How Not To Serve Your Customers

I had another run in recently with the cable company. I'm not going to say which cable company, but they've been in the news a lot recently after they botched the rollout of a certain hot-ticket cellphone.

I can't stand this company. 

I'm a customer purely because they offer a service that no one else does. That gives them a competitive advantage, for sure, but not for long. Eventually, the competition will catch up and the second they do, I'll jump ship.

Here's what annoys me about this company. A few years ago, they brought out their Personal Video Recorder (PVR) product. When they first released it, they didn't offer a monthly rental option, so I had to buy it from them (at a cost of 650 bucks). Annoying, but I recognize that there's a price for being an early adopter. Adding insult to injury, though, they also charged me $2/month to access the content that gets recorded on the PVR. Hmm, that sounds shady already doesn't it? Of course, they've structured the package and the contract so it's legal, but it still sounds like a scam. And, since it's a monthly access fee, it goes up. It's now up to $3/month to access content that I've already licensed (through my normal channel package fees), and recorded on a box that I own.

In addition, they've had very few software updates to this PVR since it came out, so the functionality is still pretty rough (especially compared to other PVRs on the market). They've now discontinued this model and they're pushing the newer version, but they have no upgrade path for those of us that purchased the original - if we want a new one we have to chuck our old one and buy/lease the new one at full price.

So that's why I loathe them (there's more, but that gives you a taste of it). Every time I call them, I hear the familiar disclaimer that my call may be monitored or recorded for training purposes. And every time I talk to an agent there, I make a point of telling them how much I loathe their company and its policies. I even ask them to note it in my account. The phone reps, of course, have no idea how to respond to this and invariably sit there in stunned silence.

This has probably happened a dozen times over the last few years, and not once has a rep passed me to a supervisor for discussion. Not once has a customer service person contacted me to inquire about my dissatisfaction or attempted to resolve my issues. They do their best to completely ignore my dissatisfaction, all the while continuing to hound me to buy additional services from them. Sure, they talk in public about how much they value their customers, but their actions tell a very different story.

Now, I'm not expecting them to change their policies just for me. They're a business and they have to make money like every other business. Of course, solving my problem would cost them very little and generate far more goodwill, but they're a public company and they're obviously focused on short term results rather than long term value.

To me, that's a great example of how NOT to treat your customers. Sure, they've got my business right now because of a competitive advantage, but they won't have it forever. If their business model is "suck in customers with shiny products then treat them like crap", they've got it down, but that business model puts them squarely into the same category as pimps and crack dealers.

In fact, every time I'm forced to deal with this company, it causes me to re-examine our customer service policies. My goal is to ensure that we never do anything that remotely resembles them. I don't think there's much chance of that, but still, I think about it. I can't imagine any customer ever calling up and saying "please make a note that I can't stand your company and its policies" but I know that I wouldn't sleep until their issues were resolved.

I guess these clowns at the cable company are doing me a favor, then, by forcing that ongoing review of our policies. I have a feeling that I won't get around to thanking them, though.