Saturday Writing Essentials Customer Service

This Week’s Challenge:

Write about a positive or negative customer service you have had.

[Prose or poetry; fiction, nonfiction, or essay.]

Ideas:

* You have been waiting in line at the returns counter for an hour. Finally you get up to the counter and they are about to close. How do you handle this?

*You call for customer/technical support.

*Dealing with a governmental agency.

Watch Out For:

You may have the urge to get up on a soap box or use insulting language-(government agencies tempt us to do so but try too avoid it)

A month ago I had a problem with my AOL service. I called the technician because I couldn’t get online, the first two techicians told me I could get help online even after I told them I couldn’t get online. The first one used English I couldn’t understand very well and was only able to get a word or two of what he was saying as he told me to go online. I told him I was having trouble understanding what he was saying and could he transfer me to someone else, I got disconnected.

The second technician used badly broken English and I asked him if I could speak to someone else I finally got a woman who spoke with a British accent; success. I told her my problem and that I couldn’t get online and she helped me, I had been hacked and had to change my password but every time I changed my password it refused to take that password. After six tries she gave me a password that didn’t expire so that I could use it over again if changing my password didn’t work. I finally got it to accept my password and had to endure having to be subjected to a test every third time I tried to email something, this went on for three weeks even though I never once spammed anyone before nor had I done so during those three weeks.

Customer service used to be if not a pleasure at least not an ordeal.  Having to speak to people who don’t speak your language well enough to be understood is not acceptable!!