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I Hate Calling Customer Service!
By JLP | December 4, 2006
I have been on hold with Bank of America for about five minutes now. I have the phone on speaker so that I can do other stuff (like write this post) while I wait for someone to pick up the phone. Their background music sounds like the music from a video game. It is the same music over and over and over and over… Then a pre-recorded voice comes on every 10-15 seconds to tell me that, “all associates are on other calls. Please stay on the line and someone will be with you shortly.” Why must they repeat this every 10-15 seconds? Am I that stupid that I can’t figure out that I am on hold?
Why is it that companies can’t figure out customer service? I understand companies wanting to cut costs where possible but those automatic answering machines that try to act like REAL people are HORRIBLE. I don’t know about you but I hate the fact that they make me listen to a whole menu of options. While each option is listed, I’m trying to remember which number corresponds CLOSEST to my particular problem. Then, during this particular call, I said a cuss word under my breath and the machine stopped and said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t understand that request. Would you like me to continue or start over?” LOL!
Oh, and here’s the reason I was calling:
This past weekend I was checking on my accounts. Bank of America handles our mortgage. Anyway, I logged into our account and it said that we had a payment that was past due and that the total amount due was double what I normally pay. I went back through my records and found that NONE of my payments were late. So, I wanted to call someone just to make sure something wasn’t wrong. Once I finally got through to someone they told me that my payment is due on the 1st and even though I have a grace period until the 15th, the payment is considered late if it isn’t made by the 1st. This is news to me. I have always scheduled our mortgage to be paid on 1st-4th of each month and never even considered it as being late.
The customer service rep told me that she hated the way that Bank of America does this and she urged me to take a 2-minute survey to voice my dissatisfaction with their handling of payments. I told her that was fine and she put me through to the survey. The only problem was it was the Spanish version of the survey!
Topics: Miscellaneous | 5 Comments »
December 4th, 2006 at 11:01 am
I’m with you on big company poor service – to add insult, the pre recorded message from BofA tells you how wonderful that there service is and requests that you complete a customer satisfaction survey –
BofA has just merged with another large financial co. hence some of their customer service problems -= I would be willing to pay a small fee to get access to REAL customer service – human who speaks english and knows how to solve problems!!!
December 4th, 2006 at 11:46 am
Having worked in a customer service enviroment for the past 6 years, I can tell you that Monday morning is the worst time to call.
December 4th, 2006 at 12:33 pm
I used to work for Commerce Bank’s customer service. Not sure where you’re located, but they currently service the NY/NJ/PA/DE/DC area. While working there, getting the customer on the phone was always the top most priority. Seldom did any of our customers hold for five minutes.
To add to Ry’s list:
Monday morning – bad time to call
Thursday evening – bad time to call
Tuesday morning – worse then Monday morning
December 4th, 2006 at 1:49 pm
B of A Customer Service needs to read Harry Beckwith’s “Selling The Invisible,” at bare minimum.
December 4th, 2006 at 4:12 pm
I’ve always been amazed at how bad some companies customer service is; good service is the best and easiest way of keeping customers.