1. What are the best and worst companies for customer service?
2. Against classical music ringtones; I usually try to pass along links of surprise and substance, but this is instead simply a point worth noting.
3. Jason Kottke does his Best Links of 2006
I wish we were assaulted by less music in general, but I have a hard time figuring out how classical music ringtones are any more objectionable than pop ringtones, broadway ringtones, etc.
I found this comment from the customer service article rather surprising.
“The complaints about Vonage involve the company’s poor customer service and technical support, and it’s causing people to drop the service. Reputation matters and Vonage needs to step up and fix its problems. One big issue may be that there is no regulating body in the Internet phone service, so Vonage doesn’t have any incentive to work on its customer service problems.”
The threat of losing customers and going out of business isn’t incentive enough to fix its customer service problems?
The purpose of a ring tone is to distinguish my phone from someone else’s. So when I hear Bach’s organ fugue, I know that it’s my phone and not someone else’s.
I don’t see what the big deal is.
I recently heard about an interesting new service to make customer service reps more accountable:
http://www.321calllog.com
This service allows you to automatically record, authenticate, and notarize telephone and email conversations you have with customer service representatives. It announces every 3 mins or so that the call is being recorded. This type of service gives consumers a systematic way to make customer service reps accountable (better than just asking for their name,etc.). I’m curious to see if it takes off.
I imagine poor Beethoven is rolling in his grave at the thought that people might be listening to him music simple because they like how it sounds! Rather than appreciating it’s subtle nuances like the truly refined person, say, the author of that article!
Am I the only one who finds such eletism distasteful? The whole article could have been a reflection marvelling how the music written by one long dead was so powerful that it can be enjoyed by another who has no comprehension of it’s significance.
Bill — What are you talking about? Dell is listed as number 1 for the worst customer service.
The article on ring tones says little about people who knowingly or unknowingly choose classical music for a ring tone. It does, however, speak volumes about pretentious middle age twits who think themselves better than the ‘unwashed masses’.
I’m with Half Sigma on this one. Mellow out folks. I personally don’t have a special ring tone, but I certainly don’t look down my nose on those that do. If it’s simply noise and music in general that you don’t like, you might consider moving out to the countryside or staying indoors. I don’t think it is something that’s going to go away.
If you keep your device on your person and set it to vibrate, you’ll never be in doubt about whether a call is for you.
Not everyone can keep a phone on them. Most women keep it in their purse or handbag.
Honestly, old video game music (think Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis at latest) is really best suited to cell phone ringers. I’ve got a great version of the old Super Mario Bros. theme.
My default ringer is the national anthem of Uraguay, for no reason at all realy.
I understand customer service. Treating everyone as your best friend and creating an atmosphere that is serene and fun is key to success. What I found most interesting was the rating that AOL received for customer service, especially the cancellation of services part.
When someone is disgruntled, especially with cancellation of services, a third-party observer has to take this cases with the grain of salt. From my perspective, business have to have a cancellation policy in place and adhere to it staunchly. Otherwise, it cheapens the business itself and disrespects clients who follow the policies. At my business, we try to keep if fairly simple and are always clear up front what the cancellation policy is like. Once in a while, someone gets ticked about the cancellation policy, but I have never given a refund over it. It’s just bad business.
Now the story about the deceased father being billed by AOL, they should have stopped the billing. I would have stopped the billing and asked them to mail me a death certificate or obituary listing whenever possible just to close the account properly.
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