Ever Have One Of Those Customer Service Stories...?

Halloween, 2019. Back in the day we always picked up pizza for Halloween dinner. A local "bake-at-home" pizza place even made pizzas in the shape of jack-o-lanterns. Due to some food sensitivities, we haven't ordered from there in years.

This year, however, we decided to splurge.

We chose a local restaurant that makes food we can eat, but due to their, shall we say, unusual ordering requirements, we weren't able to call in the order to get the special deal. We had to order it in person, and when you're ordering several pizzas, every little bit of savings helps. Because others were involved in getting ready for Halloween night, it was my assignment to pick up the food.

What happened next was one of those customer service stories that happen to us every once in a while.

I ordered the food and I had to wait until it was done. Because of those before-mentioned food sensitivities, we needed to order the thin-crust pizzas. When I picked up the food, it was heavy, so I asked if they were thin-crust pizzas.

Turns out, they weren't. 

About two months earlier we had the same thing happen. I thought I had ordered the thin pizzas and I didn't realize my mistake until I got home. This time, once I found out the order wasn't right, I didn't take these home. Instead, I spoke to the manager and told him about the problem. Turns out the order was for thick crust, but the manager said there'd be no problem whatsoever. He started making replacement pizzas and told me the ones they made were "on the house."

It had been a long day. I put up Halloween decorations and we cleaned the house. The last thing I needed was an issue over dinner. The restaurant had every reason to require I pay for the extra food, but they smiled and took care of it. I'd like to think I would have acted the same way--I'm sure their day wasn't a walk in the park either.

We got our food, albeit a little late. And it tasted good.

"Thank You For Holding...We'll Be With You Soon"

The term "customer service" is thrown around a lot nowadays, and for good reason. If a company doesn't provide good service, people will spend their time and money elsewhere. It's even one of the foundation principles of the company where I work--and it's a government agency.

Luckily, I haven't had many instances of poor customer service, at least, that I can recall. I'm sure there's times when service could have been better. Most times, I think people have provided me good customer service bordering on great. 

That's why what happened to me today was unusual. I had an issue with my cellphone provider so I gave them a call.

Several hours later, I hung up the phone.

And I was unable to speak with the right department after all that time.

I should say that I have been nothing but pleased with my provider. They've been great. And in the several years I've been with them, I've never had to call with an issue. Today, however, I needed to speak with someone in the prepay department. I was able to get through to the wrong department no problem at all. Then I was transferred and that's when I waited. 

My first call, I waited for one hour and seventeen minutes. That's when the call dropped. It wasn't that bad--I was working and had my call on speaker so I was able to keep working while waiting.

I called back after it disconnected and waited again. To their credit, they did warn me when I first called that wait times could be between an hour and then minutes and an hour and forty minutes. Since I still had a couple of hours of work left, I did the same thing--put it on speaker, set down the phone, and kept working.

Once I passed an hour, I thought it would be soon that I got to speak to the right person. At the hour and a half mark, I began to expect the call to go through. Nope. Then when I hit two hours, my work shift was over so I brought up the phone and kept waiting.

At the two and a half hour mark, I changed phones because I was worried the battery on my wireless phone would die. Since I switched phones, I don't have photo evidence of exactly how long I remained on hold--it was at least two and a half hours. Add that to the hour and seventeen minutes I was on hold before, and almost three hours of my day was spent waiting for someone on the other end to pick up, something that didn't happen. Finally, we decided to just drive down to the local store and have them help us out.

I'm lucky--my problem didn't require immediate attention, nor was it a big deal. I feel bad for others with more serious problems having to wait that long. Plus, I was able to do something productive why I waited. It wasn't wasted time. I think most people--even those working in tough customer service phone jobs--want to do a good job. It's the first time I've had problems with this particular company. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. Of course, next time, I'll know better what I'm in for.

The Comcast Experience...And Its Sequel

Pick A Number...a rule for all of us...the first rule. As a customer of our local cable company, the famous (or infamous...) cable boxes assigned to our account were performing at a less than stellar level, so today we decided to turn them in for new ones.

Our first trip to the local Comcast Customer Service location began at 10am this morning. It took a little more than 1/2 hour to complete our business, after which we came home with two new boxes (one new...one that looked to be older than the one we dropped off). We brought them in, hooked them up, and we were good to go...briefly. The one box didn't work. 

After several calls to the Comcast Customer Service Call Center (which, I found out, was located in Washington State...) it was determined the only way to fix our "new" box was to return it and begin the whole process all over again.

Round 2 at the service center began around 3pm, and this time, the place was packed. I quickly grabbed a "Pick A Number" number. I found a place to sit down in the corner and I patiently waited to see which number would be called next. They had no customer service-esque number display on the wall, so listening for the next number was my only way of knowing who would be next. 

And then I heard the number called out for all to hear. "55," the clerk behind one of the desks said to the masses of humanity all awaiting their delayed entertainment. 55 and I held 70. Oh well...I had no other option but to ride it out.

Surprisingly, the wait was not that long. I escaped and left the many patrons--several colorfully festooned with a myriad of tattoos--waiting for their number to be called and I came home. Once the many cables were secured to the shiny new marvel of modern technology, we turned on the TV and visual nirvana was ours once again. All was right with the world, and it only cost me a couple of hours of my time...