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Another Day, Another Customer-Service Nightmare
Posted November 19, 2008
Let’s take a moment to EconoWhine about the shockingly awful state of customer service in general — and AOL’s customer service in particular. Sometimes it seems that the only possible consolation from the worldwide-economic-meltdown-collapse-of-life-as-we’ve-known-it will be the gratification we’ll feel if some of the companies we’ve grown to hate really get knocked down to size.
Take AOL. The Whiner may be a pundit, but we’re also a crazed consumer, just like everybody else. So we make stupid decisions sometimes because we don’t exactly know how to stop making them. One of them involves having an outmoded, increasingly irrelevant AOL account, which we continue to hold onto mainly because we can’t stand the hassles involved with transferring our address book to our various other e-mail addresses (believe it or not, we’ve got about a half-dozen of those). Where some e-mail providers make transferring contacts easy, it appears that AOL has gone out of its way to make the process one of your everyday-run-of-the-mill-hell-on-earth-experiences.
But let’s not go there. Instead, we’ll focus on an incredibly annoying week in October when The Whiner was able to access that AOL account for only about half-an-hour a day. Yes, that’s right. Half-an-hour a day. So we did what any human being on the planet would do: We telephoned customer service to complain. No, we didn’t complain all day long — after all, we’re EconoWhiners, which means that we need to reserve most of our righteous rage for layoffs, bailouts, and mushy cans of tuna. But we did complain.
Each day we probably spent more than half-an-hour on the phone with them. And each time we called, the AOL customer service representative thanked us for calling, then accessed our records, and then asked us to tell them every single detail of our problem one more time.
They did thank us for calling. They said that we were helping them identify a problem they were having, and continuing to have, with one of their servers. They verified that the problem was their fault, not ours.
Of course, when we asked for a discount on that month’s service fee, because of all those lost days of service, they explained that this wouldn’t be possible. Yes, that made The Whiner mad. But we sublimated our reaction into a general sense of anger-and-despair about the overall screwed-up nature of everything. And we waited for the next day, in the hope that AOL would finally get its act together. Eventually, after some days and repeated phone calls to customer service, it did.
You might ask why we’re EconoWhining about this now. And the answer is simple (if psychologically complex). We just got a credit card bill that reflects our most recent payment to AOL: $25.90. They didn’t discount the fee (of course). They never sent a letter apologizing for the disrupted service (of course). And here we are, still signed-up as a customer, throwing away our hard-earned cash during a time when we’ve given up trips to the movies out of a general commitment to austerity. (Why? Why? Why? Are we an idiot?)
Among all those “why”s is a larger, somewhat cosmic question we’d like to pose: How bad do things need to get in this economy before companies like AOL learn that they need to provide quality service and quality customer service if they’re going to survive an economic downturn as severe as this one?
The Whiner wants to know: Are there any companies that you believe deserve to go down because of the poor ways they treat their customers? Or any that you’d stick with forever, because of their great customer service?
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Humphrey
Put your dukes up Whiner, you shouldn’t be whining. I only say this because you have stuck with AOL for so long. I had horrible experiences with them a while back. I would like to think that their customer service would have gotten better. But, I guess that was wishful thinking.
Unhappy With AOL
I had a horrible experience with AOL two years ago. I had to call their customer service center with a complaint. Well, I made my call and held the line for over 45minutes. Once a customer service rep picked up she was very rude to me (pushy and raised her voice). I ended up canceling my account on the spot with a manager. Two hours later I was free of AOL and have never gone back.
David
I recently had got back from vacation and I think it’s quite possible that I had the best customer service experience with Enterprise car rental. Wow, what a great experience. The man was so kind. He even upgraded me! I would use them again!
Toledo Tim
I don’t know about all you whiners out there in whinerville, but I have had only good experiences with the Baristas at Starbucks. When I go to other coffee places I have such a bad time with their servers. So rude most of the time.
Joseph
David – I had the same type of experience with Enterprise. Very friendly and helpful. I can also tell you from first hand experience that Southwest Airlines is top notch when it comes to customer service.
Little Queenie
I certainly believe that companies who treat their customers poorly need to burn in the depths of hell. I know that when I find a company that treats me nicely I tend to stick with them. And companies that are rude I leave by the wayside. I’m sure that’s true all across the board.
emptyhandedpainter
I have never spoken to someone who has had a positive experience with AOL customer service. Have any of you whiners out there had a good experience with AOL? They should be put in the customer service hall of shame.
MelBee
For me these are my favorite companies to deal with:
Apple
Southwest
Samsung
Jet Blue
Target
UPS
Worst:
AOL
Best Buy
Citibank
Banksy
Has anyone ever had any problems with Best Buy phone-in customer service? The whole customer service system that they have set up is so messed up. When you try and call Best Buy it goes to a call center and you can’t reach the store you want to call. Silly system good call centers are for kids.
mark
Oh boy! This is a choice topic and where does one begin? Verizon would top the list for some of the most despicable customer service for their internet (DSL). As for second the tie is between Mac and Bank of America. Mac help desk operates on east coast time so if you come home and do computing after 9pm – as so many of us do – you are essentially out of luck. Worse is when you get an annoyed 20-something “tolerating” your foolish ignorance on what they consider basic computer literacy.
Bank of America online put you through arcane and painful series of steps to access your account, having to remember multiple passwords and odd configurations of numbers, capital letters and symbols. If you are over 45 I pity you.
Brian
Cost benefit analysis… the time it would take you to type your contacts into a new email/address book service would be far less than the time you’ve spent trying to make AOL credit your account.
Stop being a sucker. Switch tonight, tomorrow, this weekend. Carve out some time, and DO IT!
Mary Beth
Dear Whiner –
If AOL won’t reduce its fee for a service that it failed to deliver, can you dispute a part of the charge with your credit card company? I strongly suspect that AOL won’t put VISA on hold for long.
Chenda
How funny that I came across this blog today as I’ve been on the customer service line with Verizon. It is the most despicable company. We signed up for their internet service which included a deal that gave us a free modem and free month of service. One month later, we get a bill for both the first month and the modem. We left 4 messages for the customer service rep who signed us up. No return phone calls. And since the 30 days have passed since they sent us the modem, somehow they can’t remove the charges. It’s all so infuriating. I just don’t understand how a company can run a deal to attract new customers, then just not follow through on it.
middle aged guy
I was in the Seattle airport a couple of years ago and got a big mocha coffee at Starbucks. When I got to the gate I dropped it so I walked back and got in line again. The barrista said “weren’t you just here five minutes ago?”. I explained what happened and the guy gave me a new mocha free. And I’m not some cute young girl either! Now I give Starbucks my business whenever I can.
earlysnowdrop
Why are you still paying for AOL? Unless you use them as your only way to connect with the Internet, you don’t have to pay for their service. You have a rather sophisticated-looking blog, so you must have access to the internet by some means other than dial-up through AOL. Or is AOL dial up the only way you connect with the Internet?
Richard Cuff
For a couple years, AOL has not required you to use their services in order to maintain your AOL e-mail address.
You can cancel their online service a switch to an alternate Internet provider that provides better service, and keep your AOL address and pick up & retrieve your e-mail via the web.
See http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070721125914AAl01cO
I have no sympathy for USA-based car companies, who continue to build subpar-quality cars. They head my list of companies deserving the heave-ho.
Richard in Allentown, PA
moxyc
I would have to put Dell as the worst. I’d also agree with everyone about Starbucks, they are quite possibly the friendliest baristas around and I really admire how well Starbucks treat their employees.
fleabell
Our local power company cut OUR power last summer and told us it was OUR problem, so we hired an electrician to find out it was THEIR fault. They didn’t apologize or offer to pay the $100 electrician fee. When I called customer service to schedule THEIR repair (the second one, since they didn’t think they were responsible the first time), the nasty customer service rep snidely told me that a service call had already been placed by my husband. When I called several hours later to find out the time window for the service call, I was told by the new customer service rep that, in fact, there was NO service call for us in the system, so I had to start all over with them!
Jessica
I had AOL for awhile. Mostly my daughter used it. I wanted to cancel, but of course somehow that info was not on their website (I wonder why?). When my credit cards got hacked and I had to get all new accounts, that solved the problem of canceling my AOL account. I did end up getting a collection letter from them and paid the amount due – with a check (no way was I getting the charge back on my credit card).
I have dealt with Verizon several times lately trying to cut back on the amount my business is paying for phone service. Their bills have always be hard to understand. Now they are unintelligible. When I called I kept getting disconnected. The call would not go through. And of course I was calling on a Verizon phone line!
I am getting ready to check out VOIP. I hope that their bills are easier to understand.
Maria Guerra
Try breaking off with AOL. They will ask you why you want to leave them.
trudy
Cox is as bad as AOL – days of interrupted service recently, lost email, and no adjustment to the bill. The last rep I talked to had the nerve to tell me that Cox was providing its customers with email “for free,” so I had no right to complain, that my monthly payment was just for the Internet connection itself.
It is easier to change your email address than you would think. Email everyone in your address book, keep the old email address around for awhile and remind anyone who uses it that they should use the new one. The only reason I stay with Cox is that they are the only cable company in my area.
hp customer service(sic) is terrible – I once waited two hours to get a human to arrange to send my notebook back for repair, the phone connections are awful, it is third world with reps having fake American names,and they are clueless and often hard to understand due to strong accents.
miss mae
AOL is indeed terrible.
I signed up for a trial subscription and it took me months to get out of it. I believe their customer service reps are straightforwardly told not to allow people to cancel. During my third attempt I was told—”well I know you asked to cancel, but I’ll just sign you up for another two month trial.” WTF?! It finally took me a very very angry email/letter to finally be cancelled.
Other piss-poor companies for customer service?
HANDS DOWN—Sprint.
Fantastic customer service? By my experience, Washington Mutual *and* Chase Morgan. So, for one to have bought the other, makes me feel relieved.
Small joys!
Leslie
I’ve found the best way to resolve problems is to e-mail the higher ups (their e-mails can be figured out). It resolved my latest cable snag with Time Warner (which I despise) in 1 day not weeks.
I think this has worked almost every time except for 1 bank.
Karin
The best decision I ever made was to use Vonage, it works like a charm, easy to read bills, very fair pricing.
Another fave of mine is Costco, good value for your money, great customer service.
I would lump all land line phone companies and Best Buy in to the burn bundle. In the mobile department I have had horrible problems with Nextel, they grossly overbilled, I paid to keep my service and then it is like taking a bone from a dog to get your money back.
Karin
Peter Whittlesey
A cheer for Hewlett-Packard. Our new copier seemed to continually request we set up an e-mail relationship with the company (through which they offer ‘tips’ and, of course, try to sell you products) or it wouldn’t print. We didn’t want this option but it meant reloading the set-up CD each time. I was furious and after talking to India and losing the whole thing sent a nasty e-mail to their CEO e-mail address. Got a quick callback from a ‘case handler’ who listened patiently to my rant. I was so sure it was a sales strategy I really resisted the offer of a call back from a tech person, envisioning another annoying episode with India. A high level tech guy called me back the next day anyway (from the U.S.) and quickly fixed the problem. The program was on automatic reboot or some such thing…I’m not computer savvy. All’s well. Thought HP deserved high marks for access, quick response, and composure in the face of a rudely steamed-off customer.
Catherine
I ended up with automatic charges for AOL coming through on our credit card for an account that someone within the company had probably set up fraudulently. Since I did not really have an account, I had no account number or password–without which you simply cannot penetrate the AOL phone tree. Furiouser and furiouser, I navigated through my credit card company to deal with the problem; the real person I finally spoke to there told me they always have problems with AOL and suggested that I solve the problem by canceling my credit card and getting a new one.
And don’t get me started on Best Buy, Compuserve, or the old Cingular. I have the impression that since it turned into ATT, service has been marginally better.
Mir
I find Verizon’s wirless service to be infuriating! Their bills are impossible to understand, and they charge significantly more than other companies for less service ($10/mo to text!). I want to cancel, but am waiting until my contract is up so I don’t have to pay their damn cancellation fee.
Also? Fedex Kinkos. They both used to be such great companies, but ever since they’ve merged, walking into one of their stores would drive even Kafka insane. The photocopiers, printers, and computers are always broken (seriously, last time I was there, 5 machines worked out of 20. 20!), and their customer service reps are surly and seem baffled the simplest request. Lines are long, bathrooms are gross, and people are allowed to sleep at the compuer banks. If not for my job, I’d never go in there again.
Still, I have no pity for your AOL nightmare. Serves you right – the rest of us abandoned AOL years ago!
Bob at the Beach
Best service:
Wells Fargo
LL Bean
Amazon
APC battery backup (see below)
Dell (see below)
Worst service:
Any government agency
Comcast Cable
DirecTV
My community was struck by lightning late last Summer. The power surge blew-out six or seven pieces of electronics in my house, one of which was the APC unit and the other was my Dell PC. My first call was to APC because their unit was supposed to protect my PC from power surges. The shipped a new unit ($300) to me via next day delivery, without any proof of a failure on their part. My next call was to Dell. The ordered a part while I was on-line and scheduled a repair at my house as some as the part would get to the repair technician. The next day at 11:00 AM the technician called and said he had received the parts and wanted to come-out to do the repair. He showed-up a few hours later and replace what looked like the entire working computer system. Cost to me, ZERO.
Katie
I think Dell’s customer service is great! I mess up my computer rather often (I really should be more careful) and every time I’ve called for repairs, I’m put through in less than 10 minutes, usually right away. The person has always been very helpful and patient, and doesn’t ask redundant questions. I actually bought a Dell instead of a Mac I wanted more simply because their warranty and customer service were so phenomenal.
Kathy Rylant
I am a novice on the computer, but my complaint is the size of the print on your blog. I am over 70 and my eyes just can’t see that print. Maybe there is something on my computer to enlarge it, but I don’t know about it. I always enjoy a good whine and so I will whine about the type size. Any answers, please let me know. Kathy
Osito
Dear Whiner,
As a previous AOL customer (and I still have the account), I can empathize with your situation. However, as mentioned by previous commentators, you do not need to pay for an AOL account unless you are using AOL to connect onto the internet. When I realized this 5 years ago, and called customer service to discontinue my “paid” account, they told me that it was not possible unless I wished to cancel my email account (which is not true – they either lied or have no idea what they’re talking about). I hung up rather confused and later changed the account settings myself so that I no longer paid and could keep my account long enough to change to gmail.
And yes, Best Buy is pretty lame.
Krasdale
Infinity Ward should be shut down. They have no customer service number to call, only an email system where you place tickets with complaints which are never responded to.
Derek
AOL is still around? Boy, that brings back memories! I remember not liking their customer service, either (though they were better than NetZero!). Do you have a land line? I’m sure you already know this, but you can add broadband to your AT&T phone account for $10 less than what you’re paying AOL for dial-up: http://www.att.com/gen/general?pid=6431
The good news about going through the hassle of changing your address book over to another account is that everyone else makes it easy, so you should only have to do it “the hard way” once.
Suzanne
Wells Fargo is wonderful. They just called me last night to make sure I am OK in today’s economy in paying my mortgage. I am caught up on my bills but they were calling all of their up to date customers before they hit a problem. They asked if I had any medical problems, car repairs or any other unexpected bills in case I was having any problems. Loved it!
Platinum Protection, a home security comapny, is truly horrible. They installed my home security system and put one of the sensors ona wondow that doesn’t even open and ignored two windows that do opn. When one of their own technicians told me about it (but couldn’t fix it of course) they wanted to charge me for the repair. It is their own fault! I am still fighting with them! Never use them or their paremt company Monitronics.
In the coming recession put your customers first with decision management » Smart (Enough) Systems, the blog
[...] was pointed to a post today on the topic of customer service (Another Day, Another Customer-Service Nightmare on the EconoWhiner) that pointed out that companies need to provide quality service and quality [...]
Katie
I have one company I will always love–Home Depot. We were replacing our furnace one very cold late fall Saturday, and my husband needed a part to finish the job. He ran to Home Depot, which had just closed. The manager not only let him in to get the part, but didn’t charge him for it.
The “bad” list is so long, but:
- Verizon: tried to charge me a $200 cancellation fee under a contract I never signed. Had to have a laywer talk to them.
- AT&T DSL: over the course of my 2-year relationship with them sent a replacement router FIVE TIMES to my ex-husband’s house because that was they address they had in their system
- Citicard: when I called to tell them I couldn’t log into my online account to pay my bill, their technical person told me he didn’t know what the problem was and I should try again tomorrow. (Oh and by the way, it will cost you $15 to make that payment over the phone)
- Time Warner Cable: after having 3 different technicians out to my house to fix the $30-a-month HD DVR box, they still cannot explain why I can’t view HD channels or record in HD
Kerry
Here’s one for you…I just moved and was trying to set up cable, internet, and phone, and was going to use Verizon for internet service. I set up a time for them to come do the installation (which they tell you will be any time from 8-5…awesome). I didn’t realize they would need access to a certain basement room in my condominium complex where the phone equipment is, so they couldn’t go through with the install. Fine, that’s my fault, no problem. I call back and set up another time, and this time my mom, who (luckily) doesn’t work, said she would come up (from about 60 miles away) and sit at the condo between 10 AM and noon in case there were any problems. She was already on her way somewhere, so it wasn’t TOO far out of the way. Anyway, we were texting back and forth about it and she said “I see a Verizon truck outside, I’ll call you when they’re gone.
About 10 minutes later she calls to say the technician never got out of the van and had just driven off. When we called Verizon their response was that the installer had called my cell phone (which never rang and didn’t show a missed call or message). When no one answered my cell phone, he assumed no one was home and left – without walking 30 feet up the path to knock on the door! I called to complain and they were completely unhelpful, so I cancelled my (as-yet-un-hooked-up) service on the spot and went with AT&T instead!
The Whiner
What a collection of horror stories. When you read this list, it seems hard to believe that there are still any companies still on their feet. But it’s true, you don’t need to be in business to be utterly-and-completely incompetent. What about the post office? What about the state and federal tax departments? Whiner-in-Chief’s SSN was “compromised” a few years ago when the state tax agency mailed us a statement and “inadvertently” disclosed the number through the window of the envelope. Apparently, we were on a list of thousands of people that they did that too because they had a problem stuffing envelopes.
kcwc
We just moved cross-country, and I miss my old bank. It wasn’t a bank, actually, it was a credit union, and they were awesome. We still have several accounts there, and they are still awesome. When we tried to register our cars here (NC), we had some difficulty regarding the paperwork (the CU having recently changed their name), which required a letter from them (vehicle registration in NC is positively byzantine). They overnighted it, no expense.
Our current bank is OK, but I don’t have to worry that the CU is going to need a bailout.
Ann
I would just like to point the EcoWhiner’s attention to this fabulous website/ performance art project. It’s brilliant. http://www.complaintschoir.org/
ALD
Best: USAA, (shockingly) the IRS, Jet Blue, VW
Worst: Sprint, Best Buy, most cable companies
In general customer service seems to be going down the tubes, but what really shocks me is when small, independent businesses act like customer service is a privilege rather than a sound business strategy, particularly in this economy.
kay
My mom and her husband use AOL and say they must stick with it because they are used to it and don’t want to learn anything new. You, I assume, are not in this boat. Why not stop whinging about AOL’s crappy customer service and drop them? Just be sure to send them a letter explaining why you did. Companies need to get this message: when they don’t respond to reasonable customer expectations by being reasonable, they lose customers. We switched phone and internet carriers recently because we got tired of hitting our heads against our old company’s brick-wall customer service. They sucked and we told them and then dropped them. And we are so glad we did! It’s refreshing to feel empowered for a change.
Susan
While I agree with those who characterize Verizon as annoyingly incompetent, they do not even compare with Sallie Mae, which I consider to be the most criminally incompetent company out there. I am not one of those grads who resents having to pay back student loans. I’m grateful I received them, and have no objections to paying them back. Moreover, I pay my loans on time, every month, no problem. But yet they have struggled (and succeeded) to screw me at every turn.
nycdashe
Agree about good customer service at Enterprise but don’t understand their hours. Why close at 3 on Sundays?
Circuit City — so glad they’re closing. Had to grit my teeth to walk in and they were useless at problem-solving.
Verizon — our phone service was out for one month and they couldn’t figure out what they had done. Sent only incompetent people to try to trouble-shoot.
Jennifer
Washington Mutual=terrible! (Although they did go down for sure….) I had written a cashiers check and the person I was paying lost the check and informed me they had lost it. I canceled the check (no problem) but was then informed that it would take 3 months (yes three months!) to refund me the money. Meanwhile, I still had to write a new check to the person who had lost it (it was my landlord and rent was still due). It was ridiculous that I was expected to wait three months for my own money, especially because it was a really large amount that I could ill afford to be without.
carolinwonder
Because of my food allergies, my worst experience is always with companies I call or write for ingredient information. They are usually vague or defensive in their responses. Restaurants, who don’t want me dying on their lunch bill, are on the other hand extremely friendly. Generally, I think face-to-face interaction usually improves customer service.
Good, consistent customer service is an artform. I should know – I work in customer service at a major health foods store. (And I’ll admit that I’m not always the best at it, but I do try.) The best customer service comes from people who are able to look at each individual situation and person as a new opportunity to help someone, even if that situation or person has been presented multiple times that day. And who are able leave their personal feelings at home (easier said than done).
In that respect, the best customers are the ones who realize that their situation may be the same as everyone else who’s called a company or come into a store that day, and who recognize that, in general, we who work in customer service do so because we like it when we get those new (or “new”) opportunities that turn out well.
Moral of the story: aim for niceness and patience. Sure, there are employees who are bitchy and rude and may hate their jobs in customer service; or who don’t know what to do so they don’t do anything (or anything productive); or who may be having a bad day and will take it out on You, The Consumer. But that kind of transference can run the other direction, too, and sometimes it won’t work out in Your Favor. Treat the customer service representative the way you’d like them to treat you during the conversation, and if that doesn’t work, start afresh with a different representative.
susan
http://webmail.aol.com
you can use aol for free if you have another ISP
why ANYONE would want to PAY to use the AOL interface is beyond me.
Put HP on the Best list. My son had a problem with his power cord on his laptop. He called at 3pm and in less than 24 hours a new one was at his door. And their machines run a LONG time. Only computer brand I will buy, EVER
Catherine
I have to say, I had fabulous dealings with the US State department passport service last winter. After I sent an expedited renewal request but forgot to enclose a check (d’oh), I had several one-on-one conversations with REAL PEOPLE who gave me individual attention, were able to access detailed information, provided correct information, kept track of the process, and were just amazingly helpful. And it was more than one helpful maverick; there seemed to be a culture of service–which surprised me after the horror stories I’d heard. So let’s not tar all government agencies.
dd
I’ve kept my AOL account because I don’t want to learn another system and because of a teenager. They also have a great filter and I have rarely gotten SPAM. You don’t have to pay for an AOL account, but they do make it hard to cancel it.
choco
Since it is holiday season i want to tell you and EVERYONE (sorry) about NOT buying from chocolat.com, AKA “Belgian Chocolates Online.”
Ordered a birthday present for my college freshman first-time-away kid. Not last minute. Get an email from them–lost my credit card info in a computer crash, please call their 800 number. OK, I do, and I explain this is a birthday gift, would they upgrade shipping no cost? Answer: no. Not authorized to do that. I did a quick calculation and decided the gift would be in time so I dropped it. OK, birthday comes and goes, no present. Grrr. But i am practicing my anger management techniques, and this is just a test. I call candy place and talk to same person, am told oh, they had a second computer crash, lost all the information, did not know even how to reach me. Yes, right after I called them the first time, isn’t that amazingly bad luck. I ask what do you intend to do to make this right? (I’m thinking chocolate for life) Answer: we should be sending the order out tomorrow, they just got the backup. nothing else. I will leave the ensuing conversation to your imagination but please believe me when I say that I was impeturbably polite, never lost my temper or anything close to it, barely interrupted the person –who went on and on and on about how difficult this whole thing had been and how much money they lost and etc. I just said calmly I was only interested in my own situation and how they thought they should try to make it up to me, at which point the representative said, I don’t know why you are arguing with me, and hung up. Literally. I’m not even angry, just stunned. Hung up on me. Wow. That is putting the customer first.
Thanks for the links to other griping sites, as i will am calmly and deliberately without malice going to get this story out as wide as possible. As a public service.
Murray
Best:
- Title 9 Sports (incredibly helpful and reasonable folks)
- Ace Hardware!!
- Most any locally owned and operated store or food establishment
Worst:
- Amazon (recently had an astoundingly bad experience with them)
- HP/Compaq (I will never purchase another computer that uses overseas support ever again.)
- AOL
- Municipal employees
Bob
Horrible
Cox Cable
AT&T
MCI
Hospitals
Any Oklahoma State Agency
USA Today
Oklahoma Congresspeople’s offices
Ford
Hertz
Restaurants
Wal Mart
Sports Illustrated Magazine
The linoleum men who installed my laundry
room floor with big bubbles in it
Public Schools
Hewlett Packard
Microsoft (can’t understand Bangalorese)
Dell
Toshiba
Samsung
Amazon.com
Best Buy
Circuit City
American Airlines (told me to sleep on the floor after
a really bad day. Also had luggage slashed.)
Kohl’s
McDonald’s
Walgreen’s
Any Plumber
Ditto for Mr. Handyman
Sear’s
Sear’s repairpeople
Supercuts
Home Depot
Loewe’s
Hancock Fabrics
Concrete People
Tree People
There’s more
LA Bloggiste
We live obscenely close to Target which has made purchases of useless objects almost a pastime in years gone by. Quick in, quick out, low prices, good customer service (time spent in lines, return policy, etc…) Starting about 3 months ago, all has changed at Target. The 10 or 15 item lines for paying are gone, the stock is particularly messy, and it’s generally empty when I enter! Now, instead of racing in and out of Target, I am trapped with my 10 year old’s compass for geometry in my hand behind a shopper with two carts! I can’t stand it and have complained twice in person and twice by comment card to get the “10 Items or Less” lines restored. No use — it’s such a waste of time! I have stopped shopping at Target and instead pay a little more to go to a local drugstore for speed’s sake.
Great customer service:
Enterprise Rent-a-Car
Southwest Airlines
Title 9 Sports
Trader Joe’s
Dean
Top marks to the Trader Joe grocery stores. Their food isn’t the cheapest, but it’s good quality, and the staff are friendly and intelligent and cheerful.
Kristina Sullivan
Nordstrom department stores! Helpful, friendly, patient and non-sneering staff helped me find a modest and practical swimsuit. I need a large size and hit the big 60 birthday last summer–and thank the Seattle Nordstrom staff silently whenever I get to swim. Nordstrom pays a commission, sharing the wealth, and the time and aggravation saved is worth it to me to pay the occasional higher price. I don’t understand why more American companies don’t get it–the service staff have no incentives to do a good job, so they don’t. My worst shopping moment was a Walmart clerk who listened to my question, turned her back and walked away!!! Gee, I can hardly wait to shop there again.
Ling
I have a particular dislike for companies that import customer service from India. It’s not only bad for America, it’s just plain bad customer service to be teleported across the ocean for a simple request. I can rarely understand them, and they clearly don’t understand me. The only thing worse is the unmistakeable lack of appropriate intonation that means you are talking to a machine. I’d take a gum smacking American goverment employee over the “Are you still there?” girl ANYDAY! Poison dog food, butchered technical advice and artificial intelligence further underscore the inflated sense of capitalism that 8 years of GW has encouraged.
Jen Hathaway
ATT.
You cannot reach them on the phone.
They regularly change their customer sign-in page [and require one to change one's password too] so that you cannot access customer service online, and they require you to call them.
I was a happy Cellular One customer until July, when ATT bought the company and then refused to acknowledge that I’d paid my previous bill to Cell One [which I'd continued to use despite being on an expired contract].
I tried phoning, emailing, and written communication*, to no avail- I was shouting down a well. At one point I managed to get into an IM “customer service chat” with some faceless nameless entity who’d evidently gotten their people skills in the AOL chatrooms of yore- when I said that I’d be closing my account if they didn’t sort out the discrepancy, they disconnected me rather than do the job.
I continued to pay what I knew I owed for my bill, and they continued to dun me for payment of what I’d already paid, while refusing to talk to me.
They cut off service 8 weeks later, still billing me. At this point they claim I owe them triple what they originally claimed I’d owed them. They will not see a dime, and I don’t care if it goes on my permanent record. The nearest store is several miles away, and it’s probably the only way I’ll be able to clear this up, if I care to be bothered with it. I’ll go in there someday and throw my phone at them, I suppose.
I am now using Skype [$10 a month for unlimited calls to phones via a headset on the computer][also online conferencing with other [free] Skype users. Skype gives me much better service and clearer reception than ATT ever did for 7 times the price.
I do not miss the cell phone at all, and it makes me laugh when I see people walking through the supermarket talking to themselves whilst carefully comparison shopping for groceries.
*notice the word “communication”. ATT CLAIMS to be a “communications company”. They, however, do not know how to communicate.