Customer service

Blackmask · 03-06-2007, 10:09 PM

A couple of days ago I started having some problems with my email. Some messages would get through to me, others wouldn't, some emails I sent were bouncing back, some getting through, others not. The big indicator that something wasn't quite right in my email world was that the amount of junk email was decreasing each day.

Since I had this trouble, calling my service provider tech support seemed like a good idea. So for 2 days I have been trying to get in touch with technical support. I have called many different numbers. Technical support, which helpfully said they were busy and to call back later, which I did, only to get the same message multiple times. Tech support, please leave your number and we'll get back to you. Customer support, one day I was on hold for 2 hours before the phone eventually disconnected. Other days I gave up after listening to how important my call was for 15 minutes or so. I did find that if I called the "sales" number someone would answer the phone, when I asked for tech support or customer support they helpfully told me what numbers to call before agreeing that since they were so incompetent they would put me through to customer support.

Finally, after about 36 hours of trying to get through, tech support returned a call, at 10:45pm which I missed, but they did kindly leave a message suggesting I call the tech support number. I called, was put on hold for 15 minutes.

So with the prospect of spending another couple of days trying to get some technical support from my current provider, I have this morning been researching other providers. I have found one who will happily provide me with internet, mobile and landline phone services, and the internet will even be faster than I'm currently getting.

Does anyone else some customer service, or lack of service, stories to share? What did you do about it? Or do you just accept crap service as a way of life?

**MSFixR** · 03-06-2007, 10:25 PM

I'm afraid I don't have any horror stories to match yours. I use the school email and although the system has been hacked a couple of times, I haven't had any problems with it that haven't effected everyone else.
As far as hardware goes, my worse experience was calling Dell on the weekend and trying to convince someone in lower Bombay that I had a non run-of-the-mill problem which required hands-on attention.

03-06-2007, 10:55 PM

One time, last year, my work computer was on the fritz, something I couldn't fix myself and I was on the phone for about 1hr 30min. They answered quickly, maybe because it was customer support for businesses? Thing is, the guy was more helpless than I was, thumbing through page after page looking for a solution.

The place I work at is a small company, but we answer right away. When I have the time, I don't even let the phone ring more than twice. And we all pitch in with the customer support calls, and I'm the Graphic/Web Designer! Sometimes the developers/programmers pick up the phone but it's mostly me.

Just today I helped about 10+ people with their email/server/website issues, all satisfied.

Jeff · 03-06-2007, 10:57 PM

what the hell is customer service? That went out the window about 12 years ago when everyone decided to outsourse to the lowest bidder...

03-06-2007, 10:59 PM

I think the term changed to "customer support". The little companies still offer great quality service-- I mean "support."

Blackmask · 03-07-2007, 12:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff

what the hell is customer service? That went out the window about 12 years ago when everyone decided to outsourse to the lowest bidder...

Interesting isn't it considering the customer should be the most important person to a business since they are the one buying the product.

**Bill5461** · 03-07-2007, 07:02 AM

It's funny how they give all these reps in India American sounding names

Cat · 03-07-2007, 08:33 AM

I remember I was changing the internet provider last August/September. This one company were standing on my school's campus and were trying to get new costumers by giving students a great price for high speed internet. I was intrigued. The guy I talked to told me that I would get a wireless router for free if I switched providers today. So I did. I also got a Superman t-shirt.

After about a month, we got a router sent to our house - it was not wireless. We called costumer support, and after waiting in line for close to 20 minutes, they told us that we would get the wireless router in the mail in a couple of days. We did. However, when the first bill arrived we were charged for a wireless router, and the guy I talked to told us we would get it for free. So again, we called costumer service. After waiting for 15 minutes, we talked to some person who told us to hold on a little longer while she forwarded us to someone who knew more about the billing. After about 15 more minutes he finally answered and told us we had to hold on while he went to talk to his boss - no one had ever heard they were giving away free wireless routers. After about 20 more minutes they told us we would have to pay the bill and then we'd get the money back for our router later. Let's just say it took us months and numerous calls to actually get it.

A bit later than this the company was voted one of the worst companies (in all ways possible - especially costumer support) in Norway. They cleaned up their act, and they're much easier to get in touch with now.

**open32** · 03-07-2007, 03:20 PM

Tech support is the worst. I know I got so frustrated when after I waited for 20 minutes to get someone on the line, after about 10 minutes he tells me I dont know whats wrong and just hangs up rather then putting on someone who does. I had to call back and wait again. This was for wireless networking.
-------------------
This is when I signed up for MLB.com, a way to watch sports games online. I wanted to cancel the monthly subscription service and I did it online but that had no effect, I was still getting charged, so I called up and nobody would help. They outsourced billing to some no name company. All they knew how to say was go do it online. My calling lasted about 3 days. In the end I wound up having to cancel my credit card.

Most of the people you call dont know what there doing. They have a pre written list of all the things they should do. Even more then not knowing what to do, the biggest problem is they just dont care. They dont care about you and most are outsourced so they dont care about the company. Im satisfied with telephone customer service about 1 in 50 times.

edawg99 · 03-07-2007, 04:54 PM

You should expect a long wait for customer support especially with internet providers. I have been lucky and never had to call one.

R@H · 03-07-2007, 06:13 PM

When I was in Ireland I had to write papers for certain subjects after a few weeks my laptop didnt work anymore I called my insurance which costed loads of money, I called Toshiba UK and then I called Toshiba Ireland. I received nothing whatsoever. So I let my dad call totally pissed off to the insurance company and after 4 MONTHS they finally came and repared the damn thing....4 MONTHS of the 6 MONTHS I was there...

Blackmask · 03-07-2007, 07:17 PM

When I was deciding on a new provider I was timing each of the ones I called to see how long it took to actually speak to a real person. When I called Optus I got one of those stupid speak to the machine services. Just getting one of them was enough for me to think twice about Optus, when the sales guy then kindly explained that they are improving that system, another way of saying "avoiding even further actually speaking to customers" that was enough to cut Optus of my possibility list.

The provider I ended up going to had a good website with easy to find information, I speaking to a real person within 2 minutes, there's no contract so I can change any time I like, there were no set up fees and they provided me with a free modem since they prefer customers to use a modem their tech team can support. Their prices were also competitive, but it was the customer service that was the final decision maker for me.

SilverSpoon · 03-07-2007, 10:29 PM

When I worked at the supermarket, people would often ask me where to find stuff, and I'd be all "I'm not sure, let me go ask someone." I really didn't know the store very well, even after having worked there for about two years. Anyway, I run to the back, hide in the meat cooler and eat. The person eventually goes away.

**Jocasta** · 03-08-2007, 03:05 AM

And when I did get throught, a couple of times, it helped that I couldn't understand what the Customer Service rep was actually saying.

03-08-2007, 11:16 AM

This is how kick-arse our customer service is:

11:16am - Customer request the username/password for her admin section of her site.

11:24pm - The programmer checks the database but cannot find it, sends email to the CEO:

Quote:

S.M.:

Deana requests the ADMIN Access info.
I checked our database but could not find it.
I believe their ADMIN Access is hard-coded in the file, however I don’t have the FTP of this site, could you help to look up the FTP access of this site?

Thanks.

Y.H.

11:40am - CEO never responded, too busy with programming a back-end web interface, so I take charge, go into our system and look for the FTP info through our list of clients:

Quote:

Y.H.:
Domain: a******c******.com
usr: ************
pwd: ******

A.P.

11:43am - Y.H. FTP's into her domain, finds the PHP file with the password and sends it to the client:

Quote:

Deana:
Sorry for the delay.

Your Access Info is:
U: *****
P: *****

Y.H.

Within the hour, less than 30 minutes, the customer has the info she requested. If her info would have been in our database she would have had it in 7 minutes! Seven!

Could you ever imagine getting that type of support from Dell? Me neither.

I've tried retrieving my username/password to my Sallie Mae account a couple of times and they took forever!

"Customer Satisfaction is Our #1 Priority", and we mean it.

**Jocasta** · 03-08-2007, 11:23 AM

Stealthy, give me your number... please!!

03-06-2007, 10:09 PM	#1 (permalink)
Blackmask Protector of Inanity Join Date: May 2002 Location: Australia Posts: 6,158 My Profile	Customer service A couple of days ago I started having some problems with my email. Some messages would get through to me, others wouldn't, some emails I sent were bouncing back, some getting through, others not. The big indicator that something wasn't quite right in my email world was that the amount of junk email was decreasing each day. Since I had this trouble, calling my service provider tech support seemed like a good idea. So for 2 days I have been trying to get in touch with technical support. I have called many different numbers. Technical support, which helpfully said they were busy and to call back later, which I did, only to get the same message multiple times. Tech support, please leave your number and we'll get back to you. Customer support, one day I was on hold for 2 hours before the phone eventually disconnected. Other days I gave up after listening to how important my call was for 15 minutes or so. I did find that if I called the "sales" number someone would answer the phone, when I asked for tech support or customer support they helpfully told me what numbers to call before agreeing that since they were so incompetent they would put me through to customer support. Finally, after about 36 hours of trying to get through, tech support returned a call, at 10:45pm which I missed, but they did kindly leave a message suggesting I call the tech support number. I called, was put on hold for 15 minutes. So with the prospect of spending another couple of days trying to get some technical support from my current provider, I have this morning been researching other providers. I have found one who will happily provide me with internet, mobile and landline phone services, and the internet will even be faster than I'm currently getting. Does anyone else some customer service, or lack of service, stories to share? What did you do about it? Or do you just accept crap service as a way of life?

03-06-2007, 10:55 PM	#3 (permalink)
Midnight Posts: n/a	One time, last year, my work computer was on the fritz, something I couldn't fix myself and I was on the phone for about 1hr 30min. They answered quickly, maybe because it was customer support for businesses? Thing is, the guy was more helpless than I was, thumbing through page after page looking for a solution. The place I work at is a small company, but we answer right away. When I have the time, I don't even let the phone ring more than twice. And we all pitch in with the customer support calls, and I'm the Graphic/Web Designer! Sometimes the developers/programmers pick up the phone but it's mostly me. Just today I helped about 10+ people with their email/server/website issues, all satisfied. Last edited by Midnight : 03-06-2007 at 10:57 PM.

03-07-2007, 03:20 PM	#9 (permalink)
open32 Administrator Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: South Florida Posts: 7,821 My Profile	Tech support is the worst. I know I got so frustrated when after I waited for 20 minutes to get someone on the line, after about 10 minutes he tells me I dont know whats wrong and just hangs up rather then putting on someone who does. I had to call back and wait again. This was for wireless networking. ------------------- This is when I signed up for MLB.com, a way to watch sports games online. I wanted to cancel the monthly subscription service and I did it online but that had no effect, I was still getting charged, so I called up and nobody would help. They outsourced billing to some no name company. All they knew how to say was go do it online. My calling lasted about 3 days. In the end I wound up having to cancel my credit card. Most of the people you call dont know what there doing. They have a pre written list of all the things they should do. Even more then not knowing what to do, the biggest problem is they just dont care. They dont care about you and most are outsourced so they dont care about the company. Im satisfied with telephone customer service about 1 in 50 times. Last edited by open32 : 03-07-2007 at 03:23 PM.

03-08-2007, 03:05 AM	#14 (permalink)
Jocasta Love Charlie Babbitt Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Shaftesbury Avenue Posts: 18,617 My Profile	And when I did get throught, a couple of times, it helped that I couldn't understand what the Customer Service rep was actually saying. Last edited by Jocasta : 03-08-2007 at 03:06 AM.

03-06-2007, 10:25 PM	#2 (permalink)
MSFixR Science Boy Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Dante's Inferno, Circle 4 Posts: 9,590 My Profile	I'm afraid I don't have any horror stories to match yours. I use the school email and although the system has been hacked a couple of times, I haven't had any problems with it that haven't effected everyone else. As far as hardware goes, my worse experience was calling Dell on the weekend and trying to convince someone in lower Bombay that I had a non run-of-the-mill problem which required hands-on attention.

03-06-2007, 10:57 PM	#4 (permalink)
Jeff The Former Owner - now just a poster! Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: New Hampshire Posts: 3,169 My Profile	what the hell is customer service? That went out the window about 12 years ago when everyone decided to outsourse to the lowest bidder...

03-06-2007, 10:59 PM	#5 (permalink)
Midnight Posts: n/a	I think the term changed to "customer support". The little companies still offer great quality service-- I mean "support."

03-07-2007, 07:02 AM	#7 (permalink)
Bill5461 Scarlett Mod Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Upstate New York Posts: 12,722 My Profile	It's funny how they give all these reps in India American sounding names

03-07-2007, 08:33 AM	#8 (permalink)
Cat Bloomin' crazy Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Norway Posts: 1,979 My Profile	I remember I was changing the internet provider last August/September. This one company were standing on my school's campus and were trying to get new costumers by giving students a great price for high speed internet. I was intrigued. The guy I talked to told me that I would get a wireless router for free if I switched providers today. So I did. I also got a Superman t-shirt. After about a month, we got a router sent to our house - it was not wireless. We called costumer support, and after waiting in line for close to 20 minutes, they told us that we would get the wireless router in the mail in a couple of days. We did. However, when the first bill arrived we were charged for a wireless router, and the guy I talked to told us we would get it for free. So again, we called costumer service. After waiting for 15 minutes, we talked to some person who told us to hold on a little longer while she forwarded us to someone who knew more about the billing. After about 15 more minutes he finally answered and told us we had to hold on while he went to talk to his boss - no one had ever heard they were giving away free wireless routers. After about 20 more minutes they told us we would have to pay the bill and then we'd get the money back for our router later. Let's just say it took us months and numerous calls to actually get it. A bit later than this the company was voted one of the worst companies (in all ways possible - especially costumer support) in Norway. They cleaned up their act, and they're much easier to get in touch with now.

03-07-2007, 04:54 PM	#10 (permalink)
edawg99 Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Canada Posts: 8,583 My Profile	You should expect a long wait for customer support especially with internet providers. I have been lucky and never had to call one.

03-07-2007, 06:13 PM	#11 (permalink)
R@H Lovin' it Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 2,907 My Profile	When I was in Ireland I had to write papers for certain subjects after a few weeks my laptop didnt work anymore I called my insurance which costed loads of money, I called Toshiba UK and then I called Toshiba Ireland. I received nothing whatsoever. So I let my dad call totally pissed off to the insurance company and after 4 MONTHS they finally came and repared the damn thing....4 MONTHS of the 6 MONTHS I was there...

03-07-2007, 07:17 PM	#12 (permalink)
Blackmask Protector of Inanity Join Date: May 2002 Location: Australia Posts: 6,158 My Profile	When I was deciding on a new provider I was timing each of the ones I called to see how long it took to actually speak to a real person. When I called Optus I got one of those stupid speak to the machine services. Just getting one of them was enough for me to think twice about Optus, when the sales guy then kindly explained that they are improving that system, another way of saying "avoiding even further actually speaking to customers" that was enough to cut Optus of my possibility list. The provider I ended up going to had a good website with easy to find information, I speaking to a real person within 2 minutes, there's no contract so I can change any time I like, there were no set up fees and they provided me with a free modem since they prefer customers to use a modem their tech team can support. Their prices were also competitive, but it was the customer service that was the final decision maker for me.

03-07-2007, 10:29 PM	#13 (permalink)
SilverSpoon Kamen Rider Kiva Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: www.canofnothing.com Posts: 7,550	When I worked at the supermarket, people would often ask me where to find stuff, and I'd be all "I'm not sure, let me go ask someone." I really didn't know the store very well, even after having worked there for about two years. Anyway, I run to the back, hide in the meat cooler and eat. The person eventually goes away.

03-08-2007, 11:23 AM	#16 (permalink)
Jocasta Love Charlie Babbitt Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Shaftesbury Avenue Posts: 18,617 My Profile	Stealthy, give me your number... please!!

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