Friday evening, when I got home from work, I noticed that my internet connection was down. A quick check showed that my cable was also out. I called Comcast and they had my do the usual things. You know, check that the connections were tight... check other channels. Because when both cable receivers and the modem are down, it's likely a connection on one of those units... right? Anyway, after it was determined that it wasn't something they could fix over the phone, the CSR scheduled an appointment for a technician to come out on "Monday between 4 and 6" and gave me a confirmation number.
Monday, having skipped a chance to work a side job, and missing one of the Mustaches for Kids events, I waited at home for the technician to arrive. When 6:00 rolled around, and no technician had arrived I called and was told that my account didn't show that a service call had been scheduled. Needless to say, I was a bit annoyed. Apparently, when they scheduled the appointment, they set it up in the wrong account, one not even in the Chicago region. Although they did apologize for the "inconvenience" I had to specifically request that they credit me with something more than simply the time the service was out.
Considering that I have to confirm my account information twice before I even start discussing the issue with my service, I cannot fathom how they could enter the information into the wrong account. And now I'm without cable, phone, or internet at home until at least Friday.
Uhg.
I'm so culturally sensitive my teeth hurt right now.
but...
In my job, we have 8 of us here in the states and 63 of us in India. the eight of us resolve the same number of issues as the 63 folks overseas. and ours tend to be more complex. Having worked side by side with a number of our agents from India, I can personally vouch for the fact that there isn't any higher degree or frequency of incompetence in that country. If anything, many of the agents I've worked with are more diligent and faster learners than many of my co-workers. The problem is that when a major company builds a call center, their goal is to make it cheap. Low wages, fast training, etc. This leads to low LOW standards. LOOOOOW.
My company does it, Comcast does it. Everybody does it and everybody hates it. In the interest of keeping your cable bill down, they pay their helpdesk people as little as possible and this doesn't tend to encourage smart, talented, or even terribly literate people to apply for the jobs.
Sucks to be you, caveman.
So, does the cost of paying 63 poorly trained people still come out ahead of paying 8 well trained people, especially when you figure in the lost revenue of having to either offer credits and discounts, or worse losing the customer outright because of poor service? Comcast spends a couple hundred dollars a year sending me promotional literature in the mail (2-3 glossy ads by mail each week). Yet, a quick scan through Consumerist will show you that they're widely regarded as a poor company to do business with. Would it not keep prices lower to simply provide good service and correct problems when they occur? I've dealt with a few companies that have incredibly good customer service. Those companies win my loyalty, and I'll spend more money to use them, than to use another company with similar products and lower prices. Most people feel that way.
I agree 100% with you. I never said that it was a good business plan. Look at my favorite example: Toyota vs Ford.
I've only seen Toyota advertise their big annual sale and when they put out a major new model. Ford spends millions every year on ads. But look at the numbers. Obviously advertising is the wrong place to waste your money in this era and customer service is the worst place to cut costs. But companies can't figure this one out. The ones that do, go about it quietly and people who come to them never ever leave.