Software snafu

I recently had some software that wasn't performing as I'd hoped. There was a monthly service fee to use the service and I called them to cancel (not a locally-owned service). The operator asked why I was canceling the service and I told him that the software was not performing the one function I wanted it to perform.

He said I'd installed the software incorrectly. I told him I'd been through the tech support department and done all the things they suggested to no effect and the most important feature to me was still not functional.

He again stated that I'd done something wrong. About this time I was starting to get a little hot under the collar. I'd called the customer support line to cancel and this guy was telling me that I should retry with his suggestion, even though the tech support department was coming up with nothing that helped. I told him I hadn't called for tech support, but wanted to cancel my subscription to the service. He told me that I should do as he suggested and I again told him that I wanted to cancel.

He started to tell me again that it was my fault and I lost my composure. I told him, in no uncertain terms, what I thought of his suggestion and that it didn't do his company any good to make it harder for me to cancel -- that ship left port a long time ago. He told me that if I didn't lower my voice he would disconnect the call, to which I replied no, I was disconnecting and I hung up as he started to say something else.

That kind of intimidation might work on someone else but all it did was to ensure that I would never again use that service, even if they make it very attractive to go back to them. I don't know what kind of training that company gives to its customer service department, but I have a feeling it probably someone like Dale Carnegie's dumber brother whose philosophy is something like, "Make enemies and influence no one."

I didn't say, but sure wished I had before I slammed the phone down, was why, if he was such a great technical wizard, he was doing customer service instead of tech support. What the operator didn't know, and I didn't tell him, is that I used to work in a call center and those of us on the sales floor had a saying about customer service reps; "Those who can, do; and those who can't, do customer support".

I am not intimidated in the least in talking to these people, I used to work talking to people harder to get along with than them eight hours a day, five days a week.

Actually, I'd bet that the company has done some research that shows if they treat the customers as idiots, more customers will be intimidated and stay with the company than go through the painful process of canceling. It may make sense in the short run but in the long run the truth will win out and people will avoid the company in the first place, having heard horror stories from those who have used the service in the past.

Businesses that use customers instead of serve them might do well in the short run but people aren't stupid, eventually their customers turn into ex-customers and spread the word about the way they were treated to others, others who never become customers of the offending business.

People have more choices than in the past.

Even in rural areas the Internet and other marketing changes have made it easier than ever to get goods and services without having to deal with monopolistic stores that used to reign supreme.

Those who provide goods and services had better remember that for every customer they lose because of poor service they lose another group, that person's friends and relatives.

Advertising can't overcome the bad news about a business people hear for free. The best way to get new customers is to treat old customers with the respect they deserve.

If a business treats you poorly, make note of it and let others know what your experience was. That advice isn't a license to abuse a clerk or to run amok when a business is unable to comply with a request, there are sometimes legitimate reasons why you can't be accomodated. Let common sense be your guide.

As for me, I'd rather reward the businesses that have treated me well, even at the cost of a little extra cash.