Forcing You To Call Customer Service

[Mulligan]

Probably an example of why ATT stock is lower now than 10 years ago. Here is another example... Two to three times a month, I receive snail mail from them inviting me to sign up for either Direct TV or their internet service. The trouble is I have been with Direct and T internet service for over 15 years already.
Wasting postage to get existing customers to sign up for something they already have. I wonder how many other thousands of customers they are wasting postage on also.

 

[MRG]

I used to have ATT. One day I asked to be transferred from one area of the company to another. They couldn't do it! I asked in amazement, "you are the phone company and you can't transfer me?". I quit them after that.

 

[ivinsfan]

Thank goodness for speakerphones right? Leave it on speaker and go about your business. I tried to call a certain company once. (can't remember who)..get thru the prompts on the waitlist and after 10minutes 15 seconds call drops. Blame it on my landline although landlines don't drop a lot of calls. Call back at 10 minutes 15 seconds get dumped again. Now I'm mad and call a third time.. rinse and repeat. Try again at a different time of day. Call picks up at around 9 minutes. First thing I do is complain about being dumped 3 times. Canned answer "oh we wouldn't do that"...!!!!!! It's one way to shorten the queues....

 

[Bir48die]

Comcast
Dish
Frontier
AT&T
Any Bank
Kaiser
CHAMPVA

Take your pick....I will say that my youngest son was a CS rep for a few years while trying to figure out his life. I try and separate the person from the company. I do get irritated when their CS gets farmed out to another country. I try and be nice but it's like "I can't understand you" and they're supposed to be speaking English.

 

[jollystomper]

Just my view. In the past, most companies never wanted to get a complaint in the first place, so they built and staffed and supported to try to avoid that in the first place. These days most companies believe that if someone has a problem with their service, (a) most will not complain nor stop do business with them, and (b) of the one that do, more than half will give up if the complaint process seems too difficult to them. This allows them to have minimal staff and save money accordingly.

My only approach, when I can, is to be willing to walk any and take my business elsewhere... even if it means paying more. And if it gets too difficult to reach someone in the normal process.. that when letters go to the company CEO and executives. Interestingly that, for us, has proven to be more responsive than we thought.

 

[scrabbler1]

What's also annoying about dealing with CS is even if you do manage to get through their maze of phone menus AND get to a human in a short amount of time AND explain the easy problem to solve, they still give you all kinds of sales pitches for additional, unwanted optional services. This happened with Optimum when my ladyfriend wanted to exchange her old cable TV box for a newer one because the old one wasn't working well. I was already an authorized user for her account, so I could go to the local office and make the swap at no charge. The rep put the request through just fine, but the call took twice as long because of all the sales pitch nonsense she had to listen to, pissing her off (she has less patience with CS than I do).

 

[athena53]

I try and separate the person from the company. I do get irritated when their CS gets farmed out to another country. I try and be nice but it's like "I can't understand you" and they're supposed to be speaking English.

I agree with both of these points. If the CS rep is forced to plod through a menu of actions ("re-boot your computer, them click on this link- did that work?") they can't change that. Similarly, if they have no power or authority to issue refunds or replacements, yelling at them won't change that. It's the fault of the employer.

As for accents- that's also a function of the employer and what they pay. I've worked with people from India who spoke more grammatically correct English than some people born in the USA. There are plenty of people, in India, at least, who speak lovely, understandable English. If the person has an undecipherable accent, it probably means the employees who are more fluent work in places that pay better,

 

[MRG]

I agree with both of these points. If the CS rep is forced to plod through a menu of actions ("re-boot your computer, them click on this link- did that work?") they can't change that. Similarly, if they have no power or authority to issue refunds or replacements, yelling at them won't change that. It's the fault of the employer.

As for accents- that's also a function of the employer and what they pay. I've worked with people from India who spoke more grammatically correct English than some people born in the USA. There are plenty of people, in India, at least, who speak lovely, understandable English. If the person has an undecipherable accent, it probably means the employees who are more fluent work in places that pay better,

+1 on accents and grammar. I spent some time when Megacorp was moving some development to India and Thailand. Just like their American counterparts they were rated on written and verbal communication skills. Better skills ment more opportunities and pay.

I've talked with American CS representatives who were absolutely not able to speak in a way I could understand them. Sad when you have to ask 5 times what their name is.

 

[sengsational]

"Your call is important to us.
Please stay on the line until your call
is no longer important to you."

Thank goodness for speakerphones right? Leave it on speaker and go about your business.

That's what I do, certainly. It would be nice if they offered a silent on-hold, that way it wouldn't even be a distraction. Unlike Tom Petty's lament, the waiting isn't the hardest part, though, it's getting anything productive done.


All of these posts and no suggestions for ways to publicly shame these horrific practices?


There should be a site where you can type in a phone number, rate the customer service, and write your horror story. It might be helpful for people who find themselves in a position where they forced into call...if they see a crummy rating, they can get mentally prepared to have an horrific experience.

 

[Walt34]

All of these posts and no suggestions for ways to publicly shame these horrific practices?

I have heard that posting on the major social media sites often gets results but have had no experience with that myself since I don't have accounts at Facebook, Twitter (the phrase "Twitter is for twits" comes to mind) Instagram, or whatever else the media of the month is.

I generally do what jollystomper does and take my business elsewhere when possible, but admittedly that's difficult when it's hard to decide which one is worse, if you even have a choice.

 

[jIMOh]

I used to have ATT. One day I asked to be transferred from one area of the company to another. They couldn't do it! I asked in amazement, "you are the phone company and you can't transfer me?". I quit them after that.

Yes I have lived that same conversation with them... more than once

 

[zedd]

Nostalgia. Brings back memories. Back to the day when I was slaving for wages doing a side gig writing Conversant IVR scripts for a large three letter acrostic. The IVRs were a small UnixLinux variant with a tiny Oracle RDBMS installed. Every call was captured and the transaction's eventual disposition recorded (IVR serviced, call taken by rep, call abandoned, etc.)

The data was aggregated, sliced and diced and served up to higher ups who actually at least created the appearance of caring.

"Screen pop" was always problematic - that's where the account/phone number is supposed to "pop" on the CSRs workstation, so as not to be asked again and again.

Since being FIREd the entire IVR, and by association, the CSR experience has gone to hell in a hand basket.

And I ....


... don't ...


... care!


Wheee!!! ��

 

[Badger]

"Please stay on the line. We value you business."



Cheers!

 

[Willers]

I spent years on the customer side of a group of businesses and our goal was actually to answer 90% of the calls within 10 seconds. That meant most being answered before it even rang. While that made it rewarding work, it also helped make the companies unprofitable. People say they want great service. When it adds X% to there bill they go elsewhere.

I've found that the best service is now provided on Twitter and Facebook. I rarely use these for anything else, but have had great success getting resolutions almost immediately. At first I didn't believe it would work but I've been convinced.

 

[braumeister]

I've found that the best service is now provided on Twitter and Facebook. I rarely use these for anything else, but have had great success getting resolutions almost immediately. At first I didn't believe it would work but I've been convinced.

I was amazed at this too.
On a trip a couple of years ago I ran into a problem with Delta Airlines. Using Twitter, I was able to get it completely resolved to my satisfaction within an hour.

 

[Amethyst]

Maybe this is simply the way the young CS associates are most comfortable working with clients.

I was amazed at this too.
On a trip a couple of years ago I ran into a problem with Delta Airlines. Using Twitter, I was able to get it completely resolved to my satisfaction within an hour.

 

[Amethyst]

I always go for the online chat option if it's offered.

Ten years ago, I started noticing the way young employees could have a chat window open with another employee on their PC, and talk to me (the boss) at the same time without losing a beat. I privately considered it a challenge, and started doing it myself!

 

[troutnut1]

Fidelity Elan is horrible

Got an email alert for a $600 charge to a company I didn’t recognize. Immediately called Elan Fidelity Visa people. Had a really hard time getting through the phone tree. It didn’t like my credit card number, or my zip. I finally beat the credit card number by speaking instead of using the keypad. But could never beat the zip code. The canceled my card and reissued another. While I was complaining about their automated attendant’s lack of ability to understand me, we accidentally discovered that Elan had allowed the thief to change my entire address! That is why the zip wouldn’t work. Long story short...5 days later they still hadn’t fixed the address. They accidentally canceled the replacement card before I even got it, but they made up for it by accidentally activating the replacement replacement while my UPS guy was still carrying it around. And I probably logged several hours on hold with that horrible music. If you think they were difficult before this happened, you should see them afterwards. I just paid off this card (as I do every month) and will put this card on ice for a long, long time. The 2% is nice and I got $800 in rewards this year, but now I have to reenter 20 recurring monthly bills I had on this card. This is the second time in a year this has happened with this card. I just received a Citi Double Cash card to replace it. Hope it’s better. I’m gonna start siloing the card charges so I can better tell where the fraud comes from.

 

[ziggy29]

Got an email alert for a $600 charge to a company I didn’t recognize. Immediately called Elan Fidelity Visa people. Had a really hard time getting through the phone tree.

Yes, this is the worst. Though in my experience, if there is one kind of call center that is well staffed with short wait times on hold, it's a credit card fraud department.

I am fine with calling someone and talking to someone. Problem is that (a) you almost always have to navigate a horrible robo-phone tree and voice response systems before you can "speak to a representative", and (b) it's always "unusually high call volume" and you wait on hold for 15-60 minutes.

I have become a fan of online chat because I'm better with the written word than the spoken word, and because there's rarely a long wait for a chat session (almost always get someone within 5 minutes).

Social media can be more effective because when you air dirty laundry to the public, the company wants to make it right so you'll back off.

 

[Smitty700]

"Screen pop" was always problematic - that's where the account/phone number is supposed to "pop" on the CSRs workstation, so as not to be asked again and again.

My customer service pet peeve:

Automated voice: Please enter your phone number.

Me: 512-555-1212

Then the customer service rep answers: May I have your phone number please?

Me: Uh, I just entered it...

 

[ziggy29]

My customer service pet peeve:

Automated voice: Please enter your phone number.

Me: 512-555-1212

Then the customer service rep answers: May I have your phone number please?

Me: Uh, I just entered it...

That's right up there with calling in about an Internet outage and they tell you to report your problem online....

 

[Badger]

As for accents- that's also a function of the employer and what they pay. I've worked with people from India who spoke more grammatically correct English than some people born in the USA. There are plenty of people, in India, at least, who speak lovely, understandable English. If the person has an undecipherable accent, it probably means the employees who are more fluent work in places that pay better,

Accents problems are not just limited to people outside the US. There have been many instances where you may have a difficult time understanding someone from another part of the US. Issues with grammar also appears to be a major problem in the US today. People don't seem to understand verb tense or how to apply the correct pronoun.



Cheers!