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<p>Sorry, but I don’t see this as some kind of “great circle of life.” I see this as as a symptom of a dysfunctional economy with perverse incentives, one more example of 1% Economics. As thousands suffer, a few at the top do very well indeed.</p>
<p>I’ve had MUCH better luck talking to a human being and getting my question answered/issue resolved. The email usually leads to an automated canned responses or lack of satisfactory resolution. This site [Find</a> Best Customer Support Phone Number & Contact Info - any Company | GetHuman.com](<a href=“http://gethuman.com/]Find”>http://gethuman.com/) tells you how to work around the automated stuff and get to a human being. It has several options for target, target card, target.com, etc. I recently had an issue with my phone bill. They raised the rate on what was a fixed price plan. I not only got it addressed by talking to a human, but they have put a courtesy $10 monthly discount on my bill so the amount will now be lower than my previous rte. There is NO WAY I would have gotten this by sending an email into cyberspace. There is nothing better than talking to a human who can address the concern.</p>
<p>At times I’ve gotten an off-shore customer no-service rep who is clearly just reading off a sheet. I have politely asked to be transferred on shore and gotten a person here who was able to help me.</p>
<p>Thanks, jym, for the helpful post. </p>
<p>I will ask to be redirected on shore if I have a communication issue. Marketing research shows that the offshore call centers typically take multiple calls to solve an issue. The domestic centers take one call. </p>
<p>Recently I called a customer service number and was greeted with “Hello, this is ____ and I am located in Tennessee.” That company clearly wanted the callers to know that help was coming from in the US.</p>
<p>I haven’t read through this thread but I had a customer service issue a few years back with Target and didn’t shop there again for @2 years. Now I go as infrequently as possible.</p>
<p>The problem is: they don’t care that they’ve lost me as a customer, in fact they are clueless! The corporation is too huge for them to even notice.</p>
<p>Until something major happens, like the BOA customer who fought back on social media, will it make a difference…maybe.</p>
<p>The people who they employ need to be educated and trained! Especially the customer service folks.</p>
<p>My pleasure, mnmomof2.</p>
<p>I’ve also typically asked who I am speaking to and where they are located, in case I have to call back. If they can’t/won’t give me a full name I ask for an employee ID # for reference purposes, in case I need to follow up.</p>
<p>I’ve posted this before, but BY FAR the BEST way I have gotten what I want/need and more is to tell the customer service rep that once the problem is solved to your satisfaction you would like to speak to their manager and thank them for your assistance and to tell the manager how helpful the cust service rep was in resolving your issue. It is a win-win situation. You get what you want, and the cust service rep gets a notation in their file. Score!</p>
<p>American people aren’t any better. I recently called my (now former) insurance company to see if a prescription was covered. I ended up having to explain to my customer service rep what a religious exemption was (this was a birth control prescription). It’s one thing to not know what it is but to actually say to your customer “I’m not sure what that is. Do you know?” is another thing all together. It amazes me who is employed with our high unemployment rate. You would think more qualified candidates could be found in the masses of unemployed.</p>
<p>Thats sad, romani. In that situation I’d have asked to speak to a supervisor. Its possible that the cust service rep was an idiot, but its also possible that they were just poorly trained. I imagine there is a high turnover in those jobs.</p>
<p>The other trick to getting someone onshore is to call early in the morning.</p>
<p>I should have, jym. I think at the time I was just thrown so off guard that I didn’t think about it. It’s too bad because it was good insurance aside from their bad customer service. This wasn’t the first ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! moment with them. Oh well. </p>
<p>And you’re right it could be high turnover.</p>
<p>Actually even better than e-mail is online chat. Most companies now use this and it’s 100 times better to use than calling because you don’t have to hold the phone and wait on hold and can browse the Internet while you’re waiting. Plus, you don’t have to deal with the annoying automated garbage. Most times, I usually don’t have to wait or only have to wait a couple of minutes.</p>
<p>Romani-
Was this during the time that the BCP prescription coverage issue was a bit of a moving target? In fairness to the rep, it was probably better that he/she admitted they were not familiar with the status of that policy than to give you wrong info.</p>
<p>I have had mixed experience with online chat. Its often slow and again they read off a script. They give annoying canned responses. Nothing better than a human, if you can get to one.</p>
<p>Jym, it was about three weeks ago lol. </p>
<p>The most ironic part is that I called the first time and got a message to call back about two hours later. They were in training. :rolleyes:. Life really is stranger than fiction sometimes.</p>
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<p>Which chats have you used? I mainly use Bank of America, Citibank, Snapfish, and Amazon. They are all VERY great. I just received damaged photos from Snapfish. It took me 5 minutes to get a full refund and they let me keep the damaged photos. I received a few damaged items from Amazon. They resent the items and sent me a free postage label to send back the damaged items.</p>
<p>And you’re right, I’m glad she didn’t give me the wrong info but I would have been perfectly happy to go on hold while she talked to a supervisor. Either way, it was covered :)</p>
<p>Glad it worked out, Romani. Guess she hadn’t completed her training. Sounds like you offered her some on-the-job training :)</p>
<p>I don’t blame the customer service reps. I think the whole deterioration of customer service in general is about crude implementation of technology to cut labor costs. Companies think they have to do it to stay competitive and to drive their profit margins so the Analysts will rate them a buy and their stock goes up and all of us will want it in our 401K.</p>
<p>I actually sometimes think the worst thing that happened int he last fifty years has been the advent of the 401K. It has made most of us stock owners when before very few people owned stock. Yes, it helped fuel an enormous economic boom but it made us terribly vulnerable in the process.</p>
<p>No answers here. Most time big technological revolutions cause a lot of agony as we transition and then we eventually get to some sort of equilibrium. This latest one also drove globalization, though, so that we compete for many jobs and goods with people all over the planet. Just mind-boggling to figure out how it will play.</p>
<p>This video is an absolute classic when talking about the frustrations in dealing with customer service: <a href=“Verizon Math Fail - YouTube”>Verizon Math Fail - YouTube;
<p>That video would be hilarious if it wasn’t so sad.</p>
<p>Customer Service? What is that exactly? The guy called the Customer Service line … so by definition he GOT Customer Service! What’s he complaining about???</p>
<p>My DW was in New Orleans the week Hurricane Katrina hit. She returned the rental car in Mississippi because, you know, the New Orleans rental car lot was under six feet of water. She couldn’t convince the counter people in Mississippi lot to forgo the “not returned at originating rental site” charge. Called the rental car Customer Service line. “The New Orleans lot is (still) under six feet of water.” I’m sorry Ma’am, your contract clearly states there will be a charge if you don’t return the car to the originating rental site. DW changed tactics. “I did return it to the New Orleans lot. But there was no one there to check the car in, and the Police Dept ordered me to leave due to a MANDATORY EVACUATION.” The fact that there was no one there or that there was a mandatory evacuation of the area those are not our problems Ma’am. You didn’t return the car to the New Orleans lot. That’s all that matters.</p>
<p>Who trains these people???</p>
<p>I would’ve told them their car was now under 6 feet of water but I had fulfilled my end of the contract. And I was calling from a boat…</p>
<p>Actuallly New Hope, the rental car company was the one who breached the contract by not having the agency (underwater) open. I hope you don’t rent from them anymore!</p>
<p>Really, I have no idea whether Target’s business is doing great or has suffered in the recession. I can say that our own small business took a hit in the recession, and it never has recovered, and we are doing with less staff, and it is not because we are profit crazy multi ga zillionaires. Less revenue means less staff can be hired. If someone left, I did not rehire so quickly. But, on the brighter side, I was able to hire MUCH better qualified staff, due to the difficulty of finding jobs, and the staff I have now is MUCH better than before the recession. We are making less ourselves…</p>