I bet many have experienced this. A company makes a correction to a bill, in this case it was a cell-phone bill — and at the end they tell you that this was a concession or a favor instead of admitting the error and calling it just that. In the end you may get what you want, a credit, but the company gets no “credit” for the concession, instead you hang up frustrated and maybe even a little mad.
The example I can give is this recent frustrating customer experience. I changed cell phone plans, but stayed at the same provider, same phone, same account. My old plan was not under any contract, so I was free to change without penalties. The old plan had unlimited data usage (email, web, etc.) and so did the new plan. But for some reason, when this company converted the plans they billed me for “casual data usage”, and referred to it as back charges caused by the change. When I called customer care they agreed the new plan had unlimited data, and that over the past year I had used about the same amount of data each month without any charge, but for some reason they insisted in the call that my old plan must not have had unlimited data hence the back charge. In the end, they credited me the amount I should not have been billed, but summarized the call by telling me they “made a concession because you are a good customer”. When I objected to the term “concession” they said the charge was proper but this was a concession.
Sad — I was ready to write this off as an annoyance, but satisfied they fixed and move on. But instead of getting any “good will” out of this adjustment, they had me hanging up upset and dissapointed. Oh well, their mistake. What would a better response have been (specially given they were already giving me the credit)? “Sir, this must be an error and will correct it immediately, sorry for that. Your new amount due is ### when you send in your payment as that will be the right amount after the correction to your bill. Is there anything else I can do for you today?” Instead, at the end of the call they had the gall to try to up-sell me on some more services which I promptly said “no!” — but if they had treated me differently, who knows, I may have listened instead of shutting down…
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2 users commented in " Why do companies ruin a good deed by calling it “a favor” "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackIsn’t this the truth - regardless of whether it be in the telecom industry or many other - retail in particular. What we have become is a culture that accepts this kind of treatment, and while we all talk about how injust and wrong it may be, we still allow it to happen.
One of my concerns is that this happens in every mobile telecom company - whether it be Sprint, Verizon, AT&T or T-Mobile - there are these types of stories everywhere. I have just two questions. First, why do we accept this type of treatment and continue to buy products and services from them and; Second, when are we, as a population of consumers in one of the most economically powerful nations going to do something about it.
To me, being the “Best of the Worst” is no excuse for success. I mean, being the best in the cellular industry is still some of the worst treatment any of us experience. There are many others that parallel this as well. What about the airline industry. Other than the handful of flights that you take that are actually pleasant, the rest are less than desireable but they are the best you can get in that industry. There are many more that parallel this as well.
Would we buy more, absolutely. The research shows it and your read about it every day, people will spend more and be more loyal if these companies would provide the experience and keep the promises they all have supposedly given us. I know i would.
Interesting perspective on the cellular industry and the airline industry as well. This reminds me of a post about Ryanair, a notoriously low cost European airline.
The blog thread is here: http://www.goodexperience.com/blog/archives/010067.php
Ryanair’s website is here: http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/
Ryanair succeeds because it delivers on its Brand Promise. That Promise is “Lowest fares - Guaranteed.” They make no bones about their lousy service, and do everything possible to reduce costs. And consumers buy tickets! Why? Consumers WANT cheap tickets!
To use the cell-phone example, it might require pointing out a little bit just how wealthy the American consumer is. In Philippines, for example, they don’t really worry about their web-package on the phone, they want to be able to TEXT (not call) their family and friends. What do they want? CHEAP TEXT. In Philippines, communication is a commodity in the purest sense.
In the US, we have added various luxuries to our phones that allow for increased DIFFERENTIATION. If there are only a few luxuries that can be tacked on (and let’s face it, a phone is a phone), there is little to differentiate with. So, the cellular industry tries really hard to not be a commodity market, but really, it is. It’s a race to the bottom if I ever saw one.
So why do I choose T-Mobile? Very simple. The service is no worse than any other company, but it’s dirt cheap for 3000 minutes. I’ve tried them all - all of them drop calls; all of them screw up my bill; all of them lose a voice mail from time to time. As Blaine mentioned, they’re ALL lousy.
T-Mobile Promises a good value. I think they do a decent job of differentiating in the only area I care about, since I can see no differentiation anywhere else. Given a race for the bottom and nothing to differentiate services, the only cellular Promise I really care about is “Low Price.”
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