So this morning I go to pay my cell phone bill online. Normally like I do all the time (I'm not into direct deductions) every third week of the month. Only this time I get a big "red lettered message" saying unable to process payment because my payment info did not match up. Oh I moved maybe that's it I say, quickly change my address in the payment and submit again. Same message. It also says I should call my bank? Hmmm.

I remembered I checked my bank account this morning online so when I go back to retrieve my bank phone number I noticed my account is 2 dollars less. That's strange- I thought? I call my bank and they tell me there are two "HOLD" transactions totally a dollar each from cricket.com. Hmmm I say that's weird because I was just told that basically nothing went through when trying to make a payment. Nope the rep told me, two holds totally a dollar each, which means they will process at a later date. Thinking they did go through and that I double paid I ask the rep if she can cancel one payment. Nope, we can't cancel holds, call Cricket she says.

OK so I call cricket and after going through numerous hurdles I get a rep who can barely speak english. I repeat my story and they tell me nothing is coming out of my account, no payments were made, but for some reason I have no money do till next month. I say that's impossible. They thank me for my time and ask me if I need any further assistance. I call back hoping to get another rep who knows what the hell they are talking about. Again I go through the hurdles and story and the rep tells me nothing but says to call my bank. I call my bank they tell me to call cricket. I call cricket they tell me the same thing and I finally lose it and ask to speak to the rep's manager. now I work in customer service so I know all the tricks of the trade. when a rep wont help you escalating it angrily at times is the only way to get the ball rolling. Finally I get the manager who speaks slightly better english and she basically tells me there is nothing they can do except process both payments and then issue a refund if they deem the 2nd payment a error. So basically the ball is in their court and they can choose to keep it or refund. I tell them how is any of this my fault, when the website said unable to process payment and I'm not an idiot- I wouldn't pay twice. I told them that's kind of fraud... Check back in 24 hours I'm told.

Finally I call my bank back- hoping to get another rep that will resolve this. Again she said there is nothing she can do and that they have to process to start a refund/dispute. By now I'm utterly frustrated with my bank and phone company and think that the policies and service leave alot to be desired....My question is, and this is no slam on Indian people, but when you can't understand the rep, they can sense your frustration, and ultimately they keep sending you in circles and reading scripts when are companies going to realize it's just not working? I used to hate the phone mail system with press this an that but now i prefer it if can get a rep that will help me in the end. going through that and then what I did this morning make me want to shoot myself-after going postal on them.

But Americans don't want those call-center jobs - they'd rather be unemployed. Thank god for India or we'd have no one to call!
Yeah, basically 99% of call-centers - regardless of location and native language - are the suck.

Howdy, Homer. How's it hanging? What do you say we take a relaxed attitude towards work and watch the
baseball game? The nye Mets are my favorite squadron.

Thats the problem with outsourcing overseas Chris. 'Customer service' the world over only hear key words and respond with pre-written texts, they don't seem to grasp the whole situation. Its easier to palm you off with half-assed responses and to keep telling you to call your bank, call this, call that, they just want you off the phone. I used to work for British Telcom in the UK and I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that some reps will feed you any bullshit line just to get you off the phone, as otherwise it looks bad that their call volume is low due to dealing with pissed off customers. Personally I would pay by check or something for this, I started doing the same thing with ComEd, when they started charging me a 'convenience fee' of $3.50 to pay online, robbing bastards. Its all a scam. wankers.

I hear ya Ultra Gigan. The reason I pay online is because there is no service charge for that. Paying over the phone (to ironically a phone company) incurs a 5 dollar fee? For what? To help pay your reps salaries? Paying in person will get you a whopping 10 dollar fee. Again for what? For making me waste gas and come down there, you charge me 10 clams? It's highway robbery!!! Hidden fees should be outlawed, but no, the corporations lobby government officials with so many campaign contributions that they pass laws allowing this against the consumers. The whole system is so flawed against the average person you need a legal degree just to find the loopholes. I can't wait till it goes down and we all go mad max beyond the thunderdome on their asses.

There is a lot of that in the Bay Area. A lot of companies have outsourced to India because of the hours and labor there and there seemed to be complaints based on language barriers.

That being said..I still have had shitty customer service here. I went to bevmo to buy beer last night and the lady did not say 1 word to me.

I think its a case of:

Overseas outsourcing + language barrier = unsatisfying and unecessarily complicated 'customer service'.

domestic customer service + minimum wage = people doing the bare minimum and really not giving a shit.

Ha. Well said.

VERY well said. I do customer service for a newspaper though and I have to admit I can usually cut to the chase in 10 seconds and resolve the issue, whether it be billing, routing etc etc. I think it pisses my bosses off alot though that I avoid scripts and usually write credits in favor of the customer. Then again I'm in a union, paid more and it's hard to get fired. BUT I am with the average joe and feel his/her pain.

Due to the whole language barrier issue, my "roaming" cell phone call to arrange a new flight for a suddenly canceled flight turned into an hour long conversation. Awesome. I'm sure that bill is really going to suck later this month.

I bet you are of the old skool though, right? it seems like the standard of service nowadays suffers because this generation really are so blase about everthing. Why push yourself of you are only going to get $8 an hour? (or whatever it is currently). I work in customer service for a CPA company, and pretty much before the customer has finished talking I already know how I can help them, which is why I get so pissed when I don't get that kind of service when I want it, its infinitely infuriating.

I am oldskool. Will be 40 in October. Yikes it's hard to say that and not have a surreal moment....but I digress. I come from 80's and 90's when customer service may not have been great, but was infinitely better than it is now. Working in customer service and realizing how uncomplicated it is and how easy it is to resolve issues only compounds my utter frustration with NOT getting proper service.

I'm afraid to say it but I'm slowly beginning to go down the angry old man road, where the younger generation really really is starting to piss me off in general. Unfortunately I never forget stupidity and with younger people it far outweighs smart things I hear from them. Then again I hear grown people my age saying the same damn stupid shit. It's tough to generalize like that, maybe people are just lazy? Is there a smart city or country I can move to where I don't have to deal with stupid masses all the time?

...because it doesn't exist

Because customers suck.

They're not. Ever. Because for every 5 horror stories about Cricket, or AT&T, or the Cable company or whoever, there are probably another 95 people who called in to those same places and even though they had a bit of trouble understanding the Indian person on the line or maybe had to hold an extra few minutes actually got their question answered or their problem solved by the robots reading from their scripts.

THe companies get their speadsheet at the end of the month which shows a 95 percent customer-satisfaction rating and not only do they not see a problem, they are overjoyed at what excellent service they are providing.

The days of one-on-one help are a thing of the past. Customer Service, which is a business liability, is statistics game scored in Average Handle Times, #s of Dropped Calls, and minimized 'Wrap' time between calls. Quality Review (which is supposed to be the equalizer) is generally a function of Middle-management who has a vested interest in making sure their own underlings statistics look good in order to justify their own continued existence.

People, please use paragraphs. I wanted to read the first post and just saw a wall of characters, and skipped it. Just saying...

Its true, maybe you got bad service because you didn't let her talk.

"Sir we apologize for.."ANDTHENICALLMYBANK ANDTHEN AND THEN

sorry i'm an asshole. Ironically I run a call center, but my staff wins awards.

CS mostly sucks because most people in CS get paid crappy wages and couldn't care less about their jobs.

Sorry I was typing away from memory and forgot to use paragraphs, fixed it.



Yeah but cricket does not win awards they have one of the worse customer service ratings ever (I just found this out online). AND I did let HIM talk, he just didn't address any of my concerns, nor did his manager. I'm not an idiot nor do I just blurt out AND THEN AND THEN.. so save your smart comments please.

Nice! Two Simpson's references so far! I use the SMRT reference probably every other week...love it!