Monday, October 21, 2024

Customer Service

 It's only Monday, and I'm done. I am so done. The email with the UPS label never arrived. We drove a half hour to the UPS Store to give them the label information that was supposed to allow them to print the label out there. They could not do so because it showed that the label was sent to me! I spent 4 hours on the phone with customer service. It involved 3 phone calls and one chat. 

One of the questions that was asked, "What is the most often called number on your husband's phone?"

 For heaven's sake! Why on earth would that even matter? But she waited, and so I gave her my phone number. 

"I am sorry," she said. "That's not the right number."

"Surely I am in the top ten," I said.

Guess I wasn't. 

Anyways, back home, I tried to sort it out via chat. Could not. I was transferred to a manager, who said, "Why do you need a label? If you bought the phone yesterday, just take it back to the store you purchased it from." 

"I can do that? It wasn't even offered as an option. She told me I had to return it to you." 

I was assured that I could. 

So I did. 

I spent another hour on the phone tonight trying to figure out why the minutes weren't applied to my account. The young man sorted that out in pretty short order, and transferred me to his supervisor who credited our account for the minutes that the woman charged us for last night, which we couldn't apply to the phone that had been returned because it did not work. 

I was wrung out. I hate dealing with stuff like that, but I got it done. I handed Tim his phone. He said, "You'll have to teach me how to work it." 

I said, "Later. I need a break. You do some figuring out for a while."

I checked the e-mail to make sure that I had a receipt for the credit and saw that the Online banking had suspended access to our account. I just spent forever sorting that out LAST month. 

"Tim," I said wearily. "Have you been putting in the wrong password for the online banking?" 

"Yeah," he said. 

"Remember that we had to change the password last month? And that I wrote it down for you..." 

He looked at me. 

I have not got one more bit of patience left in me. 

42 comments:

  1. You don't walk alone, although my experience was only 80 minutes today as I changed the electric bill from my partner's name to my name and then apply my pension concession number. 80 minutes, what a waste of my time and staff time. Clearly I am the only person who has ever done that.

    Now, have you cross questioned Tim about who has been calling him more often than you do? Have you found out her name?

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    1. I feel your pain. I do. But only 80 minutes???? Amateur.

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  2. Replies
    1. Sweet merciful heavens. I try to be so patient, but this was the craziest process. I kind of have a feeling that the first person I spoke with was so inexperienced that she just messed up subsequent phone followups. Nobody knew what SHE was doing. I got hung up on twice. In the middle of my explanations, they would suddenly start saying 'Hello, Hello.' and then disconnect the call.

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  3. Bet Tim calls the hardware store more often than you, maybe? Anytime I've gotten a new phone, I have the dude at the cell phone store move everything from my old phone to the new. Helps us elderlings a lot. Linda in Kansas

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    1. It just seems like all the times he calls my phone so we can find it, (and vice versa) I should have ranked a bit higher on that chart!

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  4. Everything seems so much more complicated than it need be these days. It takes forever to move up the queue on the 'phone and then you're shifted from one department to another. No one person owns the problem.

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    1. I really feel like this is true. Nothing is straight forward.

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  5. I suspected your UPS saga would end up in the manner it did. I'm glad that you were able to get it sorted out. Time got away from me. I think I'll try my tomato-mayo-toast-pepper thing for breakfast this morning. I'll let you know what I think.

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    1. Trying not to envy your breakfast. I had a Noni's Almond Biscotti because I have no tomatoes.

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  6. This very thing is my husband's arch nemesis. He manages our accounts, his mother's accounts, and his now-disabled brother's accounts. From cell phones, to internet, to TV and insurance, it is a full-time damn JOB to call and deal with these people. The layers of BS are there to deter you from calling. These companies know that eventually you will give up, and just keep paying. Well, that would be ME. Not my Hubs, he is a dog with a bone, and even though it will LEACH the life out of him to do it, he will spend the time on the phone, grinding away until he gets what he called for. I am entirely grateful for him. He may not be the caveman clubbing food for us, but he is always out there killing the deal for us. So, Debby, good on you that you keep at it.

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    1. I got it done. I got the minutes refunded. I got the phone exchanged. All's well that ends well, but my gosh...what a trial!!!

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  7. Replies
    1. Last night, you would have seen a very unvirtuous woman, unfortunately. I got it done, and I tried to do it with as much grace as possible. The people I spoke with were very sympathetic and told me that they understood my frustration. Their kindness made it a bit easier to be kind, in return. But when I got off the phone, checked our e-mail, and discovered the locked account, that frustration just bubbled up all over again. I was so mad. I got it straightened out today.

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  8. The fact that you haven't had a breakdown or committed murder is a testament to your character. You have way more patience than me.

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    1. I used to do customer service, and so I understand the importance of not losing my temper at someone who is simply doing his/her job.

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  9. Oh good grief. I hate the way we do things now. I would be breaking windows with that stinking phone. You are a saint that no one has been killed in the making of this post.
    People asked me why we took a one day road trip to return equipment when we canceled our tv cable when they will send you a ups label. First, for the last many decades we had a storefront in our small town, you just walked in. I do not trust that the consolidated store almost 2 hours away will send the label. Second I wanted to make sure it arrived there. Third I wanted a physical receipt that I returned the equipment in my own had when I left the building.
    The teenager who took our equipment was surprised we had driven all that way to return it. Oh, honey, you are so young and trusting.
    I hate to be mean, but maybe you can ban him from the online account somehow? That is a whole other nightmare. They are protecting us from ourselves.

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    1. The person I spoke with came up with a good idea. We only had one sign in, under his credentials. Now we have two. He's not getting my info, but if this happens again, we still have access to online banking via my log in. Which I will not share.

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  10. That's quite a few challenge for one time. Some of these call centers are dumber than dirt.

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    1. I'm not sure why that made me laugh out loud Red, but it did. Although in most cases, it's a matter of poor training. The first operator had no clue what she was doing.

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  11. Oh, that's awful. I would be wrung out after going through all of that. Peace be with you, Debby!

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  12. It's exhausting just to read! I came to the conclusion long ago and tell anyone that will listen.... nothing ever gets done the first time. Follow up.... follow up is always required on our part. I don't see a lot of real customer service anymore. If our work had been so poorly we wouldn't have been employed for long.

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    1. I really think all this security stuff has complicated things greatly.

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  13. I'm sorry, but this made me LOL ...
    "He looked at me.
    I have not got one more bit of patience left in me."
    Men! LOL I'm just glad there was no bloodletting!

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  14. Ack! I am pretty sure I would have killed someone! Mentally anyway.
    I have a hubby like that. I always have to do anything remotely techie. And it's no fun.
    Good thing you're not a drinking woman!

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  15. Hoo boy. It frustrates me just to READ this!

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  16. Hoo boy, indeed. I felt myself becoming tense reading this. I now have about two hours of my life spent talking to Xfinity about how to transfer internet service from here to Arizona. Each call has provided a different methodology, all of which are different. I'm keeping my phone until the battery goes toes up, I hate change. Smart change on the bank account.

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    1. You can understand why I died inside when my phone fell in the portapotty.

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  17. I was busy doing outside work this afternoon when a neighbour came across to rant about the appalling customer service she had received from her bank, which had reduced her to tears (and she is a pretty tough cookie). I can fully understand her frustration, as I have been in that position myself.

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    1. Oy. I try so hard to be patient. However, my patience wears thin after a while. That frustration makes me feel like a piss poor human being. Right now, the customer service person that I am waiting on doesn't have a clue, but she thanks me for patiently waiting. Over and over and over.

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  18. I feel your pain and find you to be WAY more patient than I am.
    When we were kids and my dad would be annoyed that we weren’t doing chores as expected, he would tell us to “get on the stick.” And when he said that, you had better jump up and get busy.
    Flash forward some 50 years and I had some money invested with a known investment firm that I wanted to move in order to merge with another account with a different company. They dragged their feet with every call and sorely tried my patience and attitude. Repeatedly. One day she opened the door a crack and I got her. She told me an email would be sent in the next six weeks. And I said, “No. A standard form email from your firm should take less than 2 minutes. Emails are fast, that’s why the technology was invented. I should know. I worked all through the introduction of computers in the workplace. I remember faxing a legal document to London that took 16 minutes a page in the early 1980s. I was there. New hardware, new software packages, new printers, I lived through it all. I did all the training and practice and worked with it every single day of my career. All the upgrades. I’m fully confident on both Macs and PCs. If I were you and your team, I would stop this ridiculous stalling, get on the stick, and do the job you are paid to do. I’m the customer, it’s my account, and we are moving my money today.
    She spoke with her manager and the transaction occurred that afternoon.
    I had worked up a head of steam in my speech, and then laughed so hard to realize that my dad’s voice had come out of my mouth when I told her to get on the stick. My brother and sister both had a good chuckle.
    Hang in there, Debby! I was thinking you could have shown your cat scratches on your hand to prove your determination.
    Bonnie in Minneapolis

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    1. I'm thinking I should have dropped a feral cat in their laps.

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  19. I hope today has been a better day, Debby.

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    1. Hard to tell. I am once again on the phone with Customer Service

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  20. Do you have any hair left? I wouldn’t. So maddening.

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  21. Oh, AC. I am on the phone right now. With customer service. *tears*

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  22. I was talking to a work colleague at a function last night and found out about his heart attack "adventure" recently. He was flown to the big smoke for superior medical staff to deal. They kept asking for his wife's number but it was safe at home in his phone! So she drove the 4.5hrs to the big smoke with no updates - last she had heard he had survived the ambulance ride to the nearby town (which had been touch and go) and was being airlifted.
    I asked him if he knew her number now. "No" he replied - "it's oin my phone"!
    I think that sometimes we should get them to fill out a few forms! I was never going to be that wife but honestly, it's a balancing act on how much hair you are prepared to lose.

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    1. I heard him talking on the phone this morning. I am pleased to say that he was dealing with customer service, all by himself. It was a proud moment.

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