[jolinar of malkshor]

We as consumers need to start demanding proper customer service. It is getting really pathetic. Here are just a few recent of MANY poor customers service events that have happened to me.

Today: I try and log into my Rogers online account to pay my bill, something I have done for the alst 2 years. Today was different, it said that I was not set up to perform online billing and that I needed to call the 1-800 number. WHAT? So I call the number, press a few 1,5,3 and talk to the annoying automated voice. Get put on hold for about 7 mins and then the damn thing hangs up on me. 5 years ago I would have been right pissed off but now adays, if, I don't get cut off at least once during a call in to a company, I am quite suprised. So I call the 611 on my cell hoping to get a better response. Again, press 1 for english, talk to a automated voice and wait a couple minutes, all the while listening to a pre-recorded message about how they are experiencing higher than normal call volumes and that my business is important to them....???? Right. Get a hold of a rep, explain my problem and he tells me there is nothing he can do for me and that I have to call the 1-800 number, but they are now closed. I ask him if he can send some kind of email or flag on my account to have someone call me so I dont have to wait on hold and get cut off. Nope, nothing he can do. So now I have to start all over again tomorrow.

Yesterday: I had been experiencing lag issues with my ADSL. I had been putting off calling Telus because I am just getting sick and tire of having to talk to these rocket scientists over the phone. But I finally got mad enough with these lag spikes that I called in. Did the normal proceedure to try and get a hold of someone. Suprisingly didn't have to wait on hold for all that long. Explained my issue. She had me run a speed check from there site. I am suppose to have a speed of around 1.2 Mb per second. Mine was 400K. She does her thing and tells me that they had screwed something up on there end and that everything should be back to normal. I run another speed check and it is just over 1.2 Mb. Fine, seems like it solved the problem. Get off the phone, start using the computer and 30 mins later, exact same thing happens. Run another speed check on my own and it is back to 400k. You got to be kidding me??? Don't bother calling in bacause I know I will just get mad, so I put that off for a few days.

A few weeks ago: Switched out some old receivers with some HD on my starchoice account. Do the normal call in proceedure for starchoice. I always have to wait on hold for a long time with these guys and that day was no different. Not to mention I have had several probelms in the past with Starchoice which I will not get into right now. Any how; I Finally get a hold of someone after about 20 mins on hold, explain everything, tell them I have 1 receiver already hook up and another that is in the box that I will hook up at a later date. I ask if I can have both of them activated and ready to go now. Yup, was the response, sure thing. Do everything and it seems good to go. A few days later when I go to hook up the other receiver it is not working. Good GOD. Call them again, wait on the phone for another 20-30 mins. Get a hold of someone only to find out that they need to be hooked up to the sat for them to be activated. WHAT? I asked the lady before if I could do the one that was hooked up and the one that was in the box when I first called in and she never mentioned anything about having to have them hooked up. Now I am mad and explain look, I have spend more than a hour on the phone over the last couple of days and this was a load of crap. I said that I had enough of the poor service and I wanted a free month of service. The guy refused. He said there was no way he was going to give me anything for free. He goes, "do you know how much that would be? $87 in free programing" I said to the guy, ok, how long have I been a customer? Pause while he checks.....ah, 9 years he says. Ok I pay $87 a month for 9 years, probably going to be another 9 years unless you piss me off, so is it worth losing a customer who has been a loyal client with no late payment for 9 years over poor customer service that your company has provided because you don;t think that a loyal customer deserves some recognition? He then says, ok, I see your point what I will do is give you $10 a month for 9 months credit. WHATEVER buddy.

Then you have the regular screw ups of orders from places like Tim Hortons, McDonalds and all other such places. The screw up rate seems to be around 30% of orders from me. Extreamly unacceptable.

I mean I can go on for pages, but I think we as consumers need to say enough is enough and demand better service.

Thoughts?