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Ask HN: How do ye deal with 'customer service' that is designed to tire you out?

3 points by Sone7 ↗ HN
I've been noticing a serious trend here in Ireland, and recently in the US, of customer service agents having mastered the art of putting you on the long finger.

They ignore bulleted lists of questions, take days to get back between responses, ask pointless/inane questions, and purposefully hold back vital information, among other things.

Being referred to their supervisor hasn't worked. Social media these days is basically fucked. They act with seemingly no shame, and I have no doubt that there are strong incentives for them to focus on the company's short-term bottom line, rather than actually helping.

Have any of ye found methods of getting actual service? Have ye all noticed this trend as well?

I am not looking for examples of stellar customer service to balance my point - I'm only looking for tactics and strategies that have had some success with getting these assholes to actually help.

2 comments

[ 4.1 ms ] story [ 15.6 ms ] thread
moocowtruck
Heh... This makes me sad because part of my job is designing these systems, and the reason is because most times the company might not have an answer for you..so they just hope you go away.
Sone7
There's a ring of truth in that alright. Thanks for the insight :)

Since you design these systems - how developed are the standards for customer service? Are there watchdogs on the practice, or is it basically left entirely up to the company?

I have seen customer service depts go to astounding lengths to avoid helping, even when it means their company would make money.

An example:

Me - "I don't want a refund, I just want my account to be charged. Here are all the details."

Large company everyone knows - "Sure we can do that, we're just going to dick you around for three weeks first. Actually we can't do that, even though it's the major step in how we make money" - followed by multiple requests to rate their customer service.

It also feels like these issues are far more common when being overcharged rather than undercharged. I can't help wondering how the incentives are really balanced for some companies customer support teams.