Customer Service is Dead

Maybe it is just me, but all these customer service centers that are supposed to be so helpful to a person have been anything but. So be prepared, this post is most definitely a rant.

I'll start with Sprint. There are pages and pages of how bad their customer service is on the Internet. We canceled our plan with them in September to go back to Verizon (how nice it is that we can now all talk in our homes again). With four lines for the rescue, we can only want the best so we can actually provide decent customer service to our adopters. But Sprint just doesn't like to let go. We continued to receive bills for phones we no longer used through January. Each month was the same routine: call, speak to a rep who said if we paid her money she'd credit our account. Then I'd talk to two or three supervisors and each time be promised this was resolved. Each month I lost about two hours on the phone as the reps were kind enough to hang up on me when they were tired of me. Finally, I had enough, so I made friends with Google. I found the number of a Sr. VP for Customer Service. I got a secretary, explained to her that I was writing an article on how it was taking our non-profit six months to cancel service with Sprint. She immediately transferred me to someone who was more than happy to help me. He acknowledged that they have lots of problems with customer service but did not offer any hints of corrective actions being taken. I thanked him and hung up with Sprint for the final time.

Then tonight, I was cleaning the kitchen and found my CharBroil grill manual and registration. I forgot I had marked that we were missing parts, but I was in such a rush to use it for our New Year's Eve party, that I just pushed it aside. So, I thought I'd call and try and get the three missing parts sent. I had an easier time filling out my college applications. After thirty minutes on the phone, I'm told I can't get the parts until I send them my reciept. What a waste of my time. Why not tell me that in the beginning. So, I thought I could circumvent that and just do the registration and request online. Again, wasted another 30 minutes only to keep getting error messages. I called the helpline back. After another 20 minutes of trying to explain the problem I was having, I got an, "Our website is undergoing maintenance. You'll have to try again tomorrow." Really? You don't say. Then why the heck not put a message on the website so we don't waste our time?

Oh, and back to my pitiful Vanilla Day Spa experience... still never got a phone call to follow up or make a resolution to fix my bad experience with them. (Anyone want to buy a $130 gift card? Will consider all offers...) Instead, Angela with You Need Fitness Massage hooked me up with an awesome experience. I couldn't believe how nice it was. I was the only client in the studio, had full attention, and drifted off to sleep twice. The music was so soothing, and the little water feature as well. My only complaint was that I got a little chilly, but I prefer to be as warm as possible all the time. I just can't wait to go back.

Ok, so that's enough of a rant today. I'm sure I'm not the only person to have a bad experience with customer service, but it just makes me feel better to vent a little. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow, or else just get some duct tape and make everything work where the parts should have been.