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Big Telecom Customer Rage: Your Call Is Not That Important to Us

Phillip Dampier November 17, 2010 Comcast/Xfinity, Competition, Consumer News, Video No Comments

Mona Shaw - The "Comcast Hammer Lady"

Up to 60 percent of callers to America’s big telecom companies experience rage when their calls go unanswered, their problems go unresolved, or they literally cannot get past the language barrier of today’s outsourced customer service agents working half a world away.

Cable and phone companies are among the worst at delivering quality customer service, with Comcast in particular causing enough frustration to bring a Virginia woman into a local Comcast office armed with a hammer, smashing company computers to get attention.

Only credit card companies have a worse reputation.

http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Peggy Ads.flv

A compilation of six different “Peggy” Ads from Discover Card lampoon poor customer service among many credit card companies (2 minutes)

Unconscious Comcast employee

“When we call, what we want is ‘yes’ — that’s it,” says Emily Yellin, author of the book Your Call Is (not that) Important to Us, chronicling corporate America’s quest for cheaper customer service, usually alienating customers along the way.

Too often, American hear “no” or nothing at all, thanks to customer service representatives that lack the authority to solve problems or simply don’t care.

For many years, customers either took it or left.  But the Internet has changed everything, allowing customers to take their complaints to a wider audience, often embarrassing bad acting companies and creating tremendous damage to corporate reputations along the way.

An infamous example was the case of the Comcast employee who literally fell asleep waiting more than an hour to talk to co-workers about a customer’s problem.  A video of the sleeping worker became an online sensation.

Women like Mona Shaw, dubbed the Comcast Hammer Lady, also come away as folk heroes when customers can relate to the level of frustration she experienced from a company that only cared if she was a few days late paying her cable bill.

http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/CBS News Combating Poor Customer Service 11-14-10.flv
CBS News took an in-depth look into the customer service crisis — starting with Comcast.  (8 minutes)

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  • Scott: You're partly correct about a new access point or router helping them. The problem with consumer or lower quality wireless access points is they do...
  • txpatriot: I was just yanking your chain (and being an @$$)....
  • Phillip Dampier: I take your point, but honestly have not considered Panera Bread's Wi-Fi problems as part of the fight against broadband caps....
  • txpatriot: "You should not read into every story written here as an effort to prove some point." Of course not -- that's why the website is titled "Stop the C...
  • James R Curry: Hey Phillip, It's a thorny subject. There are a lot of coffee shops that set themselves up as places for people to come and meet and work and stud...
  • Phillip Dampier: I don't have any position to take regarding Panera. It's a free Wi-Fi service. If I go into Panera Bread, I am honestly there to buy their food, not t...
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  • Tk: Perhaps Phillip is blaming the wireless phone company caps for this situation at Panera. "The problem has gotten even worse since wireless phone co...
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