MSN Money recently released its Customer Service Hall of Shame rankings. The rankings were based on an MSN Money/Zogby poll in which respondents were asked to rank a company’s service.
The top 10 companies that had the worst rankings in the customer service field are:
1-Sprint
2-Bank of America
3-Comcast
4-Time Warner Cable
5-AT&T
6-Citibank
7-Wal-Mart
8-Verizon
9-Wells Fargo
10-Direct TV
Not surprisingly, one of the companies I use is on this list. My saga begin nearly two months ago when I discovered a discrepancy on my credit card statement. My statement indicated that someone had used one of my credit card checks and cashed it in the amount of the $850. I don’t understand how this happened because I always rip up those credit card checks when I receive them because I never use them.
When I called my credit card company’s fraud hotline to tell them about the discrepancy, I was transferred numerous times. Each time that I was transferred, I had to explain my story from the very beginning. Needless to say, I was frustrated.
After spending an hour on hold, navigating my way through the automated voice system, explaining my situation to numerous people and being transferred, a woman finally came on the line and told me that I would have to view a copy of the check to be 100 percent certain that I’m not the person who cashed it. She said I will receive a copy of the check in the mail within seven to 10 business days.
After the 10th day, I still haven’t received anything in the mail, so I called my credit card company a second time. Once again, I had to explain my story to numerous people, and I was transferred over and over again. I felt like no one wanted to deal with me. So, after an hour, another woman came on the phone and said they would send me another copy since I hadn’t received the other copy they were supposed to send within seven to 10 business days.
Once again, after the 10th business day, I still hadn’t received anything in the mail. So, I called the credit card company for a third time. Once again, I was transferred to numerous people, and I had to explain my situation over and over again. Another woman came to the phone and said they would send another check copy in the mail.
Well, I finally received a copy of the check, and it wasn’t me who cashed that $850 check. So, I called the credit card company for a fourth time. Once again I was transferred to numerous people, and I had to explain my situation over and over again. Another customer service representative came to the phone and said since I’m not the one who cashed the credit card check, they would have to mail me an affidavit, and I would have to sign the affidavit verifying that I didn’t cash the check. The representative then told me that once their investigation is complete, they would remove the $850 off of my account.
I would estimate that I had to spend a total of five hours on the phone being transferred, placed on hold, explaining my situation and talking to an automated voice system.
It makes no sense to me why big corporations can’t create some type of customer service system that is friendly and convenient to its customers. Now that MSN Money has released their Customer Service Hall of Shame list, maybe these companies who didn’t fare too well will stop to examine their procedures and make some much needed changes.
By the way, I made all of those phone calls during my lunch breaks. Therefore, I wasted five hours worth of lunch time, and I’ll never get those precious hours back.
Tim Henley, staff writer