Monday, December 26, 2005

"Customer Service"


/rant

Has anyone ever noticed how completely unhelpful customer service lines really are? Well, maybe it's just me. Every time I call a customer service hotline, no one can seem to help me. They try, I'll give them that. But it never seems to fix the problem. Aren't they there to answer any and every question you can think of? I understand that it's difficult to comprehend some questions that people ask (i.e. "what's this thingy that just popped up on the screen?"), but they're trained for that, right?

Another issue I have with customer service lines is that a fee is generally involved. When my computer broke and I tried to call HP for some support, they first acquired my name, email address, and phone number. They then informed me that because my warranty is no longer good, I would have to pay approximately $100 for them to help me over the phone. For one freaking question. And this $100 only gets me one year of service. But wait, it gets better. If I simply wanted to suscribe to the 2-week service, it would only cost me half of that. But, I could also go online and get support for free. Because I had a functioning computer and all.

Honestly, how mental are these people? I don't know if I speak for the general public or not, but we do not break things frequently enough to give the producer $100 to help us fix it. Or not fix it, in most cases. It's ridiculous that these "support lines" charge outrageous fees to answer simple questions. The more reasonable/logical option is to have people call a non-toll-free line and pay only for the time that they actually use. But I guess it's a part of the American way to fuck people for money, eh?

/end rant

Note: I do not mean to offend anyone who works in customer service. Nor do I mean to diss our nation's economic strategies. I love America. I just hate Americans that try to fuck up my life with bullshit. :D

2 comments:

Michael Bains said...

My least favorite thing about them is your point that they are generally specific to only ONE aspect of our needs.

If I call Company A, I really don't give a freak what department I've reached. I called the Company, NOT a department and they need to setup the phone system to acknowledge this. If the poor Operator can't do a damn thing about that, then they should at least have the ability to transfer me to the proper department, instead of just giving me a different freakin' # to call.

I do PC Support and THAT is how the people with whom I work and I do things. We WANT our customers/co-workers to appreciate us; not despise us.

If any of y'all Rockstar's (u2 B-dog) have any PC questions, please ask away. I promise not to transfer you to my Billing Department.

Slurpy New Year!

Bronze Dog said...

Be sure to read my recent entry, Michael.

One thing that really annoys me: When customer service is handled entirely by a computer. Here's a tip for any customer service people here: Computers, in my experience, have poor reading comprehension.