When customers start doing crazy things just to cancel their mobile phone contracts, it is very obvious that the mobile carriers are doing something really wrong. According to The Washington Post, one customer faked his death to avoid paying $175 to cancel his long-term contract with Verizon Wireless!
While a two-year contract is a standard in this industry, poor customer service drives many people to switch to other services. This creates a big problem since these operators penalize subscribers who pre-terminate their contracts with hefty exit fees.
Some wireless companies are developing measures to improve their customer service but so far the results remain disappointing. In case these companies failed to realize, one of the basic customer service rules is to be helpful even if there is no immediate profit to gain. It's tragic how they failed to understand a very simple concept.
On the other hand, this is a rather lucrative opportunity for many starting wireless companies – a passionate and effective customer service. For now, let's mourn for the death of customer service in the wireless industry.
September 8th, 2007 at 9:02 am
Most people use their local department of motor vehicles as examples of horrid customer service due excessively long waits and un-empowered people to help you.
Verizon Wireless makes the IRS and your local MVA look like role models for customer satisfaction.
Recently my Motorola Q phone died, conveniently in month 13. Verizon states I had to pay full retail price of $399 or switch to another more expensive PDA. Email is essential for my job.
I had been a customer for 7 years with an average bill in excess of $250/ mo, ye no flexibility. They could care less.
I switch to the iPhone, very cool, and ATT. I could care less about the $175 termination charge at this point.
Now here is where customer service goes from bad to worse. I had eBilling from their website. Since I terminated their service, I could no longer log in. I then got dunning phone calls saying I was past due. I was more than willing to pay but I need an invoice. They said they can’t change the billing method. I must be done on line.
You would think they would automatically send a paper invoice so I would pay it, but no.
They may have the best network, but come hell or high will I switch back.