Anyone else notice customer service on the rise?

[rudeguy]

A few days ago I had to email EA because my nephew's Rock Band drums stopped working. My sister doesn't have the patience and I....well I have plenty of time on my hands. After the first email that was obviously scripted, I got a response from them that they are going to ship out a whole new set and pay shipping both ways.

Then this morning my laptop charger dies. I bought it off Amazon from some place that doesn't even have a website. I emailed the company (thebatterycenter.info) and got a reply back from a human a couple hours later. He apologized for the charger dying and said he was sending out another one ASAP. No need to send the old one back.


Are companies finally realizing that taking care of their customers pays off in the long run?

 

[Vette73]

No. Sounds like you are dealing with very high profit items. Its easier to exchange a item that you paid $50 for but only cost $4.75 to make.

 

[LinuxIdiot]

No, sounds like you just got lucky. I have been dealing with AT&T's Reward Center since December trying to get $260 in rebates. Now up to three phone calls, the last two trying to find out why I hadn't received my rebate yet. For SOME reason they had messed up my address on the Rewards, even though the address on my account itself is correct, they decided to add some extra digits to my zip code. I call again (2nd time) when I still had not received them, this time they had added a whole other set of digits to my zip code and so it got returned again.

I just called again today (x3) after the last phone call made me mad so they switched what address it was going to since apt. numbers seemed to be too difficult for them. This time the problem is the person last time (2x phone call), didnt make sure to click a button to make sure that the address I provided this last time was only a ship-to address. So for the last three weeks nothing has been happening. We will see if I get them in 7 to 10 business-days as stated this time.

 

[JDub02]

just be glad you didn't have to call Verizon for anything. their CS is the worst. all of it has been outsourced to punjabistan where no one speaks english.

 

[MovingTarget]

Overall I don't think that things have improved much. However, in certain areas they are starting to realize that the latest practices of oursourcing or giving people the scripted runaround don't actually work, resulting in pissed-off customers.

 

[ultimatebob]

Well... tech support still seems to suck anyway. The wireless died on my Belkin router, and I ended up spending 90 minutes on the phone with two guys in India before I got them to RMA it for me. They had me trying all kinds of pointless troubleshooting steps like unplugging and resetting the router several times, which I told them that I already did BEFORE I called them.

Why is it so hard to get these guys to engage their brains for a moment instead of sticking to the "troubleshooting a router for dummies" support script step by step? It would have saved both of us a ton of time.

 

[Colt45]

I don't think I've ever called CS for anything, ever..?

 

[Flammable]

call paypal

 

[palswim]

I thought I noticed this, too. I seem to be talking to people who speak more clearly nowadays. But, maybe I'm just dealing with different companies.

 

[Canai]

Guess you've never had Charter