- By Dan Veaner
- Opinions
Print 
Contrast that with Time Warner Business Class. I have recently spoken to two local businesspeople who were not pleased with that company's service. It actually seems as if the consumer unit is better at customer service than the one that caters to businesses! Service and support are spotty. I called on behalf of someone to get some simple information about accessing her account, and was given the runaround. One person told me she has to wait a month to have cable hooked up to her business, and that they have not been responsive to her calls.
Or SiriusXM. There is a company with a great product, but I challenge you to cancel your account without being put through the ringer. It's one of those horrible deals where they automatically renew using your credit card, and the only way to get them to stop is to call the dreaded 'Cancellation Department'. We had the service, but decided that it was just one subscription in life too many. I would have recommended the service before, but the horrors of cancelling have changed my mind.
Our second radio expired before the first, so I called to cancel it. I got a person for whom English was obviously not a first (or even current) language. This person could not handle going off script, even when I asked her to. After waiting on hold for-seemingly-ever she wasn't able to acknowledge that I really waited all that time to actually cancel. As she prepared to repeat her script for the third time I finally told her I wanted her to stop reading it and cancel my account now. There was a pause, and she repeated my request. I confirmed that she had it right -- I wanted to cancel. She asked me to wait a minute while she cancelled my radio.
After that minute she told me she had extended my radio's account for three months for free, and then I would be charged only $$$ per month.
My eyes bulged. Steam spewed out my ears. The very idea of having to call to cancel again after three months gave me a sinking hollow feeling in my gut. I took a deep breath, then calmly told her no, cancel my account immediately. Eventually she did, though I didn't believe it until months went by with no charge on my card. On top of that, I had called a week before the radio was due to expire, and had asked for it to just expire when it was due. She cut it off that day.
I am having some trouble with my computer. It is freezing a lot. It is under warranty so I did several tests and then called tech support. Previously I had called SiriusXM to cancel our remaining radio, but received notification in the mail they were going to renew it for three years for nearly $500 that I didn't want to pay. I sent them an email and got a reply that my account was still active, even though I had waited an hour on hold, and got a nice man for whom English was a first language.
So on this day I had three calls to make: one to Apple support, one to my credit card company to ask whether they could flag SiriusXM charges and not approve them, and finally to SiriusXM to find out why the radio hadn't been cancelled.
My anxiety level for each call was out of proportion to how much each company impacts my life. I use a computer every day and rely on it for my living, so that should produce the most anxiety. But my anxiety meter was low going into that call. We've had issues with the credit card company -- mostly to do with their denying legitimate charges because their security department is too vigilant. About a 5 on the anxiety meter. And then there was SiriusXM. 16 on a scale of 10.
My call to Apple went well. I got a woman who knew what she was talking about, was friendly and personable and gave me real solutions. I felt good about it. I got the use of my computer back, and while it actually froze up this morning I am fairly confident Apple will help me figure out the problem.
My call to the credit card company also went about as expected. The woman I spoke to was friendly and tried to be helpful. It turned out she couldn't put a hold on one company's charges, but she offered to issue me a new card with a new number so the old one wouldn't work any more. I thanked her and said I would hold off on that unless I felt I had to do it.
Next, XM. This time I just pressed buttons to get a person. She was helpful, but she said she didn't have the 'tools' to cancel an account, so I would have to go on hold for the dreaded 'Cancellation Department'. When I complained she noted it was early in their day and maybe I wouldn't have to be on hold so long.
It turned out I was only on hold a minute, and got an English speaking woman who was able to actually look up my account and see it was scheduled to cancel on the date it was to run out. She explained that's why email-person didn't know it was already cancelled. I asked her to cancel it immediately and send me either a letter or an email confirming it is cancelled. She was happy to comply, saying she had cancelled it and that I would automatically get an email later that day confirming the cancellation.
That was a week ago. Still no email. But the call went a lot better than expected. But I still feel a lot of anger and bad feelings toward SiriusXM. And here's the rub: I really enjoyed their product. But my expectation of horrible customer service has so tainted my feelings about it that I would never recommend it to anybody. Canceling has been a nightmare. Even though I have now spoken to two actually helpful people, both of whom have assured me my account is cancelled, I have low confidence that it actually is.
Meanwhile my Apple product still isn't acting as it should (it's better but not perfect yet), yet I'd recommend it without a second thought. (And I am not an Apple religionist like some people are. It's just a tool, people!!!)
The lesson is that the expectation of customer service, good or bad, really makes a difference. Companies that think they are saving money by out-sourcing customer service and technical service are probably cutting off their nose to spite their face. Is the strategy behind causing customer anxiety that we will just put up with whatever the company wants to dish out if we can only avoid pressing six for customer service or two for support?
While a recent Vocalabs study shows satisfaction with Apple support has dropped slightly, the company still ranks highest on customer satisfaction, higher than HP and Dell.
"Our research shows that customer satisfaction with a tech support call is highly correlated with likelihood to repurchase, an indicator of customer loyalty," the report states. "In our NCSS Tech Support interviews conducted with 2,166 consumers from July 2009 through December 2010, we found that customers who are highly satisfied with the tech support call are 3 times as likely to say they would purchase again from the company. Sixty-four percent of customers who were 'Very Satisfied' with the call said they would purchase again, compared to just 20% of customers who reported they were 'Somewhat Satisfied' with the support call."
For a company offering support you would think that would just be common sense. Happy customers are... well, customers. Where business is concerned, having customers is good. Unhappy customers are... no longer customers. That is, if SiriusXM actually cancelled my account!
v7i21