did this conversation take place? am i nuts? fuck!

The BBQ Pit
1

this shit has all happened within the last couple of weeks and i am getting fucking tired of it.

utility company:
after moving into my new apartment, i get an electric bill that includes a period of 2 weeks before my move-in date. the manager had sent them the correct date so it’s their fault. after 3 days of phone calls and talking to at least 8 different people and providing all the information every time as if i had never spoken to anyone before, it was finally agreed that i would not pay this bill and would wait until next month’s bill which would include the adjusted amount of the first bill. next month’s bill comes with the ENTIRE amount of the first bill tacked on, like my discussions with their billing department NEVER HAPPENED.

phone company:
my first phone bill at the new place and last bill from the old place include charges from the SAME TIME PERIOD (i’d already paid my final balance at the old place). when i call them to correct it, they tell me to ignore the bill from the old place and just pay the bill from the new place, which i do. next month, the bill comes with the amount from the incorrect bill from the old place tacked on as a PREVIOUS BALANCE and would i be so kind as to PAY the PAST DUE AMOUNT!! when i call to correct, the customer service guy agrees that the amount charged is wrong and that he’d send out a revised bill within 5 days. 7 days later, i call to say i have not received the revised bill. the woman i speak to says they never send ‘revised bills’ and she’s sorry i was told that. there is also NO RECORD of the conversation i’d had with the previous idiot.

bike repair shop:
about 6 months ago my bike frame cracked and had to be replaced (warrantied by trek). last weekend, the replacement frame cracked in the EXACT SAME PLACE. when i brought it in to the shop, the service guys agreed with me that trek should not only upgrade the frame at a pro-rated price, but should pay to have the components mounted on the new frame ($80, which i paid only 6 months ago for the first replacement). they said they would fed-ex the frame to trek and discuss payment options with them. i was at the shop discussing this for at lease 45 minutes. i spoke to the service guy (in charge of warranties) at the bike shop today, who told me the new frame was on its way. when i asked if trek was sending an upgraded frame and if they had agreed to pay to mount the old components, he HAD NO IDEA WHAT I WAS TALKING ABOUT!!

what the fuck?! has shit always been this fucked up and i’m just noticing it now, or are people just getting more stupid?!

2

This happens to me a lot.

I spoke to a representative at our long distance provider regarding the rate offer i had from another company. He said they would match the rates, starting on 7/15/00.

Well, i got the bill, and the rates hadn’t been changed.

But guess what? I wrote down the guys name, extension # and employee badge number. So when I paid the bill, only the correct amount (I did the math), I included a letter with all the information.

His boss called me and apologized and made the necessary changes.

Then again, we’ll see if the credit actually shows up on the next bill. But at least I have her name, extension and badge number too.

3

Yep, Ivar’s got it right. ANYTIME you have a conflict or have made an agreement regarding payments, credits, or special deals, write down the person’s name, operator number (or whatever they use to identify themselves), time and date of the conversation. It’ll save you many headaches later.

4

I used to be one of the idiots in customer service for a long distance company. Well, I’d like to think that I wasn’t an idiot, but merely surrounded by them.

I was employee number 126 (I was hired early on), and I made sure that my customers knew that. I broke company rules and gave out my direct phone extension to customers that I thought would have problems if they got routed to some newbie moron if they had to call back with a complex problem.

My fellow employees, especially those who didn’t know exactly what they were doing (which was entirely the company’s fault since they cut training time down from three weeks to three days!!), depended upon anonymity when they knowingly gave out incorrect information to get a problem call off the phone.

I guess this is just a long-winded way of saying that Ivar and monster are right.

5

I have always found that when you ask for this information, the person at the other end of the phone suddenly becomes a lot more helpful. If you do not have this information, you might as well never have called.

6

oh, i know about documentation. i have an access database where every issue is documented with a call log that tracks every phone call (with time and date), person i talked to, and what was agreed to/asked for. the call log is courtesy of dopers who helped me with my access subform question a while back. what really pisses me off is the lack of corresponding documentation on the company end. how can you run a business with a customer service desk and not have a reliable ticket tracking system? even though i have everything documented, i still have to explain the whole thing from the beginning to each person i get transferred to. i have to give my account number, and my name, and what the original problem was, etc. etc… i always say ‘do you have a tracking number for this issue? don’t you guys document any of these conversations?’ it doesn’t matter what they say. the next person i talk to has no idea who i am or what i want. and i always get the apology and assurance that the thing is fixed.

oh,and i forgot to include the post office portion:
after submitting a change of address form, i still didn’t get my forwarded mail two weeks later. i spoke to a rep at the main office who assured me that at that moment, she was entering my info into the computer. a week later, after still no forwarded mail, i called back and spoke to a rep that told me there was no record in the computer of a new address or that i had even called to report one.

7

This happens with me, but involves my friends, not billing peoples. Most of the time I just let it slide, but other times my face gets red, and I usually end up throwing something.

8

One of my toys is a telephone-tape recorder (think Linda Tripp) I tell people that it is in use. Cover your a$$ Name ,rank,serial no. of every one I deal with on a complant. The one with the records wins the court case.

9

Situations like that have given me new appreciation for welfare.

In the past, in regards to certain individuals, I would hear people say, “Why don’t you get off of welfare and get a fucking job!” and I would think, “Yeah, you fucking fuck!” But now, I see the ex-welfare people working in the bike shops, I talk to them on the phone, they sell me things. Then, I look around and think “Where have all of the welfare people gone?”

So, I am offering my sincerest apologies to any fucking tard that I wished would get a job. Thank you for your excellent approach to customer service, but you may go back to welfare now. I am gladly donating lots of money to the welfare fund so I can get meat in my fucking taco, my trash cans put back where they belong, that fucking stupid charge taken off of my acount,… There are just a little too many job openings right now, apparently. I am so sorry to have inconvenienced you. Back to the sofa with you!

Say ‘NO’ to Welfare Reform!

10

zwaldd, it’s definately not just you. We’ve been experiencing much the same crap, expecially with our phone company, Pacific Smell (they really stink!). I was a big fan of Pacific Bell for many years, but once I tried to deal with them for anything other than default service at home (ie small office) it became a nightmare. Charging the wrong rate, switching plans without informing us, and finally billing for services we never recieved, just piles and piles of mistakes which drove us to the brink…And the worst part is they tell you they will fix it (sometimes four, five times) and never do.

I am also a believer in taking down the name of anyone you talk to in these situations, but even this did not help!! They screwed up so bad they could not fix the mistakes until ten phone calls into it. So don’t feel bad, we;ve been through the ringer.

Ask for things in writing. This is the last refuge for consumers, because once you tell someone to put it in writing they get nervous about making a mistake right there on paper.

Good Luck

Mynde, you funny.

11

In response to Myndephuquer’s observation that the low level of service is due to welfare-to-work options: I believe that that is only 1/3 of the (collapsing) three-legged stool. The 2nd leg is the elimination of middle managment positions (computerization and “employee empowerment” programs were expected to fill the support/supervison void). The third leg is the shift to a service economy. When we were an agricultural/industrial society we were the breadbasket of the western world, and our steel covered the world’s dry surface as rails or sailed over its wet surface as hulls. Now, you’d expect we’d equal that today in the corresponding service economy, but fall far short. If you want to know why that is, you’d have to ask someone with a higher information to opinion ratio than me.

12

I work customer service for a large catalog company. This company has over 1700 customer service reps in three cities. Let me fill you in on a couple of things.

[ul][li]No, we don’t have a record of every conversation you’ve ever had with us. No, we don’t record every conversation we have with every customer and stick the tapes in a huge filing system. What we do is key in a ‘contact code’ at the completion of each call (at least, we’re supposed to). We occasionally type in miscellaneous notes, but they’re kept to a minimum to conserve server space. We also post any letters we send to the account.[/li]
[li]We use fake names. That’s to keep Bubba from tracking down that rep with the purdy voice.[/li]
[li]Some reps lie. Some reps don’t post a contact code. Some reps get fired quickly and stop making life miserable for the rest of us who try to do our job. Please don’t get on my case because of that other rep - I’m doing my damndest to repair his/her damage, but your screaming at me makes me not care nearly as much.[/li]
[li]Training is a huge issue. Turnover is high, so there are always new reps who really don’t know what the fuck they’re doing and will say anything to make the customer happy, truthful or not.[/li]
[li]Relative to my last point: Do not swear at me if I give you an answer you don’t like. Do not scream at me. DO NOT swear at me again after I have asked you to not swear at me or I will tell you to have a nice day and hang up on your ass.[/li]
[li]Yes, I’m sorry you’ve been transferred three times before you got to me, but the people who spoke to you earlier were not trained to answer the question you have. Would you rather have them lie to you or would you rather have the truth?[/li]
I’m also sorry I have to make you repeat your name, phone, and address yet again, but here’s the deal: We’re given scripts to follow, and 3 or 5 or 7 times a month we’re called into a little room and scored on how well we did. If I don’t re-verify your info I get points knocked off. If I get too many points knocked off my paycheck decreases. So, yes, I do have to re-verify your information.

[li]I’m very sorry you didn’t receive your product. We gave it to UPS a month ago. No, I don’t know why they didn’t deliver it to your home. No, I don’t know why they left it on your doorstep. No, I don’t know why that particular UPS driver in your particular town let your good-for-nothing cousin sign for it. Leave me the fuck alone and go ask UPS, will ya?[/li]
[li]Ma’am, I’m very sorry your box arrived squished flat and the glass was broken, but please stop screaming in my ear - I wasn’t able to get the headphones off quick enough and you’re making my ears ring. You are acting like I drove to the other side of town, selected the one box among thousands with your name on it, dropped it off the loading dock, and jumped on it for good measure. If you don’t stop screaming at me I’m going to go do that to your next goddamned package.[/li]
[li]I am paid by the number of calls I take per hour. While under other circumstances I would happily converse with you about your Great-Aunt Nelly’s hospital stay, I can’t afford it.[/li]
[li]It is not my fault that we did not receive a $500 ring you put into an envelope and mailed WITHOUT insurance. That’s YOUR fault for being an idiot.[/li]
And finally…

[li]What part of “six-month return policy” do you not understand, you fucking redneck?[/ul][/li]
Whew. Now that I have THAT off my chest:

ResevoirDog - yep, that’s how I am. The company I work for is far from perfect and I’ll have to say I don’t agree with all of their policies, but I do go out of my way to give extra assistance when necessary. Most of the regular reps at my company can’t give out their extenstions but because I work in a specialty (truckship) department I can, and I give out my extension A LOT.

zwaldd - don’t blame the reps. I once had to track the accounts of a dozen customers for months because our computer system simply REFUSED to allow their address changes. Just a computer glitch - it wasn’t anything personal.

13

i don’t blame the reps for the problems i call about. i blame them for telling me something is going to happen that doesn’t happen. in business, if you say something is going to happen, then you are responsible for it happening. if you subsequently see that it’s not happening, you should proactively contact the client and let them know it’s not happening and discuss a new plan of action. otherwise you are a pus sore on humanity, whether you’re a customer service rep or the company president. if there is a computer glitch that may cause my information to be lost, then tell me there’s a computer glitch and either call me back when it’s fixed, or recommend that i call at a later date to confirm that my info went through. don’t just say ‘ok, you’re all set’ just to send me on my way.

14

You know, zwaldd, I agree with you. But changing an address is as simple as typing in the new info and clicking ‘ok’. If I wrote down every address I changed during the course of my day and checked up on all those addresses a week later to ensure they went through I wouldn’t have time to take any customer calls.

Re the computer glitch I mentioned in my last post, it affected about 150 of our 250,000 customers, so it wasn’t something obviously noticable.