If the BBB can rate these guys, why not me? I’m a stickler for good service — I won’t patronize companies providing inferior service. When I had a billing problem with Sprint about 5 years ago and the phone rep called me a liar, I switched to VoiceStream (Jamie Lee Curtis had nothing to do with it). Conversely, I’m willing to pay for good service: Apple’s not cheap, but they generally take care of you.
The most important aspect of customer service is being treated with respect. If you hear me out and professionally attempt to resolve my issue you’re doing a good job. Obviously, the next set of criteria is being able to actually resolve the issue efficiently. Online forums, support docs, and web apps make me happy too — I’d rather research the problem myself or manage my account if you give me the tools.
With that in mind, here are my ratings of several companies I’ve dealt with over the last year. Feel free to contribute your own ratings in the comments.
| Positive | Neutral | Negative |
| Logitech Harmony | Netflix | Comcast |
| Sling Media | Verizon | Dell |
| TiVo | XM | Vonage |
Oddly, I must express the surprisingly high level of service that I’ve received from the Seattle Branch of Comcast. Being someone who was use to the typical extremely poor cable co. customer service; when I moved to Seattle I expected the worst. Comcast Seattle was by far the best service level of any utility I’ve ever dealt with. They had to rewire my house when I moved in and they brought in a three man crew the next day after the problem was discovered. An office supervisor even can out and visited during the job to make sure it was going well and I was happy. Maybe it’s being in Seattle with all the tech-savvy folks, and they needed to raise there game; but I’ve been pleased enough, that I had to express my pleasant surprise.
Vonage is Awful!
And I sincerely hope they go out of business soon. Help get the word out.
I decided to give them a shot when I canceled my Qwest DSL for unreliability and switched to Comcast (which has been SOLID). They promised that it would be easy to transfer my phone number, they sent me some paperwork and a catalog of interface boxes/routers. I selected one made by linksys, it arrived and I set it up and got a dialtone.
Two days later we had a wind storm and power outage and the linksys completely died. Bad experience, I conclude that having my phone service dependent on electricity is a bad idea and set out to cancel the phone number transfer.
Vonage is the roach motel of phone companies. They have sales people working around the clock, but intentionally don’t put their customer service extension in the menu on their phone system. This is dishonest and I decide not to do further business with them.
Unfortunately, they won’t or can’t cancel the number transfer. I contact Qwest to see if they can stop it and at first they think so, but eventually they say no, but let it go through and in a week they can request it back. So we do. This leaves me without the ability to receive calls for over 3 weeks. I tell the reps at Vonage that I want my number transfer cancelled and plan to cancel service – they warn me not to cancel until the number safely returns to Qwest. Qwest gives me the same advice.
It takes 20 days for a number to transfer – so this entire fiasco is over 40 days long. Cleverly, Vonage provides a 30 day money back guarantee. Criminal.
I learn this last fact when phoning to cancel my Vonage “service” (which never worked) and am told that 1) I’m over the 30 days to I have to pay $30 in cancellation fees and 2) I am charged an additional $50 for hardware that I bought up front for $89 in the first place and that failed within days of power up and 3) am told that they won’t even replace the dead hardware (although the rather smug-bitchy rep in cancellations is pleased to tell me that “if you had stayed we’d replace it but since you’re cancelling you’re out of luck”). Perversely, the rep’s parting shot is to tell me to “Have a nice day” after telling me she’s hitting my card for $100.
There’s no option to simply not pay the bill – Vonage gets your credit card number up front. However, I have disputed all charges from them with my bank and returned the defective equipment so I’m hopeful to escape with my cash intact (while sticking them with chargeback costs as well).
So much for customer service. Avoid Vonage at all costs!
I’ve had just as bad Customer Service from T-Mobile as Vonage, but I’m unfortunately stuck with Vonage and T-Mo.
Netflix has been extremely disappointing for the past 6 months (I’ve been a member for 2 years). Their turn around times have gotten terrible. Just recently I started checking where my DVDs were arriving from and where they are being returned to. Even though I live in Orange County CA and the Santa Ana distribution center is less than 10 miles from me, when I recently rented “Cadence” I had to wait 6 days for it to arrive. Why? Because it was shipped from the Netflix warehouse in Maryland which is about as far away from me as you can get (and still stay in the country). Are you telling me one of the CA distribution centers didn’t have a copy of Cadence to send me? Other DVDs I have recently rented have come from San Jose CA and have take 3 days to arrive.
A friend of mine in Houston TX signed up with Netflix about 30 days ago. During his trial period, all of his DVDs were being shipped from the Houston distribution center and were arriving in a day, two at most. Ironically, not long after his trial period expired and he became a regular, paying customer, he noticed a significant change in the arrival times of his DVDs. I had him check to see where his movies were coming from and being sent back to and half the time, they were coming from CA.
Blockbuster, here we come!
TiVo is horrible! I bought a wireless adapter from them and decided to return it the same day I received it – unopened and I had to wait on the phone with them three separate times for more than 2 1/2 hours. Finally, after I was able to speak with a suprvisor on the third call, he told me that they part wasn’t in their computer and wouldn’t be there for another two weeks, even though the shipping required that I send it back within a month! Basically, he told me I was SOL and I had to keep the adapter. Frustrated, I finally talked to enough people to send the damn adapter back to TiVo’s headquarters. BUT…a few days later they sent it back to me telling me it was past the deadline on the day they receieved it! Rather than spend another 2 1/2 hours on the telephone complaining, I simply kept the adapater! I just couldn’t deal with it any longer!
For what it’s worth:
HP has provided both patient and outstanding customer service for me in my last 2 computers.
After having Sprint and Cingular I’ve told all cell companies to take a hike and gone Virgin prepaid. Spend $200 per year instead of per month.
I am also rating online stores ecost as neutral+ and newegg as very positive.
Dell’s online store is HORRIBLE- 1980’s tech of “send someone to the shelf to see if it’s in stock” combined with “try not to fufill that coupon any way possible because we will lose money on the deal.” I won’t be back there ever.
I’ve had the same horrible experience with Vonage, bottom line, don’t get it and don’t ever deal with them!
Pass this info around to everyone you know, so they won’t be suckered!