How are you finding customer service this year?
I had an incident with my order from Collections.com. They had pulled the wrong item. It happens. The customer service rep tells me that they will send me a merchandise certificate for the item I didn’t get. Well, it was the one item in the order I wanted the most. She sounded annoyed – ‘let me see if we have that.’
Turns out they did still have it, and I can keep the item that they sent me in error. Overall, I was satisfied, but why wouldn’t you immediately check if you could send me the original item I wanted?
I’m a little disappointed in their quality this year. I wasn’t thrilled with anything I got from there this year. They used to be better. I probably won’t order from there again.
I also ordered from Oriental Trading. I have gotten some cute things there in the past. Their selection was not as good this year. Maybe they were already sold out.
Now when it comes to services you have to live with – that is another story entirely. We’ve had trouble getting our recycling picked up by Wast Management lately. They pick up the regular garbage just fine, but when we call in about the recycling, they tell us that there is a wire that is too low for the truck to get into the neighborhood. Really?
Get this one – she tells me that they will send out a truck to pick up my recycling. I said, they missed the whole street. She says they all have to call in.
What? They will send a truck each time someone calls in? Isn’t that ridiculous?
I finally called the township office. I don’t live in city limits, so we have a township. Anyway, I quickly received calls from 2 different supervisors, and everyone’s recycling was picked up.
I rarely have problems with AT&T, but I hate it when I do. They are impossible to deal with. The people in the call centers in India are very hard to communicate with. You can’t understand them, and they don’t seem to understand you. By the end of the conversation, I’m so tired of trying to be nice and understanding. It’s not their fault. But then they’re trying to talk you into something else and they don’t want to take no for an answer. Its just a nightmare.
I think the problem in customer service these days is that companies don’t want to pay for good people, and when they do have good people, they treat them poorly. Low pay and low moral – what do you expect?
But for the most part – most customer service reps really do want to do a good job for you.
Oh sure, even the best of us will have a customer that is hard to deal with once in a while. For the most part, I really don’t have any problems with the customers. I really like most of my customers. I still run into customers from some of my old jobs. Some are Facebook friends, and some are friends that I actually see once in a while.
Even here, I have great subscribers and customers. Since my daughter has been home, I haven’t been blogging as much. But I can’t imagine not doing it at all.
Are any of you in customer service? How’s your job been this year?
As a customer – have you had any really good reps? Really bad ones? Really good ones whose hands were tied?
What’s your experience with customer service this year?
Related articles
Customer service is one of the services I provide. As a professional in this area with many years of experience I’ve observed that overall in the US it has been getting worse over the past few years.
I’ve noticed that there are more “difficult” customers recently. Is this due to the way the economy is, the way society has been shifting, a combination of the two, or something else entirely? I’m not sure.
I also have personally experienced some outstanding examples of customer service this year. I’ve had some awesome experiences getting my car worked on, eating out at restaurants, helpful store clerks, and more!