Web Host Outsources Their "Office Of The President"?
Cyberguy had a weird experience with a web hosting company earlier this week. He tried to contact their office of the president, but the person from the "office" who called him back turned out to be an outsourced CSR with no power to do anything other than apologize. Update: The web host company was GoDaddy, and they've responded. (The short answer is no they don't outsource it.)
Cyberguy gave us the phone number and name of the company, but we're holding off until Monday to see if we can get some sort of response from the company first. (We tried the number at 4pm ET and our call was routed to a voicemail account.)
Here's what happened:
Here's a good one! Had a problem with [redacted]. Exhausted avenues with Customer Support. Asked for the email of the "Office of the President" and was told it was president@[redacted]. Wrote an elaborate discussion of the issue. To my delight, the next day I got a call from Rod in the "Office of the President." He was apologetic, but after going around in circles, was unable to offer any remedy at all for my inconvenience. When asked 4 separate times what he could offer, each time he told me what he COULDN'T offer. Sounded like typical canned corporate lip service! Couldn't get him off-script!
INTERESTINGLY, when I called back on the ID Tel #, I got right through to another gentleman who annouced "Office of the President." I asked of what company this was the "Office of the President." SILENCE! Asked again. The stuttered response was that they worked with a number of companies bla bla bla.
BRILLIANT! A company called "Office of the President," to which you can outsource your "Office of the President" inquiries, employing top notch lip service folks who have no real power to do anything but molify and offer scripted apologies! HA! Professional Apologizers!
"Hate those nasty inquiries to your Office of the President? Hate to constantly apologize for your Corporate failings all day long? Let our Office of the President be yours. We excel at apologizing, and will do it all day long for you!"
(Photo: bschmove)
Post a comment
Comments:
Exactly what I was thinking. I wonder what other companies contact these ever so convenient services?
@Princess Leela: Sure sounds like it. This is a despicable attempt on the part of companies that we pay money for services to mitigate complaints.
Man, I am dying to hear what bonehead company this is! (No sarcasm! I really am interested!)
As long as corporate CEOs and other upper management types have to put their contact information on their company's public records there will allways be EECBs.
Someone somewhere will spill the beans ... we just have to find them!
I'm not so sure. It's inevitable that as more consumers start hitting the high offices, layers are put in place to handle the increased volume. Exec assistants have real work to do. Some of the layers will be done well and some poorly.
Outsourced support is already a delicate issue. I've seen reputable companies tightening their requirements. If it's done well you may not realize you've been handled "outside".
It'll mean that escalating through sleazy companies with piss-poor outsourced complaint numbers becomes more difficult, though one could argue that they weren't listening anyway.
Is this a good opportunity for an ElizaQuestionCallerBot, to cost the original companies CSR money?
No big deal. We essentially signed the contract to outsource ours to Kenya on 4th November 2008 for 4 years. And quite possibly 8.
And the name was redacted why???
I'm not surprised, and it's likely NOT an outsource- I've worked for 2 different hosts; one small, one large (with ads during the superbowl featuring women...) both had "reseller" accounts available, which allowed customers to sell our products and services as their own host, with all support duties handled by us. When folks called in, though, we couldn't identify our company- at least, not until either they TOLD us who they were calling, or we got their account and could verify for ourselves what company they had an account with. In fact, we'd use the whole "worked with a number of companies" line- even though it wasn't true; it was all through us, just a different front door for customers. From this tale, I'd suspect he wasn't calling an outsource company, but instead that he's buying "resold" products.
@Homerjay. Good and good for you.: Because I wasn't able to reach someone through the phone number to verify the OP's claim. I've contacted the company directly at the "president" email address to ask them to clarify.
@MostlyHarmless:
If you're going to slander at least get your facts straight. Mombasa was a part of Zanzibar until 1963 when it was ceded to Kenya.
So you should be say you're outsourcing it to Zanzibar.
But don't let the facts get in the fact of you being a crazy.
@Avrus: haha awesome! I'll use that next time someone is being a troll.
But I thought they all say he was born in Nairobi. Guess thats the only city they know in Kenya?
As the original Tipster, I will not spill the beans about which well-known, extremely customer-oriented company this is; I leave that to Consumerist. But let me add the following: Having sent an email to the "President," I obviously don't expect a call from the president himself. Anyone could have called me and announced him or herself appropriately, I would have recognized good corporate responsiveness (with or without satisfaction), and that would have been that. What I find egregious is that the Dept that called me back called themselves the "Office of the President" when they were NOT, unless one were to strain language and meaning to Orwellian dimensions!
Wouldn't surprise me if this was PowWeb or one of the many web hosting companies owned by PowWeb's parent company Endurance International Group, such as BizLand and FatCow.
@Avrus: But in 1961, Zanzibar was a part of the British Empire. And now, Zanzibar is a part of Tanzania. So are we outsourcing to Tanzania, or are we outsourcing to the brits?
Also, werent the founding fathers brits themselves? Are they just paying us back for the Lend-Lease program?
@Chris Walters: @Homerjay. Good and good for you.: Apparently, contrary to popular belief, Consumerist isnt trigger happy to post a sensational news piece.
Either that, or they are getting some major kick backs.
[I am kidding ofcourse. Its friday afternoon, and I am feeling the need to unwind, and not make any intellectual comments.]
The more I think about this, the more it irritates me. Isn't one function of the President of a company - in an assumed 'leadership' role - to take responsibility?
The President of this company must have the easiest job on the planet. I envision him sitting around his pool in San Diego sipping mojitos all day.
@Yoko Broke Up The Beatles: Remember these execs are only now coming down from the "golden parachute" 1990s and early 2000s. You know, when you were only responsiblit for successes but still got paid outrageous sums to exit if you fubar'ed everything up...
Why doesn't Consumerist spill the beans? [redacted] doesn't help us much.
A GOOD THEME TO PRESS:
"CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY"
When you outsource your "Office of the President" apologies, have you strained the notion of Corporate Responsibility beyond meaningfulness?
+1, what's the big secret? How is this post supposed to do anything for anybody if we don't know what the company is?
@minsky: They want to confirm details I guess ... maybe do some further investigative reporting. When you think of this in terms of "Companies Outsourcing Corporate Responsibility," it may just be a story perfectly symbolizing the times in which we live and gesturing toward the RESET that's necessary moving forward. After all, the current World Financial Debacle can be boiled down to an elaborate off-loading of corporate responsibility at all levels (and writ LARGE).
@allstarecho: Ahhh.... PowWeb. A GREAT hosting company many years ago.... then they sold out to Endurance... and NOTHING but problems.
@coan_net: I dumped PowWeb almost 2 years ago. Just couldn't deal with their newly acquired incompetence and when they made the switch to Endurance's platform, the constant problems with downtime and such, not to mention the fact that I was being hosted on a server that had about 11,000 other web sites on the same server.
The guy I spoke with at AT&T Wireless Office of the President sounded like he was out walking his dogs and was just as helpful. I cannot wait for the iPhone exclusivity to end so I can go back to Verizon!
HP does the same thing. In fact, the "Office of the CEO" is the ONLY listed escalation path on the HP website, which might give you a clue that it goes absolutely nowhere.
Most large companies that deal with consumer products and/or services redirect all postal mail and e-mail right back into the customer service folks that screwed up to begin with.
Now, companies that usually work only with businesses... WOW, the red carpet usually comes out when you are pissed enough to write to HQ and $hit gets FIXED.
Customer service is there for a reason. Upper management is way to busy to handle customer complaints. Since more and more people are using EECBs thanks to this site and few others, this was inevitable.
Many webhost's outsource support and try and run a hands-off operation. Bob Cares (www.bobcares.com) is one of the largest outsourced support desks. Typically they can help with technical problems but not billing problems. Sales and billing should though still have a separate contact stream.
@IfThenElvis: This is really not about Outsourcing Support. That's fine. This is about the Outsourced Support, responding to an email to the President of the company, calling itself the Office of the President. At best it is a deception, and consumers are losing MEANING in their interactions with companies.
@AgitatedDot: What is NOT inevitable is the Corporate Deception of outsourced Customer Service, empowered to do nothing but apologize, calling themselves the Office of the President.
@Chris Walters: FYI - That gets directly to the Outsourced "Office of the President," When they call you back, they will say they are from [REDACTED] because that's who you emailed. Note the Called ID tel # and call them another time (I got right through). When they answer "Office of the President," ask them of what company they are OP. They will not have an answer. I think it is fair to expect they should know, or find out why not. Can't imagine why not.
it's an answering service ... that's all they do, for doctors, lawyers, etc, anyone that's basically a one-person company lol ... cheaper than paying a secretary i suppose
@SucharitaMacrotainer: I work for this hosting/registrar company now. Legally, the reseller plans count as separate business entities. Without a customer number and account validation we cannot say what company we work for as it would violate our agreements with our resellers. I hate reseller accounts... If the OP called and didn't have customer information then he won't find out the "company" he's calling. I know.. it's different.
@Chris Walters: Just to be clear Chris -- you did NOT contact the company directly at the president@[redacted] address. That is the address I used. That email address goes directly to the Outsourced Company. Has nothing to do with [redacted]. If a company is going to outsource their OP, may as well have all email go directly, which is what they have done.
Is this a nail in the coffin of the EECB as a successful consumer maneuver?