Would you care to call out the provider (or lack of provider)? One afternoon Comcast came and disconnected my cable modem service at the pole outside my house. Turned out they had the wrong address. When I called the toll-free customer service number, I was told it was done in error, but I had to wait until the following week for an appointment to have it restored. The next morning I drove to the local Comcast office (fortunately next door to the place I worked at the time), explained my problem to a very nice customer service person, who went into the back room and found a technician who drove to my house to restore it later that day. Moral: The personal approach almost always works.
bubelah
· 1 year ago
Curm - the personal attention always prevails. After being transferred 300 times to different departments they told us that there's a problem (couldn't say what) and the technician will come on Thursday from 8am to 2pm. Ok, how pleasantly surprised I was to see the technician coming on Tue. at 5pm. After he fixed everything, I wanted to kiss and hug him ;o) They couldn't even get the dates straight. The problem was very simple, we got a new internet service and they never sent a tech. to switch lines in the main box next to our house, but they did everything else in the central office, duh! I am sure everybody will have some sort of "war story" to tell about getting a service in the house, whether it's phone, internet or TV cable.
bubelah
· 1 year ago
Oh, Steve didn't mention, but we were planning to cancel the new service before we even got it to work. So the technician that showed up totally kept a customer for the company. They owe him big time.
Curmudgeon
· 1 year ago
@Bubelah - Oh, and the technician scheduled by the national customer service organization still showed up the following week. It happened to be the same one who originally fixed the error. He said, "What am I doing here again?"
guinness416
· 1 year ago
I think it's fair to say that telecom companies have just given up. Them and most north american airlines. I'm stunned to get even adequate service or hell, just an indication that the employees don't actively hate their customers from phone/internet companies or airline staff (hence our slack-jawed amazement at Porter Airlines this last week). Why should you care about losing customers when other consumers are bailing from your competitors just as quickly, and many will land with you?
Mrs.Common Cents
· 1 year ago
Hilariously, brutally true in every way. Love this post - kudos!
Bill
· 1 year ago
Great post! I think you hit on what's wrong with America's version of capitalism. In a true capitalist society, there would be many competitors vying for your business; however, in many industries, especially where heavy infrastructure is involved, there are two, or at most, three competitors even willing to provide you with a service.
Oh, they'll sell you a service, but they often won't deliver.
For industries like telecommunications (energy is another), it might not be a bad idea for the government to fund the build out, and let service providers compete to provide the content and delivery. Then, there might be dozens upon dozens of competitors begging for your business.
Competition breeds innovation, efficiency, and, most of all, excellent customer service. If you cannot provide those things and I have viable alternatives, I walk next door to your competition and sign right up. In this case, there would be no riff-raff, either, about having to "re-connect" or set up my service: It's already on. Billing would simply have to be switched.
deepali
· 1 year ago
Ah, my poor homeland. Always the fall guy for the failure of American capitalism. Of course, when everything *does* work, hooray for the poor schmucks in the developing world! They break their backs to keep America fat and happy.
Not a jibe at you, Steve - I feel your pain on this one. Just a general frustration at misguided globalization.
One reason why I love the little, local guys - you always get great service. And when you don't, they make it up to you in ways that count. I'll pay extra for the reduced stress.
Brip Blap
· 1 year ago
@Curmudgeon: Well, I didn't want to mention the company by name since it's all working OK by now. Let's just call them Pherizon. :)
@Guinness416: You're absolutely right - I'm more likely to be stunned by DECENT customer service than anything. Good customer service is downright shocking. And the company I'm talking about knew that they had so few competitors that there was almost no chance we'd leave them - and their competitors are famous for horrible service (and prices) too.
@Bill: I think the word "capitalism" is overused in America. As you said, so many services are monopolistic: energy, telecommunications, water. In less populated areas it can be even worse. I don't know what the answer is. The telecommunications industry was famously deregulated from the monopolistic AT&T (not the same company that's called AT&T today, of course). The industry fragmented, competed savagely, then reconsolidated into regional monopolies. How do you force competition? I assume that if a local phone company was awful enough, a competitor might come in - think Vonage vs. the phone company, for example, or cell phones versus land lines. But those changes take a long time and we end up with highly inefficient systems in the meantime.
@deepali: I'm sure you know that I wasn't really trying to pick on India. It could just as easily have been the Philippines or China, of course. Here's my biggest problem with globalized customer service - I have yet to see any outsourced customer service do anything more than refer me to another number that can only be called from 9 to 5 weekdays. If they could actually fix something I could see the point - but it seems to be largely a delay-and-frustrate tactic. I do feel bad for the people in the call centers - it must be tough to deal with so much fury on a daily basis.
Curmudgeon
· 1 year ago
@Steve - Yes, FIOS was available to me until recently, when they sold their land lines in northern New England to FairPoint. FairPoint is promising to expand DSL in my region, so I don't know what they are doing with all those nice fiber optic lines the Verizon buried in the ground.
Steve
· 1 year ago
@Curmudgeon: I am sure they are taking massive action to ensure that their resources are allocated in a responsible and effective manner to maximize customer satisfaction....
plonkee
· 1 year ago
I was reading somewhere about how outsourcing and globalisation is key to cutting costs, but that savvy companies are realising that they shouldn't be outsourcing customer support, but backend functions. Save money and don't annoy customers at one fell swoop.
Steve
· 1 year ago
@plonkee: you'd think that would be the obvious solution, wouldn't you?
All Comments
I am sure everybody will have some sort of "war story" to tell about getting a service in the house, whether it's phone, internet or TV cable.
Oh, they'll sell you a service, but they often won't deliver.
For industries like telecommunications (energy is another), it might not be a bad idea for the government to fund the build out, and let service providers compete to provide the content and delivery. Then, there might be dozens upon dozens of competitors begging for your business.
Competition breeds innovation, efficiency, and, most of all, excellent customer service. If you cannot provide those things and I have viable alternatives, I walk next door to your competition and sign right up. In this case, there would be no riff-raff, either, about having to "re-connect" or set up my service: It's already on. Billing would simply have to be switched.
Not a jibe at you, Steve - I feel your pain on this one. Just a general frustration at misguided globalization.
One reason why I love the little, local guys - you always get great service. And when you don't, they make it up to you in ways that count. I'll pay extra for the reduced stress.
@Guinness416: You're absolutely right - I'm more likely to be stunned by DECENT customer service than anything. Good customer service is downright shocking. And the company I'm talking about knew that they had so few competitors that there was almost no chance we'd leave them - and their competitors are famous for horrible service (and prices) too.
@Bill: I think the word "capitalism" is overused in America. As you said, so many services are monopolistic: energy, telecommunications, water. In less populated areas it can be even worse. I don't know what the answer is. The telecommunications industry was famously deregulated from the monopolistic AT&T (not the same company that's called AT&T today, of course). The industry fragmented, competed savagely, then reconsolidated into regional monopolies. How do you force competition? I assume that if a local phone company was awful enough, a competitor might come in - think Vonage vs. the phone company, for example, or cell phones versus land lines. But those changes take a long time and we end up with highly inefficient systems in the meantime.
@deepali: I'm sure you know that I wasn't really trying to pick on India. It could just as easily have been the Philippines or China, of course. Here's my biggest problem with globalized customer service - I have yet to see any outsourced customer service do anything more than refer me to another number that can only be called from 9 to 5 weekdays. If they could actually fix something I could see the point - but it seems to be largely a delay-and-frustrate tactic. I do feel bad for the people in the call centers - it must be tough to deal with so much fury on a daily basis.