How To Get Customer Support
A couple of weeks ago, I had some fraudulent charges to my credit card so I had to get a new card issued. In the meantime, my XM radio auto-renewal failed because my old credit card no longer worked. They politely sent me an email and I went to update my information. That’s when the trouble began.
After spinning around their site (they require different logins for different activities), I simply could not get to the portion of their site that allows me to update my credit card information. Apparently they have a bug in their system and they are trying to fix it. Fine. So I called customer service….and waited….and waited….
After about 10 minutes, I hung up. I got tired of hearing the happy message telling me that I could not be helped because they were so busy helping new customers.
So this is how I got immediate help - and this works for just about any corporate organization. I went to their corporate website here. I found their corporate phone number and when I was prompted for someone’s extension, I just dialed a random, 4-digit extension. This technique will land you at the desk of someone important 9 times out of 10. This was one of those 9 times.
Within seconds I was placed in the hands of Joan (who even gave me her last name). Joan was so kind and helpful, it was amazing. She even gave me her personal phone number should I have trouble again.
So the next time you’re sitting on hold waiting for an outsourced phone operator to finally get to your call, go look up the corporate number and get an executive on the line. Works every time!
Sphere It
February 6th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
I had a similar experience today where I got transfer back and forth twice between two different dept.s that did want to handle my call.
February 25th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
You rock! That’s brilliant… Now everyone knows.
Dave, are you stalking John? Your comment wasn’t really relavent. I am starting to think you just want him to know you’re there, watching, thinking of him, in your skivies. Well, you were in your skivies…
If I hear that you’ve left the rental inductry to consult, I’m calling “single white female” on your arse.
February 29th, 2008 at 4:38 am
Dave the Stalker - funny! His post does seem random.
March 1st, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Geez, Rusty. That’s certainly a disturbing thought. I’m not sure about the skivies, but Dave definitely follows my every visible move. But I have learned from the experience. Since he downloaded my presentation and snagged my personal email, I learned to keep those things behind a secure area. Since he followed me to Youtube and other areas when I was experimenting with Social, I learned to use obscure login names. He will certainly find out about my new job when I update Linkedin. But unless you tell him about our project, he won’t be aware of much until he moves down in the SERPs! Heh heh heh….
March 4th, 2008 at 10:16 am
Talk about “cat and mouse” Are you scared?
March 8th, 2008 at 12:58 am
Of course people are going to study #1. Others can get obsessive about it. I think Dave is an all right guy, if not somewhat obsessive. But I’m scared of you, Robbie.