What happen to GOOD customer service?!!!

After several disappointing experiences lately, I have questioned what has happen to good customer service these days. We have made so many phone calls lately to companies who have messed up our bills month after month. Who is running the billing/accounting departments in these companies, I wonder?!! One experience is with a cell phone company who forgot to check a certain feature on a cell phone we bought one of our daughters for Christmas, resulting in a domino effect of errors in minutes, plans, etc for the past 2 bills. And when you call the local office, one person tells you the correct $ amount to pay, but next month the bill is messed up again because this time someone changed our plan resulting in overage of minutes, so here we go again. Now, we cannot get anyone to call us back to straighten out this mess and the bill is due in 2 days. Hello People, we are trying to pay our bill. Do you or do you not want us to pay our bill?

Then you get the young person in a retail store who doesn't bother to utter a word to you during the entire transaction and then you feel like giving them a sarcastic "Thank You" at the end. Guess what they say in return....."No Problem"! What"!!! Guess we were bothering their thought process by getting in the line at their register.

And shall I even start with the cable people who evidently do not wear watches or have clocks in their vehicles. Last experience - I was called by the friendly gal at the cable office - "Mrs. Kelley, we would like to come out to your house at 8:45 the next morning and finish the process of getting your phone lines adjusted." (We recently purchased a bundle package from a cable company). So I say okay. Then that evening I receive another phone call from a different lady confirming the appointment of 8:45 am. "Okay, got it", I said. So here I am the next morning, rushing like crazy to get up, get myself showered and dressed by 8:45 and no one shows. Finally, I call about 9:15 back to the office with the friendly gal and she tells me she will find the dispatcher and call me back. Well, she held up her end of the bargain and called me right back. "He will be there in about 10 to 15 minutes, Mrs. Kelley" No explanation for the tardiness or apology. Okay, I am thinking this nice salesman comes to your house, sells you a great bundle package with a different cable provider, but fails to tell you that their customer service is the same as everyone else. Or maybe I just live in a dream world and figured that it would be different. Nope, everything is about the same with all companies.

But on a lighter note, we did receive the best possible customer service from a young man named James at the local Office Depot. So I guess if you look hard enough, you will occasionally find good customer service. :o)