I recently criticized Bank of America's customer service for being very rude and sarcastic. But they're not the only company that has poor customer service. Usually the problem isn't so much that the CSRs are rude, just that they're clueless.
I tried to register at Walmart's online photo department so I could get some digital photos printed. Their registration page was messed up... it kept displaying "Servlet error" which as an IT geek I know is a problem on their end. So I called the 800 number and the CSR said it's a problem with my computer. That I should reboot my computer and/or install a new browser. I tried to explain that I think there is a real problem with their site, but instead he put me on hold and then hung up on me. WOW. So I just went with Target's photos (first 20 photos free, by the way) and had no problems.
Also since I'm still looking around at new banks (since BoA was so disappointing), I thought I'd send an email to Citibank asking them whether I am in area that qualifies me for ATM reimbursements. (If you look at the fine print on their e-checking account, you can get ATM reimbursements if you live in an area outside of their branch locations -- but it doesn't specify those locations.) The response from Citibank was one of those generic responses that tell me how I can search for branches in the area by clicking "Locations" or something like that. It's like these places are running a program that looks for a keyword like "branches" and then sends you Generic Email Response #37. That is really really annoying.
Declining customer service
August 29th, 2007 at 06:36 pm
August 29th, 2007 at 07:23 pm 1188415385
August 29th, 2007 at 07:46 pm 1188416805
August 29th, 2007 at 08:30 pm 1188419436
August 29th, 2007 at 08:31 pm 1188419486
I am happy with Verizon.
& that's about it.
We go local for credit unions (I wouldn't touch a big bank with a 10 foot pole. Well I have a Money Market at a "big" bank but I shopped hard to find one that met my customer service standards), our credit card companies are all as annoying as hell (the sales calles!) and I just mentioned Blockbuster Online was dropping our current plan. We are not happy. We are lucky to have a local cable company and a city-owned electric company, etc. All miles ahead of the big guys. AT&T we have for local phone service but they actually aren't bad (knock on wood). I know people who live 20 minutes south and pay like $100/month for basic phone service (vs. our $25 or so) since they could not get AT&T. But I have never had to like call them for anything - their cell services really sucked when we had AT&&T Wireless way back. I probably wouldn't expect much in the way of customer service.
Where you can move your business: move. That's what I say.
Oh I don't have much problem with WalMart as a whole (think they are rather villified) BUT yeah I wouldn't shop there. You don't go to Wal-Mart for quality, for sure.
Yeah, nothing bad to say about Verizon, which is why we stick with them. But give me some time.
August 29th, 2007 at 08:38 pm 1188419928
I shopped around for a local credit union last year and some were as bad/worse than the banks though. But if you can find a bigger one without any fees you might do well. The customer service I have is awesome and the fees are nil. The online bill pay and rates are much better than the dinky CU I grew up with though the customer service was always top notch. But bigger is a little bit better - they can compete better with the banks. Just FYI.
March 1st, 2009 at 11:21 pm 1235949709