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BUYER BEWARE
Customer disservice
By James Booth
What has become of customer service? I remember a time when "the customer was always right." Has consumerism in this country gotten to the point that retailers have so many customers lined up waiting for us to throw our money at them that they can be downright abusive? I don't think so. The bankruptcy of the Kmart chain is but one example that the consumer's dollar is at a premium. American society is no longer driven by products like it once was, but by service. What kind of service? Customer service.
"This is ludicrous. It's like pulling teeth."
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Let's face it; just about everyone is filled with an over-inflated sense of his or her own importance. Not only do we enjoy being catered to, we demand it. Given this, how is it that companies, whether at a physical retail location, or an online retailer, think they can treat their customers like so much fodder for the corporate shredder?
A prime example is the patronization that Denise Watkins received at a retail electronics location. You can read more about her experience in the article "Are you being technopatronized?" (see http://www.computingunplugged.com/issues/issue200401/00001211001.html) in the January issue of Computing Unplugged.
It seems to me that what some businesses don't realize is that without their customers, there would be no business. I cannot believe how some companies' customer service or tech support divisions can be so deliberately obtuse and circuitous.
One well-known company (who shall remain unnamed) I called recently told me, by a recording, mind you, that their tech support staff was too busy to talk to me, that I should call back later, and that I was invited to use their email support option. I suppose that's better than letting me sit on hold for hours on end, but neither situation should ever present itself. I believe this company needs to hire more support staff if this circumstance arises often enough to have a recorded message.
It has been over a week and I'm still waiting for their email response. At this point, I don't care if they ever respond. Do you want to know why? Because I solved the problem I was having with their product by replacing it with one from their largest competitor. These are the consequences of poor customer service. It took them in the neighborhood of two and a half weeks to respond, and I told them exactly how I solved the problem.
"That was the single shining light in a transaction that has sunk to the depths of Hades."
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The occasion that prompted this article though, was the recent experience I had with a portable keyboard maker. I ordered one of their IR wireless keyboards for my Palm Tungsten T2, selecting Next Day shipping. And believe it or not, even though the order was placed at 8:30 PM, that keyboard still made it here by 10:30 AM the next morning. That was the single shining light in a transaction that has sunk to the depths of Hades.
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