Customer service / call center horror stories

[trinacriabob]

Phone companies. Going to the dogs. I swear.

I just spent 52 minutes to an MCI call center in Argentina. I ingratiated myself somewhat by speaking entirely in Spanish, which they fully understood. This is my 6th call to MCI since May and a credit has been issued against the final bill, though 1 call back in May should have sufficed.

In short:

- called MCI to disconnect on May 17th

- had to stay in my place 1 month longer, so I called on May 11th to cancel the disconnect...I thought that 6 days prior was enough time

- was told that their "system" did not EASILY allow for order cancellations/adjustments once placed because of the fact that they don't own the lines, they are resellers

- phone service was reinstated by their "priority" contacting of my local phone company, but these jack-asses did NOT reinstate any of my calling plans...that took 2 more phone calls.

- my phone bill for flat rate unlimited domestic and some international averages around $90 a month. As a result of NOT reinstating the calling plans, my June bill was initially over a $ 1,000 dollars but with their recalc was $ 128. This was ALSO wrong and I had to talk to them for 1 hour to take off more which correctly calculated back to about $90, but at first they didn't see my point. If I had been speaking to the Philippines instead of Argentina, I am sure the phone call would have taken 2 hours, possibly without any results.

Bottom line:

- Stay away from the "resellers," IMHO. They are administratively cumbersome to deal with. Those that carry the lines are now offering better packages, at last. I just switched my Mom onto a Verizon package with flat rate domestic and an international plan, and her first 2 bills were better. Plus, you get to speak to someone in the states, at least for now.

Any horror stories?

Edited August 3, 2007 by trinacriabob

[Robert Hall]

Not a horror story, but back in the late '90s I worked for MCI and was a developer of the system that routes incoming phone calls to specific phones in call centers..so when you called, you call was routed using my software..

[regfootball]

symantec / norton will never get my business again because of their call center in India BS.

[Z-06]

symantec / norton will never get my business again because of their call center in India BS.

Then probably take out

Delta

US Air

Dell

Gateway

United

NW

Some Mastercard and Visa providers out of your business reporteire.

I have heard that taxes and other important information is also being sent there.