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Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Automation sucks!
Customer Service and automation isn't all it's cracked up to be. Whatever happened to the friendly people who used to be on the other end of a business phone line whenever we customers and consumers have a problem?
I went to pay my gas bill via automation over the phone and I think I made a mistake on the "valid from" date. I'm not sure though so I phone them and speak to a human in "Customer Service", purely because if the bill isn't paid within so-so amount of time, they cut the gas off.
Me; Can you please check for me, that I've put the correct "valid from" date, because I think I put the "expiry date" numbers into the automated payment instead.
Them; Oh sorry Ms. Stewart, it's all automated so we can`t check that.
Me; Ok, can you cancel it and I'll re-do it then?
Them; Oh sorry Ms. Stewart, it's all automated, we can't do that.
Me; Ok, can you at least take a LOOK and see if anythings gone through??
Them; Oh sorry Ms. Stewart, we won't know that yet, as it takes 3 working days.
Me; Ok, so in the meantime, I don't know if I've done it right, I don't know if the payment will go through or not, and you can send a guy to cut off my gas supply that doesn't even work anyway???
Them; Sorry Ms. Stewart, that's the way it works because of it being automated.
Me; So how will I know if it's worked??
Them; It'll take 3 working days, then you can check your bank account to see if it's gone out.
Me; And in the meantime? If it hasn't gone out? What then?
Them; Well our man will come and cut off your gas supply.
Me; Dammit can't you just cancel the automated crap and take my payment here and now??
Them; We could've done that if you hadn't done the automated one. We have no way of stopping that one or seeing if you've done it right until the money either shows up or doesn't. Oh, and because you've done the automated one, we can't do a manual one in case the first one comes through.
Me; So you can't take a manual payment right now and refund one if it happens to be paid twice???
Them; No. Sorry Ms. Stewart, if you pay 2x we cannot refund one of the payments.
Me; Ok, I've done everything in my power to make sure the gas bill is paid, so what if there WAS a mistake and the payment DOESN'T go through? How do I get you people to turn my gas on again WHEN it goes through?
Them; That will cost you 200 and something pounds for the re-connection charges.
Me: Automation sucks!!
In this hi-tech day and age, it seems a shame that people have totally lost the "person to person" relationship.
The same can unfortunately be said about a lot of online businesses too. It all seems to be autoresponders for this and autoresponders for that. Where are the REAL people??
I personally subcribe to a lot of different internet marketing newsletters and ezines and the ones I unsubscribe from quicker than you can say "Jack Flash" are the ones that are so obviously all pasted into autoresponders. The "hands off" approach, they call it.. hmmm
"Hands off" is all well and good for automating the sales process, I have nothing against that. But follow-ups via autoresponder? Nah, that just sucks in my opinion... Gimme REAL people over automation any day.
Anna
I went to pay my gas bill via automation over the phone and I think I made a mistake on the "valid from" date. I'm not sure though so I phone them and speak to a human in "Customer Service", purely because if the bill isn't paid within so-so amount of time, they cut the gas off.
Me; Can you please check for me, that I've put the correct "valid from" date, because I think I put the "expiry date" numbers into the automated payment instead.
Them; Oh sorry Ms. Stewart, it's all automated so we can`t check that.
Me; Ok, can you cancel it and I'll re-do it then?
Them; Oh sorry Ms. Stewart, it's all automated, we can't do that.
Me; Ok, can you at least take a LOOK and see if anythings gone through??
Them; Oh sorry Ms. Stewart, we won't know that yet, as it takes 3 working days.
Me; Ok, so in the meantime, I don't know if I've done it right, I don't know if the payment will go through or not, and you can send a guy to cut off my gas supply that doesn't even work anyway???
Them; Sorry Ms. Stewart, that's the way it works because of it being automated.
Me; So how will I know if it's worked??
Them; It'll take 3 working days, then you can check your bank account to see if it's gone out.
Me; And in the meantime? If it hasn't gone out? What then?
Them; Well our man will come and cut off your gas supply.
Me; Dammit can't you just cancel the automated crap and take my payment here and now??
Them; We could've done that if you hadn't done the automated one. We have no way of stopping that one or seeing if you've done it right until the money either shows up or doesn't. Oh, and because you've done the automated one, we can't do a manual one in case the first one comes through.
Me; So you can't take a manual payment right now and refund one if it happens to be paid twice???
Them; No. Sorry Ms. Stewart, if you pay 2x we cannot refund one of the payments.
Me; Ok, I've done everything in my power to make sure the gas bill is paid, so what if there WAS a mistake and the payment DOESN'T go through? How do I get you people to turn my gas on again WHEN it goes through?
Them; That will cost you 200 and something pounds for the re-connection charges.
Me: Automation sucks!!
In this hi-tech day and age, it seems a shame that people have totally lost the "person to person" relationship.
The same can unfortunately be said about a lot of online businesses too. It all seems to be autoresponders for this and autoresponders for that. Where are the REAL people??
I personally subcribe to a lot of different internet marketing newsletters and ezines and the ones I unsubscribe from quicker than you can say "Jack Flash" are the ones that are so obviously all pasted into autoresponders. The "hands off" approach, they call it.. hmmm
"Hands off" is all well and good for automating the sales process, I have nothing against that. But follow-ups via autoresponder? Nah, that just sucks in my opinion... Gimme REAL people over automation any day.
Anna
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