Customer backlash against bad service

[katty]

more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23283402/

Customer backlash against bad service
Growing gap between promised and delivered experience

After getting nowhere with the call center, some customers are sending "e-mail carpet bombs" to the C-suite, cc-ing the top layer of management with their complaints.

Most viewed on msnbc.com
By Jena McGregor

updated 4:29 p.m. PT, Tues., Feb. 26, 2008

In the annals of customer service, 2007 will go down as the year fed-up consumers finally dropped the hammer. In August a 76-year-old retired nurse named Mona Shaw smashed up a keyboard and a telephone in a Manassas, Va., Comcast office after she says the cable operator failed to install her service properly. During her first visit to the branch outlet, the AARP secretary says she was left sitting on a bench in the hallway for two hours waiting for a manager. She returned, armed with a hammer, and let loose the rallying cry "Have I got your attention now?" Afterward, she was arrested, fined $345, and became a media sensation, capturing the hearts of frustrated consumers everywhere. (Says Comcast: "We apologize for any customer service issues that Ms. Shaw experienced.")

Three months earlier, in May, Michael Whitford uploaded a video in which he chooses among a golf club, an ax, and a sword before deciding on a sledgehammer as his weapon of choice for bashing his nonfunctioning Macbook to smithereens. In the video, Whitford, a systems engineer from Chandler, Ariz., says that Apple declined to cover the repair under warranty, citing damage from a spilled liquid. More than 340,000 people have viewed the black-and-white smash-up on YouTube.

[my2sense]

1. It's About Time

Customer service seems to be an after-thought these days. I have countless stories of inept "customer service" employees that have obviously had no training and or simply don't give a dayum.

I was at a restaurant the other day with my mother and she asked a question about the menu and the "waiter" acted as if he was waiting for ME to answer her. I was like WTH...arn't you the waiter?

[Captain Angry]

3. Just as long as the customers go after the real culprits.

There is no profit in customer service, so those who are good at it either stop, or are let go.

Budgets are thin, and many organizations (Comcast) are in a near monopoly state in some locations. They know you can't go to a competitor, so you will deal with what they give you.

I just hate to see the customer service people treated like crap due to management and executive decisions. The people taking those phone calls aren't the ones making the decision to not help.

[katty]

4. that happens so much! like I'm supposed to know the menu

back to back AND the specials?!!!

[bamademo]

2. Thanks for the link

I have to write a paper for a marketing class about PR and this really helps. :yourock:

[OffWithTheirHeads]

5. In Bush world, customer service, much like business ethics

Is an oxymoron. But, I finally think folks are getting pissed off enough to start fighting back. The internet is a great forum to let others know about bad customer service or crap products. I am about to use it to try to resolve an issue I have with a dishwasher that crapped out in slightly over a year. I will keep you posted.