Kaleb had a basic question for Dish Network, so he logged on to their customer service chat to, well, chat to a company representative about it. Something strange happened during a lull in the conversation, though, and Kaleb isn’t quite sure what to think about it. Is it friendly or creepy? We weren’t sure, either, and submit his chat log to the Consumerist readership for your judgement. [More]
customer service
Teen Supercomputer Eugene Just Wants To Be A Real Boy; Gets Eerily Close To It
By 6.9.14
While you were busy second-mortgaging the house to lay down a massive bet on California Chrome at the Belmont Stakes this past Saturday, the robot apocalypse was beginning in earnest across the Atlantic in London, where a supercomputer named Eugene Goostman was able to convince the world that he was a sentient being. [More]
Things At Fab.com Are Not So Fab Lately
By 6.4.14
Fab.com began its existence as a social networking site for gay men, but evolved into a a curated flash sale site for home goods, art, and accessories. There just aren’t as many cut-rate luxury goods around as there used to be, though, and the company has culled off 70% of its employees. Now some customers report that no one is picking up the phone. [More]
Fill Out This Simple Survey, Get Actual Help From Sears
By 5.19.14
Over the last nine years or so of Consumerist, we’ve chronicled the tragic decline of Sears, an American institution. This has happened under the leadership of manifesto-writing hedge fund manager/CEO/intra-company deathmatch impresario Eddie Lampert. Shoppers’ biggest complaint: profound dysfunction and incompetence in stores. A manager at Sears slipped Consumerist a bit of information that people locked in a customer service battle with Sears might find useful. [More]
Man Stuck In Dell Hell Since 2010 Waiting For Late Girlfriend’s $14 Refund Check
By 5.13.14
On the one hand, a check for $14.73 doesn’t seem like that much to get worked up about. But for one man who lost his girlfriend to cancer in 2010, part of his role as her trustee is to recoup any debts owed to her estate. And that includes a refund check from Dell that the company took a heck of a long time to send. [More]
Guy Gets His Stolen Laptop Back A Year Later When Suspect Calls Customer Service For Help
By 4.9.14
In perhaps the only example of when a broken computer is a good thing, a man who had his laptop stolen last year was reunited with his property after the suspected thief called up Apple’s customer support. [More]
American Airlines Baggage Delivery Receipt Calls Couple ‘Deaf And Dumb’
By 3.27.14
It’s hard to imagine anything that could sour the vacation-high experienced after a beautiful, relaxing trip to Hawaii. Lost luggage? No big deal, we’ll patiently wait for it. But a hurtful, insensitive note attached to said luggage when it returns? That’s grounds to never use the airline again says a deaf Houston couple. [More]
Sprint Closing Three Call Centers, Shutting Down 55 Stores Across The Country
By 3.21.14
Sprint has been hacking into its workforce this week, confirming that it recently closed 150 service and repair centers across the country, laying off 330 technical consultants. It’s also completely shutting down 55 of its worst-performing stores and closing three call centers — for a loss of 1,550 customer service jobs — and limiting operations at three others in an effort to cut back on costs. [More]
When A Former Soviet Citizen Complains About Comcast’s Bureaucracy, You Know It’s Bad
By 3.21.14
Comcast is a former Worst Company In America champ and has already moved on to the second round of this year’s tournament, but how does Kabletown’s bureaucracy compare to the red tape of the Soviet Union? One émigré from the USSR says it’s worse. [More]
Clothier Sends Daughter From Minnesota To Costa Rica To Deliver Pants In Time For Wedding
By 2.18.14
There’s customer service, and then there’s sparing no expense to make sure your customer’s wedding isn’t ruined by flying your own daughter to a tropical destination so she can hand deliver the groom’s pants. That’s called dedication. [More]
Get Your Health Insurance Company’s Attention: Use Twitter
By 1.30.14
Over at ProPublica, they recently learned what we at Consumerist have known since 2008: when you’re having customer service trouble, sometimes the best way to use alternate means to get the attention of someone who can help you. Propublica discovered that some consumers are using Twitter to navigate the intensely personal and deeply confusing world of health insurance. [More]
Has Consumerist Helped You? We Want To Hear About It
By 12.12.13
We’re coming up on a bit of a milestone here at Consumerist, an occasion that may or may not be marked with party hats, whizzamajig sound makers and a cake full of bacon and cheese (not to be confused with a bacon cheesecake). There’s something you fine folks out there could do to help us celebrate: If we’ve ever helped you, we want to hear about it. [More]
Incoming Time Warner Cable CEO: Good Customer Service Is When The Customer Doesn’t Need To Call Us
By 12.12.13
Comcast CEO and King of Kabletown Brian Roberts may think that dealing with more than a billion customer interactions each year is an acceptable excuse for his company’s poor customer service reputation, but the guy about to take the reins at Time Warner Cable sees things a little differently (or at least that’s what he claims to believe). [More]
Ohio Residents Most Likely To Drop F-Bombs During Customer Service Phone Calls
By 12.4.13
If Santa Claus wanted an easy way to separate the nice from the naughty for his list, all he’d have to do is look at the numbers culled from recorded phone calls. And no, not the sneaky tracking you’re thinking of — when you call a customer service line or your credit card company and hear that “this call may be recorded” notification, there’s data to show if you drop an f-bomb (or two or three or four) during that call. And Ohio has the sassiest mouths in the nation. [More]
Comcast CEO Blames Bad Customer Service Reputation On Sheer Volume Of Calls
By 11.22.13
Comcast is the largest cable and Internet provider in the country and one of the biggest content providers with the acquisition of NBC. It’s also one of the most-hated companies in the country, a former Worst Company In America champ (and perennial quarterfinalist) with a reputation for horrendous customer service, inept tech support and bungled billing practices. But Comcast CEO Brian Roberts says it’s all just a matter of his company being so darn huge. [More]
Apple Calls Teen An Hour After She Wrote CEO Tim Cook About Dictionary’s “Gay” Entry
By 11.14.13
If you see something you disagree with in a product millions of people use, you should say something — even if you think the CEO of a huge company like Apple won’t pay attention. A high school girl decided she wasn’t too pleased with one of the Apple dictionary app’s definitions of the word “gay” and fired off a letter to CEO Tim Cook about it. Much to her surprise, the company replied within an hour. [More]
We Need More Customer Service Reps Like Capt. Mike Of The Good Ship Netflix
By 10.11.13
We’re always hearing complaints about robotic customer service reps who refuse to deviate from a script — this is especially true in chat support, where CSRs sometimes have an entire library of go-to cut-and-paste replies at the ready. So it’s refreshing when we come across a story about a CSR who is willing to shake things up by using a bit of humor while also doing his job. [More]
Ryanair CEO’s New Customer Service Strategy: Be Nice To People Instead Of Making Them Cry
By 9.20.13
Every time Ryanair’s CEO Michael “Seatbelts Don’t Matter” O’Leary opens his mouth, we’ve come to expect amusing things, usually about how much the airline doesn’t give a flying fig about customers. But O’Leary is trumpeting a turnaround today, something unprecedented for the airline: Being nice to customers. [More]
