Career Change

I’ve decided on my NEXT career!

I will become a customer service consultant.

The market for a good customer service consultant appears to be huge!  I could start a company and make bazillions of dollars in no time – write a book, start a magazine.. err… “publication” (to use currently accepted terminology), and maybe even start a trade organization in which membership is required for any business to be considered “customer friendly.”  Wow!  What a plan!

I guess customer service is becoming a bit of a theme for me.  Possibly this is because I am holier-than-thou, demand to treated like a king, and am unforgiving??  I suppose.

Another possibility is that I am simply tired of companies that say they will do one thing and then do not do it.  Very frustrating.

The latest is “Dish” – as in Dish Network and Dish.com.  I signed up for “pay as you go” service as reported here.  I had purchased my own equipment for this very purpose.  I was told that I would pay in advance for thirty days of service.  If I wanted another thirty days, pay for it.  If I did not, simply don’t pay and when ready for another thirty days, pay for it.  I do not watch very much television and would have preferred a week at a time approach but I was happy to have any option (to the two-year contract).

Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy!

However…  This is the frustration, that is frequently a “however” and I don’t think there ought to be.

A couple months after my first thirty day period, I login to my Dish account and find that they have billed me for those two months and my account is now past due.  SHOCK!

Fifteen minutes with a Dish customer service “specialist” and my account is back to the way it should be (or so I am told).  Interestingly, a “save transcript” option was missing from the Dish chat client.  I asked the “specialist” to email me a copy of the transcript. She said she was unable and offered to put a detailed note in my account. Super, and please send a copy of that note to my email.  Still haven’t seen that email…

Let’s say there are approximately 115 million households in the United States.  Let’s also say that half of these have a cable or satellite TV service and ten percent of those have to spend fifteen minutes every year to “straighten out” their account, like I did.  Guess how much time is wasted on such nonsense??

You won’t believe it – approximately 1.5 million hours – 60,000 days of WASTED TIME!

Maybe my numbers are way off.  I know the 115 million households is reasonably close.  Let’s say that only 10% of them have cable/satellite TV and only 1% of those spent the time that I spent.

That is still nearly 30,000 hours.

Ridiculous…

I wonder how much time it would take for these businesses to just do what they say they are going to do the first time around??

Enough, enough… I know.  My tip?!?!  Document everything!  This includes chat sessions, retaining emails, recording shipping label numbers, and so forth.  Seems silly but it is the only way to protect yourself.