Customer service

Recently a colleague of mine switched to Verizon phone and DSL. The company was quick to switch the phone but informed him that DSL would take a month. Considering how internet access has become more of a necessity than luxury these day, he didn’t want to wait that long. But there is nothing much he could do. You know how the phone companies are desperate to sign up new customers. But once they have the customer they hardly bother about them. I remember being put on hold for hours by Sprint. So this guy is desperately looking for ways to solve the problem because apparently his kids need the web for completing the homework (which in my mind I interpreted as “playing xbox-live”). So while surfing the net in the office, he managed to get the email address of Verizon’s local public relations officer. Without really getting his hopes high, he casually sent him an email. To his surprise the officer actually replied, talked to him about the problem and thanked him for bringing the matter to his notice. Apparently that is something they like to hear from their customers because it’s difficult for them to know everything that is going on at every level of customer service in such a large company. The officer then went back, pulled some strings and came back to tell him the reason it is taking so long to provide the service is that they don’t have the equipments. Hello? Why do you sign up new customers then? Anyways, they agreed to pay for his dial up until they can provide the service in addition to promising him some other discounts and goodies.

In another recent development, another colleague of mine was driving down to his son’s school meeting when he heard “big clunk, big rattles, more clunking” etc. His car had broken down. He took it to the garage and they told him what could be described as a total engine failure. Something that would cost more than $6000 to fix. He figured ’99 Accord with 77k miles on it wasn’t really worth it. Since the warranty had long expired he didn’t want to pay that kind of money from his own pocket. So he took couple of day off from work to search for a new car and bought a brand new Acura. He also filed a complaint with Honda America about this catastrophic engine failure in such a “young” car. Guess what? The company actually called him back and said that they would take full responsibility for it and pay for all the repairs. So he is pleasantly “shocked” and in a dilemma about what to do with two cars?

What is the morale of the stories? I think it is “never ever shy away from asking for what you think is your right”.