Why Customer Service Is So Bad

The number of unenlightened posts here is amazing.

It's VERY simple. People value low price over nearly all else. Given a choice between low cost, or customer service, most (not all!) people chose low cost.

Top notch customer service does exist, but you do have to pay for it. Shop Nordstrom's, stay at the Four Seasons.

Shop at walmart, try to buy things at the very lowest possible price no matter what, you run the risk of bad customer service.

I'm surprised the New York Times isn't smart enough to figure this out without the article. :p
 
Bad customer service is the result of products that break, don't do what they are designed to do, and cost money. On the flip side bad customer service is also the result of rude customers that don't understand how to use the product, expect a 2 dollar product to work like a 100 dollar product, and just a general I paid for it and I am having problems, therefore you should treat me like a king attitude.

When are people going to figure out tthat if you treat people like crap. Generally they don't respond well and you get treated the same way. Or customers do.
 
When I worked at a call center, the reason for the poor support is that the people who where good at their job moved up the chain to other areas (or found better jobs like me) while the rejects stayed in the low tiers and couldn't be fired due to short staffing.
 
Tekara said:
When I worked at a call center, the reason for the poor support is that the people who where good at their job moved up the chain to other areas (or found better jobs like me) while the rejects stayed in the low tiers and couldn't be fired due to short staffing.
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How true that is, except in my experience it's the brown nosers who move up the chain, only the smart ones leave...
 
A - undertrained

B - customers are morons (this is a HUGE part of it).

C - commission based reps. if you're not buying anything, they just don't give a fuck.
 
Put on your best Apu voice and say "no i am american, thank you come again"
 
Ozona said:
The number of unenlightened posts here is amazing.

It's VERY simple. People value low price over nearly all else. Given a choice between low cost, or customer service, most (not all!) people chose low cost.

Top notch customer service does exist, but you do have to pay for it. Shop Nordstrom's, stay at the Four Seasons.

Shop at walmart, try to buy things at the very lowest possible price no matter what, you run the risk of bad customer service.

I'm surprised the New York Times isn't smart enough to figure this out without the article. :p
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Well, the problem is that given the choice of "low cost and shitty customer service" and "higher cost with good customer service", the USAian consumer now knows that 'good customer service' is available for this market segment at some price point...so they just buy the cheaper thing, anyway, and then utilize their sense of entitlement to try to nag and bitch and moan their way into getting the good customer service for the lower price.
 
How true... if you want great service, you pay for it. You dont go to McDonalds and expect a host to show you to your table and a waiter to take your order... but thats exactly what many customers think they should get when they shop online for the best discount. If you want great customer service with that home theater system you purchased, you dont buy it at Best Buy, you go to a frikin' audio botique.

Great service does exist... people just think they deserve their own personal contractor, builder, and architect just because they are buying some 2x4's at the Home Depot.
 
So many different opinions on the same topic that are all true, we all have one or more stories of crappy customer service. Yesterday I went through being helped by The Geek Squad and I have to give them a 8.5 for my television repair. They ended up replacing my 3 yr old TV with a new one.
Yes I did have to argue a little (5 Minutes w/ my original receipt) but I went from a 42 Plasma w/ 720 to a 46 inch LCD w/1080i.
It was about half my original cost, but it kicks a$$ compared to the old one. (Yes prices have dropped to half) anyways I just wanted to share my one good story and Yes it from was from the help and customer service from the nice 2 persons helping me in the Audio/Video Department. I'm sure have had bad Geek Squad stories...
To me the bottom line is yes, it's because we (the public) are irresponsible buyers and allow ourselves to be over charged and we don't say no to bad service and we get crappy minimum wage service from Tech and twenty somethings because they don't give a crap about anything but themselves. Yes I'm guilty as charged with all a of unknown % of America who let it slide and over pay at times.
Thats just my opinion and thank you for letting me voice it. A great thread for getting the bad feelings out and letting others know there is a pattern from certain companies.
 
Of all the things to openly call a rally cause to, you pick customer service as your target and then blame people for letting it happen? Re pub li can. :rolleyes:
 
Yeah customer support can be down right awful, but there are fair share of awful customers too. Customers should rely less on customer support and start reading more anyways. Whether it's on the Internet or the provided documentation. At times, I just feel people just do not have the knowledge of what they're buying.
 
MisterSparkle said:
This is why business is good. I work for cheaper than large companies, do better work, and all my clients have my personal email address and phone number. Occasionally though you still find people who are simply never satisfied with anything, no matter what you try and do. I think some people simply are immune to being happy, and will find anything they can to be constantly disappointed in the world around them.
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LOL so true sparkle. I think that the geek squad has single handedly doubled my customer base in this town just because they are so terrible at what they do. Life is good when you offer the cheapest and best service in town. Hell I work by the hour, I don't give a shit what you want me to do. I will do it. I made a life long customer the other day because her wedding video was stuck in a old VCR. I was installing a new PC with A DVD recorder and a video input card for her husbands office and I was explaining how they could transfer any old tapes they had to DVD now. The lady nearly burst into tears and told me that her wedding video had been stuck in a VCR for 5 years!!!:eek: She said no shop in town would touch it. Five minutes later I was showing her how to record from a tape to DVD using her video as an example. I don't even advertise my service. Word gets around.
 
Kristofff said:
Shut the fuck up about entitlement. That meme is so overused on these forums.
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You are correct. It is so overused. That doesn't mean it's not correct.

thedintedcan said:
I would also like to submit that customers have gotten worse.
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That is definitely true. People will shout, be rude, and verbally abusive to customer service personnel, and when walking away, complain about "the nerve" of that rude CSR.

While remaining polite in the face of that kind of rudeness is an ideal opportunity to show some class, it's just not something you are going to find commonplace in today's society. I can do it, but I usually don't.
 
I dunno, that sounds like kind of a weak cop-out argument. We allow it?

Oh sure, conceptually the customers are the ones that control things, but that's like saying the economy is bad because YOU *points at random person* allow it.

Really, people with real power need to change it, customers cant change crap and rarely have the power to. I hate the notion that a large enough collective product boycott is the only way for anyone of any kind of influence the quality of service.

The fact is service generally sucks because corporations are cheap and their job is to have the most solid profit margin as possible.

It's bad because of me? Hell I tell the CSR rep directly that he sucks if he indeed does before i'm finished (and then do the same via a feedback form as well), and we're talking bad bad suckage, someone who insists on wasting my time, not helping, and using literally no brainpower to read from a list I probably could guestimate the entirey of before he finishes and transfers me to the higher tier of service i needed in the first place.
 
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