Customer Service Is So....Old School
Every day I’m more and more convinced that Corporate America thinks it’s a great idea to put up walls between themselves and their customers. Internet commerce provides a great excuse to either outsource customer service, turn much of it over to some very advanced customer relationship software or pretty much drop it altogether.
Watching the onset of this – and the way it seems to be spreading like an epidemic among our largest corporations — the only conclusion I can reach is that many of these companies simply have no interest in talking to their customers.
Consider my recent experience with UPS, a company I interact with regularly in my business because every promotional product we sell needs to get shipped to somewhere.
Back in December I was charged for a shipment that wasn’t mine. A supplier mistakenly billed me for a something that went to another client. I attempted to address it on UPS’ Billing website, but was pressed for time and could not easily find where you had to go to dispute a charge. So I put it off and forgot about it amidst the hustle and bustle of the holidays…until yesterday.
My memory was jogged by a phone call from UPS — with a recorded voice on the other end — that droned on about how I better pay up or else. Fair enough. Back to the UPS Billing website I go…and I’m looking around and can’t seem to figure out the proper way to dispute a charge. You would think it would be simple, but it’s not.
So I have to call the main UPS number, 1-800-PICK UPS. Only problem is there’s no way to link from that number to any function related to billing. When I ask for ‘Rep’, the password UPS uses for requesting live help, I get a "fine we’ll connect you, but first tell us the purpose of this call…" and it gives you some options…none of which have anything to do with billing.
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