Customer Service: The Good, the Bad, and the Downright Ugly

Lately I’ve been installing some new equipment, so I’ve had to rely on customer "help" lines to answer my questions. New electronic devices can be complex and cranky, and plug-and-play products are increasingly rare. In my search for assistance, I’ve had some satisfying experiences and quite a few maddening ones. But I try not to play the press card and identify myself as a reviewer; I always want to know how others are treated and what recourse they might have.

First the good. For my money, Logitech’s Squeezebox gets first prize. It’s an intricate little box that does an awful lot. But its operation relies on programs, which can have bugs, so I’ve had to call Logitech’s help line on several occasions. The call starts with a simple welcome recording offering two choices, Squeezebox or Transporter. After choosing, you’re transferred to a service technician, usually with little or no waiting. Yesterday, for the first time, a live operator told me they were experiencing an unusual spike in requests. He then asked for my name and number and said someone would call back, which they did. Can you imagine that? The company valued my time and didn’t keep me on hold for what usually seems like forever.

When I finally speak to a technician at Logitech, they know their stuff and can usually answer my questions. And if they can’t, they transfer me to a second tier to speak to someone more qualified. If they can’t, they keep at it until they can. And as a last resort, they start a bug report online so others can share their experience. I’ve never been put down for having a stupid problem, and the company has never tried to blame me for their issues. (Compare this with Comcast, where the corporate attitude seems to be that the customer is doing something wrong.) It turned out that almost every person I spoke to actually had a Squeezebox at home, and they knew the unit from actually working with it.

Unexpectedly, I found that same level of service from Apple when I called with questions about my new iTouch. Once again, it seemed that everyone I talked to actually had an iTouch and could discuss it from having used it. I have no idea if Logitech or Apple gives their phone reps hardware to use, or at least makes it available at a discount, but based on my experience with their customer service staff, I wouldn’t be surprised.

On the other side of the coin are the bad experiences. These usually occur when you’re dealing with big corporations -- Samsung, Panasonic, and the like. You call and get a recording that sends you to another recording and then another and another, until you’re finally asked to wait for a representative. After waiting for up to 20 minutes, you usually end up talking to someone who speaks a different language, or someone who tries to solve your problem by reading a script. They clearly don’t know the product from personal use, and in many cases I doubt if they’ve ever even seen the item in question. They often treat you like you know just as little about the device as they do, and they simply read from a list of solutions that you could have easily found online.

If you’re really unlucky (this is the ugly), you’ll get one of those smart answering machines that sounds like a person. It will assure you that it understands what you’re saying and then proceed to misunderstand everything you say. You’ll get so tired of saying "other problem" that thoughts of homicide start to surface.

Having dealt with a few too many of these situations, I’ve developed some useful strategies. Hidden among those hundreds of drones who answer corporate calls are a few who actually know something about the product and speak clearly enough that you can understand them. If you aren’t getting along with the first rep you get, make an excuse, hang up, and call again until you reach someone who’s more helpful. When dealing with big corporations, you’ll find that your satisfaction depends almost completely on the agent you get. Do the same if you have a bad connection. Unless you like to fight, you’ll never find what you’re looking for with a bad connection or a surly or inexperienced agent.

The state of customer service is worse than ever. Increasingly, companies are expecting us to help ourselves using online customer forums. And while searching online often leads to useful answers, if you have a simple problem you should be able to spend one minute on the phone with a service representative instead of wasting valuable time sifting through online search results.

Apparently, many companies seem to think they’ve reached a point where they don’t need to worry about service -- they assume that if a customer is dissatisfied, there’s always someone else to take their place. But customer service still matters. Consider these two cases:

First: The part of Logitech that handles Harmony remotes recently told me they couldn’t replace my 14-month-old $400 remote because its warranty had expired. And because they couldn’t fix it, they offered me a new one at half price. Based on that level of service, I will never go back.

Second: A company from which I buy red pepper suet for my woodpeckers sent me an order containing the wrong kind of suet. When I told them, they immediately shipped the kind I ordered and advised me to keep the first order and share it with my friends. As with Squeezebox, Apple, and Oppo, who all offer similarly outstanding customer service, I am now a lifelong customer.

Perhaps readers would like to share some of their good and bad experiences along these lines. Nothing will get better if we don’t get the information out there and let these companies know that we matter.

. . . Rad Bennett
radb@hometheatersound.com

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