Customer (Dis-)Service
They say a picture is worth a thousand words; so what would a picture of words be worth? I know, I know: it’s like a Zen koan.
But this is where the saga of Kevin’s iPad stands as of today. I spent a long time in an Internet chat again yesterday with a customer service rep, who wasn’t able to tell me whether, in fact, I have ordered an iPad, and (potentially) encumbered my credit card for nearly $1000. The only remaining option—one I’m loathe to go to, given my phone-phobia—is to (gulp) call them. Currently screwing up courage.
Meanwhile, as you’ll see in the chat transcript, the main agenda item for Apple support wasn’t “supporting” me, but trying to sell me more stuff.
I’m thinking of buying myself a legal pad and a really cool pen.
Ugh, reading this transcript is bringing back memories of my own dealings with Apple’s “Customer Service”. This kind of thing is why I switched back to PC.
If you ever actually get it (and you may find it shipped to you before you ever find out that order number) and need any help with it, please let Scott know or email me and I’ll give him the scoop. His chats are a lot faster and more informative. For what it’s worth, he hates Apple support, too.
By the way,Office Depot has a big sale on legal pads.
Hmmm…I wonder if this might be an instance of the Turing Test, or at least a human-assisted semi-Turing Test. It’s hard for me to imagine that the CSR (that’s insider lingo right there) actually typed out all of “her” responses. I’m guessing that Apple has some system that parses messages based on keywords and then provides suggestions to the poor benighted soul who has do this job.
Support people have a list of canned ham responses that can be entered with a few creative keystrokes. There are programs available to use that were wildly popular amongst my former colleagues. I refused to use them because I thought it was my job to understand the customer’s question and answer it specifically, thoroughly and as rapidly as possible. That and I would never be able to remember the shortcut keystrokes.
Most call centers drive the employees with metrics and threats to increase volume or lose their jobs. Canned ham is easy to serve. It’s rather amusing to me that corporate minds think it’s better to provide bad service and lose customers endlessly than it is to provide good service and keep customers who will brag about what a great experience they had, bringing in even more customers.
Thanks for this, Kathy: it’s the truth that Ken’s half-joke about the Turing Test was alluding to. I always feel bad for getting angry with these folks: and when I give vent to that anger–I usually don’t, and didn’t the Apple rep.–I tend to say, “I know it’s not your fault, but. . . .”
What ever the reason (automated text, over-eager CSR, etc.) for the near immediate attempt to sell you the Protection Plan, what I’m in part bothered by is the clunkiness of the chate feature. Apple, maven of all design, can’t come up with a smoother customer chat feature?