Post your evidence of America's crumbling Corporate service record!

[theophilus]

Hey,

When was it that "the customer is always right!" Maybe it's just me, but things seem to be really going downhill when it comes to Corporate performance in support of us the customers. Here is a recent example for me. Please add one of your "best" examples.

We recently, inadvertently, didn't get our phone bill in on time. (Hey, we're poor but not THAT poor.) We get a call and I answer. A real person says that we are late and gives the amount. He asks if I want to pay by credit card over the phone. Well, I think that we just sent in the payment so I say "no" and he suggests that I double check. I take down the number, just in case. Well, I ask my wife and she can't remember even getting a bill this month. She admits she might have misplaced it. I wonder if it is a scam to get my credit card number. I decide that I won't worry about it until I get a written notice from AT and T.

The notice comes. The number I had been given is on the notice so I decide to call them. For parts of two days I go through a five minute dial in with a robot after which I get "Our office is closed at this time. We value your call." No office hours. No nothing. I get frustrated because time is running out. I call another number that is on the notice. This is a number for a different aspect of the billing situation. Fortunately I get a live person. She says that the original number is "having problems." She has "another number" for me to try. I call it and get a Mr. Robot. I go through the whole long interactive thingy. The Robot asks me to grade "him" and I'm done.

The PHONE COMPANY, TPC, is having trouble with their phones. It would have been nice to put the other number in the first recorded message. Anyway, it is little things like this that seem to increase in frequency. It's no great big deal but things should be getting better not worse, imo.

So what happened to you recently?

[Bozita]

1. Gotta free oil/lube/filter coupon for paying for my newspaper ...

... on my credit card.

No expiration date appeared in any of the publicity or on the coupon.

The local Valvoline oil shop at first (and second and third) refused to honor the certificate.

I stuck to my guns. I eventually got my auto maintenance. The coupon in question was about 13 months old.

I hate like hell negotiating a coupon.

[KT2000]

2. Garbage lady

I get pickup every other week. It is marked on my calendar for the year.
I get a bill that is charging me double for having it picked up on the wrong day. I call them to say that I am on the same schedule I have been on all year.

Lady says I am putting my can out on the wrong day. I disagree (A new company took over at the time I supposedly started putting my can out on the wrong day)
I request the bill be corrected. She eventually agrees to correct the bill.
Then they stop all pickups at my house.
Call again and she says that people are trying to get free services and try ways of cheating the company - insinuating I was one of them. Again she said she would make a correction.

Write a letter confirming our conversations and request she reply with how she sees the situation. She sends me a 25 page printout of my bills going back to 1983. That's it.

Eventually learned of "every other week pickup" customers who went through the same thing. They gave up and paid though.

There is a notion in business now called PUSHBACK. They will try to screw the customer until the customer pushes back. Hell - they are doing it to their own vendors as well. It is getting pretty cut-throat. Some MBA gets a promotion for coming up with this crap.
How about the people on DU who are getting $25 finance charges for $0 blalances.?!?!? (Chase Bank)

You asked - I may even post another one later!!

[Kiouni]

3. i think it was for

cox cable but if people would call and complain about their service some of the costumer reps would change their billing name from like john smith to john "beats his children" smith and so on.

[Sherman A1]

4. Had similar trouble with the trash service

Got a bill with a $5.00 charge that was listed as overdue last year. So, I called and spoke to a very nice young lady, telling her that since I had paid the previous bill early, I didn't think I could be overdue. Response was that during the "paid billing period" they had increased their prices and therefore I owed them another $5.00. I asked to speak with a supervisor and she told me that they were all on the phones taking calls (as apparently this didn't sit too well with lots of folks). I canceled my service and wrote a letter of complaint to the state Attorney General as I felt it was bait and switch pricing. They did contact the company a couple of times, but did not elect to prosecute them after the company made what I thought to be a very wimpy reply.