customer-support
—>Our reader humphrmi recently managed to avoid shelling out unnecessary bucks for paid technical support from Dell. His secret? Listening very carefully to the support rep, who inadvertently gave away the info he was trying to get humphrmi to pay for. Which is good, since that information was only one sentence long. More »
—>Everyone is tired of hearing about Twitter. It's not the newest and shiniest communications tool anymore, and stories about its effectiveness in customer service aren't novel anymore. Reader Ryan is tired of hearing about Twitter, but he shared a story with Consumerist about how Logitech only replaced his mouse under warranty after he tweeted at them. More »
—>Comcast might want to slash the budget on its Live Chat service and devote more resources to Frank and Sherri over on the Twitter side of things. The only good stories we hear about Comcast customer service comes from encounters with them, it seems. More »
—>Monica, a Qwest representative, sent us an official declaration regarding yesterday's post; she says that Qwest absolutely does not do any throttling. She also points out that if you have problems you can't get resolved, try the Twitter route. Their official page is http://twitter.com/talktoqwest. More »
—>Cracked takes a stab at explaining why your calls to customer support inevitably lead to frustration. You'll probably recognize your own experiences as you read their article, and learn a little about why being a customer service agent sucks so much, too. More »
—>This English-as-a-second-language tech support guy just wants to help Noah out, but the weird combination of formal exchanges and misunderstandings make him sound like an AI program. We don't think Jullan even realizes that his good-natured attempts to help are only annoying the customer more. In theory, we like the idea of a tech support guy "extending an extra mile," but maybe next time he should stick to tech support and leave billing questions unto the billing department. More »
—>Something bad has happened to Symantec's once-good chat service, notes Neil J. Rubenking at PC Mag. In the past, he says, they were helpful and knowledgable; now they pass freeware apps off as their own and attempt to get you to pay $100 fees for their "expert" service when you're trying to troubleshoot a problem with them. He writes, "My new experiences while evaluating Norton 360 version 3.0 opened my eyes to the magnitude of the problem. Did Symantec switch outsourced support companies? Has the chat support team gone rogue?" More »
—>Katherine, a new Comcast subscriber, was setting up her online account access when for reasons unknown it told her that she must talk the online CSR. Suddenly she felt fear and trepidation radiate down her arm and settle into her mouse hand. She took a deep breath, said a silent prayer and clicked "CHAT NOW." What proceeded was a mind numbing 20 minutes of her life that Katherine will never get back. Her letter and chat log inside... More »
—>Matt's Officejet 6110 scans perfectly under Ubuntu, but won't play nice with Leopard. When Matt called HP for support, he was told that the company has no plans to issue new drivers so he should just buy a new printer. To soften the blow, the tech mentioned HP's trade-in program, which would give Matt a whopping $16 for his printer. More »
—>Silly Bill. He thought Bank of America would let him spend $5,800 on a home theater system just because he had over $10,000 in the bank. He tried to charge the system to his Bank of America Visa Platinum Check Card but was declined. Confused, Bill called Bank of America customer support for an explanation and had the sort of conversation that makes you want to drive a fork through your ear. More »
—>Tired of repeatedly hearing that his One Laptop Per Child was on the way, PC World's Harry McCracken called OLPC and was surprised to discover that the charity didn't have his mailing address on file. Apparently, PayPal passed McCracken's payment to OLPC without providing his address. More »
—>We regularly receive emails praising Apple's customer support for the iTunes Store. Apple's standard, often proactive, response is to offer a flexible credit. Below is one story from reader Evan:
- "I have read many horror stories online of the iTunes customer support department. I just wanted to share my excellent experience. I was attempting to use the Complete My Album feature, but I continued getting an error message. Here is an email thread from me to Apple."
—>Aaron's feet were irritated by the stitching on a pair of Rafters sandals that he purchased last year from Dick's Sporting Goods. Aaron tried to break in the sandals over the course of a year, but they still felt "like needles" in his feet. Aaron sent an email to The Combs Company, maker of the sandals:
I am just writing you folks because I am rather disappointed with the Rafters Sandals I purchased from Dick's Sporting Goods approximately one year ago. When I tried them on at the store, they seemed like very comfortable shoes for the summer months. However, my first extended period of wearing them, I have realized that the stitching for the leather panels (the ones located directly below where the feet rest) are very irritating, to the point where if you walk for even a short period, the stitching feels like needles in my feet. More »
—>Verizon actually helped someone. His name is Matt, and he lives in Texas. Of course, he might be a fiendish undercover Verizon mole hiding behind a normal-sounding name. "Matt" claims to have purchased a Treo 700p on eBay, which was quickly felled by a faulty memory chip. Matt brought the paperweight to one of the notoriously unhelpful Verizon stores, where he got... help?
He said they didn't have any 700p's in stock, but he could offer me a 700w, the Windows version. I said no thanks, I want the same phone. He apologized profusely, told me they could ship me one, and that I'd have to talk to someone on the phone. He dialed a number, handed me the phone, and a customer service guy took all my information. He told me they'd ship me a new phone and a prepaid address label — all I had to do was send the broken phone back. "How long will it take?" I asked, expecting to hear "7-10 business days." More »
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If you can bear to read the meme-saturated twaddle of what Popken likes to call a "marketing douchebag", Peter Blackshaw asks a crazy question: if companies are so interested in reaching out to their customers by having them make their ads and feel more involved in the business, why aren't they paying any attention at all to the shameful service of their call centers? More »
—>Stuck in the phonic bowels of a robot automated customer support line, claustrophobically twitching for the five seconds of actual human interaction required to resolve your complaint, it can be hard to remember that sometimes automated lines actually have their advantages. Blair wrote us in with a positive experience with automation: More »
