Wednesday, November 13, 2002

Not really another customer service problem, but i think it might be related...
I'm begining to notice the amount of subtle deviousness in today's business.
Last night I got home and my cable was acting strange. The images on some of the channels were "ghosted" on the major networks. I called customer service. After some explaining, she said a tech would have to come out, and when was a good time. About 4-6 months ago, my cable company MADE us get a converter box for an extra $4 a month if you had HBO. When I asked why, she said, "So incase there is a problem with your cable, we can take care of it from here, and not have to send a tech person out."
Great. So, I would call that devious. A way of getting more money from me a month, and lets just make up some excuse to justify it.
Today, I called to upgrade a piece of software for the PC. It was a $19 upgrade price. After giving the customer service person my name, address, email, she then asked for my phone #. I said it was unlisted. She said, Oh, we just use it for an ID verification here, and we don't sell it to other people... After a pause of thinking about giving it to her, I said, "Well, you do have my name, isn't that a personal ID verification"? So she sort of realized how much of a lame excuse she gave me and moved on to taking my order. Next, after completing the upgrade order, She said "And would you like to order the 400 page manual, with advanced features for only $24.99?" I asked if that was in addition to the $19.99, and she said Yes! Wow, so for $20, I get the program, but, if I want to know how to run the program, I need to buy an additional $25 manual. You know, That's just wrong.
ok, I'm off to call them back and see if I can complain to someone at the company. I know it will do no good, but someone needs to speak up to these people.

Cyen out

Thursday, November 07, 2002

Today's rant is about customer service. It just amazes me that in today's techological world, where we can have little devices that you can talk to almost anywhere ouside, and then have another person hear you in their little device from somewhere else in the word, that we still have problems with customer service. (By the way, I'm refering to cell phones above). I've had to deal with two customer service problems in the last week or two. One was with UPS, and another was with the Bank company in regards to my new truck. The UPS problem took me several hours on the phone, and I got a run-a-round like you wouldn't believe. I talked to tech. support, customer service, billing, and the help desk. Then after 2 days, they finally found the right person to call me back and explain the problem correctly and tell us how to fix it. The problem with my bank, I received a letter stating I didn't have proper insurance, or that they needed proof of insurance. The Insurance ID card was not acceptable to them (Why? It's acceptable to the police if I'm pulled over?). Ok, I need to fax them various sheets from my policy. I call back a day later to confirm, that everything was received and all is well. Yep. We're good. THEN about a week later, I get aonther letter in the mail, that says they need more information. So today I fax them more papers, and called to confirm. Yep, all's well they say. But now, I asked them for something in writting or to fax it to me, and guess what... "Oh, we don't do that". After a few more examples of why I don't want to take "Gina's" word for it, She puts me on hold. Then come's back and say's they will mail me something. Hmmmm Should I hold My breath for this letter to arrive? Such is my luck when dealing with customer service. At least everyone I dealt with was moderately polite. Which is rare now-a-days too.
Cyen out