The processor is the brain of a computer - Chris Long, IT journalist
|
|
|
Google gets a C-minus for customer service
THE US Better Business Bureau thinks that Google can do a better job of doing business.
Convoluted though that may be, it should come as no surprise to anyone who has encountered a problem with the web giant's business services and found nothing but nothing when it came to getting the problem resolved.
Boneless tennis players provide better service than Google does, if the BBB is to believed, and the firm was awarded a C-minus for the way it deals with its business customers.
To put this into perspective, Apple, which asks its customers to use rubber workarounds in order to make its devices work, was awarded a B-plus, and Yahoo!, which does everything in an excited fashion, got an A-plus, meaning that for once we can forgive it the exclamation mark.
Microsoft too got an A-plus grade, as did AT&T Mobility. HP got an A, meaning that its parents will still be happy to stick the report card to their fridge, and Verizon got a B.
We learned of the report through a post on a Google customer's blog site. Let's just say that the user supported the rating.
Google earned, or rather deserved, its C-minus rating by treating its business customers with the casual air that a foot does pavement. According to the BBB, Google has ignored customer complaints, some 49 of them, and has on 101 occasions refused to adjust to customer requests. Instead the BBB said, it stuck to its guns, "relying on terms of agreement".
All in, Google faced some 648 complaints from its commercial users. µ
Share this:
Share
Seriously. Logitech has the most inept "customer service" I've ever seen.
Shit Happens
Employees First, Costumers Second. Read the book by Vineet Nayar
They rolled out a new service PC- phone telephone service and advertised it as being able to connect to landlines and mobiles in most countries.
They give you 10cents credit to try it out. If you wish to test service to a country with a per minute rate greater than 10cents then you pay $10 for the privilege.
I did, the result when I called a mobile on their list of supported networks...1 ring and hang up...the advertised service does not exist at least for India and Philippine mobiles to judge from the complaints I found.
To discover that the advertised service does not exist requires a payment of $10. Google does not say that some of their listed destinations have no service, they rely on people paying them and gambling that the number they wish to call is not on the list of advertised but unavailable destinations.
Response from Google so far on this matter has been dead silence...same as the phone service they sell and refuse to refund when the payment is buying lack of service.
I will continue to use their search engine and other free services, but this was the last time Google will receive any payment from me for any service of any kind.
They have my $10 they have lost the continuing revenue that they would have gotten by providing the service they claim to provide.
For now all they are gaining with this practice is posts like this one advertising their lack of service.
The implication of "relying on terms of agreement" is that la Goog merely enforced the contract they had with these business customers.
The further implication is that these business customers were unhappy /post facto/ with the terms that they had agreed to, and unilaterally tried to renege in some way upon those terms.
If this is the case, then la Goog are entirely within their rights.
Moreover, if a precedent is set whereby one can agree to a contract and/or accept T&Cs and then later successfully invoke the BBB (or Trading Standards, or some other busy^H^H^H^Hbody) against those very T&Cs, then I confidently predict that chaos will ensue.
Even moreoverer, the fact that there are only 648 complaints out of shooby-doop zillion customers suggests that many people are quite happy with the terms. A C minus from the BBB might seem, therefore, to be a *little* harsh.
Of course, the BBB is not without its critics. Google... er, I mean *search* for "BBB sucks" and see for yourself.
-- A contented Google fanboi.
I've noticed (on behalf of clients) that they do arbitrary things like suspending Google Local listings for unspecified reasons, and provide no advice/mechanism for reinstatement. Utter utter crêpe.
IF you consider that go_ogle is first of all a spy agency, then serving visible customers isn't their first concern. They're too busy spying on *you* for the gov't.