Customer Service and talking to a real person

[Vince in Milwaukee]

In the same vein as my "miss paying by check post" thought that I'd bring this up.  What the heck, it's the middle of winter, below 0F, and the only 2 wheeling I'll be doing is pushing my little 4HP Toro snow blower.  Any how, why is it when I call a company, I get an automated voice prompt?  My feeling is this companies have grown so large, they have to do it this way.  And, when you finally do get a person, they can't take care of you and you are transfered to a new department where the cycle starts anew.  Comments please!   ;D

[nikwax]

small companies do this as well. we don't have rooms full of telephone operators anymore.


that said, I've had excellent luck with Apple Computer support, getting to a live body almost immediately, and getting someone local to me. Good customer support costs $$$$ and many companies do without.

[oldbike54]

It SUCKS !!!!!!!!!!!!

  Dusty

[rodekyll]

Muddling with that one today.  I found a camera outlet that has the new Nikon D810 for a very good price (<$1500.00 -- very close to the cost of the D610, which was my target model).  Researching the outlet I'm getting mixed reviews.  A pattern that jumps out in the reports is that *all* the folks making reports say that they either called customer service or that customer service called them to 'confirm the order'.  I'm not real clear about it yet, but it seems that the phone call is a required part of the transaction.  In the course of the call almost all the reporters say they were informed that they bought the wrong item and took what reads to me as a bait-and-switch to a different item.  It seems a little hokey, but the positive reviews seem to indicate that they are a legit outlet.  I'll be calling in to them in a few minutes with some basic questions, such as -- are they an authorized Nikon dealer and is this a USA or black market product.  We'll see if customer service in this case works for me or them.

If you want to get an education in customer support, try working it out with Microsoft when your download delivery of OFFICE doesn't work.  Makes you want to pound nails with your forehead.

[bad Chad]

Check this web site before your call, it can save you a lot of time and frustration.

http://gethuman.com/

Even if you don't, often hitting 0 repeatedly will get you past the robot to a real person.

[Lannis]

Check this web site before your call, it can save you a lot of time and frustration.

http://gethuman.com/

Even if you don't, often hitting 0 repeatedly will get you past the robot to a real person.

I had a good phone-help experience with EXEDE (my satellite ISP) the other day, Christmas day as a matter of fact.   

I called about a bandwidth problem (the system was telling me I'd exceeded my monthly allowance but I didn't think I had).   An American-English-speaking lady answered the phone immediately.   She was instantly able to pull up my account, tell me what the issue was (it was my fault), and she fixed it for me by allocating more bandwidth for the remainder of the month.

The funny thing was that there were two little kids (3 and 5 years old, I found out) helling around in the background, and a dog chasing them around and barking.   She was at home; she lives in Las Vegas, and her husband had to work that day anyway in some Las Vegas resort.   I expressed my sympathy that she was working Christmas, and she said "Oh, no, it's great; we all got to get up and open presents and have breakfast together this morning, and I get paid double-time today!"   

So maybe that's the wave of the future, or maybe just good luck for me, but I get VERY tired of hearing "This is BigBlue Internet; please listen carefully, as our menu options have changed ....." following by a labyrinth of meaningless options and holds.

Lannis

[charlie b]

What about in person support when they have no idea what they are doing?

An Apple store when the iPad first came out.  Took it in cause it locked up during an 'upgrade'.  Took four people to try and figure it out.  Finally they found the one guy in the store who knew what to do, after over an hour.  If he had not been there they were talking about shipping it back to Apple.

[Mayor_of_BBQ]

i usually grow irritated almost instantly, then repeatedly smash the 00000000000 in anger until I get a real person

[bad Chad]

That's why you don't buy electronics when they first come out!

[Lannis]

Check this web site before your call, it can save you a lot of time and frustration.

http://gethuman.com/

Even if you don't, often hitting 0 repeatedly will get you past the robot to a real person.

Here's another trick I've done a couple times, and it works.

DON'T call the "help line" or the "technical service line".   Call the "Sales" or "New Customer" number.

You can be absolutely sure that when you call the "Sign up for New Service" number, you won't get any run-around that makes you want to break the phone.   You'll get a person.   The "Run-Around" number is reserved for those who have ALREADY signed up, and are "hooked" into the service; they'll treat you like a dog there because you'll sit still for it.   

But not new customers.   And 8 times out of 10, the "New Customer" operator can transfer you directly to the line you want without having to navigate-and-wait ....

Lannis

[drlapo]

my company does the same thing; a general 800 number is provided then the caller needs to  listen to numerous menues to even find my department.
I provide my direct number when i call the client
but we do have over 7500 employees in my office and there are numerous offices

[Sasquatch Jim]

 Rodekyll, you will get better satisfaction pounding the nails with their forehead.

[kckershovel]

I had to call the new service line to get to a real person to cancel my service once. I'm not sure if it was for verizon or comcast but after sitting on hold for 4 hours trying to cancel service I called the new customer # got right through and told them I wanted to upgrade my service. Then I made a fake fight with the person and told them to cancel my service instead. What a pain.

[redrider90]

I had a good phone-help experience with EXEDE (my satellite ISP) the other day, Christmas day as a matter of fact.   

I called about a bandwidth problem (the system was telling me I'd exceeded my monthly allowance but I didn't think I had).   An American-English-speaking lady answered the phone immediately.   She was instantly able to pull up my account, tell me what the issue was (it was my fault), and she fixed it for me by allocating more bandwidth for the remainder of the month.

The funny thing was that there were two little kids (3 and 5 years old, I found out) helling around in the background, and a dog chasing them around and barking.   She was at home; she lives in Las Vegas, and her husband had to work that day anyway in some Las Vegas resort.   I expressed my sympathy that she was working Christmas, and she said "Oh, no, it's great; we all got to get up and open presents and have breakfast together this morning, and I get paid double-time today!"   

So maybe that's the wave of the future, or maybe just good luck for me, but I get VERY tired of hearing "This is BigBlue Internet; please listen carefully, as our menu options have changed ....." following by a labyrinth of meaningless options and holds.

Lannis

There are plenty of apps out there that can monitor you consumption of bandwidth. I use Peak Hour and take a screen shot of my bandwidth consumption at the end of every month. Internet providers are notorious for lying about bandwidth consumption. I kept getting things the in the mail that says I am a "techie" and need to upgrade my service.
Hell they cannot even give me the 10 Mbs download speed I am paying for. I get 5 Mbps on a good day. So last month I used a total 60 GB. That hardly puts me in the techie category.

[Lannis]

There are plenty of apps out there that can monitor you consumption of bandwidth. I use Peak Hour and take a screen shot of my bandwidth consumption at the end of every month. Internet providers are notorious for lying about bandwidth consumption. I kept getting things the in the mail that says I am a "techie" and need to upgrade my service.
Hell they cannot even give me the 10 Mbs download speed I am paying for. I get 5 Mbps on a good day. So last month I used a total 60 GB. That hardly puts me in the techie category.

It's entirely possible that I'm getting "done brown" on the service I use via Wildblue/EXEDE satellite - I never seem to be able to get the advertised download and upload speeds I'm paying for (when I check with SpeakEasy or some other application), and I haven't installed anything to independently check how many total bytes went through the hose monthly, I just take the ISP's word for it.   Sounds like I'd better get on the ball and get some good information about it.

In this case, though, EXEDE is doing (at least) a good job in letting their customers contact them about it!

Lannis 

[redrider90]

It's entirely possible that I'm getting "done brown" on the service I use via Wildblue/EXEDE satellite - I never seem to be able to get the advertised download and upload speeds I'm paying for (when I check with SpeakEasy or some other application), and I haven't installed anything to independently check how many total bytes went through the hose monthly, I just take the ISP's word for it.   Sounds like I'd better get on the ball and get some good information about it.

In this case, though, EXEDE is doing (at least) a good job in letting their customers contact them about it!

Lannis 

Peak Hour cost me $5 total for the whole app and I get updates free. It gives me realtime download and upload speeds as well as total volume. You can also run speed tests free online.
"Distrust"  ::( and "verify"  ::( is my motto when it comes to internet providers.

[Guzzistajohn]

That S*%t hacks me off big time. I make it a point to always try and answer customer calls during buisness hrs. with a "Good _______ this is John, How can I help you? It's the way I want to be treated, why wouldn't my customers? My clients are either handicapped or have a family member who is, so they deserve it. I just hope my competition screens calls and lets them go to voice mail ;D

[Curtis Harper]

That S*%t hacks me off big time. I make it a point to always try and answer customer calls during buisness hrs. with a "Good _______ this is John, How can I help you?

I call BS on that one or you must have caller ID because you never answer it that way when I call.

[Guzzistajohn]

I call BS on that one or you must have caller ID because you never answer it that way when I call.

I do have caller ID, that's why I answer "what's up rump ranger" when YOU call.


Our clients have a lot in common don't they?

[rodekyll]

Tried the customer support for the camera shop.  310 area code (socal).  Called 1PM AK time.  Store closed.  WTF?  Look into it a little further -- all store hours are in east coast time.  No physical address given.  Robot voice sounds like rural PA.  Look a little closer and notice they're closed early on Friday and all day Sat . . . typical for the NYC camera merchants -- it's an ethnic thing.

So it now looks like a shill front for a NYC boiler room/black market operation.  I'll try again tomorrow just to be sure, but I might need to curb my enthusiasm for purchasing a Nikon 810 for a 610 price . . .  sometimes not getting through to customer support can be a good thing.