Thursday, December 23, 2004
Bad Customer Service
Two recent experiences with big business have left me extremely frustrated -- one with Verizon, and one with HP.
I recently cancelled my LAN line and DSL with Verizon because of their refusal to sell me just the DSL. Technically, this is possible. But Verizon won't do it because they prefer to gouge their customers for the LAN line charges even if they don't need the phone line.
So I cancelled service with Verizon in mid October and now rely solely on my cell phone. I also upgraded from DSL to Comcast Cable broadband. I got digital cable while I was at it. So now I'm saving at least $50 a month and I get better service.
You can imagine my surprise when on this month's credit card statement I saw a $43 charge from Verizon in November and another in December. I was on the phone for over 40 minutes with five different "customer service" reps, each one more clueless than the one that preceded them. I may actually be receiving a credit at some point in the future, but I won't believe it until I see it. It was so frustrating.
Now tonight, I go to download some photos from my HP PhotoSmart 215 camera. (Yes, I know. It's a crap camera. But I got it really cheap with the employee discount and it works okay.) Anyway, my hard drive bit the dust and was recently replaced, so I realized I had to reinstall the software. But the HP software CD that came with the camera wouldn’t load. No problem, I think. I'll just download what I need at HP.com.
No such luck. It seems that HP customer service requires I pay $11.00 for software I already bought! I couldn't believe what I was seeing online, so I called their "Customer Care" line and was connected to some lady in Bangalore, India of course. She was very pleasant and informed me that I could download the software from the Web site. I told her I doubted that was true, as I had just tried to do so wihtout success which is why I was calling in the first place. This seemed to confuse her. Perhaps it was the language barrier. She put me on hold and when she returned she informed me that I was correct and that I must pay $11.00 for them to snail mail me another CD.
HP and Verizon will never see another penny from me. Their customer service could not be worse if they tried. Every time I see an HP or Verizon ad on TV or in print I realize that it is money that should have been spent on creating a better customer experience.
Big business needs to realize that the experience they create for their customers IS their bottom line. One greedy $11 transaction and they can lose a customer for life. That's an $11 gain now, at the expense of a customer's lifetime worth of spending.
Why don't they get it?
I recently cancelled my LAN line and DSL with Verizon because of their refusal to sell me just the DSL. Technically, this is possible. But Verizon won't do it because they prefer to gouge their customers for the LAN line charges even if they don't need the phone line.
So I cancelled service with Verizon in mid October and now rely solely on my cell phone. I also upgraded from DSL to Comcast Cable broadband. I got digital cable while I was at it. So now I'm saving at least $50 a month and I get better service.
You can imagine my surprise when on this month's credit card statement I saw a $43 charge from Verizon in November and another in December. I was on the phone for over 40 minutes with five different "customer service" reps, each one more clueless than the one that preceded them. I may actually be receiving a credit at some point in the future, but I won't believe it until I see it. It was so frustrating.
Now tonight, I go to download some photos from my HP PhotoSmart 215 camera. (Yes, I know. It's a crap camera. But I got it really cheap with the employee discount and it works okay.) Anyway, my hard drive bit the dust and was recently replaced, so I realized I had to reinstall the software. But the HP software CD that came with the camera wouldn’t load. No problem, I think. I'll just download what I need at HP.com.
No such luck. It seems that HP customer service requires I pay $11.00 for software I already bought! I couldn't believe what I was seeing online, so I called their "Customer Care" line and was connected to some lady in Bangalore, India of course. She was very pleasant and informed me that I could download the software from the Web site. I told her I doubted that was true, as I had just tried to do so wihtout success which is why I was calling in the first place. This seemed to confuse her. Perhaps it was the language barrier. She put me on hold and when she returned she informed me that I was correct and that I must pay $11.00 for them to snail mail me another CD.
HP and Verizon will never see another penny from me. Their customer service could not be worse if they tried. Every time I see an HP or Verizon ad on TV or in print I realize that it is money that should have been spent on creating a better customer experience.
Big business needs to realize that the experience they create for their customers IS their bottom line. One greedy $11 transaction and they can lose a customer for life. That's an $11 gain now, at the expense of a customer's lifetime worth of spending.
Why don't they get it?
