Customer Service - It's a Myth! - Part One

It's no secret that people have been having problems with wireless companies. My friend Rod Trent at myITforum.com has documented his issues with Cingular for quite a while now. You may have to go back in his archives somewhat, but it's there.

What issues have you encountered? What have you done to resolve them? Has speaking to a supervisor provided any success. Has speaking to a supervisors, supervisor had any effect? When you have though you may have been getting somewhere, and making some progress, only to have your call be disconnected?

What is up with this? How can companies stay in business like this? As customers what can we do? It's not like you can contact someone to complain about it. You just get put on hold, and you hold, and hold longer, and hold longer, and longer, and if your lucky, you get transferred to the wrong area, and when you get transferred again, you get dropped.

It's no wonder why the email address of the customer service VP is posted. If you think SPAM is bad, imagine what that email inbox would look like? Perhaps it is understandable why they don't post an email address like that.

But that creates a problem. The people that make the rules, the ones that direct the direction of the company, never really hear or know about the problem. And because of that, they have no clue. No one in a position of power would permit their customers to be treated like that. They must be blind to the issues that the customers are facing.

Or are they? After all, they have us locked in a contract for x number of years. So does it really matter to them? Honest, I think it's easier than that.

Simply, they don't care.

Its not even a case of burying their head in the sand, it's a case of who cares. There are no problems providing you have someone locked into a x year plan.

What can we do as lowly consumers.

It's really simple, well, it's simple, but not really that simple. Perhaps I should rephrase that. It's a really simple solution. The problem is that it's not a practical solution.

Hit them where it hurts. Money talks! Hit them in the pocket book. Stop purchasing their product.

Easier said then done isn't it? You can switch to another company but you will likelihood encounter all the same issues that you did before. It's a revolving door. And if you keep doing this, eventually you will end up at your original company again. And know what the real kicker of that is?

You've come back to our service! That's what they see. You've returned because you were unsatisfied with their competitors service. That makes their numbers look great! We have returning customers.

What they don't realize that you're back because of a lack of an alternative.

Pretty sad isn't it.

All of our customer service representing are busy helping other customers, but please remember your call is important to us and we will be with you shortly.

Or better yet

This call may be monitored and recorded for training and quality control purposes.

If the call is so important to them, why am I on hold? Actions speak louder than words. SHOW me that I'm important. Don't make me ask why am I on hold for 45 minutes? If I'm in queue for that long, your actions are telling me something different. You are telling me that I'm not important.

Quality control? Don't get me started. That one I will save for another post.

Meanwhile, I'm still on hold. Couldn't they get some better hold music?