Customer Service in America

Is it any wonder the United States is falling apart? Nobody gives a )%&# about anybody else in this country. Everybody bows to the almighty dollar and if screwing customers over can bring in more money then so be it!

In the late 90's, we were customers of Southwestern Bell. Their customer service was horrible - to the tune of being without dial-tone for as long as a month due to their own ineptness. They kept sending technicians to the wrong address. They told us "The technician will be out there sometime between Monday and Wednesday." They blamed it on the weather. They blamed it on a strike. They kept pointing fingers at everybody but themselves. As soon as the phone industry was de-regulated we jumped ship.

AT&T was a great customer-oriented company. One 15-minute phone call generally resolved issues within hours, not days. We loved being AT&T customers. But then the baby bell SBC bought AT&T, bringing us back to the land of crappy customer service. So, we got VOIP. At first we stuck with AT&T CallVantage, 'cuz the introductory rate was great. Also, there was a direct number to dial for CallVantage and I didn't have to deal with the typical SBC run-around. But, as time went on, the introductory rate expired and the cost went up. Eventually we were paying double the introductory rate.

So, we switched to Vonage. Not bad - we got the hardware quick, installed it and were running. Even though they promised us we wouldn't get double-charged for the month we switched, it did happen. But several phone calls later that was credited to our account. Then the customer service nightmare started. Several days went by without a dial-tone. We had internet, but there was no signal from Vonage. They admittend there was a problem on their end, but refused to credit our account for the downtime. Several more phone calls and a couple of managers later, we saw the credit on our account. But the dial-tone problems continued so we started looking for something worth our while. Even though I loathe AT&T, I tried to convince my wife to switch back to CallVantage simply so we would have steady phone service. The costs were too high and we couldn't afford it.

Then ComCast took over Houston's cable service from Time-Warner. With Time-Warner we had unlimited access to UseNet. As a Linux user, I download a lot of stuff from UseNet. But ComCast nixed that. No more downloads. And they restricted e-mail sizes, so I switched to gMail and 10MB attachments. And they restricted bandwidth (apparently) because the service kept getting slower and slower. And all the phone calls to their "Customer Service" basically told me if I didn't like it, find something better."

So, this month we switched our internet and phone back to AT&T. Not that their customer service is any better, but dammit, we should have a steady dial-tone and unrestricted internet service. Last night, while hooking up our new hardware, I called the repair service. They told me a technician was coming out and I needed to contact customer service in the morning to make sure the tech would call me. I called and got moron after moron who had no idea what I was talking about. They could not see that it was a new install on their computers 'cuz they didn't bother looking.

So, after 40 minutes on the phone, I got in touch with a lady who did know what I was talking about. She got everything straightened out - yes, a technician is coming out; no, I don't need to be present to win.

I vented regarding the lousy customer service I had experienced and lamented the fact that no good telephone company remains in the US. Maybe T-Mobile qualifies, but they're mobile only. And they're not an American company, they're Deutsche Telecom - a German company.

So, what should we do? Every time you contact lousy customer service, demand to speak with a supervisor. Let the supervisor know that the service was lousy and tell them it needs to be fixed. Do this every time you encounter lousy service and suck up all their time talking to them about it. Eventually, they'll come around and, maybe - I know it's a longshot, but maybe - they'll fix it.

I'm tired of my blood pressure going up every time I need to find out something from a giant conglomerate that doesn't believe I'm a human being.