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I'm thinking of starting a blacklist, what do you think? · 2 October 06
Another day, another crappy customer service experience. We are not customers, we are cash cows here to be milked for our money. There has to be a backlash sometime, there really has to. Doesn’t there? Please?
So I moseyed online to look at my cingular account, and just happened to notice that the text messaging package I have has double the minutes. Except no, hold on a minute, the one I have doesn’t have double the minutes, the one by its name in their pimping area does. Now I’m an editor, I have something of an eye for detail, and I did happen to notice that what used to be a Multimedia basic package has become a Multimedia basic bundle – devil’s in the detail!
So I call up their customer service line, continue breezily past the standard ‘we are experiencing unusually high call volume’ message, navigate the many menus and finally reach a person by dint of ignoring any of their specialised options and holding out to the end. I then proceed to explain to the lady (and no, I didn’t ask her name – does that really achieve anything apart from putting a name to your source of vitriol?) that I seem to have half the number of minutes, carefully not using either the word package or bundle in the conversation. And lo, to my great surprise, she responds by telling me their system is down! Now I know that most of these systems are almost certainly windows based, but have you ever noticed how often they seem to be down? Am I growing cynical in my old age?
But anyway, the lady very kindly transfers me to another person who may be able to me. Except hey, guess what, his system is down too! Was that unpredictable to anyone else but them? Still, this guy is wise to me. No pulling one over on him with my tricky editor’s doublespeak.
“Yes ma’am, we have an entirely new and different package available now.” Ah yes, of course, ‘entirely new’. Double the minutes and everything else the same – that’s a whole world of difference. Oh, and shouldn’t that have been bundle ;)
“Well ok,” I say, “can I have the whole new package please?”
“Normally you could ma’am, but our system is down.”
“Can you give me the whole new package when your system comes up again?”
“No ma’am, I have no mechanism for putting that in place.” (What, no post-it notes? Not even an outlook reminder?) “Can you call back in 4 hours when our system is back up.”
“But you won’t be open then?”
“Ah indeed, you are right ma’am, call back tomorrow.”
Now just imagine for a moment that, instead, I had received a letter in the mail from them. ‘Cingular are pleased to announce that due to improved efficiency of our systems, we are able to offer you double the number of minutes at the same low price!’ Think how grateful, how impressed, I would have been. What a great company, I would have thought. Contract renewal, but of course! My loyalty is at your disposal! As it is…
I’m a bit crap at stuff like this. I was getting to the end of my O2 contract and to be honest, I liked them, had no real intention of changing at all. They kept calling ME. And I know what it’s like when you play mean to keep a girl keen, string the beeyatch along, play hard to get…
Yeah okay, so I don’t actually know anything about that at all, but I’ve heard about it. So I played up the ‘thinking about it’ aspect and got a nice new handset and a decent multimedia contract out of it. Which admittedly I only use to send bluetooth pictures of my genitals to strangers on buses but hey.
Don’t mention that bit during the negotiations.
— Reaper Oct 2, 19:27 #
See, the interesting thing is, my contract is past renewal and they haven’t called me. No chance to even play hard to get! (Did I sound a bit pathetic there? sorry ;) ) Customer service really is a misnomer in this country.
— sarah Oct 2, 19:32 #
But do you actually use it? I text like a 15yr old girl, (frequency and spelling) so they knew for a fact they were going to get more than the monthly minimum payment out of me therefore probably worth keeping. What’s your usage like? Yes, I’m sniggering.
— Reaper Oct 2, 20:51 #
Would the fact that I have, like, 2000 rollover minutes answer that question?
— sarah Oct 2, 21:19 #