Majority of Americans fed up with poor customer service

[jamesrage]

I see I am not the only who detests those automated services. I wish I could go and find the person who invented that **** and take a base ball bat to his testicles. The one thing I hate when trying to actually get customer services is listening to press 1 for this press two or some long as BS on if you need this then go to www.screwourcustomers.com over and and over again. If those in office decided to ban this kind of **** I honestly think I would be happy.



Americans fed up with bad customer service - Business - Consumer news - msnbc.com
Americans are fed up with poor customer service, with 64 percent walking out of stores due to poor assistance and 67 percent hanging up on a call before their problems are even addressed, according to a new survey.

The most annoying gripe is not being able to get a person on the phone, followed by rude salespeople, according to findings from a Consumer Reports survey issued on Tuesday.

The findings are based on a phone survey of 1,010 adults conducted in March. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.

 

[winston53660]

Funny carmax commercial:

 

[jamesrage]

Funny carmax commercial:

I think this one if funnier.

 

[Redress]

 

[winston53660]

 

[dontworrybehappy]

Funny you make this thread today.

Just yesterday I went to pick up an order for two roof turbines that I'd ordered from a local hardware store. I bypassed the big chain stores to use the little store to help them out. Well, I drive all the way out there in my truck to pick them up. Come to find out, they'd sold them the day before to someone else. Now, I'd specifically asked if there was any chance of them selling them to someone else and they said no, they were set aside for me and they couldn't possibly be sold as they had a ticket on them already. Well, sure as ****, I went to get them on Tuesday and on Monday they'd sold them.

So after an hour they tell me they're going to have a truck deliver them from a store in Mississippi and they'd deliver them to my house that evening. That evening, the guy shows up WITH THE WRONG TURBINES!! And whats worse, the lady calls me on the phone a while ago and tells me "those are the right ones, the only ones with that item number on them." I said no mam, I ordered aluminum turbines with lifetime warranties from company X, and you delivered 2 galvanized steel turbines with 5 year warranties from company Y. The only thing the same on them is the size, other than that, it is the wrong product. She starts to catch an attitude with me and I said look....I will happily go somewhere else where they will give me what I order. I will call the credit card company, dispute the charge, and be done with it. She said she'd call some supply company or something and see what she could do. And I told her fine, and have a good day.

The item number, item description, item everything was obviously NOT what I ordered yet she's going to tell me they were? Not a chance. I'll take my business elsewhere. At least at the big chain stores they deliver the right product.

 

[Redress]

Funny you make this thread today.

Just yesterday I went to pick up an order for two roof turbines that I'd ordered from a local hardware store. I bypassed the big chain stores to use the little store to help them out. Well, I drive all the way out there in my truck to pick them up. Come to find out, they'd sold them the day before to someone else. Now, I'd specifically asked if there was any chance of them selling them to someone else and they said no, they were set aside for me and they couldn't possibly be sold as they had a ticket on them already. Well, sure as ****, I went to get them on Tuesday and on Monday they'd sold them.

So after an hour they tell me they're going to have a truck deliver them from a store in Mississippi and they'd deliver them to my house that evening. That evening, the guy shows up WITH THE WRONG TURBINES!! And whats worse, the lady calls me on the phone a while ago and tells me "those are the right ones, the only ones with that item number on them." I said no mam, I ordered aluminum turbines with lifetime warranties from company X, and you delivered 2 galvanized steel turbines with 5 year warranties from company Y. The only thing the same on them is the size, other than that, it is the wrong product. She starts to catch an attitude with me and I said look....I will happily go somewhere else where they will give me what I order. I will call the credit card company, dispute the charge, and be done with it. She said she'd call some supply company or something and see what she could do. And I told her fine, and have a good day.

The item number, item description, item everything was obviously NOT what I ordered yet she's going to tell me they were? Not a chance. I'll take my business elsewhere. At least at the big chain stores they deliver the right product.

I used to work with this old black guy named Jimmy Walker, who was simply awesome. He told me a story one day about how his daughter told him he should make an effort to support black businesses in the area. Seemed kinda reasonable to him, so he went to the local, black owned grocery store. Soon as he walked in, there is this loud music, and half the people in the store made him scared they would rob him. Selection was terrible and prices high. He stands forever in the checkout line, gets to be next when the clerk gets a phone call. After 5 minutes, he puts his basket of stuff down, tells the clerk: "I came her to support black business, but you know what? I can go to Meijers, pay less, and get treated better. They actually act like they want my business" and walked out.

The moral of the story: if you want to compete with the big chains, you got to at least make the effort to be as good as the big chains.

 

[winston53660]

The item number, item description, item everything was obviously NOT what I ordered yet she's going to tell me they were? Not a chance. I'll take my business elsewhere. At least at the big chain stores they deliver the right product.

A friend of mine new to the real estate biz ordered an installed kitchen from a major chain. Six weeks later it is only about half installed so far.:2mad:

 

[Councilman]

What ever happened to the customer is always right.

If you go into a lot of businesses in the L.A. area you are likely to run into people who are not just rude but do it in a language you don't even know.

It happens all the time I am sorry to say.

I want it known that there are a few other people with limited English skills who go out of there way to be nice.

 

[apdst]

Funny you make this thread today.

Just yesterday I went to pick up an order for two roof turbines that I'd ordered from a local hardware store. I bypassed the big chain stores to use the little store to help them out. Well, I drive all the way out there in my truck to pick them up. Come to find out, they'd sold them the day before to someone else. Now, I'd specifically asked if there was any chance of them selling them to someone else and they said no, they were set aside for me and they couldn't possibly be sold as they had a ticket on them already. Well, sure as ****, I went to get them on Tuesday and on Monday they'd sold them.

So after an hour they tell me they're going to have a truck deliver them from a store in Mississippi and they'd deliver them to my house that evening. That evening, the guy shows up WITH THE WRONG TURBINES!! And whats worse, the lady calls me on the phone a while ago and tells me "those are the right ones, the only ones with that item number on them." I said no mam, I ordered aluminum turbines with lifetime warranties from company X, and you delivered 2 galvanized steel turbines with 5 year warranties from company Y. The only thing the same on them is the size, other than that, it is the wrong product. She starts to catch an attitude with me and I said look....I will happily go somewhere else where they will give me what I order. I will call the credit card company, dispute the charge, and be done with it. She said she'd call some supply company or something and see what she could do. And I told her fine, and have a good day.

The item number, item description, item everything was obviously NOT what I ordered yet she's going to tell me they were? Not a chance. I'll take my business elsewhere. At least at the big chain stores they deliver the right product.

You can't get worth-a-**** service out of anybody, now days. My wife hates going anywhere with me, because she knows there's a better than average chance that I'm going to make a scene over the piss poor customer service.

 

[Ikari]

Businesses have figured out that if you just run an obstructionist campaign and never give real answers, people will eventually get fed up and shut up. That's unfortunately the playbook for customer service these days.

 

[MKULTRABOY]

USAA is great, Amazon is pretty decent too. Ebay was rough though... woof.

 

[Paschendale]

The automated telephone options usually don't include the thing I'm calling about...

 

[winston53660]

Businesses have figured out that if you just run an obstructionist campaign and never give real answers, people will eventually get fed up and shut up. That's unfortunately the playbook for customer service these days.

One time I was trying to get ahold of Time Warner. I literally called from my house waited on the phone. Got bored when down to a local bar had a couple drinks with my cell phone. On my way back to the house they finally answered the phone.

 

[OpportunityCost]

1. Cutting costs has become everything. Phone trees save money but lower customer satisfaction. No one knows the true cost of the 2nd half of the equation.

2. Overseas shipping out of the customer service that actually is alive has become commonplace.

3. The every day run of the mill guy or gal at the register is poorly trained, recieves little to no motivation to do better and is probably getting stepped on over what many people take for granted : breaks, lunches, and any other benefits a job may have---they have a get a paycheck and very little else. This business model keeps costs down but again--no one knows the true cost of the 2nd half of things; how the loss of any sort of morale slumps sales.

4. There is a percentage of customers that absolutely ruin the customer service game for everyone else: rude, needy, grumpy, nothing is ever right or good enough etc etc. The ones that feel if they gripe enough, they will get a deal.

I have worked, supervised and ran businesses and customer service departments. I had standards and I did my utmost to satisfy customers, but some of them just are not worth it. 95% absolutely are and I would say at least 50% deserve better than the service they get---at least until I get done with the department.

Corporate America needs to revise how they see the person behind the cash register and make more effort to not just motivate these people but make them happy with their job. Ive got idears along those lines but...I dont run a chain store and most corps are so rigid in their processes and resistant to change that they will need to have sales fall into the cellar to recognize they got a problem.

Example : Home Depot, Wal Mart, have all had huge employment abuse issues and customer service issues. Companies need to see the two are not exclusive, they are intertwined and inclusive.

Hey! Who swiped my soapbox!

 

[Deuce]

Saw the post title and who posted it, knew the "push 1 for" nonsense would come up. You understand that companies offer multi-lingual customer support because it increases their customer base, right? It's literally capitalism at work. Even if you speak English fluently, but Spanish is your native tongue and you speak it better, wouldn't you prefer a company that offers Spanish language help?

More on the topic, yeah, it seems like "customer service" overall is getting less customer friendly. It's cheaper this way.

 

[Psychoclown]

I don't care about push one for English, two for Spanish. I care about the almost endless loop of button pushing most companies make you go through before you can talk to a real human being. Especially when nine times out of ten, that human being asks you the same questions you just entered into the phone! And couldn't tell you how many times I've been disconnected or had a call dropped after I finally reach a person, forcing me to go through the endless loop once again.

 

[Infinite Chaos]

America has always been seen as the pace setter for customer service, businesses sending people over for training and visitors coming back saying how much better customer service in the states was compared to back here.

I can see the cost element of having an automated phone service but you absolutely have to have a human operator available in case the sequence doesn't work and too many large companies here have the exact same problems as I'm reading- my biggest gripe is having to repeat the same information to the human (when I finally get through) that I did to the telephone gateway.

 

[Jetboogieman]

Ive always worked in Customer Service, and from company to company, attitudes on Customer Service seem to always be high, HOWEVER in practise, some of my comrades have ranged from embarresing, to a great example of how thing should be done.

For myself, as a matter of pride I try to do my best to be as helpful to the guest/customer as possible, all based on the basic premise of mutual respect.

But my friends, let me tell you, for those of you who aren't in Customer Service, some of you are complete dicks, I hope you know that, so while Americans may be fed up with poor customer service, some of us are pretty fed up with poor customer attitude.

Takes two to tango.

 

[jamesrage]

Ive always worked in Customer Service, and from company to company, attitudes on Customer Service seem to always be high, HOWEVER in practise, some of my comrades have ranged from embarresing, to a great example of how thing should be done.

For myself, as a matter of pride I try to do my best to be as helpful to the guest/customer as possible, all based on the basic premise of mutual respect.

But my friends, let me tell you, for those of you who aren't in Customer Service, some of you are complete dicks, I hope you know that, so while Americans may be fed up with poor customer service, some of us are pretty fed up with poor customer attitude.

Takes two to tango.

I think anyone would be a complete dick if they had to listen press 1 for this,press two for this,press three for that for several minutes topped with "if you need such and such thing please go to ****ourcustomers.com" or some other message repeated over and over and over again while you wait on hold for several minutes to talk to a real person. I do not think you a customer service representative have to go through a BS phone automated system just to talk to customers.

 

[Psychoclown]

I think anyone would be a complete dick if they had to listen press 1 for this,press two for this,press three for that for several minutes topped with "if you need such and such thing please go to ****ourcustomers.com" repeated over and over and over again while you wait on hold for several minutes to talk to a real person. I do not think you a customer service representative have to go through a BS phone automated system just to talk to customers.

Exactly! Many of these automated systems seem designed to irritate customers into a blind fury before they ever talk to a person. Telling me how "valued" my call is when I'm on hold for twenty minutes while being transfered to the third person who can't help me tends to annoy me.

Another thing that annoys me to no end is people who's accent or voice makes it nearly impossible to undertand them. If your job centers around being able to communicate with customers, then you need to be able to be easily understood. I remember one woman who had such a thick accent and spoke in such a tiny whisper that it was impossible to understand a single word she said.

Also, playing transfer ping pong drives me insane. I can understand if the first person can't help me, but I don't think its unreasonable to expect to then be transfered to a person who can help me. I can't stand having to speak to three, four, or five differetn people before I find someone able to actually help me. Bonus frustration points if they all ask me the same questions and have me go through the same "troubleshooting" techniques I've already done.

 

[Caine]

Man do I hate the press 1 for this 2 for that 3 for this other **** 4 for something else..... What I really hate about them is that most of ALL of the listed stuff is crap I could do on my own.
I hate how customer service, especially technical support, assumes you are an absolute ****ing moron.

Example: Storm came through and knocked out power to the house for about an hour. Power was restored but my TV/Phone/Internetz were out. I went to bed (it was late). The next day I got up and went to court, came home and my wife was complaining about how the Internet/Phone/TV was still out, even though he had power restored for like 12 hours. I went to power cycle and do all the niffy little gadgets you do to these gateways to try to "jump start" them back into working properly. I then call the customer service/technical support line. I call and get the usual language deal, no big deal, hit 1 and continued...
Then I get a long list of "For Billing, press this, for sales press that, for some other stupid **** press this, for technical support or to report a problem with your service press this other button" So I press it, then I am faced with options for really dumb **** like, "How to use the internet" and other such ignorant nonsense, finally I get the button for reporting a problem with my service, and sit on hold for like 10 minutes before a guy answers the phone (sounding oh so bothered that he had to take a call) and does his 10 second long "thank you for calling blah this is blah, blah blah blah blah, how can I help you?" I tell him what my problem is, and what Ive done to fix it. He then starts asking me stupid **** like "is it plugged in?" NO **** ITS PLUGGED IN IDIOT I JUST TOLD YOU THE THINGS I TRIED TO DO TO MAKE SURE IT WASN'T ON MY END! Then he sends me through the SAME **** I JUST DID! THEN he says he needs to transfer me to someone else. So I wait 15 more minutes before I get ahold of them. I tell them what is going on and they check to see if it is on their end, and then they finally put the work order in to have a technician come out to fix the problem.

I only wish that were the end of it.

So the technician comes out and he immediately assumes it is a problem with the hardware (wires/cables within the house and outside) and starts tinkering around and taking 40 minutes to finally realize its not in my house so THEN he decides to check their neighborhood box around the corner and realizes the problem was there, fixed it, and then we had our services back.

I REALLY wish these folks would just listen to what the customer has to say about the problem, we aren't all idiots.

 

[d0gbreath]

One of the reasons that I have to call customer service so often stems from a complete lack of quality assurance. When I read: Use the 4 thumb screws provided, and there are no thumb screws to be found anywhere in the box that I received, it saddens me greatly. Or things that do not work right when you receive them. My wife had to go though 4 brands of coffee makers from Walmart before she brought one home that worked. She probably had better things to do than to drive back and forth to Walmart 4 times.

My biggest pet peeve concerns the customer service that has a computer ask you questions, then when you state the problem you get: "I didn't get that, please state the problem again". I've found that cussing at the computer voice gets me to a real person much quicker.

Ex: "Please state the problem again". "Go **** yourself you piece of ****, son-of-a-bitchen, ********ing, poor excuse for a silicon blob". "Wait one moment while I transfer your call".

 

[tessaesque]

Inflexible tech support is my biggest pet peeve. When I call you and tell you I've restarted the router, restarted the computer, re-configured the network, done a ping test, reset everything, hopped on one foot while reciting the ABCs, and prayed to the technology gods, please don't leave me in tier 1 answering the question, "Is the router's power light lit?" Send me up to the next level. I've already covered the basics...that's why I'm calling. I don't have time to be on the phone for an hour while you run me through the crap I've already done.

On another note, I typically give the company two chances. After the second chance I discontinue service with them and provide a review of the experience on any consumer site I can find. A manager at Best Buy told me "You're stupid if you threw away your credit card. Stop being a bitch and exchange the product" after I asked him why I couldn't get the refund on the new card (same card number, different expiration date). I knew he was wrong, I wasn't rude, didn't raise my voice. I was frustrated, but I was about 99% sure he just didn't understand what the problem was, so I was trying to get us to a point of consensus. That didn't happen. So his name, the store address, and the exchange were plastered all over the place, and a letter was sent to corporate. We don't go to that Best Buy anymore. Unfortunately, it's the only electronics/tech store that's even remotely tolerable, so we stuck w/the company, but not the location...

 

[Whovian]

Inflexible tech support is my biggest pet peeve. When I call you and tell you I've restarted the router, restarted the computer, re-configured the network, done a ping test, reset everything, hopped on one foot while reciting the ABCs, and prayed to the technology gods, please don't leave me in tier 1 answering the question, "Is the router's power light lit?" Send me up to the next level. I've already covered the basics...that's why I'm calling. I don't have time to be on the phone for an hour while you run me through the crap I've already done.

On another note, I typically give the company two chances. After the second chance I discontinue service with them and provide a review of the experience on any consumer site I can find. A manager at Best Buy told me "You're stupid if you threw away your credit card. Stop being a bitch and exchange the product" after I asked him why I couldn't get the refund on the new card (same card number, different expiration date). I knew he was wrong, I wasn't rude, didn't raise my voice. I was frustrated, but I was about 99% sure he just didn't understand what the problem was, so I was trying to get us to a point of consensus. That didn't happen. So his name, the store address, and the exchange were plastered all over the place, and a letter was sent to corporate. We don't go to that Best Buy anymore. Unfortunately, it's the only electronics/tech store that's even remotely tolerable, so we stuck w/the company, but not the location...

I had an issue with Verizon Internet support once... router issues I could not resolve myself (I've been in IT/Application support for 10 years), so I called their support line. The guy knew about as much as my 10 yr old son in regards to the router setup, etc. He kept putting me on hold, asking me the same questions3-4 times in different ways, telling me to do things that did not match the model router I just told him I had, etc.

Finally, after about 20 minutes of this, I asked to be transferred to someone who knew what they were doing. He got huffy and hung up on me. I was about to call back when the phone rang. It was the tech who hung up on me, and his exact words were 'I have a bachelors degree in Information Technology, asshole!', and he hung up again.

Needless to say I called, got the supervisor, got my problem resolved in about 3 minutes. The supervisor also got the tech on the line with us and after the tech lied about what he said, assured me he'd be dealt with (no way to know if anything was ever reaelly done).