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Published On: Jun 21, 2006 04:57 PM
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Published On: Jun 21, 2006 04:57 PM
Customer Disservice, (or) Just Cancel it Already!
Interesting article here about one man's struggle to remove himself
from the evil clutches of AOL (are they still AOL TIme-Warner? Who can
keep track?). It seems a lot of people had the same problem; I myself went
through a similar but shorter ordeal a couple of months ago when I finally
cancelled the Earthlink dialup account I'd been paying for "in case of
emergencies" -- for use during road trips in the event I checked into a
technologically-deficient hotel. The customer service person repeatedly
asked "Why do you want to cancel the account;" the easiest answer:
"I'm in Korea, and you don't have dialup numbers over here" didn't seem to phase
her. She began spewing idle threats: "Do you realize you'll lose all
of your earthlink.net emails?" Well, actually, I wouldn't, because I use a
mailreader on my computer that downloaded them. No great loss even if I
had; that box was mainly full of advertisements from (you guessed it) Earthlink,
trying to convince me that their product was actually any better than any other
dialup service out
there.
She tried every delaying tactic she could, including special deals, but I refused to play ball, and finally she disconnected it, reminding me that I could change my mind for up to a month at no extra charge, or some such thing.
I realize that customer service is one of the hardest jobs in the world. One must often deal with irate and annoying people, and attempt to do so politely. Why on earth would anyone choose to prolong that experience by keeping you on the phone, particularly when the person's calling from overseas, and makes it clear that their level of annoyance will continue rising in direct proportion to the overseas toll charges for the call?
The answer is obvious: they're put up to it. What does the company have to lose? You're already on your way out the door; if the customer service person talks you into staying, that's a good thing; if they don't, you were already going. If call center activities are contracted on a per-minute basis, there's probably additional pressure to make the calls last, so that the contractor can milk the contract for all it's worth.
Customer service used to be about customers, or so I am led to believe. What happened to that?
She tried every delaying tactic she could, including special deals, but I refused to play ball, and finally she disconnected it, reminding me that I could change my mind for up to a month at no extra charge, or some such thing.
I realize that customer service is one of the hardest jobs in the world. One must often deal with irate and annoying people, and attempt to do so politely. Why on earth would anyone choose to prolong that experience by keeping you on the phone, particularly when the person's calling from overseas, and makes it clear that their level of annoyance will continue rising in direct proportion to the overseas toll charges for the call?
The answer is obvious: they're put up to it. What does the company have to lose? You're already on your way out the door; if the customer service person talks you into staying, that's a good thing; if they don't, you were already going. If call center activities are contracted on a per-minute basis, there's probably additional pressure to make the calls last, so that the contractor can milk the contract for all it's worth.
Customer service used to be about customers, or so I am led to believe. What happened to that?
Posted: Wed - June 21, 2006 at 04:55 PM