OK, I know I am not supposed to HATE…but man is this a hard one right now. I HATE TV companies.
Yesterday Comcast raised our rates on TV, phone and internet by $62 a month. Insane…and totally poor business. After attempts to get the rate brought back in check, no luck….they will not do it again because according to the agent, Triple Play is going away. So, I decided to move my business.
My other option is DirecTV. I spoke with them and after 47 minutes on the phone was transferred only to find out that the guy I had been talking with for 47 minutes had set me up incorrectly and we would have to start over. SERIOUSLY? Everything cancelled and now starting over. Totally not cool.
Called back this morning and now they will not offer the pricing and set up that we had agreed upon yesterday. SERIOUSLY? Yep. Now they want to charge me for all of the equipment and set up they were going to give me for free just 12 hours ago. Why? Because a few years ago I had DirecTV and it hasn’t been at least the passing of 4 moons followed by the birth of 4 children coupled with some derivative of my age divided by 9 multiplied by the last time I turned on a FLIPPIN TV! Something like that.
What is it with these companies? Why is good business such a hard thing to do? Are they looking at our US Congress as a model for running their companies?
Any of us who operate our own businesses know that you work with your customers, provide excellent service and work to grow your business. If you provide a good value or service, you will be rewarded with sales even in a tough economy.
In both cases, neither DirecTV or Comcast gets it and obviously neither have read Good to Great. In fact I would classify both of them as a joke in the business world.
Why is good (not even great) customer service so hard to find these days?
What about me?
This is my page and my chance to share with you all the crap I dream up on a daily basis. Here are the simple facts that make up my existence..live in Nashville...avid Hockey fan (one step from face painting), father of a 6 year old (genius child- she takes after me..I mean my wife), husband (I'm pretty sure my wife would kick me out if she could figure out how), and "normal" Christian. What is normal you ask? You tell me. I think I know what normal is but then again, we all think we are the normal ones.
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June 27, 2009 at 11:33 am
why? that’s easy. it’s the very same reason (or one of the main reasons) why our country is in the financial and social state it’s in.
because working honorably to provide a great service at a fair value for the betterment of EVERYONE is a completely lost art. even fifty years ago, there was much more of this concept still flying around. people ran business, yes, to make money, but also to provide an awesome product and even more awesome service that reflected the kind of ‘family-like’ interactions that our country used to seem to truly thrive on.
this is why, as much as possible, i am such a strong supporter of the small business. i don’t go to walmart to get every last item i need. i have an amazing farmer’s market, a local grocery, a great small appliances/hardware/gardening store, a sporting goods store, office supplies store, etc that i love to go to…all owned by people who live right here in town. and often, their deals are as good or better than walmart’s (or any other large chain super-mart), without the annoying parking lot battles and long lines.
just sayin…
sorry for the tangent!
June 27, 2009 at 11:34 am
although i forgot to mention it, i don’t think i need to say that conversely, today’s business seem most interested in that profit/growth chart than in truly serving customers.
k, the end.
June 27, 2009 at 7:54 pm
I sympathize totally! I was gnashing my teeth recently over our internet service, too, but for different reasons. We recently heard on the news that the CRTC (Canadian regulatory body for radio and TV) had granted the internet service providers the right to slow down customers’ downloads periodically, apparently so the load at times of high usage can be juggled. Every so often I’ll be sending photos to our family and suddenly everything grinds to a crawl. We only have two viable server options here… one linked to our TV cable service and the other to our telephone service and both are doing the slowdown thing so there’s not much point in switching. I’ve tried choosing what I think are non-peak times but there doesn’t seem to be any consistency. It’s infuriating.
June 28, 2009 at 4:08 am
i feel it’s a trend of the times we live in (as always) and think J-R’s second comment comes close to the mark.
As far as the modern information service providers seem to understand it is a numbers game more than anything. if we can squeeze a few extra numbers (customers) out from wherever they were hiding and into our ’service provision’ ( = customer base) we ‘win’. for this month anyway, if not – there is always next month.
They seem to rely upon the fact that their customers become used to getting not so great (crap) service (which they invariably see as a ‘cost’ to the business and are always seeking ways to reduce this ‘unnecessary expense’) and that customers are more likely to stay with the devil they know than move elsewhere – and if they do they will probably come crawling back ( say to DirectTV for example) sometime down the track.
Their idea of loyalty is something customers OWE Them for what we have paid for already. That customers have to earn – not the other way around. We are penalised if we are not ‘loyal’ and are expected to accept anything they choose through ‘economic neccessity’ to throw at us without complaint or go back to the opposition with a penalty for breaking a contract.
Also Customer service standards are a direct result of the money spent on training staff who handle customers and the ‘ethos’ of the company concerning a customer.
Once upon a time the main Ethos was: (even when they are not) The Customer is always right!
Good luck finding that attitude in the world of cyber-business today!
The Company is always right (even if our staff are not ) and we have the small print and legal teams to prove it!
You got a problem with that? you should have read sect 16, paragraph, 4 sub-paragraph j of the terms and conditions on our website.
‘Nuff said?
<B
June 29, 2009 at 9:01 pm
A highlight of moving away from Philly was getting rid of Comcast. (It’s a Phily company – nuff said there) A year later Comcast gobbles up Time Warner & I’m stuck with Comcast again. The $99 bundled service (phone, cable, internet) – now up to $162 per month. The dish isn’t a great option for us because we’re so close to the beach. Great service or products? Let me now if you run across any really good examples.
The government – another story. They’re going to ram as much garbage down everyone’s throat as possible. Hello taxation without representation – again. See Ya later freedom. The more Czars the merrier – take that Constitution. Wait’ll you see the new Census questions – I’ll be paying a fine before I fill that sucker out.
Whew – Haven’t ranted for awhile. Felt good.