Generic answers from customer service - don't they tick you off?
By vivasuzi
@vivasuzi (4127)
United States
December 2, 2011 9:27pm CST
I recently started a discussion about making complaints to companies if there is something wrong with your order. Well, I recently complained about my order to Barnes and Noble after they told me my order is delayed and wouldn't be shipped for up to 30 days. Christmas is in 24 days! They did ask me to confirm if I still wanted the order, and I said YES to the 30 day extension because the product was now DOUBLE in price since I had bought under a black friday deal. I didn't want to lose out on the price!
But I decided to complained about this to the customer service email address asking if they could give me some kind of compensation or discount since I might not be getting my daughter's 1st Christmas present on time! Well you know what the response was? A generic how-to about how to cancel your order or accept the 30 day extension. It was just a FAQ description. I already knew how to accept the 30 day extension and had already done this.
My complaint clearly stated that I was upset by this and how I thought they should give me some kind of discount. Well this is not the first time this happened to me. It seems whenever you write a customer service department, the FIRST response is almost always a generic "faq" or how-to or copy/paste answer. I am getting so tired of these generic answers! So I had to write back, and hope a real person answers next time. But we shouldn't have to go through this mess. Our complaint should be read thoroughly the first time and a proper answer given. These automatic answers do nothing but leave a bad taste in my mouth and make me want to stay away from the company. Don't you think?
Have you ever had a generic answer to an email you sent to a customer service person? Were you ticked and how did you handle it? Did you ever end up getting a REAL response?
1 person likes this
2 responses
@megamatt (14291)
• United States
7 Dec 11
I think that a lot of companies just don't value customer service the way they used to. In this day and age, they think that they can get away with coasting. Granted, if it is a larger company, they are likely to receive thousands of potential inquiries all across the board each and every day but still, you'd figure they'd actually look at the e-mails.
Sometimes, I do wonder if they even bother to read a word that anyone writes. I am going to imagine that they really are not reading anything to say the very least. There are just a lot of times where they have a few go to answers. Talking on the telephone is the same thing. If I manage to get a live person on the line, that is and they have a list of generic answers. Customer service isn't what it used to be.
@vivasuzi (4127)
• United States
10 Dec 11
Nope they don't value it at all. They do coast - good wording! I think a lot of answers to emails are automatic and a real person never looks at them. They hope you will be satisfied with the answer and give up.
I hate when companies give me a FAQ or generic answer because I already usually read the FAQ and know that answer, usually I'm asking about something different or want more than what I read. BUT I guess they probably have a lot of costumers who do not read the FAQ so they always start with that.
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
7 Jan 12
This has happened to me. I would ask a specific question and I got one of those no brainer automatic responses. I felt the only way I could get a correct answer was to go to the store itself and let off a big scream. Of course, it would have cost a lot of money to take the plane and go there. I did have a bit of problem with my cell phone provider when I wanted to find s specific answer. But then they failed to write in their FAQ, that if you want to speak to a real human being, press 0.
