<p>Great: Love the AmEx. Love it.</p>
<p>Worst: Adelphia Cable… and Verizon Wireless is a nightmare. It’s like a bad relationship - still there, but not sure why. </p>
<p>If I also may, there is a AAA approved auto shop in Southern CT (Westport) which is HORRIBLE. Tried to charge me a thousand bucks for repair work that didn’t need to be done. Volvo of Westport, OTOH, happily took my car in and fixed it for $175, and fixed what needed to be fixed and didn’t fix what was working.</p>
<p>WORST, Part II:<br>
*AirTran. Lost luggage, delayed flights, just a nightmare.</p>
<p>*Amtrak. I hate Julie. I don’t talk into phones when no one answers me. Worse still, when I start cursing into the phone, I get this cheery computer voice saying, “I’m sorry, I didn’t understand you! Can you try again?”</p>
<p>*Any place that uses my SSN as an ID number. I had one lady tell me that it was perfectly legal (which, last time I checked, is NOT the case - as the SSN was never intended to be used as a national ID and should only be requested for credit or employment purposes) and treated me like a fool for refusing to hand it over.</p>
<p>Great: AMEX,FEDEX,DHL, Fidelity, Ameritrade, our banks and travel agents who shall remain nameless, Cleveland Clinic, amazon, William Sonoma, Lands End.</p>
<p>fendergirl, I find Comcast to be wonderful, which is rare for a cable service provider. I have plenty of issues with my cable, so I have to call them quite a bit.</p>
<p>Good: USAA (total agreement here – nothing but helpful, prompt service from them!), PETsMART (wow, we went in once to buy millet for our birds and they were out, but the guy went into the store’s personal stash and gave us a bag for free!)…</p>
<p>Bad: SBC (Talked to customer service today, commented that my satisfaction was 4/5; asked why, and when I said I was paying more in taxes than I was for actual phone service, expressed surprise at this; this after I had to argue away a $33 ‘installation charge’ when no installation was done. No communication here! Also told me that I didn’t say things I’d said because “the notes in our system say” otherwise.)</p>
<p>Ugly: UCSC (I have to go through 5 or 6 people every time I have a problem, and then I’m referred to one of these original people; when I mention I was referred by the person they’re referring me to, they say something along the lines of “Who’d you talk to? They were wrong” and send me anyway; also, no one seems to know what their job is; and no one seems to know what the school’s policies are – I asked the financial aid office about their 120% credit penalty policy that was in their FA brochure, and they had no idea what I was talking about! Also, because the eval system is SERIOUSLY flawed: professors can pretty much say what they want, and it’s VERY hard to get anything change,d no matter how erroneous. There are exceptions, of course.), Paradise Bowl (threw away my drink before it was finished, promised me they get me a new one for free, never came; said I could have ice for free, though I paid $1.50 for a shirley temple I never drank; lanes always broken, no response from the counter people; very surly.)</p>
<p>Liberty Mutual!!! Found in our favor (when I had a slight run-in with a streetcar that ran the red light while I was trying to turn left), refunded us our hefty deductible, cancelled the insurance surcharge, okayed and paid for the overage on the original estimate to repair the damage, and called from the body shop to let us know that everything was going according to schedule. I think they didn’t like the MBTA’s attitude that streetcars always have right of way.</p>
<p>Another bad: Sears online.</p>
<p>My mom order a snowblower from them in December because of a special deal they advertised. She called in late December, “It’s on the way.” Early January, mid-January, late January… Come February, she called to find out why the thing still wasn’t there. The service lady said there was a mistake, and it’d be shipped next day, no cost. Call back the next week, still no snowblower, and they tell her that it’s been on backorder since October! Why did they offer a special deal on something that was backordered? Why didn’t they say it was backordered, especially as it was quickly going toward “no more snow” season? What?! Then my mom sent an email to customer service that was rather… well… nasty, and included things like how she would never do business with Sears again, the service was terrible, etc. The only response she ever got was a form email thanking her for doing business with Sears and how they hoped to do business with her again soon!</p>
<p>Sheesh.</p>
<p>On the tech support front: GOOD - Toshiba. They have a 24/7 toll free tech support, phones answered promptly by someone who is knowledgeable, always courteous. They couldn’t resolve my latest problem, but they sure were nice about it & did their best to help, for a laptop that is long past warranty. </p>
<p>Bad - for tech support - just about everything else. I’d say Compaq is the absolute worst.</p>
<p>Have had the opposite experience than many of you-- Amex was TERRIBLE - on several occasions. Wouldn’t bring a replacement card to my H in Brussels like they advertise when his wallet was stolen, wouldn’t talk to me about something my h. needed to know about his card when he was in Tokyo- so I placed a 3-way call to Tokyo, only for the !@#$$% lady to tell my H. she didn’t have the answer to his question yet!!! Then, they called me at home to try to sell us something we didn’t want, and when I told her I’d like to discuss it with my H. and call her back, she said their phones didn’t take incoming calls!!! Gee, do you pay extra for that feature?? GRRRRRRR</p>
<p>On the other hand, unlike Ariesathena, I have found Airtran to be WONDERFUL-- very helpful, took very good care of me when my mother was ill and dying in NY, bent all sorts of rules for us, etc etc. They’d also take one look at me, see how dreadful I looked, and stick me in first class. The only negative is that the snacks in first class are a joke.The only times the planes were delayed was due to traffic control issues in NY, not due to Airtran.</p>
<p>Sprint PCS cellphone caused us MAJOR headaches. Took literally all day to get a new phone ordered for my s. and then months (literally) to fix all the subsequent screw-ups on my account. each time they’d fix one thing they’d screw up another-- drop features I already had and then try to charge me to put it back on— I finally figured out that if you talk to the technical people instead of the customer no-service, they have the authority to fix a lot of the errors on the account, and they are semi-intelligent.</p>
<p>Neglected to mention-- much to my dismay, as I really don’t want to see them bite the dust, but Delta has had mooch-o problems, multiple cancellations (broken windshield wiper was my favorite excuse of late…) bad customer service, etc. They were fined big time last year when a young man had trouble walking when he got off a flight and asked a Delta employee for help with a wheelchair. I forget the specifics, but I believe they implied he’d had too much to drink and refused to help him. Turns out he had a cancerous tumor on his spine… I believe Delta was offered the option of paying the big fine or providing additional employee training for improved customer service. If they chose the latter, it doesn’t show…</p>
<p>You know, I’m struck by how many of these companies appear as both bad and good customer service (esp. the big ones, like BofA, credit card co.'s, and the cell phone co.'s). FWIW, I’ve had great experiences with Washington Mutual (the only time I’ve ever applied for a mortgage and had NO glitches at all) and BofA (where I maintain a total of six accounts), as well as AT&T Wireless.</p>
<p>So what’s the point: first, I think it must be training. Poorly trained employees with little latitude about what they can offer clearly offer poor customer service. It may be necessary to ask nicely if they <em>can</em> say yes to the solution you want, then ask for the supervisor. (I’ve used that method a few times.)</p>
<p>dmd-
I agreee-- If you are nice to the customer service people,they are <em>usually</em> nice back. And I have, on several occasions, asked to speak to their supervisor to advise the supervisor that I received EXCELLENT customer service, and I wanted to note the good service in the employees file. (They are real happy to get the supervisor on the phone in these situations). I believe that good customer service should be acknowledged. Last fall, during hurricane season, our power went out for the umpteenth time. I called the power co. to be sure they knew, but also lamented that my h. was out of town, I had to get up at 5:45 a.m. to get myself ready and my son to the bus by 7 am, and was afraid I’d oversleep, with no working alarm. She said thas she was on duty 'til 6 am and would give me a wake-up call, which she did! That was nice! I tracked down her supervisor to thank her the next day.</p>
<p>I have written several “thank you” letters to Mr. Cannon, head of customer service with Airtran, for all the wonderful things their reps did for me during my mothers illness and death. We had 36 flight segments in a 5 week period, not counting the freebee flights we had with vouchers (that’s like frequent flier miles). Again, they were great. We used to be dedicated Delta fliers-- but are now dedicated Airtran fliers.</p>
<p>I have found that you can be nice, but persistent…They try to transfer you or get you off the phone, but if you don’t let that happen, you can usually get what you want/need. If not, the only transfer should be up to the next level. </p>
<p>Oh, I’ve also had good experiences with Discovercard. And I ditto everything everyone has said about USAA. They are the best.</p>
<p>Oops-- I need to give Wachovia and ING Direct kudos. They have been very easy to work with. In all fairness, we have been good Wachovia customers, and I believe there is a little green dot on our account screen that means “be nice to these people”, and they are ( it is a preferred customer notation or something-- anyone know??) </p>
<p>As for ING direct-- very easy to deal with when you need to talk to a human. Very convenient e-bank, currently paying 3% interest on savings. Hey-- if anyone is interested in opening an account, PM me-- if I send you a link and you use the link to open your account, you get a $25 sign-up bonus, and I get a small referral award!! Free money!!</p>
<p>Awesome Service:
USAA- they are always excellent, helpful and best of all reasonable
Southwest- never late, never problems with connections (unlike Delta, Air Canada, United, AmericaWest, etc. Who needs assigned seats when you cannot catch your plane!)</p>
<p>Nordy’s- always the best</p>
<p>Decent:
Cingular- many billing issues, but they are always great about fixing them</p>
<p>Yuck:
ATT wireless- got my DD a phone which then had no service at her U, got ATT permission to cancel (thanks to the store where the purchase was made)- it took ATT almost the entire school year to remove the $175 cancellation fee, tons of calls, very frustrating)</p>
<p>BofA- paid a mortgage payment at a bank branch, it was never matched to our account, three months of fighting them and only when it was returned to the banch and determined the teller had entered it incorrectly, was it fixed. The entire time the BofA mortgage people insisted I should not ahve paid at the branch–if this si true, why did the teller take it? Why can you not pay BofA at BofA? Hmmm.</p>
<p>WaMu- compared to USAA banking they are not very nice, they threw every imaginable extra fee on my DDs “free” account, anything to make an extra $</p>
<p>MCI- argh!!! extremely annoying, poor business practices, poor communication between departments</p>
<p>Not Very Good:
Nextel customer service. I think their 1-800 service is located in Africa. The reps speak english fluently, but are clueless about geography. Try asking them for a service center and they’ll refer you to one a thousand miles away.</p>
<p>Worst: UPS. Trying to settle a small insurance claim with them took almost a year!</p>
<p>Also good is Bloomingdale’s (on-line or via phone). Very helpful determining the correct size charts for each garment.</p>
<p>I love Washington Mutual. I’ve had various credit union accounts, and Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo drove me nuts – the MOMENT I turned 18, they sent me a letter cheerfully announcing that between November 12 and November 14, I had reached a magical age where the EXACT SAME ACCOUNT was now worth $3 a month plus fees! Wow! Washington Mutual charges me <em>no</em> fees for free student checking and attached savings, and they even set up an automatic deduction service from my checking to my savings so that I’d always be putting a little in. Service has been prompt whenever I’ve needed to make deposits or withdrawals, and my card has been great. </p>
<p>One problem I have had with them is the overdraft policy. There was one time when I overdrew by $1. They charged me their $22 “overdraft” fee – to my checking account – immediately after I entered $2 to prevent overdraft. It overdrew my account again (the fee did), and so they charged me another $22 fee… oi!</p>
<p>I’ve had too many clients of WaMu get totally screwed by customer service, especially in loan processing. Things like the compounded overdraft fees are bogus, too…of course, if you have enough money, you get a credit line/overdraft protection and don’t worry about such things…generally at a point in life where you no longer need to worry about such things anyway. Feh to virtually all banks. We had a good local seven-branch bank that was terrific in every respect…it got swallowed by US Bank a few years back. Even the parking lot guard got sacked. Feh feh feh.</p>
<p>Most recent best experience: an officer with the Becket, MA, police department, who arrived 10 minutes after we called for help when we inadvertently locked our keys in the car, and who took only 45 seconds to break into it (he was surprised it took him that long).</p>
<p>Usually decent: LLBean (I hate ordering from them online so I call them the old-fashioned way), who are polite, quick, thorough, and accurate.</p>
<p>Unconscionably slow to respond to problems that turn out to be their fault: Verizon</p>