much worse, and electronic voice recognition does NOT work. It's enormously frustrating.
DeleteCustomer Service reps are judged by statistics, one is average call talk time, another is calls per hour. If either stat drops an agent can be fired. It can benefit the job holder to drop or ditch a call.
DeleteI am so sorry you had to endure that, and glad that invoked Hank was able to help! I've noticed an uptick in having to call customer service lately. Although I've been fortunate, and find most are helpful, I have great empathy for them. They often deal with the ragged edges of our anger and their only crime is trying to make a living. I usually remind myself that it is not their fault and try to find some common ground and find that helps.
ReplyDeleteHallie, I am so sorry, no one should be put through an extra layer of difficulty when dealing with loss. I won’t lay our my current wows only to say that it turns out changing prescription plans can be hell and is for me right now. Victor is on a pile of meds and trying to get them transferred from one pharmacy to the new one has been a phone marathon complete with the live person asking why was I calling when in fact they were calling me. Other than using Hank, which is a brilliant move Hallie, I have looking the company CEO and emailed him on Linkdin. Yes it worked. They can run, but even they cannot completely hide. Also a polite but tear jerking post on Facebook works nicely.
ReplyDeleteI've heard writing to CEOs works... Good for you! And via Google you usually can find out who to write to to file a complaint for any given company.
DeleteCelia, I was thinking of the saga of trying to get your Pelaton Tread delivered while reading Hallie's story.
DeleteToo many calls like these. I know the person's job sucks, but I'm asking for help they are supposed to provide. I try to be patient and kind. I don't always succeed. The worst is the 'chain of command' message. Leave your name and blah blah details and we'll return your call. If we don't, here is our supervisor's name and extension. Supervisor's extension, when called, repeats the same message, giving the supervisor's supervisor. And on up the chain you go, never once receiving a call back. I've asked my senator to intervene; we shall see how many more years it takes to resolve this particular problem.
ReplyDeleteResolve? RESOLVE? Oh wouldn't that be music to my ears. It's got to be financially better for them this way or they wouldn't set it up like this.
DeleteI’ve just switched phone carriers. I know all about customer service ( or lack thereof) especially Verizon who added rudeness to incompetence. But I did learn a trick! If you’ve called a company once and you remember press 1 or press 2 you can do it without listening to all the preamble. Satisfying!
ReplyDeleteHallie, I'm sorry you have to deal with this frustration.
ReplyDeleteNowadays, to contact customer service is done via email or chat. If you contact one, they tell you to do the other and vice versa and still you don't get the answer you need. And when you go to their website, there is NO phone number. Pisses me off. I'm giving this supplier one week and I'm cancelling my order. I should check to see if they are based in the Boston area, cause I'm going to do a "Hank"
Our "solution" has always been, " Let Dad call." "Dad" doesn't listen to anything when he is talking. He plows right into what he want's to say and keeps on talking. Most CS will give in before he does. I have adopted this method. I'm not polite, as they re not polite. I keep taking, and talking, repeating what I want to say. The idea of pressing "0" is good. Better yet, is going higher up the chain to the "top" and bombarding them with "bad" publicity on Face book or Instagram. Have used the AG line and works quite well too.
ReplyDeleteI think a man's voice is more likely to make an impression where a woman's voice gets tuned out. Not always. But more than not.
DeleteAnd can I just say TAKE NOTES, too - write down the name of the person you talk to ad the date, and what they said. I have a notebook by the phone for that very purpose. THEN when you write to the CEO or the next "helper' you can name all the times and dates and names... sometimes I think maybe begin my side of the call with , "This is Hallie Ephron, speaking on a recorded line. Can you please give me your name."
ReplyDeleteUgh, that is all so trying!
ReplyDeleteBanks are the worst. Ours finally raised the minimum-deposit-for-no-fee high enough that we decided to capitulate and pay chequing account fees. I called the bank and told the representative what the problem was and why I thought we needed a new account. She very happily accommodated this request for a new account. This meant changing about 10 automatic deposits and payments most of which required 30 days lead time. It took me about a week to figure out how all that needed be done and by then we were at month end, so there was that complication. She figured out that there was more paperwork because we both have US tax liability but we couldn't do the signatures electronically because my husband does not carry his own private cell phone and she couldn't take his electronic signature over my phone. That meant an appointment and a trip to the branch. Ok, now we are over two weeks in and I am juggling two accounts to ensure that the mortgage, car payments and taxes are paid correctly and that she has done all the things she needs to do. As all of the payments and deposits have been changed and checked she says, "We can just change your existing account to the new type." 15 days it took her to tell me that all we needed to do was an internal change on the bank's computer system. The real problem with all of this is that original account had been active for 35 years and when they closed it, all available record of it disappeared. This occasioned my second letter to the management of this bank. Train your people!
I have give a positive shout out to the US Social Security Administration. In the early days of lockdown, a real person answered the phone, set up a second call, told me exactly how that call would go. They asked and answered all kinds of questions that assured me I was actually taking to the SSA. Did what I asked them to do and it has all worked without a glitch.
CD, this is reassuring to hear. I've been delaying calling the SSA to apply for my widow's benefits because I've been dreading trying to do it over the phone. The rare times I've had to deal with them, I went to our local office (closed to the pandemic, of course) and they were very easy to deal with in person.
DeleteJulia, Go for it. Check it off the list.
DeleteOh, and I'll add to the small list of companies with great customer service: USAA. I've had my insurance through them since I was first-time car owner, and I wouldn't use any other company.
ReplyDeleteI listen to our insurance coordinator calling various companies all day long. There are times she is on hold for 30 minutes waiting for a person to answer her call so she could verify coverage for a patient. Waiting for a live person is bad enough but she is our Spanish speaking person, so there are times she needs to hang up in order to speak with a Spanish speaking patient. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteI called my pharmacy the early last week to order one of my prescriptions. I followed the prompts, using the keypad to enter my birthdate. The computer system repeated back the date correctly only to tell me that they didn't have my date on file. I did get the prescription ordered using the actual prescription number. Fast forward to yesterday, new prescription needed, repeated the process only this time I verbally provided my birthdate, this time the system knew who I was. Surprise!
I had to use customer service chat the other day when a delivery was not at my house. I checked a few houses to see if the package was at their front door. No help. So, after waiting the requested 2 days to see if it showed up, I requested replacements. When informed the package was on the way, I requested delivery to my front door. Package delivered and photo provided as proof. that it was at my front door. It wasn't my front door. The Amazon delivery guy was still on the street, sorting items in back of his truck. I asked him where he delivered my package. He told me which house. "There are no numbers on the houses and Google maps told him the first house was my house." As I walked away, I said the numbers are on the mailboxes. Went to the neighbor's house, saw my little package, started up the dark walkway, only to trip over the lifted sidewalk and fell, full force, unable to stop myself, to the ground. After waiting a minute, using a nearby roof support post I got up, retrieved the package and carefully made my way back to the street. The driver went past me as I reached the street. He never once apologized for delivering to the wrong house.
What a frustrating experience, Deana!
DeleteIt used to be so easy. We knew our mail carrier, FedEx and UPS drivers by name, and they knew us, and they all knew that we had two addresses on their route. If they needed a signature they all knew to go to the other address to get one. Now, we do still know our awesome UPS driver, who has been our guy for 15+ years, and mostly our mail is delivered by Rita, but I've never seen the same driver twice for any other delivery service.
Well played! I wish we could all think so quickly and smartly.
ReplyDeleteThe only (lack of) customer service I've had to deal with that I've lost is when I had an issue with Amazon. The colossal gaping a-holes that that company is make it impossible to win with them. Thus for more than a year I didn't buy a single thing from them. But I had to buy from them again recently. UGH.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, my customer service interactions have been dutifully resolved in my favor so far.
Hurrah for your success, Hallie! I'm imagining Hank calling them in a video call, with all her Emmys on the shelves behind her.
ReplyDeleteWhere phones are concerned, I do like that I can just sign onto my AT&T account and turn off a device by one click, and I can turn it back on with one click, too. However, there is an issue I need to call them about, and I'll let you know how that goes. I remember some years ago needing to cancel my husband's Sprint account, and they informed me that only he could do that. Note for future, if it's in husband's name, lower my voice when I call.
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ReplyDeleteMy Mother had a problem like this once, but it was face to face not on the phone. She said, "My best friend's sister is a lawyer." Opened the drawer by landline phone, pulled out her phone book (not the yellow/white pages) and said, "You want me to call Bev now?" The vendor watched as Mom turned to the page with Bev's business card, and he left. Like Hallie and her investigative-journalist friend, Mom's Bev really was a lawyer and family friend. Would Hank mind if I named dropped "I know an investigative journalist" even though we've only met once? Hallie, next time you're on hold, tweet about it or something...odds are some of the rest of will be on hold with someone too...and we'll have an 'on-hold hell's afire' group party.
ReplyDeleteBravo, Hallie!!!! This is awesome! I’ve been fortunate and haven’t battled customer service lately but I have drawn a line of things I will not except. Number one is don’t waste my time. We looked into refinancing our mortgage lately because the rate offered was lower and it seemed the mature thing to do. Half way through the process, the big bank kept asking for the same info - three and four times. Finally, I said to them your system is terrible, you’re wasting my time, and no thank you. It was delicious.
ReplyDeleteWow, Hallie, you hit a nerve today! Which only proves that we are all having these experiences. My husband literally spent entire days - many days - trying to get cell phone family plan service moved to a different provider. Every so-called service person told him different things. Good thing he is now retired! My worst recent one was Delta Air, trying to cancel flight to New Orleans for Bouchercon. Y'all may remember that the con was cancelled! I wrote. I called. I did everything...and on the day of the flight, I was still getting messages about flight status. They simply did not accept that I WAS NOT GOING. And after, they asked for my reactions to their service.Really. So I told them. They apologized.
ReplyDeleteI am on hold to the closed captioning service. Means I wait 5-10 minutes before I can start the call, to then be on hold until Death Comes for the Maiden.
ReplyDeleteYears ago I put a comma instead of a period doing a bill pay to Verizon. When I called they said they don't issue checks. After a month or so of calls, a co-worker recommended I contact my legislator. In a day or two I had a check.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, when I worked for a bank and two departments at the State, we often got calls that weren't for our areas. Newsflash, employees most often don't know anymore about other areas than John Q. Public. We took our best guess and transferred them, sometimes multiple times. Once I was answering the bureau phones and transferred someone to every person in another department, only to find out later that none of them was working in our building that day! So getting a live person is not always a help.