I had to call customer service today to get a replacement credit card. Although I was dreading the call, it went well. I didn't wait a long time to talk to someone. Brad was very helpful. He understood my English and I understood his. I checked the calendar to be sure it was 2011 and not 1968. I had to go back and find something I wrote down several years ago to share. Please note that business names have been changed, where appropriate, to protect the innocent.
If you have a problem or question, please call our friendly customer service at 1-800-376-7333 (800 DROP DED). If you have ever had a problem with a product or service, you know that the adventure is only beginning when the problem is identified.
I have often wondered how companies decide what the hours of operation are going to be for their customer service department. My very first experience in this area was when I bought a new gas grill at Floormart several (many) years ago. Right on the assembly instruction booklet it said, “If you have questions or missing parts, do not contact the retailer where you purchased this item. Please call our customer service department at 1800 NO HELP, (or something like that) Monday thru Friday 8AM-5PM EST.” my immediate question was why aren’t they open evenings and weekends when I am at home, trying to put this thing together? When I finally got them, they were friendly, spoke understandable English, and had to send me my replacement glass piece only twice before I received it all in one piece!
A lot of companies have moved their customer service overseas. This may actually help with the time issue, but my people sometimes have problems understanding people from Atlanta, so India is a completely new paradigm for us. The only time I have ever had a real language barrier with someone in customer service, I finally asked her where she was.
“New Jersey,” she said.
Uh oh!
Living in a small town leads to its own set of customer service experiences. For years my Internet Service Provider (ISP) was a small, privately owned telephone company from a nearby town. A few years ago, they were bought out by a national company. To protect the innocent, and for other legal reasons, I will refer to this national company as Breezecreek.
Soon after they acquired my ISP, I got a nice email from their customer service department explaining some of the enhancements that they were going to roll out in the coming months. I was excited. Three months later, I got a nice email explaining that as of 1 April, they would be discontinuing ISP service to my area. This brought the concept of enhancement to a completely new level. This was one bit of advertising that was exactly as advertised. It died right on schedule.
What Breezecreek failed to tell me was the fact that they planned on continuing to bill my credit card AFTER 1 April. This is a wonderful business model if your customers don’t look at their bill. I did. As soon as I noticed this, I immediately called the number listed RIGHT ON MY BILL. After hearing several minutes of infomercials on what great products they had to offer, and how my business was SO important to them, I finally talked to Marie. She was courteous as could be and it only took about ten minutes (and several infomercials on hold) to figure out that I needed to talk to an entirely different toll-free number.
Lisa (at the new number) assured me that it was all taken care of. Great! Breezecreek only billed my credit card two more times before I finally got it cleared up.
In the late 60’s I worked at Homer Garrett’s Grocery in Hawkinsville GA. People like Ms Barker would call and tell me exactly what she wanted, (a quart of milk, a half-pound of good lean ground beef, three potatoes, not too big, a can of Green Giant green beans, etc.) and to bring change for a five. She would say when I was to deliver it too.
I would always be sure to include several dimes in her change because I knew she wouldn’t spend them. (She saved dimes for Christmas gifts for her grandchildren.) She’d complain by saying, “Billy, you know I’m on a fixed income, bringing me all these dimes. I declare, I won’t be able to eat the last week of this month.”
No, 40+ years ago you didn’t have to get abused in broken English by customer service via a bad phone connection to Pakistan. It could be delivered right to your kitchen table by a teenager with a bad case of acne.
Good morning Bill,
ReplyDeleteWhile we're on the topic of customer service I recently had an interesting experience. I ordered three books from Barnes & Noble, all paperbacks, to ensure the price exceeded $25 at which point I get free shipping. It was at 9 PM on a Saturday night when I received my confirmation e-mail. An hour or two later I had a change of heart and wanted to add an additional book that had just become available in paperback. So I went back on the Internet and tried to find a way to add to my order. Having no luck there I called their 800 number. I asked if I could add an additional book to the order. After some scrambling for an answer I was told no it was too late. I suggested that they could just take a separate order for the fourth book but waiver the shipping cost. That can’t be done either. And she was not from New Jersey! Disappointed I hung up.
After thinking about it for a bit I went back to the web and to my account and cancelled the order for the three books. I intended to order the same three books plus the one I had wanted to add before, but while in that process I received a confirmation e-mail on my cancellation that stated my credit card would not be charged. So I decided to wait and check my credit card. Days went by and the charge remained. Finally in order to get the books when I wanted them I decided to go ahead with my order and argue with Barnes & Noble over the double charge if necessary. Fortunately when the new charge was placed on my credit card the first one immediately went away.
So the moral to this story is if you have a charge on your credit card from a company that you want removed, the simple way is to put on an additional charge. Do you think it will work every time? Just saying!
Best regards – Phil
I know Customer Service Reps are just trying to earn an honest living, but...they absolutely drive me nuts with their inability to communicate in English and their ability to so thoroughly confuse the issues that I have hang up with no idea of why I called in the first place.
ReplyDeleteProgress.
Cuz Jean