Drastic Customer Service Action

I loathe automated telephone systems for a number of reasons but my experience with my home security system company was one of the worst.

I called them last week and was on the phone for 40 minutes trying to get someone to come to my house to make some modifications to the system. I was transferred all across North America. It's easy to tell when you are transferred out of the country because a postal code suddenly becomes a zip code.

Every time I was transferred, I had to reidentify myself, which was no easy task since the information is not in my name. It's actually in my sister and brother-in-law's name which makes my call very suspicious. When they ask me my sister's name, I actually got it wrong because we call her by her middle name whereas she goes by her first name in more formal situations (I suspect that the only reason she does this is because her name is a little unusual and can't stand having to explain and spell it all the time).

After being transferred and waiting in "priority sequence" only to have to be retransferred was incredibly frustrating. I was stuck on hold for ages and had to listen to that horrible elevator music and the occasional, "You're call is important to us."

Eventually, I gave up, and decided to send them an email. I have yet to hear a response.

I was walking down my street on Saturday evening and noticed an ***** truck parked in the street. I thought, "That's odd. I just spent ages on the phone with them and there's one of their trucks." It's funny how you notice things like that all at once.

Despite my problems with the phone system and my frustration with it, I stil needed to get in touch with the secuirty system company. I decided to draft this letter:

Dear Sir/Madam,

My name is ***** and I live on ***** Street. I am a ***** customer and need to have some work done on my security system. After trying to call your company and being placed on hold and transferred all across North America for more than 40 minutes, I no longer could deal with the automated telephone system. I sent an email but I have not received a response.

I need to have two motion sensors disabled or need to purchase 4 remote control pads. I would like to get a quote on how much this will cost.

I am sorry to have to communicate with you this way, but after my thoroughly unpleasant experience trying to telephone, I figured, "What the hell? I'll do this the old-fashioned way."

I can be reached at: *****.

Thanks!

I went out last night to meet a friend for drinks, but before I did, I placed the letter under the windshield wiper of the security system company's truck that was parked on my street.

I received a phone call this morning at 9:17 from the security company, and we arranged to have them come to my house to do the necessary work on Friday afternoon.

I use technology as much as the next guy. I prefer to scan documents and send them as a jpeg through email than using a fax or sending a photocopy in the mail. I question though the idea that new technology is always beneficial.

I am not the only person who hates automated phone systems, and I dare you to try to call a phone company or television provider and get off the phone in less than 30 minutes. I would wager that you would spend 80% of your time on hold, and would hear more words of advertising than you would hear from a human customer service representative. It would be very interesting to learn how much business has been lost because of automated telephone systems. To be fair, they probably have made money simply because people didn't want to deal with the phone system and accepted the billing error.

Fortunately, I was able to take matters into my own hands in this case and will get the service that I needed. I will never understand the why companies need to make it so complicated for customers to their spend money.