Yesterday we got the clearance from the Historical Society to put up the Direct TV dish. I immediately called for an appointment. Talked to two people, both very helpful. I was given an appointment for Thurs, January 10 with a window of 12 -4. I was doing my happy dance. We were finally going to have TV. We could watch what we wanted when we wanted. I sent Marty a text that we had an appointment.
Marty came home and popped my happiness balloon. He was called at 4:00 by the robot telling him his appointment is MONDAY, January 14 window 8-12. What the Hell? Where did my Thursday appointment go?
I called the direct line they gave Marty, they lied. It was not direct, I had to talk to the robot and punch buttons. Finally a human, Jessica, I ended up liking the robot better. Jessica kept repeating my appointment info on Monday. Anytime I tried to tell her I had a Thursday appointment, she said no I didn't, they have no record of me talking to the appointment people, I only talked to someone who would have the robot call. I asked to speak to the supervisor, no. She would relay my questions and then she put me on hold. We all know she counted to 100, and then made up her story. She never would let me finish a sentence.
I was at stroke level. I love Direct TV, we have been customers since 1996. Never have we had this kind of grief. Now I want to ruin the company, but I still want my dish. We get East Coast feed, we were grandfathered in by Congress years and years ago. I do not want to have that end.
I thought about the trouble we had getting the installer to show up last week, he didn't. They never called he was running late. We kept calling and they said they would have the installer call us. Did not happen. They sent another tech, 4 hours later. Then the Historical Society mess. Now they canceled my appointment and made one for later. And told me to take it or leave it. Basically she called me a liar by saying I never called yesterday. I do have a witness, I was on speaker phone when I talked to them. Not nice, not good customer service.
So I went on the website, found the Vice President of Customer Care, and sent a long detailed message to her. We will see if anything comes of that.
Showing posts with label customer service. Show all posts
Showing posts with label customer service. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Monday, September 24, 2012
My IPhone History: Not Good
Years ago I got my first IPhone. I didn't want one, I was happy with my Razor. But my Palm Pilot was dying and I needed to replace it. So Marty said get one machine to do multiple things. OK, I had an IPhone. And I really liked it. Marty was due an upgrade some time later and I got his older fancier phone and he got a new one.
May of 2011 we were visiting Richard and Luis on Mother's Day. I drowned my IPhone. Yes, killed it, you could see the water in it. So for Mother's Day I got a new phone. This was not how I wanted an upgrade, but I loved my new phone. I did not blog about this accident. It was a little embarrassing.
October 2011 we are in Palm Springs on business. Our phones couldn't locate us on Facebook. AT&T told us to just reboot them, hold down the top and the bottom button at the same time. Wait one minute, hold the buttons down again, and it will know the location. Marty's phone came back on, said what restaurant we were in and mine . . . mine never came back on. It was dead. An Apple phone that was about 6 months old died. I was livid. I was crazed. Why does machinery hate me?
We drove 3 towns east into the desert to the closest Apple store. That trip was worth a blog and I did blog it. They had never seen an IPhone's battery die like that. So a new phone was given to me.
The "new" phone has had sound issues for a while, people couldn't hear me. I thought I was hitting mute by accident, but I guess not. On the drive to San Diego half the time Marty(remember he was in a truck and I was in the car) couldn't hear me. That was a problem if we getting off to eat or get fuel. When we arrived in San Diego the problem became more pronounced. And then any call, incoming or out going, no one could hear me. This meant I had to call Apple customer service. My nightmare began.
Of course like most companies, Apple has out sourced customer care. First you yell at the stupid robot, then you finally get a human. You again tell the human everything you told the robot. The human speaks. No one can understand her. She speaks a mile a minute and if you ask her to slow down, she has to begin all over again. Her most important thing is to make me pay $99.99 before I can talk to tech support. Phone less than a year old and I have to pay to just talk to some one?
She finally ran me through some basic tests and says she is transferring me to tech support. No need for the $99.99, taking it off my card. This is their fault, so I should get a new phone." I beg for the number because I know I will be disconnected. " No need for a number, I am direct connecting." The next thing I hear is a robot, same questions, then a human.
I asked for a number in case we get disconnected. No need. He talks to me and then, "If you would like to place a call, please hang up . . ."
Back to the only number I have. Repeat all steps. This human is worse than the first one. He will not listen to me. Doesn't care that I just want to be connected to tech support. All he wants is for me to pay $99.99. Finally after becoming the bitch of all bitches, he connects me. Repeat the next set of steps. The human listened to me. He took my phone number in case we were disconnected. And he read the notes from the first human. Then we repeated the tests, and did a couple of full recoveries. He gave me a case number, and said to go pick up my new phone. These calls only took 4 1/2 hours. By then I was a raving, foaming at the mouth, lunatic.
Next phase, make an appointment for the genius bar. I set one up for the next morning. We go, I give him the case number and he ignores it. He is going to make me do a full recovery for the 4th time. I said please look up the case and read the notes. Oh, they already did all these tests. You're right, we owe you a phone. Thank you, finally.
The phone has worked for 9 days now. Can't wait to see how this one fails. I am not impressed with the quality of the IPhone. They should last for years as my Razor did. It doesn't matter if they are replacing it for no charge. It should work. When it works it is a lovely fun machine. I just don't trust it to work.
May of 2011 we were visiting Richard and Luis on Mother's Day. I drowned my IPhone. Yes, killed it, you could see the water in it. So for Mother's Day I got a new phone. This was not how I wanted an upgrade, but I loved my new phone. I did not blog about this accident. It was a little embarrassing.
October 2011 we are in Palm Springs on business. Our phones couldn't locate us on Facebook. AT&T told us to just reboot them, hold down the top and the bottom button at the same time. Wait one minute, hold the buttons down again, and it will know the location. Marty's phone came back on, said what restaurant we were in and mine . . . mine never came back on. It was dead. An Apple phone that was about 6 months old died. I was livid. I was crazed. Why does machinery hate me?
We drove 3 towns east into the desert to the closest Apple store. That trip was worth a blog and I did blog it. They had never seen an IPhone's battery die like that. So a new phone was given to me.
The "new" phone has had sound issues for a while, people couldn't hear me. I thought I was hitting mute by accident, but I guess not. On the drive to San Diego half the time Marty(remember he was in a truck and I was in the car) couldn't hear me. That was a problem if we getting off to eat or get fuel. When we arrived in San Diego the problem became more pronounced. And then any call, incoming or out going, no one could hear me. This meant I had to call Apple customer service. My nightmare began.
Of course like most companies, Apple has out sourced customer care. First you yell at the stupid robot, then you finally get a human. You again tell the human everything you told the robot. The human speaks. No one can understand her. She speaks a mile a minute and if you ask her to slow down, she has to begin all over again. Her most important thing is to make me pay $99.99 before I can talk to tech support. Phone less than a year old and I have to pay to just talk to some one?
She finally ran me through some basic tests and says she is transferring me to tech support. No need for the $99.99, taking it off my card. This is their fault, so I should get a new phone." I beg for the number because I know I will be disconnected. " No need for a number, I am direct connecting." The next thing I hear is a robot, same questions, then a human.
I asked for a number in case we get disconnected. No need. He talks to me and then, "If you would like to place a call, please hang up . . ."
Back to the only number I have. Repeat all steps. This human is worse than the first one. He will not listen to me. Doesn't care that I just want to be connected to tech support. All he wants is for me to pay $99.99. Finally after becoming the bitch of all bitches, he connects me. Repeat the next set of steps. The human listened to me. He took my phone number in case we were disconnected. And he read the notes from the first human. Then we repeated the tests, and did a couple of full recoveries. He gave me a case number, and said to go pick up my new phone. These calls only took 4 1/2 hours. By then I was a raving, foaming at the mouth, lunatic.
Next phase, make an appointment for the genius bar. I set one up for the next morning. We go, I give him the case number and he ignores it. He is going to make me do a full recovery for the 4th time. I said please look up the case and read the notes. Oh, they already did all these tests. You're right, we owe you a phone. Thank you, finally.
The phone has worked for 9 days now. Can't wait to see how this one fails. I am not impressed with the quality of the IPhone. They should last for years as my Razor did. It doesn't matter if they are replacing it for no charge. It should work. When it works it is a lovely fun machine. I just don't trust it to work.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Update on Lulu
When I posted last week about Palm Springs, I didn't tell you about a problem at Lulu's. I wanted to give them a chance to respond to my email.
Below is my note.
This is a well done “but” letter. I called for
reservations for October 24 on the 24th. We are here on business and didn’t
know where to eat. Friends told us that day about Lulu. So I called
after the lunch rush. The person who answered the phone had trouble with
the computer and with understanding English. I had to repeat several
times. Before I hung up he asked if this was a special occasion. I
said yes, it’s my husband’s 70Th birthday. Every restaurant
who has asked that question has greeted us with who has the birthday, so nice
you picked us to celebrate, something was said.
When we left, the two at the desk did not acknowledge us. No thank you for coming, no have a good evening, or as we say in the South You all hurry back. I am only asking you to train your staff who answer the phone and greet the guests. No Happy Birthday is not a huge deal, but it left a bad taste. Not having my reservation and taking others ahead of me, could cost you my business when we return to Palm Springs.
Below is their reply.
Below is my note.
When we arrived, on time, they couldn’t find our
reservation. Then they said they had a table and to please stand over
there until someone could seat us. I reminded them about the birthday,
and said it would be nice if the wait staff said Happy Birthday. The hosts and
hostess just looked at me. We stood and others were taken ahead of
us. One party was addressed by name and didn’t have to even check
in. We were seated and then things were just lovely.
Your restaurant is beautiful,
table service is perfect (Ramon is outstanding as are the other wait staff
helping him), the food was tasty. We were not rushed, we were allowed to
enjoy the fun of a birthday together. When our dessert came Ramon asked if
everything was OK, I had a big frown on my face. No candle, no Happy
Birthday? Ramon was embarrassed, no one told him it was a
birthday. We found out later that friends in the restaurant had told the
servers it was my husband’s birthday. But no one bothered to tell
Ramon. I wanted nothing more than a Happy Birthday for my husband.
I saw candles on desserts going by and thought that would be a nice touch, but
didn’t expect it.
When we left, the two at the desk did not acknowledge us. No thank you for coming, no have a good evening, or as we say in the South You all hurry back. I am only asking you to train your staff who answer the phone and greet the guests. No Happy Birthday is not a huge deal, but it left a bad taste. Not having my reservation and taking others ahead of me, could cost you my business when we return to Palm Springs.
Below is their reply.
I want to sincerely apologize for your
experience at our restaurant the other
evening.
For the most part Lulu, has
a reputation of offering great food and great service from the moment our
guests make a reservation to the time they leave the
building, I am very sorry that you did not experience that here at
Lulu. I understand that communication and acknowledging a celebration
is extremely important. We have had some opening glitches and have had to make
changes to our staff. I have shared your email with our front desk manager
and he also shares my concern. I trust that your experience was an isolated
incident, we promise we will take steps to ensure that lapses such as this do
not happen again.
While I cannot change the past, I would like to invite
you back as my personal guest so we can show you that we really can do a much
better job than what you experienced. Please provide a mailing address and
I will gladly send a gift certificate.
Once again, please accept our sincere apology and thank
you for letting me know about this
incident.
********************************
********************************
I received a gift certificate Saturday. It is a sizable one, and I plan to use it when we return on business after Christmas. Lulu handled a problem quickly, worked with their staff and went beyond what the upset customer asked for.
If you are in Palm Springs do go to Lulu for a wonderful meal. Ask for a table in Ramon's section. This restaurant truly understands customer service.
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