[p1necone]

Awful customer service seems to be industry standard now. Companies have worked out that they can just entirely ignore any problems that aren't fixed by automated/scripted responses without cutting into their profits more than having proper customer support would.

Hopefully some startups will realize they can attract customers by paying for customer support staff with basic reading comprehension skills (and not incentivising them to close tickets as fast as possible without actually confirming issues are fixed), but I'm not holding my breath.

[bmitc]

It’s become really frustrating. You used to be able to just talk to people to solve problems. Even Amazon in the 2000s was like this. Nowadays, it’s just nothing but “the computer says no”. I ordered a keyboard from Logitech’s own website, as I’m trying to avoid Amazon these days. The keyboard was marked as ready to ship and awaiting carrier for two to three weeks. I called several times because I was needing the keyboard, and I asked them to just cancel the order. They couldn’t because “it was already shipping”, but that status held for nearly three weeks. I asked if they could just call the shipping warehouse or some actual person who worked in that area to either pull the box back or actually have it shipped. I assumed it had just gotten kicked under a table or something. Logitech acted like I had just asked them to solve Schrodinger’s equation. It was flabbergasting that a product just enters into this purgatory state, and no one could talk to anyone or even verify what it’s actual state was.

In another case, UPS destroyed a suitcase and refused to pay their minimum insurance on it, claiming that they don’t pay insurance for boxes and the suitcase was a box. Their customer service refused and could not care less.

These big companies do not care. Customers are a statistic, and the companies are perfectly happy treating customers like shit if the statistics say it doesn’t matter much to their bottom line. It’s also why they just ignore regulations because they get hit with fines that are a pittance compared to their profits.

It’s gonna keep getting worse be like that for everything. Computer systems have turned every employee’s perspective into “not my problem”.

[cudgy]

Same inventory purgatory issue happened to me about 6 months ago with Best Buy. Ordered an item for same-day delivery that was in stock at my local store, and they were unable to deliver the item for several weeks even though the item was clearly available. Had to buy the item at another store and then return the Best Buy item when it arrived weeks later.

[thayne]

I think a big part of the problem is consolidation and lack of competition. In an ideal market, if you had a bad experience like these you would stop using that company, and tell your friends to as well. But, in many industries there are at most a handful of companies to choose from, and as long as none of the other big companies have good customer support, they don't have any incentive to have good customer support. And a newcomer doesn't have much chance of competing unless it is extremely well funded, or is more niche.

[Schroedingersat]

Diffuse assets like reputation don't appear on the quarterly asset sheet. So the first time such a company has a bad quarter they'll be forced to pawn them off for cents on the dollar in the name of 'efficiency' ortheir funders will have a tantrum and coup the management.

The vc funding model is fundamentally incapable of respecting anything that isn't 'more control for investors and make line go up now'