Monday, February 26, 2007

Fed Up, or The World's Worst Customer Service

I am on hold. I am waiting to talk to Sprint about a charge we want to dispute from our last bill.

I have been on hold for three hours and eighteen minutes. I am listening to bad music, and every five minutes or so, a friendly lady reassures me that "All of our representatives are currently assisting other customers. Please hold, and your call will be answered in the order it was received."

Originally I was told the estimated wait time was 15-20 minutes, and I was annoyed. Little did I know I'd still be on the phone over three hours later.

At what point do you give up? I have done just about all the things I can do while on hold, and I have better things to do than to sit here and continue waiting. But if I hang up, what then--call back later and wait another three hours?? Do they think they can just wear you out so they don't have to actually hear your complaint?

Three hours, 22 minutes...still waiting...

10 comments:

Amanda said...

Alright, I did an informal poll of my coworkers and our approximate max time on hold is 15 minutes. I think you have too much patience :)

Amy said...

If I hadn't had an earpiece that enabled me to do other things while I was waiting, I wouldn't have waited nearly as long. Thankfully I had a lot of things to do today that I could accomplish while holding. I just got exasperated every time I thought about hanging up and having to go through the same thing ALL OVER AGAIN.

I never did get to talk to a real person (3 hours 42 minutes was when I hung up, FYI). I sent Sprint a polite but no-nonsense "I'm fed up" email and they're supposed to contact me within 24 hours. We'll see.

Anonymous said...

How frustrating! I probably would have just had it on speaker while I did some chores around the room....but I don't think I would have held on for THAT long :)

The Chinlund Family said...

Holy smokes, you are much more patient than I am!!! We got fed up with Sprint in November and switched to Verizon... it's been great. I hope you get things figured out soon!

Anonymous said...

Hey,

That's ridiculous that you had to wait that long. Check out http://gethuman.com/ It's a website that lists ways to bypass automatic systems that keep you on hold. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Well...when you actually talk to a realy person, tell them you're going to cancel your service with them...It upsets them and then they'll listen to what you have to say!

Amy said...

I've seen/used GetHuman.com before, but didn't think about it yesterday. I'm not sure whether that would have made a difference, though--after just a couple of automated menu options, I was transferred to what was supposed to BE a human. Just told that they were all busy and so I needed to wait. But I think I must have somehow gotten stuck in some sort of odd computer loop. There's no way they were THAT busy.

Anyway, I did find a different phone number at GetHuman that's supposed to be direct to human. I've already been in contact with Sprint via email and they're supposed to be calling me, but maybe I'll try the alternate number, as I still haven't heard from them.

When I did check out GetHuman, I was not surprised to see that Sprint has an "F" rating for customer service. Though actually, when Steve was on the phone with them back in December to change our plan and get a second line, he was really pleased with the service he got.

Jules said...

I get horrible customer service with Sprint/Nextel too. We had bogus charges on our bill that we had to just pay for and now wait for them to credit us. We'll see if that ever happens.

Anonymous said...

Amy, I thought I would just answer your questions over here :)

No, he really doesn't shed. We gave him a bath the first night we brought him home and afterwards I brushed him and there was hardly any hair on the brush. I've been brushing him daily and still not much fur. Its great! Especially since our house isn't very big- I wouldn't want to deal with dog fur all over the place.

And he will be the size of a full grown Lab (60-80 pounds). Probably on the bigger end of that because he is a male and he has HUGE paws. The breeders bred a standard poodle and a standard lab; both of which grow to be about 60 pounds.

He is the sweetest thing in the world! Typically they cost around $1000 but we got him for only $250 (and we have his papers and everything). So if you are looking into buying one. Let me know and I can hook you up with the person that we bought Leo from. He was asking $300 and Nathaniel talked him down :) My hubby is the best!

sara jean said...

This is rediculous and way intense!! This is one of those John Stossel(?) Give me a break! stories.