Home > Technobuddy > Archives > 2008 > January > 25 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USCustomer Service?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
High tech purchases and gifts too often come with a downside: the need to contact customer service or technical support.
For instance, a radio-controlled airplane I got as a gift had instructions that were both useless and amusing. The person who translated the instructions from Chinese knew about as much English as I know Chinese.
I needed help, and I had to fight to get it. Unfortunately, you’ll probably be in the same boat several times during any given year.
Here’s the rub. “Customer service” doesn’t exist for the most part. Sure, there are departments with that name and people who hold that job, but I get more helpful answers from my beagle.
There’s not much we can do to change that reality. But there are tactics to make the painful process a bit less painful. So here are my seven rules for surviving an encounter with customer service.
Don’t communicate by e-mail if you have a choice. You’ll be entering a loop that lasts forever and ends up breaking your heart. If you get an answer at all it’ll usually be a canned response. Then the merry-go-round starts. You’ll answer, they’ll answer asking for more information, you’ll answer … ad nauseum.
But wait, you say, there’s no telephone number listed on the Web site or in the material that came with the item. There is a way around that. In many cases you can find a telephone number and a mailing address at this Web site:.
Be prepared before you call. That means having the model number of the item, your order number, and a brief description of your problem. The process is time consuming enough; don’t make it worse.
Politeness counts on both ends of the telephone. Make a game out of winning over the person on the other end of the line. The more hostile or cold they seem, the better the challenge. Be human and polite. Ask how their day is going. You might just warm them up. Unfortunately, there’s also another “be” to remember.
Be ready. If the first person on the line can’t solve your problem ask to speak with a supervisor. Always get names and contact information. Some companies don’t allow representatives to give out their names. But there’s usually some identifying data allowed. In some cases, it’s an “agent number.”
Many of you will still have trouble getting your problem resolved. That’s when it’s time to send a polite letter, outlining the problem and your efforts to get it resolved. Again, be polite but firm. Send the letter to the head of customer service. State a reasonable deadline for a reply. I’m talking letter here, not e-mail. Sending it certified mail is not a waste of money. Find the address on the company’s Web site or use the Hoovers Web site I mentioned earlier.
Don’t give up. I know it would be easy to just call it a day after going through all these steps. But, in every case where I’ve continued the fight, I’ve eventually gotten help. Companies set up obstacles to discourage you, I believe. That alone should be incentive to keep trying.
One more thing: Tell me how you’ve done when you’ve tried to resolve a complaint. I would also welcome any tips you have for getting through the customer service system. You can write me at bhusted@ajc.com or better yet, leave a note here.
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By Brison
January 25, 2008 3:35 PM | Link to this
Hello Bill,
I can add these suggestions for successfully resolving problems: envision yourself as a valuable customer instead of a victim, speak in a calm voice, BUT be firm. If they patronize you, use stall tactics, or fail to resolve problems, take the following steps:
[1.] Ask “Bad Company” to escalate your technical problem to the next level, and continue to request higher levels of support until your problem is solved. (ask for Service Supervisors or Tier III Technical Support)
[2.] If considerable efforts fail to solve problems, contact “Bad Company’s” headquarters by phone and follow-up by mailing a letter addressed to an actual person (not a department). Search www.Hoovers.com for corporate headquarters address & names of a corporate officers to write. If you are a shareholder, all the better – be sure to tell them. Also, write the Chairman of the Board – often they don’t know why the stock is dropping!
[3.] TELL “Bad Company” that you must now contact the STATE ATTORNEYS GENERAL OFFICE and DO IT. Contact the AG offices and file a complaint in each the following states: A.) The State where you live / utilize the product B.) The State where product was purchased, if different. C.) The State where Corporate Headquarters is located.
[4.] Post a complaint on relative consumer websites. DO Inform fellow consumers about companies that do not provide customer support or products that perform as advertised & warranted. Stick to the facts to inform, without venting. If you curse or vent in the posting, your remarks will be discounted by the readers.
Word-of-Mouth is powerful: consistent reporting of bad business practices & products has convinced many companies to straighten up and treat their customers as the valued resource that we are. No CEO or Board of Directors wants to have reporters & television cameras camped outside of their office or 20,000 legitimate complaints posted on consumer websites.
Call the Attorneys General offices and complete the complaint form. They can be extremely helpful. In my case, the AGs forced 3 “Bad Companies” to resolve expensive technical & billing problems that the seller refused to resolve. I`ve had 99% positive results from filing complaints with the Attorneys General.
The Connecticut Attorneys General Office is the only ineffective, AG office that I have encountered. Connecticut ignored and covered up consumer complaints of fraud committed by Trilegiant. Fortunately, CA attorneys pursued the class-action law suit against Trilegiant, a CT conglomerate committing fraud nationwide, and they took the Connecticut AG office to task for their laissez-faire conduct.
FYI - The Better Business Bureau is so last century and a waste of time.
By borodawg
January 25, 2008 7:38 PM | Link to this
May I add to your #6, writing a polite letter? Start out by praising the company or saying how you’ve used their products, etc. And a strong ditto to Brison’s suggestion to stick to the facts; don’t vent.
By Tex
January 25, 2008 8:40 PM | Link to this
Now, I know exactly what Technobuddy is saying about useless instructions with high tech products, or no instructions at all. That’s what happened to me. I bought the latest state of the art condums and there was no instruction video, diagrams, or even a dirty joke. I mean, they could have at least thrown in page 37 of the kama sutra, you know? Now just what am I supposed to do with the new wifi french ticklers and the bluetooth anti-shrink mechanism? It’s so not fair.
By Bill
January 25, 2008 9:50 PM | Link to this
I’ll hunt up the directions that came with my radio controlled airplane. Heck, I was a pilot when young and that didn’t help much. The guy who convinced the Chinese company that he could translate its instructions must have been a smooth talker. I’ll try to log on tomorrow and post a few sentences from the actual instructions.
By Rex
January 26, 2008 7:23 AM | Link to this
I bought a radio-controlled car and the chinese company had a one line instruction page: “Man who go to bed with itchy butt, wake up with smelly fingers.”
I thought that they used excellent english grammer, but I have no idea where to put the D-cells. Do any of you?
By Ed Wyrick
January 27, 2008 1:08 PM | Link to this
I spent about fifty bucks at Radio Shack for a cassette recorder and a telephone recording control so I can tape my phone calls. I begin each customer service call with, “Hi Joe. Before we start I need to tell you I’m recording this conversation. That’s no reflection on you. I always record these calls so I can review them if necessary.” I always get excellent service. Sometimes I forget and the service isn’t great. I’ll start recording then and the service is back to excellent. Also, in cases where I have to go up the line to resolve an issue, telling them I have a recording of earlier conversations results in excellent service.
By Political Foreskin
January 28, 2008 6:15 AM | Link to this
Ed, it’s like so illegal to record a conversation without either party of that recorded conversation knowing about that recording. You’ve committed the electronic equivalence of wiretapped-waterboarding, or wireboarding, (not to be confused with watertapping which is how they caught Sen Craig). Now, I want you to push yourself away from the computer screen, remove both your hands from your groin area, (pop up goat porn is not pretty), and turn yourself in. Shame, sir.
ISAIDSHAME!
By Bill
January 28, 2008 7:36 AM | Link to this
Political - ethical or not ethical - Georgia law just requires the consent of one party when recording a telephone conversation. So no law was broken. You’l be able to confirm this using Google.
By Political Foreskin
January 28, 2008 10:32 AM | Link to this
Oh, then that’s different.
Nevermind.
By Walt
January 29, 2008 2:01 PM | Link to this
I’ve had pretty good luck with e-mail, tho I shudder when I get an auto-response. e-mail’s advantage is that you can type transaction #, model #, etc & double-check before sending; not relying on verbal dictation to a non-native English speaker. Also you aren’t on hold for hours. This dovetails with rule 3. I strongly endorse rule 4, Be Polite & friendly.
Add to rule 3, be prepared: Know what you want as resolution: money back, replace faulty item, or what?
By H L O'Neill
January 29, 2008 2:17 PM | Link to this
You made some excellent points. A few years ago I had cell phone problems with a major company. I called and e-mailed - thank goodness I saved the e-mail responses - they were definitely “canned”! No one had read my question/complaints. Finally I got so fed up I printed the e-mail messages and responses and sent a registered return receipt letter to the head of customer service. The phone call came immediately with “What can we do to help you?”!! They said the reason I couldn’t get service where I wanted it was because they DID NOT service that area!!! They let me out of the contract with no penalty and refunded all the past charges!
By GaryM
January 30, 2008 7:22 AM | Link to this
I have a friend who used to work the help desk for Wang (I think I can mention the name of the company since they aren’t around anymore in their past form). He said they used to answer the phone “Hi, I’m ** from Microsoft, can I help you?” Even though there was no affiliation whatsoever with Microsoft, he told me that “People like to hear that kind of stuff”, even though it’s untrue.
By GaryM
January 30, 2008 7:22 AM | Link to this
I have a friend who used to work the help desk for Wang (I think I can mention the name of the company since they aren’t around anymore in their past form). He said they used to answer the phone “Hi, I’m ** from Microsoft, can I help you?” Even though there was no affiliation whatsoever with Microsoft, he told me that “People like to hear that kind of stuff”, even though it’s untrue.
By Political Foreskin
January 30, 2008 6:12 PM | Link to this
I know exactly what you’re saying, Oneil cause one time I Politicana forskana called a service dept over a rebate that never got delivered. For 150 bucks! Well the man say this and the man say that and still I got no rebate, so I say “HEY, stupido, give me my rebate or I’ll call the Better Business Bureau”.
Well, the next thing you know I notice a teeny tiny little buzz in the phoneline, and it kept getting louder and louder and louder untill I said, HEY, stupido, you’re gonna make me deaf, what you doing with cheap equipment making buzz tones anyway, and……huh? what? the buzz tone was an electronic funds transfer to my checking account via the phone line?
oh, that’sa nice.
By Nancy
January 31, 2008 9:06 AM | Link to this
I recently inherited a seemingly good/rather new Dell desktop. It belonged to a family member who passed away. She used a password and no one knows what it was so we can’t use the PC. I’ve checked on line for help and found several reset password programs and a couple that will simply tell you what the old password was. Do you have any advice? HAve you had experience with similar programs? Thanks!
By Bill
January 31, 2008 10:14 AM | Link to this
Nancy, believe it or not, I’ve never had to recover a log-in password. But based on correspondence with readers, this $30 service has worked.
http://www.loginrecovery.com/
Here’s another method - free - that has worked for some readers:
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=305
By Political Foreskin
January 31, 2008 6:49 PM | Link to this
I have a question for the technobuddy guy person thing man: I have an off-brand 15 inch CRT for my computer screen. Am I obsolete? Does that like violate some techno-sociological convention that most technogeeks would find repulsive to the point where they would slip a cookie in my spam? I dont know what I just said. Are the flat screens worth the extra 200 bucks?
By Bill
January 31, 2008 8:08 PM | Link to this
First, CRT monitors are still the sharpest and most accurate monitors (doesn’t mean all of them are, but the best ones are more accurate than any LCD monitor).
Second, there’s nothing wrong with them.
So why did I switch at home.
I’m old and getting older. The 20-inch wide screen lets me use bigger type (whether I’m writing or reading). It just easier on my eyes. The wide screen also lets me put two documents - or photos, or whatever, side-by-side on the screen at a size that I can see.
By PPH
February 1, 2008 8:28 AM | Link to this
The customer sevrvice in this country has completely gone downhill. I treat customer services reps the way I liked to be treated when I worked customer service. If I do not receive the same back then I stand up for myself. It’s that simple.
By Fred
February 1, 2008 10:27 AM | Link to this
The motherload of bad service. Earthlink. Taking indiiference and rudeness to new levels. Followed by close runner up Comcast.
By jmc
February 1, 2008 10:38 AM | Link to this
Hey, you left out AT&T. They’re #1 in bad service so give them credit where it’s do.
By JJ
February 1, 2008 11:28 AM | Link to this
I’d like to comment on customer service from the other side of the fence. I’m a huge advocate of customer service-duh. I polled several of my agents (I worked for a large telecom in the “SOUTH”) for what made customer service difficult. Here’s some replies: 1. Calling in when you don’t have time to talk. The customers become rude and hurried and start making demands. Tackle the situation when you have time. Trust me, the agents are there and ready. 2. Don’t change your services around 50 quadrillion times a month or year. This causes billing issues with prorates and bill dates. Most customers cause their own billing problems—probably around 95%. We usually just credit the customer to make them happy since they’ll never understand. We then ask them to give their bills a month or so to calm down so they can see the changes reflected. Of course, they never listen. 3. Ordering services beyond their understanding. Not being mean but a 95 year old lady doesn’t need a static IP or advanced internet resources. They probably don’t even need the internet as they’ll probably “press the wrong button” on the computer then blame us not DELL/HP. 4. Be nice. We’ve heard it all. Oh yeah, if you know a bigwig, then call him or her first. Name dropping goes nowhere. If you are losing $15,000 an hour since your service is down, then you need to have a business account instead of a dial-up customer account. If you’re going to throw the “L” word around (lawyer) then call him first. At my job, if you say the “L” word,we must disconnect the call. We’ll then note the account and no one will help you going forward-call your lawyer for help. 5. Record all names and times that you called. I too want to know why Lakita or Scott didn’t handle your call. I probably have the call recorded and will write them up or can them for it—I’ve done it before. I averaged 1 agent every 1.6 months for stupidity. I frown on stupidity. I have a career not a job. A job is at McDs during the Summer. 6. Let the agent try first before demanding a supervisor or manager. Odds are they’ll simply hand you off to a team lead posing as a manager. Why? Because soooooooo many people demand managers these days that I can’t get my acutal coaching, monitoring, and mentoring done. So, I put my team lead in charge of escalations. He too is just an agent but he’ll handle the call just as good while I’m listening to another screamer that wants $6 credit for something they did.
7. Oh yeah, you still have to pay even if you didn’t use it. We’re providing a service and it’s up to you to use it. If you don’t use the phone or net for 3 years, don’t call demanding credit. I must charge you. There are paying customers that could have been using your port!If you don’t live at your house for 5 months, you must pay your mortgage. Try calling your mortgage company with such a stupid request. 8. Just ask. If you need something, just ask. We’ll probably give it to you. My agents have a limit of $100 and then have to ask my permission to go above that. It’s easier to correct and credit than to drive the call times up and make people hold. We have stats that must be met.
To quote Patrick Swayze from Roadhouse:
“Be nice”
By Karen
February 1, 2008 2:10 PM | Link to this
Earthlink has really gone downhill. I remember in the old Mindspring days, they were the greatest. Sad to see the help drop so low from them. I recently switched my service to AT&T and was very pleased that the customer service I received with them during the setup, and a consequent problem, most likely caused by me, was just excellent. AT&T is not the same as it was before the BellSouth merger. I was very pleasantly surprised by my recent interaction with them. Not so at all with my experience with Earthlink. They sent me a $5 gift certificate to Starbucks though, so I guess that should have made it all better. Nice try, but I would have preferred to have assistance with my DSL line that was down for over a month……
By Nikki
February 1, 2008 3:53 PM | Link to this
Well said JJ, well Said… I have been in customer service for over 12 years, and agree with everything you said.
Thanks :)
By Political Foreskin
February 1, 2008 6:26 PM | Link to this
Someone in customer service tried to be rude with me once………once!
By Jeff
February 3, 2008 8:29 AM | Link to this
I had a run around issue with a company (Cable Company)for several months. I called, wrote letters…still nothing….I was just about feed up till I purchased a prepaid legal service. Ended up the attorney I was using was ignored by phone with this Cable Company…Then, the attorney that was assigned to me wrote a very nice letter on my behalf…Within 3 days it was resolved, I got my service up and running perfect and…they gave me a 3 months credit plus a discount for 12 mths. What I pay each month for my legal service is fantastic! It is something what happens when you get a lawyer involved over something as simple as what I had, but I guess the common, average American does not stand a chance these days with companies. Now I do.
By TOM BOYLEN
February 3, 2008 10:25 AM | Link to this
GOOD MORNING BILL, JUST A NOTE TO TELL YOU THAT I LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR COLUMN EVERY SUNDAY MORNING. IT IS MOST INFORMATIVE AND ALSO AMUSING WHEN YOU ADMIT THAT YOU SUFFER SOME OF THE SAME PROBLEMS AS WE “NEWBIES” MAYBE ONE DAY, YOUR WIFE WILL BE MORE PATIENT WITH YOUR COLLECTIONS OF PC’S AND “STUFF”
SINCERELY…TOM BOYLEN
By Cherie Downing
February 3, 2008 11:32 AM | Link to this
Tips for getting through the customer service system: To bypass the recording at Charter Cable, I was told to press “0” at each prompt until you are given a person. I say “agent” a couple of times and get a live person. Try Complaints.com and Gethuman.com for more tips. Another website is Consumeraction.gov.
By Paula
February 3, 2008 6:27 PM | Link to this
“Customer Service?” What is that! Since it is so rare thought I’d post the good news - Black and Decker, once you get to a real live person, is wonderful. Likewise, if you are in the Palm Springs, CA area the True Value at Palm Springs Mall is the poster child for excellent customer service.
By Debby
February 6, 2008 11:47 AM | Link to this
I read your column every Monday in the Columbus Dispatch and really enjoy it - I am not very tech savey but I always learn something from your column - and I wanted to share a very positive customer service story - a few months ago I had difficulty with my 4 year old Canon Powershot A70 camera - I was prepared to just buy a new one but thought I would email Canon first and see if there was a repair available - they replied that my problem ( no image appeared in the LCD view finder) could be a bad CCD Connector unit and they would be glad to replace it for free - they even sent me a UPS label for free shipping to their factory service center and then they replaced the CCD and cleaned the camera and then returned it via FE - all within one week - AND IT WORKS! That was amazing Customer Service - all via email and I will certainly purchase a new Canon when the time comes! Thanks for allowing me the opportunity to express my gratitude to Canon - Debby
By Bill
February 7, 2008 1:31 PM | Link to this
Hey Debby, that’s better luck than I had when my digital camera broke down. It’s nice to have a success story.
And you’re right to give credit to Canon. I think really good customer service and tech help is a huge selling point for any brand.