so.there.we.were

It has not been a good past few days in the realm of customer service for me. I feel like I’m fairly tolerant of customer service issues because, having worked in the service industry to pay my way through most of my life, I understand how frustrating it can be to deal with people. However, the level of pure ambivalence and laziness that I encountered over the past few days from companies/people that should know better has left me just, well, disappointed.

I’ll go through these in alphabetical order…

Atlanta PD:

This one is short. Our neighbors house was broken into on Friday night. Called 911, redirected to a different emergency number because we live in some sort of vortex of public services between Dekalb County and City of Atlanta. Told there was no dispatch available and we were low priority (is there a way I can prioritize my taxes? 1. Schools, 2. Infrastructure … 99. Police Dept.). One and a half HOURS later, a cop showed up….and basically said there was nothing they could do.

To put it into perspective, about a year ago we thought there was an abandoned car parked out in front of our house (it hadn’t moved for two months and we thought that some of the shadier people in our area had just dumped it there…has happened before) and called the non-emergency police number to report it and were MADE to call 911. Cop showed up less than five minutes later and proceeded to yell at our sweet old neighbor, who has lived here since 1967, for leaving her car outside our house. I’m pretty sure she is still mad at me.

AT&T:

Thought I had upgraded, several times over the past year, to a faster DSL package (xtreme, ludicrous speed or possibly even plaid) only to find out that I’m still only getting 1.2mbps of download speed; was supposed to be at least 6mbps. Called customer service and was told, very abruptly, that they don’t offer anything faster than what I currently have in my area. Turns out that the previous reps had just gone through the motions to get me off the phone and never touched the account, because they couldn’t. So, instead of telling me that, they just did nothing. I wasn’t charged for a faster package because the computer wouldn’t let them upgrade me. Just like that, I washed my hands of AT&T. Being lied to does not a happy customer make. Now I’m switching to cable broadband through Comcast, which leads me to…

Comcast:

The sales person I spoke to at Comcast was great, super nice and friendly, and I ended up going with their base broadband package (which at its slowest runs at 6mbps, all the way up to 10mbps at peak, so waaaay faster than AT&T) and porting our home phone over, which I was told would be no problem. This would cost $49.90 for the first 6 months and would, obviously, go up after but still be cheaper than AT&T. Install was set for August 2, a Saturday, so that I wouldn’t have to miss work, and we were good to go. Or so I thought.

Get home the next day to find two very, very mumbled messages on my home phone that have something to do with third-party authorization for my phone number and my install being rescheduled. Without any clue what they are talking about, I call the number given to find out that my install has, indeed, been rescheduled to August 20 because they have to get authorization to port my number and they tried to reach me twice but I didn’t answer the phone. At home. On a weekday. At 11am and then 3pm. After being given a work and mobile number at which to reach me. Just f*&$ing lazy.

My August 2 date had been given away and there was absolutely nothing available and sooner because they needed at least 5 to 7 business days to process the number porting. After delicately explaining to the rep that their laziness in only calling one of the three numbers given to them was not particularly my problem, an appointment on August 5 magically opened up. A Tuesday. So, I will need to figure out how to work that out (I’m guessing I won’t get a credit on my bill for having to miss work). Just so that I can have them install service with which I will most likely have problems and for which I will overpay.

When asked if this was going to be any indication of what my service with them was going to be like, the rep replied that she could not guarantee what kind of service I would receive in the future. Ha, based on that answer I’m pretty sure I can guess, but I have no choice because I need to have TV shows download from iTunes a little quicker than 3hrs an episode.

Denon:

Back at the beginning of December I purchased a Denon AVR-1508 so that I could be a nerd and have nice surround sound at my house. Two hours after hooking up my Apple TV last weekend the speakers started popping, then there was a really loud static noise, which just got louder and louder. So, I shut it off, started it back off, unplugged, replugged, reset the microprocessor (per instructions from the owner’s manual), but nothing. Sweet f&@$ all, just the same screaming static out of the right channel speakers.Seems to be mostly when the Dolby Digital processors are pushing the sound…

Went to the website to see if there was a customer service tech support number. There was and it was open between the hours of 9 and 5:30 pm Mon - Fri, so really useful. Oh, and it was a local number, no 1-800 for them. Then I noticed that tech support was open with NEW EXTENDED hours until 7pm Mon - Wed.

Anyway, first thing Mon morning, I call and the tech support guy says the unit has a 2 year warranty, just take it to Norman’s Electronics and they’ll fix it for free. Cool, that works. Go to the website for this place and find out that they are only open from 9-5.30 Mon - Fri and are located about 40 mins from my house. Brilliant. So, I would need to take off work to get my product, that I paid good money for, fixed. Classic.

I call up there to see about getting it fixed and they tell me sure, it’ll be about 3-4 weeks. 3 - 4 WEEKS!!!!! Are you kidding me? What kind of warranty is that? That’s like 1/6 of the entire time that I’ve owned the receiver. And, it’s the only Denon authorized repair place in the entire state of Georgia. Plus, the woman on the phone seemed less than interested with helping out, makes sense since they seem to have a monopoly, and the Norman’s reviews on Google are less than stellar.

Also found out that a good friend of mine has to take his same unit there too for a different problem and was told 30 days for a repair. That’s just ridiculous and unacceptable. Calling Denon again tomorrow to see what happens and possibly ruffle some feathers. Not got a good feeling about it though.

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Each one of these seems like no big deal, but combined they caused me to spend way too many hours listening to godawful hold music after getting home from work every night, if I got home before they closed. The straws that individually break the camel’s back, as it were.

Lesson learned: I wish I could work a customer service rep’s hours.

Lingering question: What good is customer service if your customers can’t get to you to receive that service? And, if your customer service inconveniences your customers, is that really a service at all?

Ok, so maybe something a little more lighthearted later this week. Urgh.