So Much More Than A Mom » Customer Service

A Profound Analysis Of Facebook Status Updates

Cyndi — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:23:17 +0000

“Religion has convinced people that there’s an invisible man … living in the sky. Who watches everything you do every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a list of ten specific things he doesn’t want you to do. And if you do any of these things, he will send you to a special place, of burning and fire and smoke and torture and anguish for you to live forever, and suffer, and suffer, and burn, and scream, until the end of time. But he loves you. He loves you. He loves you and he needs money.” — George Carlin

Hi. My name is Cyndi and I have a problem. Facebook. To be honest I also have problems with twitter, e-mail, texting, google reader and multiple other online distractions, not to mention multiple offline addictions. Don’t judge.

I’ve seen the following canned (Who writes these things anyway? Is there some sweatshop somewhere?) Facebook status update a few times over the past several weeks:

WELCOME TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! Press 1 for English. Press 2 to disconnect until you learn to speak English. And remember— only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you, JESUS CHRIST and the AMERICAN SOLIDER. One died for your soul, the other for your freedom. If you agree… copy and paste in your status

This one doesn’t make any sense to me. I don’t understand what the first *ahem* sentiment has to do with the second. So, I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when someone I know well posted this as her status. She has been my go-to person for all questions related to Christianity for years. I felt comfortable that asking her about it would not offend her as she is aware that I am a heathen and therefore prone to asking the tough questions, which I did:

I don’t understand this…would Jesus disconnect anyone who doesn’t speak English?

I admittedly do not know everything there is to know much at all about Christianity or organized religion in general. I am pretty sure I’ve got the basics of Christianity down. I know for certain that one of the more common Christian ideologies is, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” [Matthew 7:12]. (You’re impressed that I knew the book and verse aren’t you? I love The Internets.) The good old golden rule.

Is it really that offensive to be offered the option of pressing “2″? And if so, why? If I were in a foreign country and I had to contact some wretched call center for any reason I would be delighted to have the option (even if it was #7 or #212) to reach someone who speaks English. Do unto others, right? Isn’t the truly offensive action in this scenario the fact that you have to contact a call center at all? I’m fairly certain that the concept of the call center originated in hell and that Jesus does not like them anymore than we do. We all know as soon as we dial the number that we will be placed into that dreaded loop of options, excessive hold times and finally will be transferred to someone in another country who will tell us in English that whatever we are asking for is not going to happen and we are just screwed, thankyouverymuch.

My personal favorite canned Facebook update makes much more sense to me. In fact I think whoever came up with it should win some sort of online Facebook-status-writing award or something. It’s as if whoever penned this sentiment somehow knows me and was able to express, much better than I ever could, what I truly feel in my heart and soul:

Please put this on your status if you know someone (or are related to someone) who is an idiot. Idiots affect the lives of everyone. There is still no known cure for stupidity, but we can raise awareness …… 93% wont Copy and Paste this, many because they’re too stupid to know how to copy and paste. Will YOU make this your status for at least one hour?

Thanks for stopping by!

It's A Freakin' Miracle

Cyndi — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 04:04:28 +0000

“Miracles are like meatballs, because nobody can exactly agree on what they are made of, where they come from, or how often they should appear.”— Lemony Snicket

I have my computer back from The Evil Empire!!!

Apparently they actually do care about Better Business Bureau complaints (or they were just sick of dealing with me). I got a phone call from them about the complaint, with an offer of a $50 gift card and assurances that I would have my computer back on Friday morning. Of course, it turned out to be Friday afternoon, because they are incapable of living up to any promise they make.

But still, I have my computer back!!!

So far, it works fine. Of course, they didn’t restore everything they said they were going to, but they did get most of it, and everything else we pretty much had on disk.

So….hopefully I won’t feel compelled to write any more posts about Best Buy (crossing my fingers, knocking on wood, etc.).

Thanks for stopping by!

Throwing In The Towel

Cyndi — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 21:25:40 +0000

“To insure an exceptional customer service experience, your call may be monitored or recorded for quality or training purposes.” – Recorded Message While On Hold With 1-888-BestBuy

I officially give up.

After being assured that our 2 month old computer was fixed (new power supply, motherboard & CPU) and all data loaded, guess what. Not so much.

It arrived back at our local Best Buy store completely blank. No operating system. Nothing. For some inexplicable reason, it will take them 5 days to load everything back onto the computer.

No one can explain why. No one gives a crap. No one will even give out their last name. One of the “Consumer Relations” representatives I spoke with last night said, “I don’t understand why you’re calling us.”.

So….I give up. I guess we’ll get the computer back, whenever they are good and ready to return it to us, in whatever condition they choose. I’m so glad we got that extended warranty.

Thanks for stopping by!

Best Buy…..AGAIN

Cyndi — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:17:36 +0000

“I received a response back from them this morning and they are still working on the unit. A request was sent over to the technician assigned to your computer to expedite the repair. I will do my best to keep you updated. As for a contact at Geek Squad City, we unfortunately do not have one that we can give out to customers.”
- Most Recent E-mail Received From Best Buy “Consumer Relations”

I don’t really know what to say anymore.

Best Buy is refusing to replace my computer saying that because they did not assign a new case number to each incident, it is still considered to be the FIRST repair attempt. In fact, this is the FIFTH repair attempt.

They are refusing to honor their own extended warranty based on this technicality. How convenient.

Thank goodness they have asked the “technician” assigned to my computer to expedite the repair!

How ridiculous that they can claim to be all about the customer but then refuse to give any useful information or assistance.

I’m not the only one. Check out this horrific ordeal….“Best Buy” vs. Consumer Protection Blog.

ATTN: Brad Anderson, Best Buy CEO

Cyndi — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 16:45:52 +0000

“While the environment continues to be as challenging as we expected, consumers are being drawn to brands that they trust, and they are responding to our customer-centric model. In this light, we believe the market share gains we’ve been making will be sustained.” – Brad Anderson, Best Buy CEO

Mr. Anderson,

Since your corporate policy is to not give out any contact information for anyone within your company, I am forced to post this letter here.

I find it insulting that you consider your company to be customer-centric due to my completely unacceptable experience with your company.

I purchased a new computer along with a 2-year extended warranty from Best Buy in October 2008. In December 2008, it stopped working. It wouldn’t even power up. I took it back to the store where the Geek Squad said it needed a new power supply and that it would be ready the next morning at the latest. The next morning, they had successfully installed the new power supply but were still running the 3 hour diagnostics to determine if anything else was wrong and said they would call me when it was ready. At 2pm, I still hadn’t received a phone call so I went to the store. My computer was just sitting there. The diagnostics did not indicate any additional problems and no one bothered to explain why they didn’t call me.

When I got home, the network driver had been removed from my computer and therefore, I was unable to connect to the internet. I took it back to the store where I waited for 2 hours for the Geek Squad to attempt to figure out what happened to the network driver and to reinstall it. They were not successful. They informed me that they would have to ship my computer to Kentucky via UPS 2-day air on December 28th. I spoke with the store manager who refused to even consider exchanging it for a new one, even though it was only 2 months old and I had the extended warranty. He actually shrugged his shoulders and walked away saying there was nothing he could do.

For reasons no one I have spoken to has even attempted to explain, my computer actually sat in the store for another week and was not shipped to Kentucky until January 2, 2009.

Since it’s been in Kentucky, they have ordered two new motherboards, and now today, a new CPU. Both were working perfectly fine until the Geek Squad got their hands on it to replace the power supply.

The extended warranty states that Best Buy gets three chances to fix the computer before they are obligated to replace it. This is the FIFTH attempt to fix this computer and I am still being refused a replacement.

The customer service supervisor I am dealing with has refused three times to escalate my complaints to her manager. The only thing she has ever offered is a $50 gift card. Why would I ever want to buy anything from Best Buy ever again, even if it is with a gift card?

This is, by far, the absolute worst customer service I have ever experienced.

The Evil Empire Strikes Again

Cyndi — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 14:41:53 +0000

“Horizontal boosters. Alluvial dampers? Ow! That’s not it, bring me the Hydrospanner. I don’t know how we’re going to get out of this one.” – Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back

See, I told you that I’d plagiarize my friend and use “The Evil Empire”.

I imagine that the anonymous Geek Squad “technician” who is currently trying to fix my computer uttered some nonsense similar to this quote from Star Wars last week. I suspect there may have even been a conversation about a Flux Capacitor.

While I have found a compassionate and helpful customer service supervisor at Best Buy’s corporate office, she is still limited to working within the confines of the ridiculous policies and procedures in place within The Evil Empire at which she is employed.

They claimed my 2 month old computer needed a new motherboard. It arrived last week. Allegedly, it was defective. So NOW I get a new computer? Nope. They have ordered another motherboard. I find it extremely difficult to believe that the manufacturer just happened to send them a 2nd defective motherboard.

Why is Best Buy spending so much time trying to fix this lemmon? Is it really cost effective for them to waste all this time, paying the Geek Squad for hours and hours of work instead of just admitting that they sold us a piece of crap and replace it?

Thanks for stopping by!

When Did I Become Such A Geek

Cyndi — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 15:59:45 +0000

“I should say here, because some in Washington like to dream up ways to control the Internet, that we don’t need to ‘control’ free speech, we need to control ourselves.” — Peggy Noonan

Hubby went out with the boys yesterday and came home with my our brand new laptop! It felt like Christmas, my birthday and July 4th all in one day. See, we still don’t have our computer back. Last week, a friend of mine referred to Best Buy as The Evil Empire. I like it. I’m going to use it. Actually, I just did use it, but I’m going to use it again. But enough about that, for now.

I’m not sure why hubby decided to bestow this wonderful new gift on me our family, and frankly, I don’t care. I was going nuts without a computer. I was seriously jonesing. I’m talking about pawning-my-great-grandmother’s-heirloom-jewelry-for-a-few-hours-on-the-internet- jonesing. I was using several times a day, at the library and my sister’s house, but it isn’t the same. It’s much better to have full access to your own computer 24/7 than to have to settle for an hour here or there. I can’t believe what a junkie/geek I have become! In my defense, I am looking for a job so the internet is an absolute necessity for job searching (while also sending bumper stickers and playing mob wars on Facebook – isn’t that what tabs are for – multi-tasking??!!).

Now that I think about it, I suspect that my sister probably had something to do with this. I’m sure she was sick of me tying up her computer for hours on end (she’s almost as big a geek as I am). I don’t really care. I’m just happy to have my our new laptop! But I do wonder what she threatened him with…

Thanks for stopping by!

More Fun And Games At Best Buy

Cyndi — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:47:56 +0000

“We work for people, not for “things.” This approach delivers two big benefits: one, it’s more fun; and two, we believe it leads to GROWTH. Growth for our portfolio of brands, growth around the world, and growth that benefits our employees, our partners and our customers. (The people who ARE Best Buy.)”
- Best Buy’s Website

By now you know what I have to say about this…bullshit.

Ever worked in a customer service capacity anywhere? I have. Everywhere I have ever worked, we were always required to bend over backwards to break rules to make the customer happy, even when the customer was clearly wrong, trying to get something for nothing, or just plain crazy. How does that never seem to apply anywhere when I am the customer?

I won’t bore you with all the gory details of the experience I had today in attempting to locate my computer and to get a status update. I will, however, give you the highlights, which remind me of this scene from Seinfeld…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeHG-8rfqKM]

My computer was NOT shipped to Kentucky on 12/28/08 as promised. It was actually shipped on 01/02/2009! That means my computer sat in the store for a week before even being picked up for delivery.

No one is allowed to give out the super secret phone number to the service center in Kentucky.

No one is allowed to give out the super secret phone number to the district manager serving the store I am dealing with.

Despite the computer generated e-mail I received indicating that a customer service rep would respond to my e-mail within 3 business days, it actually took 4 business days. Additionally, the response I did receive was not at all helpful to my situation and basically said, “too bad, so sad” and quoted policies that don’t apply.

Attempting to get anywhere with Best Buy on the phone can take over an hour and result in nothing.

In a completely unrelated event, my sister called another big chain store for a different issue and was told to hold so that she could be transported to someone else. And this wasn’t even an electronics store! If they have the technology to transport customers via telephone, why can’t Best Buy find, fix or replace my computer??!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Best Buy Is Still Holding My Computer Hostage

Cyndi — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 21:07:15 +0000

“We believe we can live our values, through our people and operations, anywhere we go on this planet. And we believe in customer centricity – the idea is that a customer isn’t just looking for a product, but a solution or experience that improves her life. Customer centricity requires an ongoing relationship of trust between employee and the customer – it’s a large part of our profit and growth.” – Best Buy’s Website

Guess what I say to that. You got it! Bullshit.

They shipped my computer to Kentucky via UPS 2-day air on 12/28/2008….allegedly.

I sent an e-mail to customer service 12/29/2008 complaining about the poor service. Still no response.

I sent a 2nd e-mail to customer service 1/2/2009 complaining about the poor service and the fact that I still had no response to my original e-mail. Still no response.

I called the store 1/2/2009 and was told the service center in Kentucky hadn’t received it yet.

I called corporate customer service 1/3/2009. They supposedly tracked the UPS package and claim UPS still hasn’t delivered it. They are still refusing to give me a new computer, saying their policy is that it has to be repaired 3 times before they will replace it. I was told there is nothing they can do about any of this except submit a request that the service center look at my computer ASAP and she will call me sometime next week with an update.

So, basically, the entire first week was a complete waste of my time without a computer. And furthermore, there is nothing that they can do about it (or care to do about it). This computer is 2 months old AND we bought the extended warranty.

In case you didn’t read my previous post…I HATE BEST BUY!

Thanks for stopping by!

Why I Hate Best Buy

Cyndi — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 00:41:40 +0000

“We’re Best Buy, a global family of brands, an industry leader with more than 40 years of history…but that’s not REALLY what we’re about. We’re about people. People just like you. And, yeah, we know every company says they’re about people, but we really mean it. Really!”
- Best Buy’s Website

Bullshit.

Here’s my rant. I’ll make it as short as possible but I can’t make any promises. I’m really freakin’ pissed off!

We bought a computer and an extended warranty from Best Buy in October. A few days ago, it wouldn’t power up. I took it to the Geek Squad who said it needed a new power supply and would be ready that night or the next morning at the latest.

I called at 10am the next morning and was told the power supply had been replaced but they had just started running the diagnostics to verify that nothing else was wrong with it. I was told that would take about three hours. I did point out that I was told it would be finished that morning and that they weren’t delivering as promised. He didn’t really seem to care, and I was honestly more annoyed than mad anyway so I let it go. He said he would personally call me when it was done.

Four hours later, and no phone call, I just went to the store. They were done with the diagnostics. My computer was just sitting there. No one explained why I didn’t receive a phone call but I was happy to hear there was nothing else wrong with it and took my baby home.

The main reason I refer to it as my baby is because it connects me to the internet, and therefore, this blog, among many others. Unfortunately, when I hooked everything back up at home, I couldn’t connect to the internet!

I called a computer savvy friend of ours who had me check a bunch of stuff. The conclusion? The network driver that allows the computer to connect to the internet was gone. It simply wasn’t there.

I called Best Buy. They claimed there is no way they deleted anything and their diagnostics said everything was just perfect. Since I was insistent that the driver had disappeared, they asked me to bring it back in. I’m sure they thought I just didn’t know what I was doing.

In fact, I don’t know what I’m doing. Unfortunately though, my friend does, and he was right. It was just…gone. Two very nice and helpful guys tried for almost two hours to figure out what happened and to re-install the driver, with no luck. The solution? They had to ship it to some other location for further review. How long would that take? TWO-FOUR WEEKS!!!

At this point, I can barely speak because I’m so frustrated, pissed off, and very close to panic at the thought of being without my baby for that long. I held it together though and pointed out that it appears that this computer (no longer my baby now that it has betrayed me) is a lemon and they should just replace it. After all, it is only two months old and I did purchase the extended warranty. Sound reasonable?

Apparently, not to Best Buy. The useless liar of a store manager flat out refused to even consider it, claiming he did not have the authority to return it for a new one. Ummm….WHAT??!!

The kicker? Even if the off-site Geek Squad mecca determines that I am correct and that it is a lemon, they will charge us $99.00 to recover all of our files!

“We’re about people”?!! I think not. Just for fun, here’s another quote from their website…

“It might surprise some of you that so far we haven’t mentioned consumer electronics (although, we just did) because Best Buy is associated so strongly with technology. And don’t get us wrong; we love the stuff. It’s just that we think technology should serve people, and not the other way around. You might say that we love technology, but we’re not in love with technology. Technology makes a lot of promises, and we’re here to make it live it up to those promises. For people.”

Bullshit.

Thanks for stopping by!

So Much More Than A Mom » Customer Service

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