Which Fortune 500 Customer Service dept have you had the most trouble with?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Of the Forune 500 companies, with which company’s Customer Service dept have you had the most trouble?

Note that I am only interested in Customer Service (including Technical Support, Billing, Accounts Management and so forth). That is to say, if you have a issue with a Fortune 500 company, and it is resolved on the very first contact with Customer Service, I am not interested in that issue. But, if you have had ongoing issues with some company’s Customer Service department itself, such as issues arising from the representative’s inability to do anything, the supervisor’s ability to do anything, the lack of issue ownership and the general quality of customer care… then I am interested.

Even if the issue stems from the lack of empowerment granted to the representative by the company at large, I am interested. I genuinely believe that if companies granted their Customer Service employee’s the tools, resources and accesses to get things done, then most of these issues would not arise.

2

It took me more than a year of sustained effort to cancel a Capital One credit card - with absolutely no payment, dispute or credit issues involved. There was ALWAYS a reason why the cancellation had to be pushed out another 30 days, and then some action that negated the pending cancellation. I had the time to push it to high levels and never got any satisfaction until pure chance let a cancellation order go through without interruption.

3

Transunion, bunch of slandering bastards. Been trying to get some incorrect bullshit off my credit report for 5 years. Call Number A they say they can’t do anything, but you should call number B. When you call Number B They are unable do anything and tell you to email to to address C. That comes back with a note that tells you you have to Mail stuff to physical address D. When you do that It comes back that they couldn’t do anything, you have to call number A.

I’ve been through the cycle three times, talked to every level of manager, and everybody who works for them is unable to fix what federal law requires them too. It’s intentionally designed to be an endless runaround until you give up.

4

Also, I am going to suggest, perhaps erroneously, that the quality of Customer Service has declined significantly in comparison to the rise of the popularity of the internet (and perhaps not entirely unrelated, the rise in the volume of online orders). As such, I would love (love, Love, LOVE) to hear stories of poor Customer Service from past generations (ie, from the point that such calls were handled by somebody other than the company’s secretary/receptionist).

5

CVS/Caremark. Every time I place a prescription with them, they screw up something. Every single time.

Most recently, I ordered a refill that never arrived. I discovered there was no record of the order despite the fact that I saw the order being recorded.

Previously, we got a phone call about a prescription being renewed. We never asked for a prescription to be renewed. When I called (as I have to do all the time), the swore up and down that this was a mistake and there was no prescription and nothing in their records indicated a prescription being renewed. A week later, the unordered prescription arrived.

Dealing with the customer service is an exercise in futility. They say all the soothing words from the “calm the customer down” file, but do nothing to fix the constant problems. Frankly, if I wasn’t forced to, I wouldn’t order from them again, and I stopped setting foot in their stores ages ago.

What gets me is the fake “customer service” that says platitudes without showing the slightest bit of actual concern that they are screwing their customers. This is the reason customer service is worse than in the past – previously, companies cared about customers and worked to fix problems. Now, their goal is to calm the customer down and to hell with fixing anything.

6

Verizon. My first experience was more or less forced on me at the preference of my roommates. We had multiple issues with their internet service and their Customer Service was so convoluted, unhelpful, and rude that we had to take turns handing the phone off to each other to allow the previous talker to cool off.

My mistake was failing to recall their Customer Service failures when I moved into my own place, or perhaps I foolishly hoped that they had changed. I made an appointment to have internet set up at my new place. Shortly thereafter, I thought better of it, and called to cancel the appointment. I tried. I spent an hour on hold, and was disconnected twice. So I emailed them through their internet portal and told them I was not going to call them anymore, cancel the appointment please.

They emailed me back to say that in order to cancel the appointment, I would have to call this number.

I emailed back and said I had called that number, spent an hour on hold. . .and I was not going to call again. Please cancel the appointment.

They emailed me back to say that in order to cancel the appointment, I would have to call this number.

I tried calling again and never made it through to anyone who could help me. In the meantime, I got sick and lost my voice. Phone calls were. . .challenging.

However, I was still sick of the day of the scheduled appointment. So I was home, waiting for the technician to arrive so that I could tell him to begone without setting up anything. He never called to say he had arrived and request access to my unit. Frighteningly, I received a voicemail and three emails from Verizon that afternoon informing me service had been established (by a ghost technician, apparently), including some additional charges I had never requested, and that they would start billing me.

I called (still no voice) and again tried to mime the story through the phone. Verizon said they would cancel my service, but I was still responsible for the set up charge. Eventually, after a good deal of arguing, I decided it was simpler to pay it. But I will NEVER, NEVER use Verizon for anything ever again.

I’m considering moving to a new cell phone provider. It won’t be Verizon.

I’d like to set up internet in my apartment. I will go without rather than use Verizon.

I would say that Verizon is the tool of Satan, but I would not so insult Satan.

7

It took me about a year to get something off my credit report that wasn’t mine. My ex-wife had something on hers that can’t/won’t be removed. Apparently, there’s someone in Canada with the same name as her and TU/EF/Experion basically said ‘tough, deal with it’. At least the person had an $8000 credit limit, owed a few hundred bucks and always paid on time. It actually probably helped her credit score more then hurt it.

I didn’t look through the list very carefully, but I saw Home Depot on the first page. I like to say that their slogan should be “You can do it…by yourself”. At least in the three Home Depots by my house it’s almost impossible to get help. I’ve seen employees actively walk out of aisles that customers walk into. Sometimes I honestly wonder if they try to cut back on payroll by having employees not help customers. But if that was the case, they should have less employees working there. Not a ton of them running around avoiding customers.

8

Transunion, definitely. I had my SIN linked with some dude is Quebec, so basically had three credit reports (mine alone, his alone, and a combo). It took me almost a week of calls before I found someone that understood there was something wrong with that…

9

You’ll consider giving up all telecommunications if you ever have to contact AT&T for anything.

10

Amen. After moving to Texas from California and having services (cell and internet) follow us seamlessly, I had a billing issue. Called the 800 number on the bill. Waited on hold 45 minutes or so to be told I had reached the CA number and needed the TX number. I bet you all can guess the rest. Lather, rinse, repeat. After a few of these I sent them a letter. Two letters. Finally got a letter from them saying the bill was going to be turned over to collections. Two days later got a statement showing the charge had been taken off. Heh.

11

Without a doubt, Comcast. It’s comical how many things they’ve fucked up from day 1, when nobody even bothered to show up for the installation appointment.

12

Northrop Grumman. I just keep having all these problems with my UAV drones.

13

Cablevision kept the wrong apartment number on my bill for 22 years rather than change it, despite repeated requests.

14

I wish this were the case at my local Home Depot. The employees there swarm you they’re so eager to help.

As for bad customer service, I’ll put in dish network. I can’t tell you the times they have cut off my service for not paying a bill, even though I paid. They would swear up and down I didn’t pay, despite having a receipt for the payment. Usually happened two or three times a year.

15

Delta Airlines.

In the days of my youth and awful poverty I was away from home visiting family when my flight home was cancelled due to hurricane at my desitnation. No surprise and I am ok with that. I’ll wait an extra day or two at a family member’s house and be on my way.

Couple days later and other airlines are definitely flying to my destination. Delta refused to change my ticket to a different airline and refused to refund my ticket. I have zero money to outright buy another ticket unless I can get Delta to issue a refund.

They claimed they are flying “tomorrow”. Every day the same claim, for weeks. A lie.

They claimed the destination’s Airport’s Authority would not permit them to fly. A lie. I emailed the director of the relevant Airport’s Authority who faxed back that they would be happy to have Delta flying again.

They claimed the destinations’s Immigration Authority would not permit anyone entry. A lie. I got the Chief Immigration Officer to send a fax confirming I was eligible to enter the destination.

They claimed it was impossible to transfer my ticket to another airline. A lie. Two friends were booked on Delta to my destination on frequent flyer tickets and they got moved onto a Continental flight with no problems.

A new day, a new excuse. And hours waiting on hold bouncing from one CSR rep to a supervisor and back again.

Eventually I sent an email to one of those travel troubleshooter writers for a national publication. She called her contacts at Delta and the next day they rebooked my ticket on another airline to get me home.

16

I thought it was Comcast. At one time our cable service went out every 96 hours. Exactly. Five times. The only way we got service back finally was by dropping digital.
The. A year later we moved. Oh The humanity! My wife is a telecommuter. She was working out of Starbucks for a week and a half.

A couple of months on we saw the Verizon Crew, bringing FIOS to our neighborhood. We’re saved! We hadn’t dealt with Verizon since we ditched our home phone a few years ago. And hadn’t had a service or billing issue with them for many years before that either. Apparently they have gone downhill in the past few years. Because after being without service for most of two months, we are back on Comcast.

So I guess in a close race, Verizon wins.

17

I didn’t page through the entire list, but I’ll assume Wells Fargo is on there. I used them to finance my last car. I was in every circle of hell trying to get them to update my incorrectly titled car. Since they were the lienholder, they had to make the request and it took them over 3 months, with endless phone calls. I have never screamed at a company so loud or used as much profanity. I will never, ever use Wells Fargo for anything.

18

I’ll admit I was guilty of that the summer I worked there. There store I was at was very bad at crosstraining employees, but would assign us to different departments to keep them covered. So I was great in Paint or at the service desk, but totally lost in Flooring or Lumber (seriously I was made to cover lumber without knowing how the saws worked). Sometimes I the only person covering to breaks/lunchs and got stuck with the dept’s phone as well.