Customer Service

I just don't get it. What ever happened to customer service? It's gone. People just don't care anymore. Two different contractors were supposed to come today to repair various things that were wrong with our new house (new, as in was built a year ago, not new as in we just bought it, though we did just buy it a year ago). How many have arrived so far (two hours after they were supposed to be here)? None. And worse, neither has called to say they'd be late, weren't coming, etc.

Right, so these are contractors, that's to be expected?

I called my cell phone provider the other day because there was static on my line in one particular area (wait, it's wireless, there is no line, where was the static?). The first thing the support man said was that I should turn my phone off and turn it on again. Does that really work? Needless to say, I opted not to turn my phone off and on again, after a rather lengthy and fruitless discussion, the support man said there was nothing more I could do, there was nothing he could do to help me, the problem was mine, because I wouldn't turn my phone off and on again.

But then I uttered the magic phrase - "I guess I'll cancel my service. It's been a nice ride with you guys, my contract is up, I want a new phone anyway, thanks for trying." That got his attention - in a matter of seconds, he was apologizing profusely for the problem and wanted to transfer me to someone who would help me with the problem.

Woo hoo!! So he transferred me... To a recording "due to unusually high call volumes, all of our operators are busy" (ever wonder why the call volumes are always unusually high? It's like these people don't have any sort of concept of history.. Let's see, it was busy every day for the past 13 years at 6pm, so how many calls will we have tonight at 6pm? Probably just one or two!)

Sad to say, I gave up. I listened to "unusually high call volumes" for 10 minutes, even pulled over to the side of the road as I approached a known "move along now, there's no service here" area, but no one ever came on..

Now I wonder - is that how they helped me with my problem - they just ignored me for 10 minutes and left me to think about it on my own? Did it help? By golly, it did. I now have no interest in renewing my contract with them and am actively looking for a new cell phone and provider. So if you've got any thoughts, send them along. GSM is a must, cheap international roaming is also important. But most of all, an über-cool phone :)