Comments on: CrunchBack: Share Your Customer Service/Tech Support Horror Stories

By: Ralph

Ralph — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 03:41:49 +0000

Comcast customer service is an oxymoron.

They can “take note” of your concerns, and that’s about all.

user Ralph_ has entered room

Ralph(Thu Oct 11 23:15:26 CDT 2007)>My bill has a charge for Modem Rental. I own my modem. I’ve had service for at least a year, and I’ve never had a charge for a modem before.
Also, there is a credit that I don’t understand: “CHSI Credit”

analyst Aristotle.21795 has entered room

Aristotle.21795(Thu Oct 11 23:21:07 CDT 2007)>Hello Ralph_, Thank you for contacting Comcast Live Chat Support. My name is Aristotle.21795. Please give me one moment to review your information.

Aristotle.21795(Thu Oct 11 23:21:15 CDT 2007)>I am happy to help you with that. Can you please hold for one moment while I try to locate your account information?

Aristotle.21795(Thu Oct 11 23:22:05 CDT 2007)>For security reason, can you give me your account number.

Ralph_(Thu Oct 11 22:22:37 CDT 2007)>09586 029 178-03-7

Aristotle.21795(Thu Oct 11 23:23:43 CDT 2007)>I can take note of your current issue. Please take note that this issue is subject for review.

Ralph_(Thu Oct 11 22:23:55 CDT 2007)>what does that mean?

Aristotle.21795(Thu Oct 11 23:24:03 CDT 2007)>This will not guarantee that your credit will be approved.

Aristotle.21795(Thu Oct 11 23:24:15 CDT 2007)>If you want you can contact you local office.

Aristotle.21795(Thu Oct 11 23:24:16 CDT 2007)>To locate your local Comcast office, please visit the link provided below. You will need to enter your address and ZIP Code, and then click on “Thanks, On you go.”

https://www.comcast.com/Localization/Localize.ashx?Referer=/customers/contactus/paymentcenter/locatePaymentCenter.ashx

Ralph_(Thu Oct 11 22:24:32 CDT 2007)>How can they charge me rental on my own modem?

Aristotle.21795(Thu Oct 11 23:25:01 CDT 2007)>I apologize, there must be a mistake on the system;

Aristotle.21795(Thu Oct 11 23:25:20 CDT 2007)>I do apologize for the inconvenience.

Ralph_(Thu Oct 11 22:25:39 CDT 2007)>But you can’t give me a credit, or assure me that the “mistake” will go away?

Aristotle.21795(Thu Oct 11 23:26:28 CDT 2007)>I can only take note of your current issue and the current credit that will be subject for review of your Comcast local office.

Ralph_(Thu Oct 11 22:26:53 CDT 2007)>So you are issueing a credit, but it is subject to review?

Aristotle.21795(Thu Oct 11 23:27:55 CDT 2007)>I am not issuing a credit Ralph. I apologize if you have misunderstood me. I can only take note of your current issue. That is why it will be best if you contact your local office directly.

Ralph_(Thu Oct 11 22:28:22 CDT 2007)>So what good is having 24-hour customer service?

Ralph_(Thu Oct 11 22:28:39 CDT 2007)>What about the CHSI credit? Do you know what that is?

Aristotle.21795(Thu Oct 11 23:30:06 CDT 2007)>I can see from our records that you have an $8.00 Credit. I apologize, I can only give you the rates that is currently being applied to your account. If you have further questions, you will need to call your local office.

By: Bob

Bob — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 21:12:02 +0000

I order a camera ‘next day air’ on Amazon Wednesday to get here yesterday 8/09. It doesn’t get here yesterday.

samira Md., Amazon.com Customer Service (Md. a name or is this a doctor?) tells me I am sorry that you have not yet received your order. I see that the order summary in Your Account estimated it would be delivered by August 9, 2007 It’s been our experience that the majority of late packages arrive just a day or two after the estimated delivery date. Therefore, we would like to ask that you wait until close of business on August 10, 2007, for this shipment to arrive.

OK, but today - no package. So, I write and tell them. Uday Kumar Amazon.com Customer Service tells me I’m sorry–it appears that your shipment was lost in transit. I’ve placed a new order and we’ll ship it to the same address as soon as possible. August 13, 2007 is the estimated arrival.

I email them saying that 8/13 is not acceptable and that they should have ‘Saturday Delivered’ it so that it gets here tomorrow.

Naga (guess this is like Madonna or Cher - only one name needed) Amazon.com Customer Service says I am sorry that you have not yet received your replacement order. I see that the order summary in Your Account estimated it would be delivered by August 13, 2007. It’s been our experience that the majority of late packages arrive just a day or two after the estimated delivery date. Therefore, we would like to ask that you wait until close of business on August 14, 2007 for this shipment to arrive.

It’s not 8/13 yet!

So, I respond to Amazon:

I don’t think folks even read the entire complaint.

The CSR writes, “I am sorry that you have not yet received your replacement order. I see that the order summary in Your Account estimated it would be delivered by August 13, 2007. It’s been our experience that the majority of late packages arrive just a day or two after the estimated delivery date. Therefore, we would like to ask that you wait until close of business on August 14, 2007″ This is written to me on 8/10……

This is not Back to the Future - ie, August 13th has not happened yet. This order is a REORDER of a next-day-air that I had for arrival on 8/09 that is not here today, 8/10. It should have been reordered with Saturday Delivery so that it arrives tomorrow.

Naga closes with, “Again, I apologize for the delay, and hope that your order arrives soon.”
So, even she is ‘Hoping’ at this point.

Is the date in India 4 days in advance of the USA?

By: john

john — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 11:39:13 +0000

i cant believe aol never listens to any of my complaints when im in their chatrooms need to suspend some people who belong to aol and wont do it need someone to contac me soon email me with whats wrong with aol thankyou

By: God

God — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 01:20:37 +0000

Anthony mentioned that Newegg.com has great customer support. But that might not hold true across the board. I had a bulk order placed with some computer gear. Got my items, two was defective looking so I had them RMAd. (two in an order..problematic much?) Took longer than expected but it went without bumps. Then I found one more item was defective, but the Newegg warranty expired so I had to ship it to the manufacturer. So I need to print my invoices. Placing my trust in Newegg as it had a good reputation, I left all my records electronically at Newegg. lo and behold. My account gets suspended for no reason at all. So I live chat them to figure out the problem. But my account wasn’t suspended on their side. (but it was on mine, despite the number of times I’ve tried with the correct username and password, and from several different computers) Fine, I have to talk to a manager now to figure out the problem. So I call a week later (I was out of the country), and bam, incompetent support answers the phone. I give my email. She spells it wrongly, couldn’t pull up my account and tries to blame me. Finally pulled up my account, tries to login with correct information, BAM MY ACCOUNT GETS SUSPENDED/BLOCKED ON THEIR SIDE. (It wasn’t a week before) Probably ’cause she mistyped something. … So I hate her now. I don’t like the fact that their customer service department tries to put the blame on the customers. Even if the customers are wrong they can’t do that, and I’m not wrong. I was just abused by their system. They should stop blaming me for what went wrong with their system and procedures. So yea, it was 5 pm pst. She hangs up the phone without a goodbye leaving me hanging there thinking she’s still there.

and now i’m left with some defective crap that i can’t even return. wasting my time, energy, and resources. they should have some kind of compensation system…

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 14:45:16 +0000

There is also ivrhacks which is a database of US, UK, Australian and Canadian shortcuts to company IVR systems.

By: jba

jba — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 02:37:34 +0000

As I prepared to move overseas in November I called Verizon to cancel my cell phone contract. I was surprised at how easy the whole process was. I told the customer service rep that I was moving abroad. The rep told me to fax a letter from my employer testifying to the move and that my contract would be terminated without the 175 early termination fee. A few days later the letter was faxed, and I went to the airport thinking all was settled. In February I am still getting monthly bills from Verizon both via email and sent to my parents address. I have written multiple emails telling them that I have already cancelled my account. They have asked me to fax another letter (my works consists of my being in rural areas of Northern Africa with scant access to internet/fax machines and no utility bills that Verizon requests as proof of change of address) and offered to cancel my service immediately as of Feb. My father has tried to cancel on my behalf but is told that he does not have the authorization to do so. If Verizon will look at their records they will see that not one minute has been used on my account since I left the country over three months ago. If they ever hope to have my or my family’s business again they better cancel the account sans termination fee and withdraw any and all charges since they told me they were canceling the account over three months ago.

By: John

John — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 03:27:39 +0000

Horror, may be a little strong but unsettling, just before Christmas 06 my brand new xbox360 died. My first response was to check the Microsoft web site. There I found the steps to verify that my 360 was dead. I then called tech support, who ran me through the whole process again and then generated a work number for me, but due to a computer glitch, Microsoft has glitches, I was to call back the next day. When I did, I ran through the whole process and they said very good ship the 360. I had heard that I would get a box, but ended up shipping it UPS and insured and after two weeks recieved a new unit.

By: webonics

webonics — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 02:49:00 +0000

The worst customer service that I ever received was from Amazon.com. I was really surprised by this situation considering their awesome site, fulfillment and distribution accomplishments. However, if you ever have a problem with Amazon, it’s nearly impossible to get a personal response. Amazon.com has a number of pre-written form letter response snippets that employees in India piece together in an attempt to respond to your individual situation. I received responses that had nothing to do with my situation and some that contradicted previous responses from other customer service reps. I took the issue to the BBB in Washington state and contacted the Executive Customer Relations team through the agency. I thought that I was making some headway only to later receive an email from Executive Customer Relations containing the same form letter snippets and a final paragraph that stated that my issue was considered closed and would no further response would be provided. In this case, I wasn’t seeking a refund or any other form a restitution. Instead, I was requesting Amazon.com change a process that had upset thousands of customers which openly complained in their discussion threads…and an apology would have been nice. WTF??

I had been a long-time happy Amazon.com customer and bought thousands of dollars worth of merchandise over the years from books to electronics to clothing and media. As a result, I returned the holiday purchases that I had bought from Amazon.com, rebought the gifts with other vendors and haven’t bought anything from them since. And I posted the incident to my blog and retold the situation to my friends and family over the holidays.

I’m sure that I’ll give them a chance again in the future but the experience left such a bad tast that I will be reluctant to do so for some time.

By: Anthony

Anthony — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 02:03:24 +0000

I have a lot of horror stories… But I don’t fee like taking hours to type them out so let me just leave you with this advice. Never buy anything with the label ‘Daewoo” on it. I don’t know why I ever did, but I know for certain I never will again. EIGHT months to replace a defective, 3 month old TV. Hundreds of pages in paperwork, hours on the phone screaming at people, and numerous reports to the Better Business Bureau. Horrible, Horrible experience…

Some other companies I loath: AT&T, Comcast, Nipsco, Gateway, and ASUS.

Companies with great support: Logitech, Powernotebooks.com, and Newegg.com

I’m currently in a feud with Campustech.com. I placed an order for Windows Vista Home Premium Upgrade on January 24th and it supposedly shipped on the 30th. Even though it wasn’t available to the retailer until the 31st. They charged my credit card right away, but my account still shows my order as ‘approved’ and not ’shipped’. I was able to get a live person only once and they couldn’t give me any information on the status of my order because they didn’t know. I’ve been leaving voice mails on several different people’s machines but no one has called me back. I did happen to snag someone with an email, but they had no idea what they were talking about. Telling me the item had shipped before they even had it in their possession. Still no one can give me any tracking information and no one is returning my calls or emails. I’m never buying software from them again.

By: Wayde

Wayde — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 23:44:26 +0000

I worked for years in customer support for a software company. I supported admins who’s company purchased upwards of a million seat licenses for our software.

The person you speak to is likely being judged with unreal expectations. Bigger the business the worse it gets.

Have all your details ready when you call. Have versions, model numbers ready to go. If there are any troubleshooting steps you’ve already performed, have exact steps taken ready. Take screen shots if applicable and record exact error messages: “something about ‘error’ something or other” is not sufficient.

Have logs ready to send if applicable, even if you already scanned the logs and you’re God of software - you’re going to have to send them anyway. You say you’re a tech God but those folks on the other end hear it all the time from heating and cooling dudes, mechanics etc trying to fix their Windows software.

If you call support - most support reps automatically assume you’re an idiot. I’m not saying it’s right, it’s just reality. It’s up to you to prove otherwise by being patient having answers to questions.

Be nice. Remember the person that is supporting doesn’t have to help you. That’s the best piece of advice I can give when calling support. Support reps can give you the run around like you never saw before in your life. So, don’t be a dick.

I’ve required extra logging or telnetted into a computer to poke around even if it meant it would take me longer to find a resolution. This was because the customer was unpleasant to deal with and I was more comfortable reading their data than talking with them.

Remember, support reps make mistakes too. If you find they made a mistake no, you’re not Johnnie frickin’ Cochran, it was just an honest mistake, deal with it and move on.

By: Q

Thu, 08 Feb 2007 23:27:17 +0000

Here’s a horror story, where I vanquished the monster with a bit of simple ingenuity, it may not apply to every situation, in fact only a few, but thinking outside the norm is what you need to do to survive.

I was an AOL customer a long time ago, and was one of the first to jump on the cable modem bandwagon. But as AOL software got more bloated, and I was getting more machines that needed to be connected to the internet, (at the time, the connection i had required AOL to be installed to get access) so I decided to go with road runner, but wanted to keep the aol software . the Bring your own ISP program at AOL was brand new, so when I asked them to implement it, so I can get road runner, they said it would take weeks, to process, because they had just merged with time warner and all infrastructure information wasn’t being shared yet. I had a number of machines that needed to be rebuilt and updated, so this was out of the question, I tried to bypass this, but time warner told me they couldn’t open the road runner channel to me until I closed the AOL one. and they also told me this would take weeks to get the information from the AOL side , i might have to return my modem and get a new one and all kinds of other nonsense. So I took matters into my own hands, I the operators information and told him to I would be calling him back directly, i then called AOL back, and explained that I wanted to convert my service from ISP to BYOISP. again they tell me it would take weeks. So I told her, I would call time warner. I had them standby, and I proceeded to make it a three way call, I called back the time warner operator, and connected the two of them, while I put it on speaker, and let them go at it, they were at it for about 25 minutes, but within a day I had my service set up the way I wanted, without returning the modem.