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Bad Customer Service
11 replies
LittleSpooky said on January 31, 2005 08:15:
I need a spot to rant for a minute because I am highly irritated.... no... I’M PISSED AS ALL HELL and keepin it in will just get something thrown at my cat.
I have a Cirque CruiseCat touchpad instead of a standard mouse. Now I like my touchpad. It sits there and I can waddle ALL OVER the net without having to move it from the spot it sits in. A mouse has to move over a mousepad unless you have a fancy one with a scroll ball or key on it. Anyway, since I use Winblows 2K as an OS, I have to go to the website (http://www.cirque.com) to download the needed drivers to use the Zoom and all the Scroll features (up / down / Page Back&Forward / and the dreaded scroll bar goin across a page).
However, when I try to unzip the driver, I get an error msg. Well, in the last 3 weeks, I’ve gone to the Technical / Customer Support page and sent a request. They tell you that it will be 1 - 3 days for support and I HAVE HEARD NOTHING. This last time, I all but cussed them out for their lack of support and told them if I hadn’t heard anything by Feb. 4, I was tossing the touchpad in the trash and going back to a mouse. This was after TWO e-mail inquiries about why I was getting the error msg. and if there was anything they could do to help. Mind you, it wasn’t a case of “Sorry we can’t do anything to help you.” It’s been a case of NO CONTACT from them and their damned offices are in the SAME STATE AS I AM!!!!!!!!!! In fact, I’m thinkin that if I don’t hear from them by the date I gave, I’ll take the touchpad up to their corporate office and throw it at someone there. Their office is about a 10 minute drive from my house... I know EXACTLY where those bastards are. I’ve driven bus within about 5 blocks of the office.
*gets down off soap box and wanders off swearing up a storm*
ally77 said on January 31, 2005 13:08:
Good topic, we should use to rant all our BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE we get...
My go...
Blasted AOL, might be a freephone number for help and advice but for god sake you need to answer the god damn phone..... and it don’t help when you get through to someone in India that cannot understand a god damn word your taking about so you know your gonna have to give up and try again! :(
steven said on January 31, 2005 16:11:
I have come to the conclusion that it is fair more productive to write to companies with good ole fashioned pen and paper, rather than email or telephoning them.
British call centres in particular drive me round the f**king twist. If there is one thing I can’t bear is some teenage punk kid who either doesn’t have the expereince to resolve my issue or just simply cannot be bothered to take ownership. SKY & NTL are you listening!?
I’ve had VERY good expereinces with American and Indian call centres.
The only exception was when I desperately trying to get a response (any response) from eBay and the only form of communication is their damned web based feedback form. They made the fatal mistake of ignoring my (polite) enquiries, so I sent them the same message 200 hundred times.
...they responded then. :)
Rich-UK said on January 31, 2005 17:19:
My Dad and I had an interesting experience in the hell-hole that is Argos in Ashington, Northumberland, UK. I was new to the area, and he had warned me about how rude the staff are there, but I take the attitude that if you’re cheery to people then people will usually be cheery in return, and I was determined to prove him wrong! Not this time...
Returning a blatantly faulty video recorder, we walked towards the checkout assistant, and just as I let out a cheery “Hello!” the lady greeted us with “Is that coming back? I’ve just sat down”. I thought she had to be joking until I saw her glare. My Dad explained the fault then asked for a refund, at which point, whilst gesticulating towards another till about 5 meters away, she let out a huge sigh and said “You’re joking! If you’re not taking a replacement I’m going to have to walk over there”. She then stared at us indignantly for a while, before making a point of sighing louding whilst slowly retrieving our refund. Her expressions were priceless...
I know from experience that some jobs can have long / tiring / unexciting periods, and I always try to make an effort to be cheery with people going about their work. However, I’m afraid on this occasion the checkout assistant was so unashamedly rude, we couldn’t hide our smiles at the level of customer service we had encountered...
ally77 said on January 31, 2005 21:38:
I have worked in call centres for the past 6 years (more fool me) starting out at GUS which was the job I hated so much, was fine doing the debt collection but trying to sell extended warranties and also trying to get people to buy things from a stupid catalogue was a nightmare – telesales sucks… but it was a job – until I got fired! Lol (don’t ask)!
The I moved onto a more progressed call centre working for Vertex which are a management company who have call centres dotted all over the place. I was working at Norweb (which was the local electric board, till the blasted government opened up the bloody market) then it changed it’s name and major promo stuff went ahead to welcome TXU Energi which lasted less than 6 months then ruddy Powergen bought them out! So I saw some major changes taking place there…
I did not mind the job, I was hard working and if I could resolve your query I would, if I could not then I would call you back when I could…. I always called back, I never lied to customers and always followed through. The worst kind of customer was them who complained as soon as you answer the phone because they had been waiting for ages…. If they said “I’ve been waiting for 30 mins” I would check the clock, and usually turn round and say “Well no you, your only been waiting around 10 minutes” that would rile them more lol! There isn’t nothing I don’t know about changing electric, gas, rigging your meters ;) getting out of paying, working out bills etc….
I quit when management decided it would be fun to take more meetings than they always did, now I missed the place but vowed I would not go back to a call centre, I could do better….
14 months time out… and I took a job in my council in low and behold a contact centre. I am three months into the job, and although I do take calls and cover anything from booking jobs for commercial services, environmental health, dog wardens, council tax, student loans & grants, job application forms, libraries and switchboard I like it (jack of all trades now!) No stupid call centre rules, and such a better relaxed atmosphere and better money ;) + internet access!
They are training us on so much, I am half way through a Housing Benefit and Council Tax benefit training course… within a couple of days into the course I decided I really wanted to land a position as a Trainee Benefits Assessment Officer (basically calculating people’s entitlement to benefit, fraud stuff, visits, appeals & capital calculations) and low and behold there are three openings…. So my application for the job is almost compete but have until March till it has to go in though. I hope by which time I will have gained some experience with HB & CTB customers both on the phone and in our wonderful One Stop Shop. Bad move for the department as three opening and there are 3 of us who started together applying for it, (maybe more) we stand a good chance with the experience we have already and having already done the course and exam (89%) so all I got to do is wait for an invite for interview… hope I am lucky! Nice location and offices!
The Bolton One Stop Shop and Contact Centre is proving really successful since it opened 18 months ago, so much so that many councils around the UK are visiting us and even overseas visitors come to see it!
I’d be sad to leave, but getting this other job would mean better prospects, better money within 12 months and would get me out of a call centre environment!
Okay totally gone off topic and nothing to do with customer service, just thought would say how it is to work in a call centre…
Like Steven I also go to old fashioned pen and paper now to write complaints to companies and always send recorded delivery… at least then I can check my letter gets there! There is nothing worse than phoning up a place to find out no one has logged comments on your account from your previous conversations… and even worse when you spoke to a supervisor and nothing is logged – they get paid for nothing!
Fraud Training tomorrow… ;)
LittleSpooky said on February 1, 2005 06:25:
Well, I ordered the iGesture pad from http://www.fingerworks.com and it will be here Thursday. I’m thinkin about taking this one that is having issues and DROPPING it at Cirque, telling them thanks for nothing and to have a nice life....
LittleSpooky said on February 4, 2005 06:26:
So I got my new touchpad and I have it installed and am learning all the tricks that come with it.
I have my old one sitting here on the desk at the moment (as well as the drivers disk), and I’m wondering:
Any suggestions on what I should do with it? I’m thinking about taking it over to the Cirque Corporate Offices and pounding it up someone’s nostril.....
LittleSpooky said on February 7, 2005 04:40:
I was thinkin size... the nostril’s a bit smaller than that of the south end of the north-bound jackass....
LittleSpooky said on January 31, 2005 09:59:
Oh yeah... on this note, I discovered something that is REALLY radical (in my mind. But at 3am, everything’s radical *lol*)
http://www.fingerworks.com