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I certainly agree about Sprint. Despite all the consumer complaints against them, they were allowed to buy Nextel thanks to the Republican FCC and they managed to screw up that company and now they want to screw up TMobile next!
I think you read the story backwards. T-mobile is looking at taking over Spint/Nextel.
Which is a likely improvement.
I have went from Sprint (ok) until it became Sprint/Nextel (sucked, fired them) to Cingular (sucked, fired them) to Verizion (sucked, fired them) to T-mobile (ok). You had me scared for a second there that I was going back to the start.
ATT should never been allowed to start buying up the baby Bells. Cingular / Soutwest Bell overall was a good cell and phone company. They will do nothing now but go down since they have so little competion.
You do have that backwards.
ATT was a broken shell of its former self. Even Bell Labs had collapsed into a mess. SW Bell (one of the baby bells) had grown to the point that they bought the former parent -- ATT. Then they switched to the name ATT for the whole mess as was more familiar to the public.
Not they do not suck.
We just terminated our SW Bell (now ATT in name) land line and fired Cingular (now also ATT in name) for lying and bad billing on cell service.
Good article. It's a list of the top 10 companies with poor customer service. I thought it was almost exactly dead on as I have had problems with quite a few on this list myself
My last experience with Home Depot is one I still won't forget. I was out of town for a few days. When I got back, the carpet in the hallway was wet and it led me to the storage closet. Hot water heater had went out. Went to Home Depot. Figuring I need to save all the money I could, I went to Home Depot as I was going to have to hire someone to put it in for me, having undergone major surgery. I figured I could save 20%, maybe more as certainly everything else I had bought there was cheaper. Went there and couldn't find the unit similar to mine in shape, gallon capacity, bolt pattern on the lower bracket, etc. The employee told me that a special order would be prohibitedly expensive, as they purchase units by big quantity and a special order would cost me 50% higher than what they charge for stock on hand. He did say that he knew someone in the store who could install it. When I brought up the fact that it was for a mobile home, however, that all changed. "We don't mess with trailers". I asked him why, and he wouldn't give a straight answer, but said, "Why don't you go to one of those small hardware stores, they can help you." He cut me off in mid-sentence when I tried to explain to him what I needed and talked to me in a condescending tone. It didn't take me long to figure out I was in the wrong store. I was steamed when I got to the house. And I was really mad at myself for not going to the True Value Hardware store in my town in the first place. I wrote a letter to the Home Depot corporate office and didn't get a reply. I just wanted to save money. Stupid me.
Absolutely dire. I bought a wardrobe and consulted a staff member to make sure that I had all the components I needed in my cart before going to pay. They even handed me a printed out list of "everything I needed" which I cross-checked with the cashier.
I got home (50 miles away) and unpacked to discover that I had no hinges.
I phoned the store's published number and got through to a call center that refused to agree to send the hinges and also refused to put me through to the store or give me their phone number. They also refused to let me speak to a supervisor. Their only "solution" was for me to make another 100 mile round trip to get the hinges they forgot to sell me.
I tried sending a complaint but e-mail and just got a generic response. I followed it up with a phone call only to discover that their e-mails are answered at a separate location and the phone team can't see your e-mail history and vice-versa.
Ikea are absolute rank amateurs when it comes to customer service and the contempt they showed me as a customer when the fault was clearly theirs' was downright offensive.
It seems like customer service is bad just about everywhere anymore. It's quite rare I have a pleasant 'service' experience anymore at all. I'm generally polite and friendly in person, yet this does no good anymore. I'm always the one having to say 'hello' and 'hows your day' when I checkout. Most of the time, they don't say a word unless I, as the customer, say it first. They just grab my stuff, don't look at me, don't say a word except the price at the end. When I worked as a cashier in high school, I always made sure to offer a friendly greeting. It's not just cashiers I see this, like I said I see it just about everywhere. Its' especially bad in airports. They seem to hire the dregs of society to staff a lot of those stores/food booths, and my simply walking up to the register usually elicits looks of disdain and 'how dare you make me work!' looks. Quite often I've found I'm ignored while they hold a conversation, even though they know I'm there as I see them glance at me with dirty looks!
But if I had to single out specific companies I've consistently had bad customer service with over time, I'd say Comcast takes the cake, followed by Discover Card. Both are truly dreadful to deal with, and they seem absolutely inept at performing even the most basic of routine services without blowing it up into long, drawn out and frustrating processes.
Edited to add: Oh! There is one place I do consistently have a good experience. REI. They are always willing to help me out, spend the time needed to explain complex things (ie, how to fit a backpack right - actually quite complicated!) Let me try things on, walk around for an hour with equipment (let me load up a backpack with 30 pounds, shoes, etc). Always willing to help me find things. I've never had to track someone down; if an employee walks by they actually ask if you need help, rather than trying to avoid customers. Plus - they take things back no questions asked if you have receipt. I once took an item back I bought but didn't use and a year later, they took it back! Luckily, the receipt I kept with the item!
Walmart is world class when it comes to customer service but did it ever cross your mind that the reason the checkouts were undermanned when you were there is that employees who would have normally been at the cash registers were busy reshelving the last cart of goods some inconsiderate customer "shoved" into the clothing isles?
Rest assured Walmart is thankful every time a customer like you decides not to come back. Unfortunately they do though.
Sorry to upset you, you are right I should have sat there with a smile on my face like I have done many, many times before as I spent thousands of my hard earned money in Walmarts all across the country. Usually when a customer asks a customer service person stationed at a desk in view of checkouts is to open up new lines for better customer service but the smart @@s remark of "no need at this time" did not sit well with me. I used to work at Walmart and enjoyed it very much to help customer out any way I could including one time I found item and searched entire store to give to customer. He was so gratefull I took the time. EVEN IF I DID have inconsiderate P@@@@d off customers full carts to put back on shelves. I still did what I was trained to do which is take care of customer above all else.
Location: The Chatterdome in La La Land, CaliFUNia
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Does not surprise me that Time Warner Cable was on the list. They took over the Comcast service in my area last year. They began sending me notices that I would need to officially switch my home phone from Comcast to TWC by a certain date or else the CPUC will switch it. I scheduled two installation appointments and BOTH times, the techs never showed. When I called both times, the idiotic customer rep said that my phone was not ready to be switched yet (even though I've received over 5 mailings about switching over to TWC). It would have been nice for someone to call me versus having me waste 10 hours (two 5-hour windows) for nothing. I ended up going back to Verizon because I hate to think how TWC would treat me AFTER they got my service. I filed a complaint with the CPUC and that resulted in some bigwig at TWC called to apologize and offer me credit for my internet service and to sweet talk me into a 3rd installation appointment for my phone! Ridiculous!
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University of Texas (austin)
