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07/06/2003 Archived Entry: ""We don't want you as a customer""
What does it say about a company whose technical-support supervisors feel comfortable saying "well, if that's going to be your attitude, we don't want you as a customer, and I'll transfer you to Billing so you can cancel your account?"
It spoke volumes to me when I got those words from SBC, the telephone company, regarding their SBC Yahoo! product. Those words should never have been uttered. Yes, there are times when a company may decide that a customer isn't worth the effort, but never, ever, should they be sent packing with such a bald-faced, insulting statement.
Worse yet, SBC didn't "make it right" when the issue was called to their attention...
I work with a volunteer, non-profit monthly newspaper in Granby, CT. Our advertising manager, another volunteer, signed up for Southern New England Telephone's (SNET) Internet service some time ago. SNET was bought by SBC (the former Southwestern Bell), and renamed SBC SNET. Later, SBC decided to outsource much of their Internet service as part of a co-marketing agreement, resulting in the SBC Yahoo! service.
Recently, one of his two SBC Yahoo! mail accounts stopped working. The account in question is used to receive advertisements for the newspaper. He called technical support for assistance. He immediately ran into problems, because he uses Mac OS X. He was told, over multiple calls, that SBC Yahoo! doesn't support Mac OS X at all, that Mac OS X is fully supported, and that Mac OS X is sort-of supported. After several days with no resolution, he asked me to help.
Together with my mother--the vice-president of the Board for the volunteer organization, and an editor of the newspaper--I called SBC Yahoo! and spoke with a tech. In a strong Indian accent, she informed me that SBC Yahoo! supports Mac OS X, but only supports Microsoft Outlook 2002 for e-mail on OS X. She was quite belligerent, insisting that Outlook 2002--a Windows-only program--was included with Mac OS X.
I asked for a supervisor, and after quite a delay, I spoke with someone identifying themselves as a supervisor. I explained that we were a nonprofit newspaper, and that this account was vital to us. He explained that SBC Yahoo! only supports Microsoft Outlook Express 5 on Mac OS X. This program is capable of running on Mac OS X, but it's a Mac OS 9 program that runs in a compatibility mode. OS X includes its own e-mail client, and Microsoft's popular Entourage program is included in Microsoft Office. Entourage is essentially an OS X version of Outlook Express, and it's Entourage that the poor volunteer was using. The supervisor didn't care; the policy is that SBC Yahoo! only supports software for OS 9.
The trouble began when the supervisor wouldn't acknowledge that Outlook Express is OS 9 software, not OS X software. After all, OS X has been out for over two years now. The proper thing for him to do would have been to acknowledge the fact that SBC Yahoo! is behind the times and offer to push for support, but then explain their policy. Instead, I was very rudely told that, as Outlook Express can be run under OS X (in Classic compatiblity mode), it constitutes full support of OS X.
When I asked why we had gotten so many varying answers to the question "do you support OS X?" and asked what assurance we had that we'd receive accurate and consistent support in the future for this account which is so important to us, the supervisor trotted out a prepared-sounding statement that SBC Yahoo! is for entertainment purposes only and the Terms of Service absolve SBC Yahoo! from any responsibility for system failures. In other words, SBC Yahoo! doesn't have to actually function at all, and they'll still take your money.
I can understand the sentiment, but certainly that's not how a company should put it to a customer! The right way would have been to explain that this is a residential account, without service guarantees... but would I be interested in hearing about the business accounts, which for a slightly higher fee have service-level agreements? That didn't happen with SBC Yahoo!
I tried to restate what he was telling me in the way I understood it. Of course, this was colored by the way SBC Yahoo! was making me feel--a natural situation for any customer. This is when I was told that Mr. Supervisor, on behalf of SBC Yahoo!, didn't want me as a customer.
Time to turbo.
My next call was to SBC's corporate offices in Texas. The Chairman's Office directed me to the corporate office of SBC SNET here in Connecticut. Both the Chairman's Office and the SNET corporate office expressed shock that a supervisor would say such a thing. The SNET corporate office troubleshooter assured me that someone would call our volunteer that afternoon and get their problem sorted out.
That was over a week ago; the volunteer has yet to receive a call.
I guess SBC doesn't want our business after all.
Certainly, I will avoid doing business with SBC wherever possible. It's clear to me that they aren't training their tech support staff on their product, that their supervisors don't have strong people skills, and that the corporate office lacks follow-through.
As for the newspaper... they're researching options, including moving connectivity to Cox Cable, and e-mail to a commercial provider.
Morals of the story
Posted by Deb @ 04/30/2004 03:52 PM ET
I agree that SBC-Yahoo is bad news! And to call what those SBC representatives who answer the phones do "Customer Service"....that is ludicrous! There is no service...just misinformation and contradictory
info...the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing!
Posted by Al @ 03/11/2004 11:17 PM ET
Dear SBC,
>
>I have just spoken to the State of Michigan and I have filed
>>discrimination charges against your company. After SBC received two
>>payments from me and cashed both checks in which I have a zero
>balance
>>you have not restored my phone service. I have filed a police report
>>against you for stealing my money and for harassing and
>discriminating
>against my person and disabilities. I'm seeking Legal Counsel against
>your company for >your lack luster discrimination of my situation. I
>think it is very >pitiful of your company to punish me and my
>disability. Telling me on >the phone that you don't care that I'm
>disabled and that I do not need my >phone service. How low can you get
>over a 77.00 dollar phone bill. I promise >as soon as I can get out of
>your ill-advised company I will run as fast as I can. >However, the
>State has counseled me to keep my phone service with your >horrible
>company while they investigate and pursue charges against your f!
>ilth.
>>The police just left my home and asked me to call them in the morning
>if my service has not been restored. I plan on pressing charges
>against
>anyone I can. Thank you for hurting me and my family >over 77.00
>dollars. You are the lowest of the lowest and the scummiest of then
>all.
>You remind me of Hitler and a drug dealer on the corner who doesn't
>get
>his money and goes and >hurts and kills a family over money. Nice
>going
>SBC fine job you did. >Oh, I have contacted Problem Solvers from
>Channel
>2 also and hope that I can make your >lives as miserable as you have
>discriminated against me. >Al
>
>
Posted by Keilly @ 02/20/2004 10:39 PM ET
Has anyone on this board ever tried to get help on using SBC-Yahoo service? We have tried four times and, invariably, someone in a very faraway voice speaks in an almost unintelligble brand of English. I fear my call has been transferred to India, and after 30 minutes of trying to understand what is being said, frustration sets in and I hang up. Can't they use Americans who speak English well to help their paying customer? We still cannot register any e-mail names so the computer is almost useless.
Posted by Audra Sabo @ 10/27/2003 11:29 AM ET
I had SBC service including the DSL while a resident of Kansas. When I knew that I was moving to a new state and knew the address I contact via the web, SBC's transfer service site and put the wheels in motion. I got the appropriate email response including my new phone number and confirmation that it would be on the 15th of October.
Upon arrival on the 15th we hooked up a phone and had no service. We called in to SBC customer service and was assured that the phone was in fact hooked up and should be working. The soonest they could get somebody out was 4 days later. We had them come out and it was just a matter of making a few adjustments, then it was working fine. So the next problem was we had NO DSL service, we called they said it should be just a matter of sending the information to the order department and you will have your service. (the dsl should have been taken care of at the same time as the regular phone service. Especially since they had over 30 days to process the change) So here I sit today without DSL or good customer service. "Clearly SBC does not care about customer service" Not oftenwill you hear me say that I wish I had my qwest service back.
Posted by Michael McGrinder @ 08/22/2003 12:40 PM ET
I want to unjoin yahoo email
Posted by brenda carlson @ 08/20/2003 03:37 PM ET
SBC YAHOO is really bad in providing a good customer service, especially when it comes to 'meet' customer's satisfaction.
on 8/17 evening I called to SBC customer service and asked to change my method of payment; they are closed so I had to call back tomorrow morning.
When I called back the very next day and asked the customer service specifically if it is 'too late' to change my method of payment from debit visa card (which there was already a pending charge on it)to master card credit card before it actually got posted to debit visa card. She said it's still OK to do it and that the pending on the debit card will be released.
I was pretty much assured by the customer service that everything was take care of. I also reminded her that it is very 'crucial' that it was taken care of because of the fact that we had taken out big amount of cash on debit card, and leaving just a little balance on the debit card; it is imperative that she made sure the charge will go to our credit card instead. Again, she said everything was taken care of.
2 days later, I was upset to find out that the charge actually went to the debit card causing my account to be overdrawn. I called the customer service to complaint about this matter. All they said was there was nothing they can do about it; said that the day I called to change the payment type,it was actually already too late to do it and that the previous customer service I talked to had given me wrong information. I told them that it is NOT acceptable that now I have to pay the overdfart fee for their mistake; I demanded to talk to the supervisor.
after putting me on hold for about 2 minutes, i finally spoke with a man who claimed to be a supervisor; he pretty much said the same thing that there was nothing they can do about it. Again, I told him it was NOT acceptable. I called and specifically asked if I can do one thing, promised that it had been taken care of, and what happened was the total opposite. Apology WAS NOT the answer.
I asked him what he can do to make SBC customer happy, and to compensate the inconvenience? All he said was he can only reverse the charge due to technical problem; he can't do anything else. I asked him, how about for 'unhappy' customers due to wrong information given from their side that caused me great inconveniece? He said I have to contact the corporate office for the compensation. I demanded him to connect me to the corporate office and he said that he was not capable to do so. I DID NOT by his excuse. I told him that since his supervisory level could not solve my problem, I wanted to talk to a manager on duty. He said he was the only person in charge. I told him, I've been in customer service field for 10 years, and never before I been treated like this.
Then all he said was, "THANK YOU FOR CALLING THE SBC YAHOO AND HAVE A NICE DAY" He hung up
I was speechless. I found this really funny and ridiculous at the same time, and shared this experience will all my friends.
Clearly, SBC YAHOO does not want my business. The customer service can't even be empowered to make a 'common sense' decision to keep their customers happy. Way to go SBC YAHOO. I want to see how long can they last if they are to maintain 'unprofessional' quality of customer service.
So for you all out there, don't by the gimmicks that SBC YAHOO offers the low rates on internet service. It definately does not worth it.
Posted by mary schewatz @ 08/07/2003 12:45 PM ET
Yes. yes. I have gotten very similar treatment from SBC "Emerging Products" representatives. I moved my phone number from one house to another in the same geographic area. At one point I was going to move into a different apt. in the same complex but within 2 days after requesting the move of DSL and phone service, I called SBC to give them my new and only new address. While the phone company end of SBC understood that my address changed, the DSL side did not. They claim that they hooked up DSL at the address where I first planned to move. However, that never happened, I did have DSL at my new real address for about a month. Suddenly it went out and the SBC rep. insisted that I was somehow getting DSL at my new address through some unknown process. She insisted that she would have to disconnect and then reconnect my service at my new address. Well its been two weeks and apparently it takes that long for the "disconnect" service request to be written up. What can I say, if I hear one more rep ask me how they can provide me with Excellent service, I'm going to scream. Unfortunately they are the only choice for broadband service in my area. Any suggestions?
Posted by Dave @ 07/28/2003 05:11 PM ET
Run, don't walk, away from SBC. They're a nightmarish company on the verge of passing AT&T for sheer corporate lunacy/arrogance!
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