Overall Picture: Anybody home at America's big companies?
Overall Picture
Topics:
Posted by admin Tue Nov 30, 1999 00:00:00 PST
Viewed 655 times
0 responses 2 comments
For the first time in my life I wish I could be elected to public office. It's not that I want to tap into the lifetime retirement perks you get when you push your snout into the public trough. I don't have that much lifetime left. I want some legislative clout so I can push a new law called the Answer Your Phone Act of 2006.
I am sick and tired of sending money to big corporations that don't want to hear from us little people. These days it seems that everybody in business wants to hide behind a Web site. If you have a complaint or a question, you are supposed to compress it into 50 words or less and send it to them via the Internet. If and when they reply it's often a stock answer to somebody else's question. Fewer and fewer businesses include a mailing address or a telephone number on their bills. I would prefer a mailing address because the published phone number almost always leads to a voicemail swamp where none of the options has anything to do with your problem. When you try one of them just to hear a live person, you're apt to find yourself talking with somebody in Bombay who just completed a course in conversational English and reads answers from a prepared script.
Not long ago I moaned and groaned about trying to talk with somebody at a company called Symantec, which peddles an anti-virus computer program called Norton. I heard from several people who actually got connected with a live person at Symantec but they all warned me it took more patience than I have. I finally did the cowardly thing and dumped my frustrations on Bob and Linda at Computer Animals who took care of the problem I was trying to talk with Symantec about. I asked them not to tell me how they did it.
Symantec isn't the only culprit. It might not even be the worst. Don't get me started about trying to straighten out billing with AT&T.
This don't-answer-the-phone trend appears to be most rampant among firms that owe their existence to the Internet. I suspect it's because these outfits are run by nerds who are uncomfortable with any kind of personal relationships. Am I nasty or what?
As usual, I'm probably overstating my case. I also do business with companies like Bright House, which brings TV programming into our house and keeps me on the information superhighway via their Roadrunner Internet connection. The perky ladies at Bright House pick up my phone calls even faster than my grandson who works nights in Las Vegas. If Bright House can treat customers this well, why can't Symantec or other corporate giants do half as well? My wife and I have always preferred satellite to cable TV but I wouldn't think of deserting friends like the gals at Bright House who are ready to hear my whining on the second or third ring at the most.
My psychiatric advisor, Dr. Phil, says we teach people how to treat us. Are we teaching companies that need our money to treat us like chopped liver when we need help from them? I understand there are better anti-virus programs than Norton. When it's time to renew my Norton subscription, I think I'll tell Symantec where to shove it. Hey, that won't work. Robots don't have the place I'm thinking of.
| Send to a Friend | Report a Violation |
