Customer Service no longer exists

[bmg88201]

What happened to good customer service, where did it go ? How come everybody I talk to at any company sounds like they are from Pakistan or Bangladesh. Today I had to call AT&T and got someone that sounded like Apu from the Simpsons. I couldn’t understand her and was of no help. I finally asked her to transfer me to another department and guess who answered. This is no joke, she put me through to Medicare. Medicare for crying out loud !!!

While I was talking lady Apu at AT&T, I could hear dogs barking and kids screaming in the background. Probably working from her dung filled hit in India.

Sorry all, Thank you for letting vent. Ugh !!!!!

 

[kenmac]

same here. I called ATT to report low hanging lines that a truck was going to grab and pull down poles and snap wires.
I was told I needed to call xxx number. I hung up and called xxx #. The person at xxx # said I'll have to transfer you to another dept.
The person in the other dept, said I would need to call aaa #.
I finally told her I wasn't calling, or talking to anyone else. I didn't care if a truck took out every line, and pole on the road.
She finally said, ''Maybe I can handle it, and get it to the correct dept''
Within a few days someone was out hanging the phone wires back up

anymore, they all suck ! at one time, they went out of their way to get you as a customer. Not so much anymore. they really don't care !

 

[BnRidge]

The service center is in the 12th building from the left, on the 75th floor. Where'd you say you's all from again?

 

[BCinVA]

I really can't stand poor customer service. Before I retired I worked for many years training and coaching employees and management teams. Customer focus was always key. When I experience some of the processes companies have today, I just shake my head. Here are a couple of paragraphs from a recent survey on customer service:
(Gray News) – People really, really hate contacting customer support – so much so that they would rather spend a night in jail or shave their head.

A new survey conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Twilio Flex asked 2,000 Americans what they would rather do than contact customer service.

The poll found that 30% of people would rather do their taxes, 28% would rather go to the dentist, 25% would rather go to the DMV, 24% would rather shave their head, and 22% would rather spend a night in jail.

People are willing to go to those extremes to avoid contacting customer support because, on average, it takes three attempts and more than 1.5 hours on hold in order to solve just one issue with a customer service representative, the survey found.

 

[BnRidge]

Before I retired I worked for many years training and coaching employees and management teams. Customer focus was always key.

That was then. How does customer service effect the bottom line (share price) on a corporate level, in 2022. Remember when cars were sold based on how well their service reputation was. We service what we sell, and cars needed a lot of it. That was then. What they are telling us now is to shoo, go away, take our product as is. Are we going away?

 

[jaxs]

I believe companies found a large % of people with complaints become discouraged and hang up rather than continue trying to make sense of a trained monkey. Think I'm kidding? Next time a telemarketer calls do your best to talk like you are touched in the head and watch how quick they hang up rather than waste any more time.

 

[Torvy]

I believe companies found a large % of people with complaints become discouraged and hang up rather than continue trying to make sense of a trained monkey. Think I'm kidding? Next time a telemarketer calls do your best to talk like you are touched in the head and watch how quick they hang up rather than waste any more time.

I worked in tech support for a major PC brand. We had a customer that had our computer purchased by a competitor for him because he waa so annoying and cost them so much time. It was literally cheaper for them to buy him our machine.

I think some of the problem is poor management. It is also exceedingly difficult to find people with the work ethic and enough f's to give about customers. Sometimes, though, customers make it hard. I certainly don't want anyone to suffer from having my mom as a customer.

 

[MossRoad]

What happened to good customer service, where did it go ? How come everybody I talk to at any company sounds like they are from Pakistan or Bangladesh. Today I had to call AT&T and got someone that sounded like Apu from the Simpsons. I couldn’t understand her and was of no help. I finally asked her to transfer me to another department and guess who answered. This is no joke, she put me through to Medicare. Medicare for crying out loud !!!

While I was talking lady Apu at AT&T, I could hear dogs barking and kids screaming in the background. Probably working from her dung filled hit in India.

Sorry all, Thank you for letting vent. Ugh !!!!!

I'll wager the experience was just as unpleasant for her.

 

[5030]

What I don't like is you call and then get a recorded message to punch 1,2.3.4 or whatever to speak to a representative and you do that and get the 'I'm not available right now, leave a message and I'll call back and they never do. When I get that anymore, I hang up as it's useless.

Far as the dog barking, lots of customer service people telework from home today.

 

[MossRoad]

A couple/few months ago I spoke to a woman who had a baby crying in the background. I asked if she was working from home? She said yes and apologized for the baby crying. I told her it wasn't a problem for me, as I had been a baby myself many years ago. She started laughing and we had a great call and she was able to help me.

In all seriousness, in the past few years, I've made a conscious effort to be nice to people in customer service, instead of being pissed off that I'm having trouble understanding them, or getting what I need immediately. I've gotten a lot better service since then. It might not be perfect, but at least I'm not fuming when I hang up the phone and the person on the other end says thank you because they mean it, not because they have to.

 

[5030]

I just don't like the offshore call centers, which is why I limit my CC's to US Bank because all their customer service people are here on US soil.

 

[MossRoad]

I just don't like the offshore call centers, which is why I limit my CC's to US Bank because all their customer service people are here on US soil.

I usually ask them where they're located, just as a curiosity. Probably because at Christmas we got to call grandma and grandpa, say Merry Christmas, and hope to hear them say the same thing back before dad grabbed the phone away and handed it to the next sibling because long distance was so expensive!

Merry Christmas. Good bye.

 

[Oaktree]

What happened to good customer service, where did it go ? How come everybody I talk to at any company sounds like they are from Pakistan or Bangladesh. Today I had to call AT&T and got someone that sounded like Apu from the Simpsons. I couldn’t understand her and was of no help.

Many of the agents from the U.S. aren't much better. I've never watched the Simpsons and have no idea who Apu is,but I seem to always get someone whose first language is Ebonics, or has a thick southern drawl that is all but unintelligible. I'm sure these jobs don't pay very well, so they have to take whoever they can get.

It is also exceedingly difficult to find people with the work ethic and enough f's to give about customers. Sometimes, though, customers make it hard. I certainly don't want anyone to suffer from having my mom as a customer.

Not just that, but most of the time when someone calls they're already upset about something. As I mentioned above, these aren't very desirable jobs for the most part so they're not going to attract the best and brightest. And as you noted, a lot of customers can be difficult to deal with, understand and try to figure out what the actual problem is.

Funny thing, as much as cable companies' customer support gets bashed, I've never had a bad experience with them. I wish I could say the same for my now former propane supplier.

In all seriousness, in the past few years, I've made a conscious effort to be nice to people in customer service, instead of being pissed off that I'm having trouble understanding them, or getting what I need immediately. I've gotten a lot better service since then. It might not be perfect, but at least I'm not fuming when I hang up the phone and the person on the other end says thank you because they mean it, not because they have to.

A good policy in general. Throwing a tantrum rarely produces the desired results.

 

[MossRoad]

As for specific companies, I've always had really good customer service from T-Mobile. Outstanding, really. I can't get a signal in a corn field but that's not the customer service rep's fault. And their coverage improves every year.

 

[NoTrespassing]

I just tried to make an appointment to have a tire plugged at the local Ford garage. They couldn't get to me this week! They're booked solid Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. They offered to let me drop it off and see if they could squeeze it in. On their website they have a large banner on the homepage saying "We are hiring for ALL POSITIONS".

I didn't really want to take it to Joe Blow's Tire Shop since it's my wifes SUV with nice 22" black painted rims. I figured some guy on work release or crack/meth will screw it up.

The job market is a disaster everywhere I look.

 

[JasperFrank]

I can from experience say that Cub Cadet has EXCELLENT customer service. Dremil tool, Moen, Bennet, Canada Air, Boston Scientific, Google, TD Ameritrade, all my local hardware stores, my local power utility, and Flav-R-Pac also have great CS. And while ducking and hiding, I will say that the IRS also has excellent customer service.
The "less than useful" customer services I've run across include; DELL, HP, Expedia, Hot ticket, Century Link, Kodak, Auto Zone, Microsoft, Facebook, and Tracfone: The worst two players being, Tracfone and Expedia. I can't understand a single word the CS person is saying.

 

[MossRoad]

I can from experience say that Cub Cadet has EXCELLENT customer service. Dremil tool, Moen, Bennet, Canada Air, Boston Scientific, Google, TD Ameritrade, all my local hardware stores, my local power utility, and Flav-R-Pac also have great CS. And while ducking and hiding, I will say that the IRS also has excellent customer service.
The "less than useful" customer services I've run across include; DELL, HP, Expedia, Hot ticket, Century Link, Kodak, Auto Zone, Microsoft, Facebook, and Tracfone: The worst two players being, Tracfone and Expedia. I can't understand a single word the CS person is saying.

I had problems with my taxes ONCE. I claimed my kid when she should have claimed herself for the first time, so when she went to file, she couldn't. I'd already gotten my refund.

So I made an appointment, got all worked up about going to jail, etc.

Went in, told them what happened, they showed me how to file an amended form, figure out what I had to pay back, and that was pretty much that. Kid filed an amended return, and got what she should have.

Of course, this was all pre-pandemic and the IRS had an open office here in town.

Some interesting reading....

Rebuild IRS With Hiring, Training, More Pay, Appeal to Service

The IRS has lost about 20% of its full-time workforce since 2010. Reversing that trend will take a commitment to hire employees faster, train them better, offer them higher salaries, and appeal to their sense of public service, writes NTEU President Tony Reardon.

news.bloombergtax.com

 

[Torvy]

I had problems with my taxes ONCE. I claimed my kid when she should have claimed herself for the first time, so when she went to file, she couldn't. I'd already gotten my refund.

So I made an appointment, got all worked up about going to jail, etc.

Went in, told them what happened, they showed me how to file an amended form, figure out what I had to pay back, and that was pretty much that. Kid filed an amended return, and got what she should have.

Of course, this was all pre-pandemic and the IRS had an open office here in town.

Some interesting reading....

Rebuild IRS With Hiring, Training, More Pay, Appeal to Service

The IRS has lost about 20% of its full-time workforce since 2010. Reversing that trend will take a commitment to hire employees faster, train them better, offer them higher salaries, and appeal to their sense of public service, writes NTEU President Tony Reardon.

news.bloombergtax.com

Had the opposite problem. Oldest's 1st year in college, he filed on his tiny income and got a refund. Never told us. We file and get kicked back. We explained the problem to him and he re-filed without claiming himself. We gave him his lost refund back. The difference in our tax rates was significant. He had lived with us for over half of the year. We could have claimed him longer, but just adjusted withholding going forward.

 

[orezok]

Sorry, but I got to disagree on the IRS. I never received the last $1400 rebate or whatever they called it. They sent me a letter stating that my filing info did not match their information. BUT it was the exact same SS number and name I have used for 60 years and the same address for the last 18 filings.

They provided a number to call and after trying at least a dozen times with the message “we’re too damn busy to talk to you, call some other time.”

 

[5030]

I just tried to make an appointment to have a tire plugged at the local Ford garage. They couldn't get to me this week! They're booked solid Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. They offered to let me drop it off and see if they could squeeze it in. On their website they have a large banner on the homepage saying "We are hiring for ALL POSITIONS".

I didn't really want to take it to Joe Blow's Tire Shop since it's my wifes SUV with nice 22" black painted rims. I figured some guy on work release or crack/meth will screw it up.

The job market is a disaster everywhere I look.

I feel for you. the outfit that does my tractor tires also does light truck and car tires and their guys are always careful. They sell new tires too and I buy my replacement tires from them.