Trouble Getting Through to Customer Service

[doughmama]

Trying to get through to home office and the recording has changed. Once I finally get to customer service, it tells me that the extension is busy so I either need to enter another extension or hang up. No call back, no nothing. Anyone have any ideas of what else I can do to get through. I need to exchange an item that a guest bought at a recent show.

 

[chefann]

Do an online adjustment.

 

[cookn' katie]

I had a problem last week and complained to Customer Service. I called for 4 days and didn't get the call back recording, then I finally had a day that I could be home all day and the call back time was 5 hours. They said that there is so many things going on at once that they have had unlimited calls. New career plan, new catalog, end of the month, etc. I hope they get it turn it around quickly. My new recruit was super frustrated because she never got a delined cr card email and it didn't show up online either. She had to wait forever! She was afraid if Customer support was this poor, the company may not be for her!!

 

[c00p]

cookn' katie - remind your new recruit about the email that was sent out about the changeover in their system and new learning, etc. Change takes time and frustrations will abound, but remind her of the excellent service you have had over the past 3 years that you've been a consultant. I had a call back time of 4 hours yesterday, but I went on with my day and when they called, the gal was extra helpful and I did 3 adjustments at the same time that I couldn't do on-line. I do prefer to do the on-line, but when you have to call, you have to expect that you'll wait and you have to be patient - which is oh, so hard!!

 

[pampchefrhondab]

I feel your pain! I'm trying to get through too! I have a customer who needs an answer today regarding tax exempt!!!!

I guess if I send the show in wrong I'll get a call! I can change the tax to zero in PP, but I'm sure HO probably needs their tax number!!

Ughh!!!

I'll try to email, but I hope I get an answer today!

 

[doughmama]

can I exchange one item for another online? there will be a difference in price which will need to be added to her credit card. think it is too complicated to do online. I have to say that I have been very disappointed with customer service lately. The people are helpful but the delay has been insane. One day I called and the call back was 10 hours...

 

[doughmama]

And I don't mind even the wait from the call back but this phone message is just telling me to hang up. So there is no help coming back to me. I just have to keep calling until the phone options change - ugh!!

 

[pampchefrhondab]

I agree, I don't mind waiting for a call back, but getting a "this line is busy" is nuts! They need to get the problem fixed ASAP.

 

[chef131doreen]

OMG I'm try to call 45 min so far this is crazy I have to talk to someone
this is not good they keep saying the line is busy try again

 

[erinb]

I emailed them last Thursday and still haven't gotten anything back. Just hope and pray they get everything back to normal soon.

 

[wadesgirl]

I know that they are in the process of switching over their system. They asked that we not call when we don't need to and to do everything online or via email. You can do an exchange over email. Just email them all the information. As for the emails not being answered, it did take a couple days last week to take care of an email that I sent. They are working as hard as their new system will let them.

 

[chefjeanine]

They've about used up their "we've got a new system" excuse. It's called customer service . . . and I’m a customer too! I hope to God my customers are getting better service than I am.

I've had three call backs in the past two weeks. All three have been after (or very close to) 9:00 p.m. Not acceptable. I don't call my customers after 9 and they shouldn't call me that late. My husband (who gets up at the crack of dawn) was awakened each time. Yes, I know they are on Central time but “the system” should be sophisticated enough to know what time it is where they are calling.

Last night they called back (that was the call that was just before 9) and I was waiting for 26 minutes for someone to come to the phone before I hung up. I don't know if anyone was ever going to talk to me. Remember the days when an actual person called you back and your business was taken care of quickly? :thumbup:

Yes, I have sent an email to Home Office and will send more if this keeps up. It needs to change SOON! :grumpy:

 

[ChefBeckyD]

They've about used up their "we've got a new system" excuse. It's called customer service . . . and I’m a customer too! I hope to God my customers are getting better service than I am.

I've had three call backs in the past two weeks. All three have been after (or very close to) 9:00 p.m. Not acceptable. I don't call my customers after 9 and they shouldn't call me that late. My husband (who gets up at the crack of dawn) was awakened each time. Yes, I know they are on Central time but “the system” should be sophisticated enough to know what time it is where they are calling.

Last night they called back (that was the call that was just before 9) and I was waiting for 26 minutes for someone to come to the phone before I hung up. I don't know if anyone was ever going to talk to me. Remember the days when an actual person called you back and your business was taken care of quickly? :thumbup:

Yes, I have sent an email to Home Office and will send more if this keeps up. It needs to change SOON! :grumpy:

I have to agree with this. Obviously someone didn't do enough research into the problems that might occur with rolling out a new system, and there doesn't seem to have been any training with their CS people in how to handle the questions, and issues that might arise. It's very frustrating to get no call backs, to wait a week or more for an email to be answered, to be shipped wrong product, to have a declined card without any notification online, by phone, or on CC.....

I've seen other roll-outs of new systems, and PC has had new system roll-outs before, and never have I seen a mess like this. It's very embarrassing to tell a customer who has been waiting since the beginning of January for a product exchange that things are slow because of a new system roll out. I think 8 weeks to get a new chopper is a bit much!

 

[pamperedlinda]

I had to call a litle while ago. The call back time was over 2 hours - I decided to wait and they picked-up in less than 3 mins. The rep I talked to was clearly frusterated with their new system - she was very nice, but you could tell she had already had a bad day and is about as over this new system as we are!

I also did not get any options for tech support, career solutions, or customer support - it all fed into one line and the system didn't know who I was (for those who haven't called before, they system remembers you by the number you call from and knows if you are a consultant and knows your ID# for future calls) She said the automated system was really screwy today.

 

[wadesgirl]

They've about used up their "we've got a new system" excuse. It's called customer service . . . and I’m a customer too! I hope to God my customers are getting better service than I am.

I've had three call backs in the past two weeks. All three have been after (or very close to) 9:00 p.m. Not acceptable. I don't call my customers after 9 and they shouldn't call me that late. My husband (who gets up at the crack of dawn) was awakened each time. Yes, I know they are on Central time but “the system” should be sophisticated enough to know what time it is where they are calling.

Last night they called back (that was the call that was just before 9) and I was waiting for 26 minutes for someone to come to the phone before I hung up. I don't know if anyone was ever going to talk to me. Remember the days when an actual person called you back and your business was taken care of quickly? :thumbup:

Yes, I have sent an email to Home Office and will send more if this keeps up. It needs to change SOON! :grumpy:

Yes but there is nothing we can do about it so you have to deal with it. When they call you, they don't always know what time zone they are calling. If you request a call back within regular office hours, they will call you back - but they don't know what time you are in. I work in an industry that deals with this kind of stuff all the time. You cannot always help what outside people may do to screw up your business (ie phone people, shipping people, etc). You just have to deal with it.

 

[chefjeanine]

Yes but there is nothing we can do about it so you have to deal with it. When they call you, they don't always know what time zone they are calling. If you request a call back within regular office hours, they will call you back - but they don't know what time you are in. I work in an industry that deals with this kind of stuff all the time. You cannot always help what outside people may do to screw up your business (ie phone people, shipping people, etc). You just have to deal with it.

Yes, there is something I can and will do, email and let them know it's not okay.

If they can tell who I am by my phone number, (see Linda's post right after mine) they can tell where I'm located (my time zone).

Sorry, I’m not letting them off the hook. I’ve been around longer than Becky so I’ve been through lots of new system rollouts -- this one is a disaster. This reflects poorly on all of us

 

[pamperedlinda]

Yes, there is something I can and will do, email and let them know it's not okay.

If they can tell who I am by my phone number, (see Linda's post right after mine) they can tell where I'm located (my time zone).

Sorry, I’m not letting them off the hook. I’ve been around longer than Becky so I’ve been through lots of new system rollouts -- this one is a disaster. This reflects poorly on all of us

Right now they cannot tell who or where you are calling from - the system isn't working right (sorry if I wasn't clear earlier).

 

[c00p]

Well, speaking from someone who has been on the IS (information systems) side of things, I have been through more than my fair share of system changes, minor and major - including merging 2 huge law firms together that consisited of over 8 cities, more than 2,400 timekeepers (attorneys, paralegals, etc.), 1,800 secretaries and about 300 others that used the same accounting and time keeping system. This is not a minor deal. I worked countless hours and we had tons of issues that we never anticipated. We did testing on the new systems for over a year before the rollout and even had others using the new systems to do further testing. It is a long, vigorous and exhausting situation to convert systems. Problems that we never anticipated, never experienced during testing times, etc. did come up after we went "live". You can never predict all that will happen when converting major systems. After rolling out the new system, I worked 7 days a week and about 14-16 hours a day, often sleeping in a hotel near the office so I could be back before the crack of dawn to start working on the problems that had crept up the previous day.

It is frustrating, but think of it from the IS side and from the "users" side. They are all trying really, really hard to get it right - but computers, etc. are tempermental. You can never know what all will or won't happen. I just don't feel it's fair to be so, dare I say, nasty? about these changes. I know FIRSTHAND how frustrating it is to be on the other side and working tirelessly to fix it, and still having everyone mad at you. It is no fun and having people mad at me didn't make me work any harder or faster. It just added to the stress that I was already under.

So do them a favor (and yourself), try to understand that they do realize the importance of getting things running smoothly again and that they are trying to fix it as quickly as possible. Give 'em a break please!!!!

 

[pamperedlinda]

sending out a little PSA for HO Customer Service:

I know calling HO is frustrating for us - just remember when you call, that the person on the other end is also frustrated and it isn't their fault either. They are paid to help us with our issues, they cannot fix the phone/computer system.

 

[pamperedlinda]

and what Andrea said too.....

 

[chefjeanine]

No worries Andrea, I've yet to talk to a live person and I would never be nasty to them if I did speak to someone. That's not my style. :angel:

Linda, I was just commenting on the fact that they have had the technology to know who we were by our phone number. I don't have a clue what they know now.

 

[pamperedlinda]

No worries Andrea, I've yet to talk to a live person and I would never be nasty to them if I did speak to someone. That's not my style. :angel:

Linda, I was just commenting on the fact that they have had the technology to know who we were by our phone number. I don't have a clue what they know now.

Oh, absolutely! I'm sure they will get that back when all is fixed.

 

[wadesgirl]

Well, speaking from someone who has been on the IS (information systems) side of things, I have been through more than my fair share of system changes, minor and major - including merging 2 huge law firms together that consisited of over 8 cities, more than 2,400 timekeepers (attorneys, paralegals, etc.), 1,800 secretaries and about 300 others that used the same accounting and time keeping system. This is not a minor deal. I worked countless hours and we had tons of issues that we never anticipated. We did testing on the new systems for over a year before the rollout and even had others using the new systems to do further testing. It is a long, vigorous and exhausting situation to convert systems. Problems that we never anticipated, never experienced during testing times, etc. did come up after we went "live". You can never predict all that will happen when converting major systems. After rolling out the new system, I worked 7 days a week and about 14-16 hours a day, often sleeping in a hotel near the office so I could be back before the crack of dawn to start working on the problems that had crept up the previous day.

It is frustrating, but think of it from the IS side and from the "users" side. They are all trying really, really hard to get it right - but computers, etc. are tempermental. You can never know what all will or won't happen. I just don't feel it's fair to be so, dare I say, nasty? about these changes. I know FIRSTHAND how frustrating it is to be on the other side and working tirelessly to fix it, and still having everyone mad at you. It is no fun and having people mad at me didn't make me work any harder or faster. It just added to the stress that I was already under.

So do them a favor (and yourself), try to understand that they do realize the importance of getting things running smoothly again and that they are trying to fix it as quickly as possible. Give 'em a break please!!!!

Amen! Silly length requirements!

 

[kaseydee]

The phone msg is working like normal now.

 

[chef131doreen]

I know they are going through changes , but I just had to call about an address that a party is being shipped to .

I called and they DID NOT say that the hold time is xx and we will call back just that the next avalible person will be right with you , so I held on ................... 2 hours later I still have the phone to my ear WHAT'S UP WITH THAT I just had 9 bokings with this host I hope all gets shipped to the right house cause the shipping status had the wrong town nothing I did so I was just checking , I guess I will try to call back later

 

[pampchefrhondab]

I got through about 9:30 (EST). I was so happy and had a very helpful person (Debra) on the phone. I of course was nice to her, it's not her fault like others have said.

The caller ID is not working for them though. I hope they get the bugs fixed soon for everyone.

Oh, BTW I did send an email too because I wasn't sure when I would get through and they responded to me today.

 

[c00p]

Jeanine - I was pretty confident that you wouldn't be nasty to a "real" person!! And I'm glad that you said it as well. I just soooo feel for those IS folks.....it's such a burden and is so stressful.

Actually, after that really horrible one that I went through (that I had mentioned), my supervisor gave me this "rock" and it says "Persistence prevails when all else fails". I've loved that saying since then!!