Who believes in 'Customer Service' second chances?

Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by LauraR, Mar 22, 2012.

  1. LauraR

    LauraR MajorGeeks Super-Duper Administrator Staff Member

    Have you ever been so disgusted over a company's customer service that you left and you'd never go back for any reason (even if they were cheaper than their competitor)?

    We have 2 Cable/Internet giants in our area: Comcast and Verizon

    For years (ever since cable came out) up until about 7-9 years ago, Comcast was the only game in town. With that came their arrogance that people couldn't switch, therefore they didn't have to actually please their customers and offer good customer service. For years, I put up with my service going out in a hard rain and ridiculous response times for service....the final straw for me being the fact that THEIR box broke and it was going to take them a week to get one out to me. When I explained I saw their trucks parked all over the area doing I have no idea what and couldn't understand why they couldn't just drop it off, they blew me off. They also failed to tell me that I could have gone about 5 miles away to pick one up myself.

    When Verizon came with their Fios lines, I got on the list immediately to switch. I actually didn't care if was even more expensive (which it wasn't).

    I never looked back and have been thoroughly satisfied with Verizon. I get great speeds, no loss of service in inclement weather, good customer service from nice people when I call, and no slow down during peak times...which I did have with Comcast.



    I just had a guy come to my door. He was very nice. He's from Comcast. They are going door to door to people who were once with Comcast and not anymore. I very nicely told him I'd never go back. It was probably one of the more satisfying things I've gotten to do...tell someone face to face why their company sucked (all the while be nice to the man LOL).

    lol...he agreed that they used to be bad and tried to go on. I told him there was no way I'd ever switch back. I'm vengeful enough to hope he gets many of the same from others. :-D


    So, I guess in this case, to answer my own thread title question: Not me. :)
     
  2. TimW

    TimW MajorGeeks Administrator - Jedi Malware Expert Staff Member

    I feel your pain. There is only one game in town for us and their service sucks ( Windstream ).
     
  3. LauraR

    LauraR MajorGeeks Super-Duper Administrator Staff Member

    How much does that piss you off? I seriously can not ever get over the fact that when Comcast was it, they took full advantage of their position and treated their customers like crap. I know so many people that left. It's interesting that they are now, after this many years, trying to do damage control or get people back with the door to door thing.

    I bet you'd go anywhere if you could.
     
  4. silas

    silas MajorGeek

    Wow. what you said in the first post is what iam doing aswell. cept i havnt signed up for fios yet. iam searching complaints. comcast here bought the good local business of cable and internet. then we had to deal with it. or no dish or internet.
     
  5. LauraR

    LauraR MajorGeeks Super-Duper Administrator Staff Member

    Sorry to hear that, silas.:( They have notorious bad service when last I checked online.

    Comcast is number #4 in this comparison of the #19 most hated companies in America. Wow..that's quite an accomplishment to be that bad. :-D
     
    Last edited: Mar 22, 2012
  6. Phantom

    Phantom Brigadier Britches

    Similar situation, down-under. Telstra used to have a monopoly on the infrastructure, so even if you went to someone else, you knew that they were only piggy-backing off of Telstra's infrastructure. Now Optus and Amnet have their own infrastructure as well, there is a choice. And ya, every now and then I get losers trying to convince me that I should go back to them. It aint going to happen.;) They don't get two bites at the Cherry from me either.
    Comcast is noted as one of the poorest service and most arrogant companies, even in this part of the globe.rolleyes
     
  7. silas

    silas MajorGeek

    something i find annoying. is you pay for service. its not the cheapest pkg. yet comcast tv and internet goes down very often. i can see maybe down for big storms and winds. yet mine goes down with simple sprinlkes. and goes down everyweek.
     
  8. Wenchie

    Wenchie I R teh brat

    Well, having been on the receiving end of a call to a company that had previously disgusted customers severely (So, say you called back and got me) I can say with certainty that it IS possible to redeem a company, but it's not at all easy so most people wont even try because they have a metric to keep for their length of call that directly effects their performance review.

    The home office tells them they're only allowed to be yay helpful, their managers enforce it, and you can actually get fired for going above and beyond for a customer because if you're on the phone with that one you can't help the other however many in queue. It's a sick sad system based soley on the bottom line and not the individual customer and I think corporate America really needs to reconstruct their infrastructure.
     
  9. Sgt. Tibbs

    Sgt. Tibbs Ultra Geek

    I am trapped with Comcast, unless I want to pay ridiculous amounts of money for satellite (and really...satellite internet blows). Sure, there are other broadband companies in the area, but where my house is we are so far from everything that there are no other options. When they were AT&T @ Home, they sucked. When they became ATTBI, they sucked. The first five years they were Comcast, they sucked. Seriously. I was on a first-name, personal friend basis with about a dozen of their techs, to the point where I was asking how their kids did on spelling tests...I saw them that often.

    Then, about four years ago, like magic! Service rarely goes out, and then there's usually a good reason (storm, someone hit a pole). On the rare occasion I've had to have a tech come out, they're there within 36 hours, and always within the two-hour appointment window. Once they couldn't fix the problem right away, so I got an extended TV package for a year, free of charge.

    Normally, I give customer service one chance after they screw me over, and then I am done. But Comcast actually pulled their heads out and became a real company here, so even though I had no choice but to use them, it eventually paid off.
     
  10. shnerdly

    shnerdly MajorGeek

    I've had Comcast for a lot of years in the North Metro area of Minneapolis and the service has always been fairly good. I haven't had any real complaints. two summers ago, Qwest put fiber Optic cable in our neighbohood. I was actually excited to try it but their prices were completely out of line with what Comcast was charging and they had this thing that all of their packages only get affordable if you have analog phone service with them. I sent them a letter telling them to quit sending their CR** in the mail until they had something competitive to offer. Since then, CenturyLink bought Qwest. They came around selling what seemed to be a good package so I signed up. Two days later they called to arrange the Static IP's and get things rolling but I found out that almost everything the salesperson sold me was BS. They couldn't provide any of it so I cancelled the installation. Then at a business I manage IT for they decided to put in CenturyLink and it only lasted 2 days. They sold us 20/5 service but were only able to provide .998 or something like that for the upload. With a full time VPN to their other office the service was horrible. They tried to justify the difference between what they sold and what they provided but I just told them it was over. We went back to our T1 and ultimately switched to Comcast.

    I can say with certainty that I will Never go to CenturyLink. Is that spiteful? Yeah, probably, but I have a hard time regaining trust in a company or a person for that matter that has been less then truthful with me.
     
  11. Nedlamar

    Nedlamar MajorGeek

    Personally I am one of those people who are willing to pay more to get good service.
    Period.

    Quite often a lower price service or product is lower for a reason, to make prices lower then costs have to be lower or volume is required, when you get 2 big guys going at it they will work at a loss to win the fight, but this only holds for so long until they have to lower costs.
    One thing that can be changed is quality of staff, instead of hiring qualified people you can have half the amount of those and replace the other half with minimum wage robots who get "Training".
    You know the old saying, "Pay minimum wage, get minimum effort"

    So in answer to the OQ, No, I wont go back if I've been treated poorly or had bad service.
    Unfortunately with my current provider I am kind of locked in since I have uncapped grandfathered into my contract and at the moment there are no options to meet the speed and bandwidth amount in this area. But as soon as there is, I am gone for one reason, not price, not product.... customer service retarded imbeciles with less care for my patronage than I have for a VooDoo 3D graphics card.
     
  12. sibeer

    sibeer MajorGeek

    The choices here are Shaw cable or Telus DSL. I've never had a real service issue with Shaw. Their tech support is courteous and have always resolved my issues. Also if the wait is long they have a call back option so I don`t have to wait on the phone. Aside from maintanence which they give good advanced warning about, I can always get online. If I have an issue it's with speed. I pay for 50 Mbps, but when I test it`s usually less then 30. However I just tested now and it was 48.6.
    Back to the question though, if I have a choice I won`t go back, be it a store or restaurant or any business depending on what I expect from the place. McDonalds for example can sell me a crappy cold burger, but eventually I`ll go back:-o.
     
  13. gman863

    gman863 MajorGeek

    I have Comcast at home - not because I like them, but because they are the least of the three evils available in my area.

    Luckily, I was warned about Windstream's s:***ty service by my Realtor when I bought my house before I moved to Houston. As such, I chose Comcrap...oops, I mean Comcast. :-D

    Is there a worse yet option? If you have Clear (a.k.a Clearwire) 4G in your city, the answer is yes. Although they offer a 4G home router with "unlimited" service, they pull the same crap as AT&T and T-Mobile, throttling bandwidth to as low as 28Kbs (half dial-up speed) if you exceed 5GB per month.

    The three things that p:***s me off the most about Comcast:

    * In the late evenings, my service goes down about as often as a five dollar hooker.

    * They keep sending letters and calling me telling me my DOCSIS 2.0 modem (which I own) is "obsolete" and that I should upgrade to a $15/month lease for a DOCSIS 3.0 modem/router. Since I subscribe to the 8Mbs plan, a DOCSIS 2.0 is more than enough. If I ever get stupid enough to need a 3.0 modem by subscribing to their new 100Mbs service ($129/month versus the $39/month I'm currently paying), I can buy one outright at Fry's for $99.

    * Unlike AT&T U-verse and Verizon, Comcast does NOT put backup natural gas or propane-powered generators on their switching stations. After Hurricane Ike, I had my electricity back in 48 hours; it took Comcast THREE WEEKS to restore service (even though my cable lines are buried) - that, and they had the b:***ls to try and charge me for the three weeks my service was out!

    :tas
     
  14. cabbiinc

    cabbiinc Staff Sergeant

    Ah crap, and I just dumped Century Link for Clearwire. I got tired of having to navigate their website just to pay the damned bill. It kept tacking on "Add this service" type things like I was shopping for more, when I was just trying to pay the bill. Final straw was when I was moving, I logged onto the account, using the internet service in question, answered the security questions, then when the chat guy came on he wanted more security questions and those didn't match up. So I just canceled the service.

    The reason I went with Clearwire was because I know a few people who have it and they don't have any complaints. But so far I'm not impressed with the upload speeds, download speeds are better than I had with CLink. For "cable" I use a UHF antenna with a 30db amp. Bad weather actually increases the signals. I worked for a cable company for a while (wharehouse, stocking parts). The typical installer guy that comes to your house.... they don't get much training. There was one person who came in asking for a positive screwdriver. The counter person (not me at the time) didn't know what they wanted and asked to explain. "You know, you look at the end of the screwdriver, one's a positive and the other is a negative".
     
  15. gman863

    gman863 MajorGeek

    Sounds like the last guy from Comcast who showed up at my house.

    roflmao
     
  16. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    HI Laura

    As for ISPs we are lucky in many parts of the UK and we have many we can choose from, just checked now and I have 10 different packages from 7 ISPs I can use. I was once with Orange (no the future is not Orange) and they told me that I would be getting an upgrade from 1mb/s internet to 3-5mb/s or higher, great I thought, the roll out date came and I rebooted the router and tested, mmm spped is like DUN, called them and they said my line could not take any more that .25mb/s but I said how come it was 1mb/s before?

    Answer was if you sign a new 2yr contrat we can give you 1mb/s...needless to say I'm not with them now, been with O2 for 3yrs now and not looked back, customer service 100% spot on each time I call (if ever)

    But in all companies, not just ISPs that give bad service out, then loose custom because of it, maybe service or price, they start to send out (or phonecalls) sales folk who are trained to sweet talk you around stating the company has changed, while some may, the old addage of "a leopard never changes its spots" always rings true in my head.

    So in this day and age the consumer does have the power, especially with all the competition around from other providers of goods, in that a company cannot now rest back and think we have this customer for life, they do not.
     
  17. dyamond

    dyamond Imelda Marcos of Majorgeeks

    We have a choice of providers since I live in a rather metro area but they all suck, IMO. I just got notice from my provider that they are raising my bill from 30.99 to 35.99. That's quite a steep increase but I don't know if I will change because I have friends who have had the other providers and they suck worse then the one I am with now.

    As for giving Customer service a second chance, I do it on a case by case basis. How you feel about Comcast, is how I feel a Macy's. They will always be evil and horrible to me, never to be redeemed at all.

    However, the office supply place I ordered from I got terrible customer service from them and stopped using them. I was contacted by a sales rep, a few months later, who was very sorry and promised to beat the prices of all the other supply stores and since I'm a sucker for low prices, I gave them another chance. I had a minor snafu with one of the drivers but the problem was quickly resolved and I've been happy with them ever since.


    As a side note: when I was reading this thread there was a ad for Comcast in the middle. :-D
     
  18. COMPUABLE

    COMPUABLE First Sergeant

    >> I seriously can not ever get over the fact that when Comcast was it, they took full advantage of their position and treated their customers like crap. LauraR <<

    Hi Laura,

    I know exactly how you feel. I had several terrible experiences with an east coast supplier of bundled telephone, cable television and high-speed internet service provider (RCN) many years ago and I would never go back to them. This company went out of their way to provide terrible service; often with over an hour wait just to get someone on the other end. And to top it all off, they also often billed incorrectly (always in their favor BTW). Unfortunately, at that time I lived in an apartment building that had only contracted with RCN exclusively, so therefore it was compulsory to have it - if I wanted internet and cable service that is.

    In the case that you mentioned regarding Comcast; I believe that you actually would have received lousy customer service from them, whether they had competition in your particular area or not. For one thing, the Comcast call centers; for customer services, are not regionally based - you could call the same exact 800 or 888 number two times - twice in a row - and you’d likely be contacting them in an entirely different region. Therefore where you call from has absolutely nothing to do with where you connect to.

    Furthermore, the tech people who answer the phone to assist you would have no way of knowing whether your particular area has competition with them (or does not). I mean it's not like a blinking light goes on - whenever they answer a customer service call - that flashes: "Don't bother being nice to THIS particular customer and do not work extra hard to competently satisfy their needs because we actually have NO competition in this customer's area!" Additionally, the very next person calling in for help could have been from another area entirely; which actually HAS competition locally with Comcast, and they would likely have received the exact same terrible service as you did as well. IMO - you received lousy customer service simply because Comcast is a lousy company with a long and sordid history of reported bad service rep experiences.

    Nevertheless I entirely agree with your evident premise that any customer is likely going to be treated far worse; by customer service representatives, when the company that is being contacting for assistance has absolutely no competition whatsoever, for whatever service they provide and/or product line that they offer. The simple reason of course is that having a company provide excellent "competent" customer service w/individual consumers takes far more time and requires greater employee training and experience and thus costs the company far more money to make it available. And many larger companies - monopolies, in particular - will always consider their bottom line first (that is to say, for their stockholders); rather than taking into consideration their "dependant" customer's needs.

    Good Luck! - COMP
    .
     
  19. cabbiinc

    cabbiinc Staff Sergeant

    Actually that's not entirely true. Some state laws have pretty strict penalties for loss of service, for any reason, and will fine a service provider accordingly. The more critical the service the stiffer the penalty. If you live in one of those states and call with "snow/no pic" for your cable service they have 24 hours to remedy it or else face fines. So when they ask you for your service address (or acct number or identification of who you are, where you are) that should tell them that. Now, that's not to say that they act nicer to those people, but the service tech should be out there in 24 hours. Unfortunately a failing box still technically has service, it's just that you can't use it. rolleyesrolleyesrolleyes
     
  20. PeripheralV

    PeripheralV Private E-2

    I hate being right.

    Thank you for mentioning this. Whenever I have a phone rep do his/her job admirably I have to fight back the strong desire to ask for his/her supervisor so I can make my commendation known. I always fear that I may very well end up getting this person fired for spending too much time on the phone with me or some other nonsense like that. Some small consolation comes from the fact that at least I now know the truth.

    I am always sad when my cynicism turns out to be correct, but I would be much sadder if I end up punishing the very people that ought to be praised. The good customer service reps are (like rainforest trees) far too rare and precious; once they're gone, they're gone. Once you've plowed over all the rainforest trees and replaced them with grazing cows, they ain't comin' back, Jack.

    This analogy is rather unfair to the cows. I rather suspect that the cows would provide far better, more competent service that most of the animals that will surely (though sadly) end up replacing the ones that got fired for doing their job properly.
     
  21. Mimsy

    Mimsy Superior Imperial Queen of the MG Games Forum

    Me! Me! Mememememememe! :hyper

    But that's because I work in customer service... :p

    That said, there are companies that honestly try to do well when it comes to customer service, and then there are all those other ones, and they seem to be the majority. We have our cell phones through Verizon, and we have no complaints with them at all. The fact we've stayed with them for 4+ years should be all you need to know on that front.

    Back to my job... it sometimes depresses me how low expectations my customers have. I answer the phone, I listen to them, offer an RMA and a pre-paid shipping label, and they are blown away by how awesome our customer service is. Er... no. I followed company policy, I didn't do anything special. But thanks to Dell and Microsoft, my company's customers have such low expectations that even doing the bare minimum by my company's standards impresses them. That's kind of sad.
     
  22. dyamond

    dyamond Imelda Marcos of Majorgeeks

    I've had nothing but stellar service with Dell. I have one of their phones and after having it only a 3 months maybe, the screen was turning from white to pink to blue making it impossible to see the screen. Despite me having to scream at him and repeat myself a multitude of times because he couldn't understand what I was saying (and vice versa), I had a new phone in about 20 minutes and that phone was literally delivered to me the next morning with a pre-paid box to send the old one back to be fixed. It was the simplest, easiest experience I've ever had.
     
  23. COMPUABLE

    COMPUABLE First Sergeant

    >> I've had nothing but stellar service with Dell. It was the simplest, easiest experience I've ever had. dyamond <<

    I agree completely. I've used Dell computers since I owned a Dell Dimension 4100 way back in the day. Although I must admit that I've heard countless complaints from others online about their customer service; however I have never experienced any problems at all with their support department - just the opposite, in fact.

    One time my hard drive died on a Sunday night and when I called Dell they actually sent someone to my house the very next day (something like 10:00am on a Monday morning) who not only reinstalled the hard drive and operating system; but the tech guy installed all the drivers and updates and all of the Windows Updates as well. The entire process took like three or four hours (at least) to complete. He also re-installed the Microsoft Office and all of the other software that came with the computer. Something that makes support much easier nowadays is their so-called In-Home PC Service after Remote Diagnosis, which simply means that if you have a hardware problem and your system's issue is covered by Dell's limited hardware warranty; (and that issue cannot be resolved remotely), this service enables you to have a technician and/or part dispatched to your home, usually in 1-2 business days following the remote diagnosis.

    Side Notes: One thing I advise others who might be considering a Dell computer purchase from a retail store is to make sure to immediately register the computer online at the Dell support website. This registration is automatic if you buy directly from Dell and it makes it much easier if something actually goes wrong and you have to contact support (or you want to order additional upgrades). Also I advise not to bother with the costly "extended service" warrantees or the so-called Premium Phone Support and the Premium Protection Package for accidents, etc. These 'extras' are not worth it and are really a waste of money IMO.

    Good Luck -- COMP
    .
     
  24. oldandconfusedagain

    oldandconfusedagain Private E-2 <i>emeritus</i>

    off the tech aspect...........had a bad experience 40 years ago with Target stores............have never been back.
    I vote with my feet. Screw me once, see ya!
    And I spread my story, when pressed to explain.
    Could care less whether it hurts them, but makes feel better.
     
  25. Hellsrage

    Hellsrage Private E-2

    I'm trying to think of the worst tech support I have ever had but I haven't had anything truly horrible I just get tired of talking with tech support and having more knowledge on the subject then them. Sometimes they had no clue and I got transferred 4 times. =/

    And I have also had some weird ones too I called AT&T because I had my phone replaced but it wasn't the same phone so the data plan needed to be modified so I could use the proper settings to access data. While he was figuring out what to do he started asking me about phones which ones are good and what not. I don't know why but it just felt awkward I mean the best advice I can give on phones is minimal since it's all personal preference. And I was't really in the mood to talk about that I just wanted my problem resolved.

    lol
     
  26. LauraR

    LauraR MajorGeeks Super-Duper Administrator Staff Member

    Mimsy, it's sad how impressed I am anymore on getting just the basic good customer service. At this point, even that level feels like they are going above and beyond.

    For me to not give a company a second chance it really has to be more than once or twice that I was thoroughly disappointed. Hence the fact that unless Comcast offered their service to me free of charge, I'd never switch back.
     

MajorGeeks.Com Menu

Downloads All In One Tweaks \ Android \ Anti-Malware \ Anti-Virus \ Appearance \ Backup \ Browsers \ CD\DVD\Blu-Ray \ Covert Ops \ Drive Utilities \ Drivers \ Graphics \ Internet Tools \ Multimedia \ Networking \ Office Tools \ PC Games \ System Tools \ Mac/Apple/Ipad Downloads

Other News: Top Downloads \ News (Tech) \ Off Base (Other Websites News) \ Way Off Base (Offbeat Stories and Pics)

Social: Facebook \ YouTube \ Twitter \ Tumblr \ Pintrest \ RSS Feeds