Customer Service is our Middle Name
A couple of interesting stories about genuine customer service fiascos. First, via “Engadget”:http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000113033144/ Sprint’s collections department number is unfortunately close to that of a small-business map publisher.
bq. [It is nearly the same as the number of] a small business owner in the Boston area who says he’s received and logged about 8,000 calls from Sprint customers during the past 2 ½ years. Stewart Woodworth told us because his business cell phone number is toll-free, he’s had to shell out about $1,000 to pay for the incoming Sprint calls. [ ??"WXYZ Detroit":http://www.wxyztv.com/wxyz/ys_investigations/article/0,2132,WXYZ_15949_3570184,00.html?? ]
Reasonably, the man complained to Sprint but Sprint told this guy he should change his business number. You know, the one that’s printed on every product he sells. So he recorded a nasty outgoing message instead, leading people to think _Sprint_ was calling them names because they were overdue with their bills. Ooops.
The ethics and wisdom of telling off misdialers aside, someone at Sprint should have seen this coming.
Speaking of seeing things coming, one has to wonder how _anyone_ at corporate headquarters missed the natural consequence of Blockbuster’s “End of Late Fees”:http://www.adrants.com/2005/02/blockbuster-ads-amount-to-big-fat-lie.php bait-and-switch. *Of course* people are going to be ticked when they keep _Biodome_ an extra day or two and get hit with a $15 charge.
And *of course* people going to feel like you tried to pull a fast one on them, mostly because you tried to pull a fast one on them. On everyone. All at once. Ususually that only works when you can duck out of town in the middle of the night with a suitcase full of money, but Blockbuster is a little too large to twenty-three skidoo. All I can say is, I’m glad I’m not a shareholder. (I don’t think i am a shareholder.)
