Category: Uncategorized

I recently purchased an HP Officejet 7612. This was to replace the similar Brother machine I had been using to scan a multitude of tabloid-size articles I had written over the years.  All was good until the Brother software wouldn’t open up on my Windows 7 machine. The short version: A Brother tech logged into my computer and said something on my computer is blocking the program. He had no clues. He said it could take days for me to track down. Being that no other program on the machine has a problem, I decided to bail on Brother.

I took the machine back to OfficeDepot and got the HP Officejet 7612.  I figured I would be productive right away. Wrong.  In the first 19 hours of possessing the machine I spent about 5 hours with HP’s customer service trying to figure somethings out.

Not all the customer service calls went well. I couldn’t find how to change the default directory in the software for scanning results. I called and the representative told me that I could not change the directory. A supervisor came on the line at my request and told me I could change the default save directory. This turned out to be true.

My new HP device has a feature of printing by email. Within the HP network, as long as the printer is connected to the Internet, I can have an email address for the printer. Send an email with a pdf attachment and it will print. Great. I set up the email address, but one of my email addresses on the white list of allowed email sources and . . . waited, and waited . . . for something to print. Nothing. I called HP customer service again. I was told that the white list of allowed email sources did not work. Grr. I spend all that time reading docs, testing, reading docs, testing, to learn that there is a system malfunction on HP’s part. Why not message alerting users on the HP website? “Too involved” was the answer.

I ended up writing five pages of details about my new experience with the HP device. I sent the information to the Senior VP for customer service. Withing three days of mailing the letters I got a call back from a manager. We had an hour-long conversation about some printer issues and about customer service in general. Some of the points I made to him:

* If self-service support — a trend in big business — is going to be a focus from a company, then the company needs to gear up in a number of ways: excellent documentation, easy navigation, accurate information, alerts, and good grammar. Regarding grammar: I printed out a support document for the printer and the first first sentence had the wrong verb. This is a complete turn off to read any further and to think that I want to rely on documentation for help.

* Representatives on the phone need to know the hardware. They need hands-on experience.

* Representatives need an effective way to quickly report problems to engineers and webmasters about problems.

To HP’s credit, they responded to my letters, unlike Yahoo, which has never responded to any of my letters. The difference is striking. I can get a sense that one big company actually cares about quality and the customer experience.

You may be wondering — why send a letter? Simple. Social media has it’s place, but for a long, involved, detailed story, social media just does not have the capacity for what I want to say. Additionally, not all companies monitor social media for customer complaints.

You know you have true customerNONservice when you are paying for multiple services from the same company and it is impossible to reach anyone about problems. This is the case with Yahoo as I type.

My paid email account (associated with a small business account) is barely working.

I called the support number. I was advised by recording to get an incident number. I did that and continued to hold. After 30 minutes on hold, Yahoo disconnected my call.

I called in again and was disconnected again.

I called in a third time and was disconnected again.

One of recorded message I did hear while on hold was to go to this page to send a message:
help.yahoo.com/identity
I went to that page and guess what? No help. No form. No way to send email. Instead, I got this:

Yahoo Will be right back…
Thank you for your patience.
Our engineers are working quickly to resolve the issue.

I called the Yahoo corporate number 408-349-3301 and pressed zero for the receptionist. I explained that I had tried three previous times to reach someone. All she did was put me back into the same waiting line. And after being on hold, dropped again.

Yahoo’s customerNONservice really shouldn’t surprise me. I have mailed three letters to Marissa Mayer about problems in the past. No response of any kind from anyone at Yahoo to any of the three letters.

Put all these experiences together and what do you have: a company that consistently sends a strong message that it does not care about paying customers.

Of my last three attempts to deposit checks at Bank of America ATM machines only one attempt worked. The first attempt was canceled. No reason.I got the check back. The second attempt (with the check on the first attempt, but at a distant ATM, worked). The third attempt was a $325 check drawn on the Bank of America. At the branch ATM with this check I waited for the “processing” message to go away. It finally went away about three minutes later when the machine abruptly canceled the deposit. The check was not returned. I did not get a receipt. Because the BoA customer non-service call center was closed, I logged into my BoA account when I got home and sent a message reporting the attempted deposit, cancellation, no check and no receipt. Below is the useless response I received.

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Thank you for your email dated 10/26/2014, regarding your ATM check deposit issue. We are glad to assist you.

We really understand how concerned you must be. Your comments help us enhance the best banking experience possible for you. We truly appreciate your comprehension and we continue reviewing and correcting our areas of opportunity as the one you have observed with the ATM. We apologize for any inconvenience we have caused you. [Completely useless paragraph.]

At this point the system is still processing the weekend transactions. It would be the next business day during the ATM review when the system will be showing an adjusted balance with your check amount deposit. [It is still processing a canceled transaction?]

If the issue continues, remember the 60-day-time frame for you to initiate your formal claim through us; according to the date of the transaction. We would review your case and help you take further action. [If the issue continues? How is this responsive to my specific incident that the ATM ate my check without receipt or credit? Note the improper semicolon.]

If we may be of further assistance applicable by email, please contact us again. We value you as a customer and appreciate your business. Thank you for choosing Bank of America.

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What is the specific advice I get for the $325 check I lost to the BoA ATM without any record? Nothing. This customer service response provides no specific actions for me to take. Additionally, how does one initiate a formal claim? The response does not even provide a link or phone number to do this. The response does not care enough to say they would try to find the check the ATM machine ate without any credit to my account and without giving me a receipt.

An appropriate and caring response would have  been something like this:

We  are sorry to hear about your problem. We have initiated an investigation to find the check in question in the ATM you reported. We will report back within two business days.

OR

We  are sorry to hear about your problem. Please call xxx-xxx-xxxx during these hours to initiate the process of finding the check lost in our ATM and to get credit for the check.

This is just another instance of why credit unions are getting more and more of my business. These big banks are too big too care. And they don’t.

Why do corporations post phone numbers for help that connect you to people who cannot help?

This is exactly the situation with Bank of America. I tried to deposit a check at the nearest ATM. The machine kicked the check back out and and told me my deposit attempt was cancelled. No reason was given.

I called the toll-free number posted on the ATM, specifically identified as the phone number for ATM help and problems. The people who answered the phone were not the people who knew about ATM machines. Those people were in a different group.

When I asked why my deposit attempt was cancelled, the BoA representatives went on a fishing expedition to discover if there was something weird with the check. I asked why they just didn’t look into the computer log for the ATM and see what it might say. That’s when I learned they didn’t have access to that log and that I was, in fact, talking to customer service folks who could not provide any real service with the device in question.

Big corporations apparently have enough time on their hands to devise ways to frustrate customers.