Monday, March 29, 2010

I Would Hate to Have Me for a Customer......

I don't know about anyone else, but I hate calling customer service folks.

I hate it so badly that when I have to call them, I go into the whole situation with a chip on my shoulder, and I get mad at them even before I tell them my problem.

I so hate being like my mother.

It's even worse when I have to call customer service for a product that is not mine, therefore the problem is not mine, but I have to do the calling, the waiting, the listening to crappy music, and the clicking, because "You know what to tell them."

Hubby has a GPS that he uses for golfing. I can't complain, since A) I have a GPS on my bicycle, for Pete's sake; and B) I bought it for him. When we first got it, I was happy to download the courses he plays most frequently, install the software, register the system, yada yada yada. But then I was done.

When it came time to renew his subscription, because heaven forbid they should offer anything that lasts for, say, the life of the device, I was annoyed. It's his damn toy, so why do I have to renew it?

We downloaded and paid, and then Hubby started getting messages on the device that he needed to renew. Grrrrrr.......

Naturally it fell to me to call the toll-free number and talk to the customer service rep on the other end. It also fell to me to perform this onerous chore on a Monday afternoon when I am still tired from the weekend and line dancing was canceled and I haven't been to the grocery store yet and someone who is RETIRED didn't think it was important enough for him to do and I didn't know what I was going to do about dinner.

I was so annoyed that I was the one having to call that I got testy with him. And he hadn't done a thing. Well, except for talking to me like I was just a little bit dumb, which I felt like in the first place, and maybe, just maybe, that is my problem. I don't like having to admit that I don't know how to fix something.

It is a little scary that they can just take over my computer and fix things remotely.

I want to call the nice man back and apologize for being annoyed with him. Instead I guess I'll just feel icky about it all night.

1 comment:

Evil Pixie said...

You aren't the only one who hates customer service... I hate that a) they ask me questions that I've already provided responses to when they say "What can I help you with?"; b) they usually have heavy East Indian/Asian accents and I can barely understand them; c) Along with those heavy East Indian/Asian accents, they tell me their name is Bob or Alice... who are they trying to kid?; d) Are totally obvious they're reading from a script; and e) Usually end up giving me the caller rund-around (passing me off to another department, which passes me off to another department, which passes... you get the picture). If I'm not already in a mood because of the issue which forced me to call customer service, I'm typically in a mood after I hang up the phone.