comcastic
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...
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planned obsolescence
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.
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debit cards
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.
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whoops
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.
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above and beyond
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."
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above and beyond
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.
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verizon
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."
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strongbad
Strolling on over to Boing Boing this morning, we can't help but notice a strange story alignment between our front page and theirs. We guess our crack team of reader tipsters are letting us have sloppy seconds after Boing Boing has their fill. Thanks, guys.
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customer support
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?
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robot
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:
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Consumerist
