Customer service. It’s something we’ve come to expect, and something that varies so much from one place to another. On one hand, if you are the customer, waiting in line or on the phone can be maddening. On the other hand, being the person providing the service can also be very challenging, especially considering the demands of today’s clients. On either side of the equation there can be much frustration and contention.
With the lightning speed of ordering on the internet for certain service, there have been growing pains. Because we are all so different, not only in our personalities but also in our own skill sets, those companies relying almost primarily on the internet for commerce are always at risk of a backlash should their service be anything but sparkling.
My son had a website that he no longer uses. He received the hosting domain as a Christmas gift in 2012, and got it going in early February of 2013. These things are on a subscription basis, most often being 12-months in length. And so last weekend I received an email from this particular company asking if I was going to renew the subscription. It went on to say that if I did nothing, it would automatically renew itself. I asked my son if he still used the website he responded ‘no’… and thus began an epic attempt to cancel something they clearly did not want me to do.
I clicked on the appropriate link on the email, where it said ‘To cancel, click here!’. I ended up on an error message page. Hmmmm. I went back and clicked it again. Same thing. Hmmmm. Well, there had to be another way. So I went to the website directly. Aha! There was a ‘manage profile’ icon….that would surely work! I signed in….well, tried to (which to be honest, got to be a little frustrating). After remembering the password, I had to answer three security questions, each one progressively difficult. The first one was ‘mother’s maiden name…no problem. The second was ‘how high is the CN tower?….with a little google research, I got that one. The third asked ‘ A doctor and a bus driver are both in love with the same woman, an attractive girl named Sarah. The bus driver had to go on a long bus trip that would last a week. Before he left he gave Sarah seven apples. Why?’
Well, this on was tricky. Why, indeed? At first I answered ‘because he liked her?’. That was incorrect. It stated I had two other chances. Well, I thought about it then answered ‘bcause he wanted an apple pir when he returned!’ There…that had to be right!
No, it wasn’t. Now I was down to my last try. What, pray tell, was going to happen should I guess wrong? There was even a countdown timer telling e I had 30 seconds left to answer correctly…or else. Or else what? Really, what could they do to me? Shun me? Perform a rectal scan? Take away my RRSP’s?
And so, with little time left, I needed to answer something. And so I tried ‘because he owned an apple business!’. Not even close (turns out the answer is ‘because an apple a day keeps the doctor away.’) And now I awaited my fate. They booted me out and sent me another email saying some ugly guy was trying to sign in to my account, so to prevent any further hacking attempts, it was just going to go ahead and renew my subscription.
I don’t think so! So I called the 1-800 number they listed. And went through 14 different, ever more frustrating representatives, until I just gave up and cancelled my credit card.
Well, that got their attention. I got a flurry of emails not long afterwards saying that the credit card I had listed didn’t seem to be functioning, and could I please call this number and rectify this? I sent an email instead with three security questions instead. And you know what? They haven’t succeeded in answering them yet!
Bill's Musings 