Customer Service?
I think most of the blogosphere has gone on ad nauseam about how much we loathe customer service that is farmed out of country to places that end in things like “stan” and “ia”.
So, I got my new credit card in the mail today and had to call the number on the sticker on the front to “activate” it. Took TEN minutes. Because I was talking to this woman with a very thick accent, who spoke very slowwwwwly (which was probably good because of the accent, but still…), and with a very quiet connection so that I had to strain to hear her. Didn’t help that the other two people in the house weren’t being exactly quiet.
Anyway, after I gave her the last four digits of my card number, then the full card number (what exactly is the purpose of having me give the last four digits and then the whole card number – TWICE?), and my mother’s maiden name and so forth and so on, she went into all this spiel about the new technology they are using to swipe the cards and so forth. Again, I can barely hear her and it’s excruciating trying to strain to hear her with her thick accent and slowwwwww speaking. Blah blah blah is mostly what I heard, but I guess I got the gist of it. Then she went into the card protection thing and honestly? I understood about a quarter of what she was saying, so I stopped her and said, “no I don’t want it”. Well, she was quite offended by that and launched back into her lengthy explanation of what it was. AGAIN. And I still could barely hear her (by this time LG was standing right next to me and I was being distracted trying to keep her quiet so that I could hear a word now and then). And so I bluntly told her I could barely hear her and barely understand her and I wasn’t going to say yes to something when I couldn’t understand what I was saying yes TO. Dead silence. I mean, seriously, dead silence. I thought she had hung up on me. Finally, she told me in a rather snotty voice that my card had been activated and have a good evening.
So, hopefully I didn’t get signed up for something that I have to pay for. Really, credit card companies. If you want us to be nicer to your reps and maybe even sign up for your programs, why don’t you employ people who live here in the US and speak English without a thick foreign accent? Also, when I call to activate my card? It shouldn’t take me ten minutes. Just saying.
