From Terri of Beaver Dam:
csr
Best Posts Ever, This Week
By 6.23.06
• Not quite what you would call a garden of earthly delights. “Life Inside in an AOL Call Center“
Beg and Plead in AOHell
By 6.22.06
Despite having to deal with a complete and total (and now fired!) cock, Vincent Ferrari still managed to get his AOL account canceled in under 7 minutes. Vincent’s special his account was picked up by the blogosphere, then the MSM. But he’s also special because, as people have written us time and time again, a 7 minute cancellation phone call is actually an example of stellar, speedy service from the likes of AOL. Some customers, a bit meeker than Vincent, literally have to resort to begging.
MLB.com Still Auto-Renewing, Still Defeatable
By 6.22.06
A Phillies fan, Loretta signed up for MLB.com so she could follow her team after moving to Florida. She did not want to renew but found MLB.com had courteously done that for her, without asking or warning. She called customer service who kept saying they would refund it, but then changed their story and said her grace period was up.
AOL Canceler on Today Show
By 6.22.06
Vincent Ferrari showed up on the Today Show for a little morning chat with Matt Lauer. Props to NBC for playing a huge chunk of the conversation, which we haven’t seen done in other media outlets. Of course, they do cut out the part in the call where Vincent says, “you’re annoying the shit out of me” but that’s the breaks of prime time. Matt seems amused and befuddled at Vincent’s affair, guess the networks have decided to sympathise with the little guy on this one.
AOL CSR Fired for Not Retaining
By 6.21.06
A former AOL CSR, Michael, writes about how the company axes employees who don’t give cancelling customers the proper retaining:
AT&T No Longer Exists
By 6.21.06
Some people just are gluttons for punishment. Ed Horrell gets his fill by calling up customer support lines and recording the results.
Boring Dell Laptop Story Turns Into Inferno!
By 6.21.06
Paul’s email on getting his Dell laptop repaired under warranty is pretty dry for awhile. A top-of-the-line XPS laptop with continuing power and heat issues, necessitating the same repair over and over… a repair which, to Dell’s credit, they have performed pleasantly and competently, once even when the laptop itself is out of warranty.
AOL Listens to BBB and CC, not You
By 6.20.06
Don writes that he had a very similar experience to Vincent in getting AOL to cancel his account. AOL wouldn’t listen. He claims he was forced to have his credit card company do a chargeback and got the Better Business Bureau to investigate.
AOL Apologizes For Infamous Cancel Call
By 6.20.06
AOL has said they’re sorry for hiring the infamously bad CSR that was so terribly loathe to let Vincent quit AOL.
VistaPages Must Really Hate Having Customers
By 6.19.06
Surprise, surprise, Anne wasn’t the only customer VistaPages managed to piss off.
HOWTO: Fix DSL Fast Like Ninja
By 6.19.06
A DSL call center manager emailed in some nifty tricks for getting at the top of the fix list. Many of them are quite sneaky. We like that. Thank you, sneaky Phil.
Ask The Consumerists: ZipZoomFly
By 6.16.06
While the cutthroat world of online retailers may be able to give you that Linksys 1 gig network storage device for $84 vs. CompUSA’s $104, that price drop comes at a premium. If you have a problem with your order, you may not ever be able to get a hold of anyone. Of course, considering CompUSA’s aluminum standard customer service level, you might be better off. Regardless, Peter writes in with a complaint about ZipZoomFly and his failure to get them to ship him the right part, even after repeated calls.
Best Posts Ever, This Week
By 6.16.06
• How To Get Your Phone Fixed: Make It A Pay Phone. Sweet phreak, just don’t get carried away and start blowing kazoo sounds in like Captain Crunch, that shit doesn’t work anymore.
Another Skeptical Musing on AOL CSR Firing
By 6.16.06
Chooki brings up a great point in the comments, which is how do we know that John was actually fired? There’s no proof, just a statement from the PR department.
