Self-Serve Equals “Do My Work For Me!”
Ok, maybe I’m still cranky from this head and chest cold I’ve been carrying around for weeks, but I’m seriously tired of “self-serve” nonsense. I skip the self-serve isles in supermarkets, department stores, and others, not because the technology frightens me, as those who sell the things like to claim (frankly, I can program better than the people who build these silly things), but rather because if I’m going to do the work of a clerk, I expect to be paid for it in the form of discounts. You don’t pay me, I don’t do your work. Simple, really.
But tonight, I ran into something so mind-numbingly stupid I was moved to write about it here. For years now, I’ve been a customer of Verizon Wireless…heck, I bought my cell phone from Sprint Cellular something like eight years ago, which became 360, which became something-or-other else, which was eventually bought by Verizon Wireless. And for years, I’ve been dropping my bill off at the local Verizon Wireless store; my daughter loves the trip to the mall, since she deposits the envelope into the drop box, then we go up the escalator to the food court for a soft-pretzel snack. She’s been doing this since she was too little to get on the escalator by herself, and almost every month, right about on time, she’ll ask if it’s time to go pay the Verizon Wireless bill.
But no more. Tonight, they told her she couldn’t use the drop box, pointed me to a computer terminal, and told me to enter the payment information into their system. Apparently, the six or seven sales people standing around with their thumbs up their rear ends (no joke, there were three taking care of dealing with me) were too busy thrilling themselves, and so I’m to do their work for them. (In fact, one kid told me, “I guess because they had to do this anyway at the end of the night.” Yeah…tough work, getting paid to enter transactions and all.)
Me, enter the transaction into their computer? Not in this bloody lifetime.
I’ll be mailing this bill in. And over the next few weeks I’ll be researching other cellular telephone companies; I’m determined to have a new provider by the end of the year. The total lack of service from Verizon Wireless, up to and including expecting me to do their d*mned clerical work for them, convinced me in no uncertain terms that they can go jump off the nearest cell tower. I’m finding another company.
The only depressing thing is, I doubt there are any other companies who will actually provide service anymore. And the reason is, I’m convinced, is that we as consumers allow them to constantly screw us around this way. They tell us to do their work for them, while paying for the privilege…and we meekly do.
But not this old man.
December 3rd, 2004 at 12:15 am
Nicely put. You realize the REAL reason they want us to do it? We’ll get it RIGHT.
Which means we SHOULD get a BONUS, as well as pay.
Hope you are feeling better!
December 8th, 2004 at 12:15 am
i’m sure your company offers many other payment options such as paying over the phone with a represenative or an automated system, putting it in the mail, or paying it on-line. the stores are full of SALES reps. if you don’t have a checking account or credit card you can put it on, you shouldn’t whine about having difficulty making payment……it’s your OWN FAULT!
Honest, I don’t know whether you are sincere in your frustration, being a loud-mouth for the heck of it, or a Verizon Wireless sales drone (which would make sense considering you’re coming through Adelphia, even though you need to hide behind a Yahoo email address), but regardless, you need to take a deep breath and stop yelling for a minute. All-caps isn’t going to make you sound any more intelligent.
Although it’s irrelevant, I pay the bill by check. (Yes, I’m a grownup, with a checking account, credit cards, mortgage, and the rest; from the tone of your posting, I’m probably older than your parents.) I put the check into the envelope with the bill, and instead of mailing it, we drive to the mall, and my six-year-old drops it off at the Verizon Wireless store. This is done only so my daughter can get her soft pretzel and 25-cent ball out of the vending machine near the door of the wall…lord, nowadays the gasoline I burn getting to the mall costs far more than a stamp would.
But so what if I decided to pay cash? So what if I go there to buy my daughter a snack? There’s no reason for the store, which sells the product, not to give me the service to accept my payment. Other than extrordinary laziness on the part of the sales force and middle management, or the belief by upper management that the customer is smarter than the sales force and therefore more capable of entering the data into the computer system as noted in a prior comment.
See, this is the point you kinda blew by in your unjustifiable anger…there’s no customer service given by Verizon Wireless if they won’t even accept a payment in person without the customer doing the clerical work.
That Verizon Wireless now refuses to take the bill, and instead requires me to enter the payment into their computer system, is where I have a problem. The problem is a lack of customer service - and that is clearly not my fault.
Really, dude, take your medication and think about it once its active.
December 13th, 2004 at 10:47 am
A rambling comment was posted here from 204.60.97.250 having nothing whatsoever to do with the content of the blog post, rather discussing “Manifest Destiny” in a manor implying a canned script (the log data shows MSIE 6 running under .NET CLR 1.1.4322). I’ve removed the nonsense.
February 14th, 2005 at 4:04 am
I hit the wrong link and deleted this comment, recreating it from the approval mail WordPress sent. I apologize to the commentator for sitting down at a computer before my first cup of coffee…you’d think I’d know better. –cfs3
Although your situation must have been frustrating for you, not everyone is so taken back by doing it yourself. why do you need an excuse to take your girl to the mall? So you mail your check and go anyways. I think its one of those things that come with age- you cherish you routines, and lash out at anyone who breaks it. I think the kid who posted earlier is right. Find an easier way to pay your bill. Doing it the hardest way invites the most problems. Making a check-by-phone payment (#PMT from your cell phone- I have Verizon too) takes 30 seconds. Then when you’re done, take you girl to the mall anyways. Instead of going to the Verizon Wireless store, add a different step to your routine. The world isnt going to stop for you. You need to learn how to roll with the changes. Are you really that crass that you get philospohical when someone gives you a self serve option? They are there to save smart/busy/impatient people time. People would rather enter their inforation at a kiosk instead of stand in line, and some people would rather scan their own groceries rather than wait in line. Since you have obivously dated yourself to be retired, I guess you have nothing but time. But for us “spring chickens” we have things to do, and we dont want to stand beind you in line, waiting to do them. We get past our ego, and help ourselves.
You serioiusly miss the point. The “service economy” is becoming service-less. Regardless of my reasons (and there was never a “line,” there was a drop-box for payments which cost no other customers time), why shouldn’t a clerk take my money? Why do I need to process my own payments, ring up my own groceries, do everything myself. Does it save me money? Of course it doesn’t; it adds profit to the margins.
As soneone who still provides a service to my clients (no, I am not retired, and at no point did I ever suggest this, although it explains your clear age bias), I expect other companies to do the same. This isn’t a matter of age, nor change. It is a matter of the rest of you acting like lambs, doing what you’re told to do by the companies you pay, instead of having the courage to suggest these companies need to provide the service for which you pay.
I mean, heavens, have a good time following the crowd like a lemming headed to the cliffs if you choose. Just don’t expect me to do it; I expect to be treated like a valued customer by the companies with which I do business, not an account number tied to computer databases to be used instead of served. Your satisfaction with being treated poorly is exactly why companies expand the amount of work you need to do to get through your daily life.
“Service” doesn’t exist anymore…and you are too apothetic to care.
March 15th, 2005 at 11:44 pm
You are right on the money$$ They know the consumer will do whatever they are told. I believe this has to do with early programming in the public schools but that is another rant.
I have been with verizon for over 2 years and I have finally had enough. Before reading this post I had already ordered service with T-mobile. I figure that if I am going to get harrassed it might as well be for less money a month.
I recently checked my bill via verizon’s website as I often do and within a few minutes some verizon freak calls and leaves a voicemail (that I have to use minutes to check) telling me that if I call him he can help me pick a plan to avoid overages… NO THANKS!!! On top of that I have been getting a letter a week from the sales rep who sold me my service over 2 years ago. He really wants a commision from me because I have been on a monthly basis with verizon for over a year.
Added to all that there is the fact that every few months you have to fight with them over something on the bill or whatever else…. I have considered trashing the cells… but that isn’t going to happen becuase I don’t have a landline anyways.
BTW… I believe that verizon was bought by belsouth mobility. That is some really bad news. No wonder their service stinks! My first cell phone was with belsouth mobility back in the day and their support was horible. It took me a long time to try cell phones again after all their crap.
One more note one the whole service thing… when is the last time you called a support line to get your ram replaced or whatever on a name brand under waranty machine and didn’t have to explain to the guy who is clumsily butchering english that you can’t let him control your computer to diagnose the problem because with the ram being bad you can’t even get the OS reinstalled. Not like mem98 (or whatever the ram checker was called) saying the thing was failing all manner of tests should indicate anything… Anyways…
I hope you enjoyed my little rants. I feel better now that I have blown off some steam.
March 26th, 2006 at 12:57 am
As a lifer to verizon wireless lets weight out the options. They offer the bill pay kiosk to those who want to pay there bill without having to sign in or wait for one of the very busy customer service or sales reps. If you are old fashioned you may sign in and wait for a service rep to help you and you can still get the one on one service that you crave. If u have ever been into a Verizon wireless store where there was anyone standing around with there thumbs up there tookas you may be in the company of a reseller, malls are comman for this and they will not and do not offer the same service that the stores do. Verizon trys to cater to everyone, sadly the people in a hurry are winning the hearts of large companies because they largely out number those who are not in a hurry, but take the time while u are in a corparate store and ask someone to take your payment or look at your plan, if you are asked to submit your own payment and you tell them your preference of having a one on one that wish will be catered to….secondly to comment on the poster that stated that he gets a call from his rep of two years ago to tell you about the companies new plans that would save you money, come on now what more customer service can u ask. As i stated before the sales reps are vey busy and the fact that they take the time out of there day commisinable or not you should feel overwelmed with customer serivice that out of the thousands of people that that sales rep has helped in a two year period has remembered that u one of those thousands of people may need to save a little money. Its illegal to resign a two year contract over the phone but the sales rep, that took there time to save you 10, 15 dollars a month may ask to renew you legally for one year and make a couple of dollars for themselves in the process!!! So if u feel so strogly against what i consider impeciable customer service, leave Verizon and find out a couple of things A. verizon has the best overall customer service B the best overall phone service C decent phones D impartial and non changing rules cust to customer!! Dont be afraid of contracts anywhere you go you will be signing them.(You will go back to Verizon) Verizon has very competitive pricing on phones and and calling plans and are still to date the only company that offers a 100.00 discount on the primary lines of those customers who have fufilled there current obligation….one other thing i have NEVER left a verizon store without being offered insurance on my new phone i which am very ruff on stuff opt to take this insurance and guess what i have NEVER paid more than 50 dollars to replace any phone i have ever owned!!! verizon wireless has the lowest churn rate of any company any is the fastest growing, constantly taking customers from those companies you are researching to leave and go to!!!For those of you who are not retired, also consider this…How many things have changed in your line of employement in the last year, outta of those things no matter if you agree with them or not do u have control over ??? Give the people at the stores a break they are blindly following orders of the people who put food on their tables….thanks….Please respond :)
First off, you can’t be a “lifer” with Verizon Wireless, as they are relative newcommers to the game; I started with Sprint Cellular, which was then sold around to a variety of names including 360, and eventually purchased by Verizon becomming the nexus of Verizon Wireless - understand, I never changed companies, yet what started out as Sprint Cellular eventually morphed into Verizon Wireless. Secondly, you say, “you may sign in and wait for a service rep to help you,” which is a blatent lie, as you may not; in my local store, the “reps” are never all busy, yet they refuse to take payment in any other way than self-serve kiosk.
I’m also a little sick of all the whining about how I want to pay a bill in person, as if I were paying the thing in pennies or something. As I have said repeatedly, every month, I printed out a check, placed it in the envelope, sealed it, and gave it to my daughter to drop into a friggin’ box…I never bothered a sales rep to count change or anything. I put a pre-printed check, inside an envelope, into a d*mned box, where at their leasure they could simply apply the payment to my account. It was this they are too d*mned lazy to do, so all of you, stop telling me I’m being unreasonable asking them to take my money!
More notes: ” As i stated before the sales reps are vey busy” - not in my store, they ain’t. As I mentioned, it took three reps to tell me they couldn’t take my payment in the payment box, but rather had to do the computer entering myself. (Clearly, no Verizon apologist ever bothers to actually read my posting…)
“you may be in the company of a reseller” - Dude, I know what a reseller is, and this ain’t one. It’s a company store, and yes, there were six reps in the store, three telling me they were too busy to take my envelope with pre-printed check, and another three chatting among themselves. This was not uncommon; although I haven’t been to the company store since (since I no longer need to waste my time there), when I was going there they were rarely busy, and routinely had people sitting around.
“So if u feel so strogly against what i consider impeciable customer service, leave Verizon and find out a couple of things” - What I have learned is that I am far happier, get better signal coverage, better customer service, and no hassles. Oh, yes, and my daughter still gets her pretzel every other month or so.
“one other thing i have NEVER left a verizon store without being offered insurance on my new phone…guess what i have NEVER paid more than 50 dollars to replace any phone i have ever owned!!!” - well, yeah, of course they do, as upselling accounts for around 10% of most companies’ revenue, and the phones you paid $50 or less for cost the company half that, even with the insurance. Try to wrap your mind around this…theyprofit from selling the insurance; if they didn’t, they wouldn’t offer it. They ain’t upselling for your benefit, and if you think they are, you are exactly the kind of uninformed customer most businesses would kill for.
“How many things have changed in your line of employement in the last year” - let’s take that a little deeper, and admit our entire economy is moving away from manufacture into service. Yet the “service” companies don’t deliver service, expect us to do their work for us, and we as a society accept it. We get what we deserve, and people like you lower expectation low enough that everyone gets screwed.
“You will go back to Verizon” - not bloody likely.
“Give the people at the stores a break they are blindly following orders of the people who put food on their tables” - that’s like saying I have to be polite to telemarketers. If they want to deliver service, they get my money. If they expect me to do their work for them, they don’t. Simple as that.
As normal, you not only miss the point but make apologies for crappy customer service. And as this posting seems to be attracting an inordinate number of Verizon apologists who apparently work there (and the post is better than a year-and-a-quarter old, for heaven’s sake), I’m closing down comments. You want to gripe about how “unfair” I am to expect a service economy to actually deliver service, go pay for your own server.
June 16th, 2006 at 10:52 pm
[…] As some of you might remember, early last year I got seriously miffed at Verizon deciding they wanted me to do their clerical work for them so I left, heading to Cingular and a GoPhone. I liked that little Sony Ericsson phone so much, when I finally changed plans and picked up a new phone, I decided to stick with SE, so I now have a brand-spankin’-new Z520a camera phone. […]