Customer Noservice
11/19/2002
Why do companies even bother to have customer service departments anymore? At least the last four or five times I’ve contacted a customer service department I have just wasted my time. I do not discriminate against a particular company or industry; they are all equally as bad.
I called my local phone company for an explanation of my excessively high phone bill and I was treated as if I was incompetent to read. I have sent a half a dozen email correspondence with a popular computer company regarding a brand new printer that does not work properly and all I get are generic training manual responses that do not even address my issue directly. I have expressed displeasure with a popular cruise line because they switched my honeymoon cabin without consent and all I got was a coupon for our next cruise. They never gave me a reason to want to go on another of their cruises let alone a simple apology. Perhaps the most irritating was the fact that I did not even receive a response from my wedding reception hall after I advised them that money was stolen out of a supposedly locked bridal sweet.
Has the effectiveness of customer service declined because companies are trying to automate these services in order to save money or is it the quality of the products and services themselves? The lifespan of products seem to diminish as time goes on. Companies are so concerned with saving pennies they are willing to use inferior supplies and take shortcuts whenever possible.
I have not mentioned the names of any particular companies not because I am worried about being slanderous, but because I challenge you to evaluate the products and services you buy without any preconceived ideas. I realize there are always going to be glitches, oversights, and general exceptions to good products and services, but their customer service better service this customer or they will be added to my ever-growing blacklist of companies that I will never deal with again. Is cutting a few pennies here and there worth losing a customer for life?
Unfortunately for these companies I usually have a strong opinion and I am not afraid to share it with others. Sites such as the Better Business Bureau (www.bbb.com) and www.planetfeedback.com have made it easy customers express their opinions on just about any company. Apparently I am not the only one that realizes that we are not getting what we paid for more and more often. Just for the record, I am also not afraid to praise any company that I feel has gone out of its way to make me feel important.
Why? Just Because!