This week is my last full-time week at the call center. Starting next week, I go to four hours a day. If I’m very lucky, sometime in the coming year I’ll be out of there altogether. My spouse and I were discussing customer non-service this weekend, and we decided that, along with almost every other customer in the US, we hate it.
He had to call Sprint regarding their bill. After 6 years with them, he switched to my carrier because it saved us about $50 a month. He was way past his initial contract and had been month to month for years. Nevertheless, they charged him a $150 early termination fee and refused to stop his automatic deductions for his monthly bill. It took about half an hour of being passed around to get to the part where he accepted that what they meant in ordinary English was, “Screw you.”
Not that my carrier is any better, customer service wise. To get our phone numbers activated we spent almost an hour on the phone with them. We took turns. Whenever we got transfered, the other would pass the phone and so forth. When I moved last year and canceled my internet service, I was charged an ungodly overage and called and called to correct it. First they added more charges, then they took them off, then they finally refunded me way more than I was due. And I kept it. And I don’t feel a bit guilty.
Customer service phone numbers are just a way to make people go away. They also shield management from the consequences of their bad decisions. I hate being a part of it. One more week. I’m on my way out. Thank God.
