I just clicked on a "live support" button on a certain website. I wanted to communicate with their tech support people. A popup window appeared with a large, colored logo:
"RIGHT NOW TECHNOLOGIES!"
In small text below... "Please wait. This could take a few minutes."
PROMISES WE DON'T INTEND TO KEEP!
Is that any way to greet a customer? (Yes, it's certainly one way.)
I guess it's basically impossible for business owners to view their customer interactions from the customer's perspective. A business owner knows the history -- knows how much worse it used to be, perhaps. Or how expensive it was to get what he has. So he cannot see clearly how bad it may still be.
But this wouldn't have been anything more than a passing thought, had I not been clicking the "live support" to share an existing bundle of less-than-glowingly-positive feelings.
I love the Clearplay technology. It's a million miles better than any other filtering system out there. TV Guardian is horrible, the fixed-edit DVD rental or purchase sites lack flexibility and cost too much... Clearplay wins on every front.
But when we went and bought their new player at retail from Target, I found a front on which Clearplay didn't win. Some problems presented themselves at several points in this interaction with Clearplay. Let me share my recent chat transcript with a support rep:
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Eva: Hi, my name is Eva. How may I help you?
Tom: Hey -- just bought the player from Target.
Tom: Want to watch Casino Royale tonight.
Eva: Have you registered your player yet?
Eva: You can still watch the movie regularly, but if you want it filtered you need to register it first.
Tom: But our "free month" costs $8?
Eva: You still get free thirty days, but you have to sign up as a regular member first. Then you get two months for the price of one.
Eva: and you can call within the first thirty days to get a full refund.
Tom: Okay -- that's what I wanted to know. Forcing us to pay $8 to use something we just bought at the store is a bad plan.
Eva: It is supposed to be where you don't pay, but for some reason the glitch in the system has not been fixed yet, and I'm not sure when it will be.
Tom: Okay. We were seriously bummed about that last night. Got all ready to go, and then saw that we have to pay more money.
Tom: And that there's no filter in the box -- the box says it comes with 2000 filters on a USB stick.
Tom: = no good if you want to watch a movie as soon as you get the thing home and set up.
Eva: It says that you get a filter stick with the 2000 plus after you register. It is complimentary for signing up.
Tom: Um... Have you read the box?
Eva: Once you register and are waiting for your filterstick to come in the mail, you can download filters to your own usb stick, or burn them to a cd.
Eva: Yes, I have read the box. Of course I know what it says.
Tom: "FREE and yours to keep just for trying Clearplay: 2000+ filters, 30 days of updates, clearplay USB FilterStik."
Eva: Those are what you get for signing up.
Tom: That's at best an ambiguous way of telling us we'll have to register online and have it mailed to us. Cereal boxes are plainer about the prizes they'll mail out vs. what's in the box.
Eva: If within thirty days you decide you don't like it, you can keep the stick and the library on it.
Eva: Yeah, well complain to my management. I don't like it and I don't think it's fair or honest, but that is how it is.
Tom: I'm sorry -- I'm trying to complain to your management. Don't you relay chat session transcripts to them?
Tom: I certainly have nothing personal against you. I wanted to communicate my dissatisfaction to the company.
Eva: I'd recommend sending an email to adam@clearplay.com
Tom: If there's a disconnect there, that's another issue they ought to address.
Tom: Oh well.
Tom: I'll send an email.
Tom: Thanks for your help -- sorry for the trouble.
Eva: Thank you for contacting us! Please let us know if there is any way that we can improve your ClearPlay experience. You may now close this window.
Eva Has Disconnected
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A little sad.
Two months for the price of one! That's just like "one free month," right? Like a restaurant coupon that says "FREE PIZZA!" and then the waiter tells you that you get that free pizza with any purchase of another pizza. And you and your wife look at each other and wonder what on earth you're going to do with two pizzas.
I'm going to forward my chat transcript to the email address the rep suggested. We'll see if anything happens.
Something should, but companies can't run perfectly. I know. You have to pick your focus.
As a customer, though, I can demand unrealistic levels of perfection. :o) I love being a customer.