To whom it may concern:
This is my letter of resignation from the Twenty-First Century.
That’s right. I’ve had 23 years to look around, and I don’t like what I’m seeing. So far, we’ve had a pandemic and a terrifying president, not to mention the ongoing problem of climate change, which can no longer be ignored.
This letter, however, is inspired by none of these. It is, instead, inspired by the technological take-over of, and buck-passing in, our systems of communication. Here are just a few examples from the last month:
- I called to make a medical appointment, waited through the over-long Covid warnings, then waited on hold, before finally reaching a human, and making the appointment. A couple of days later, I called back to ask a question about the appointment, only to be told (after waiting on hold) that there was no appointment on record. After which, I spent about 20 minutes making a new appointment.
- I called another medical office about another issue and waited on hold, only to be told by the person who answered that I would have to be transferred to someone else. When I asked for the direct number for that person in case the call got dropped, I was told there was no direct number.
- I ordered and paid for a dishwasher from Lowe’s on February 18. I also paid for installation. It was supposed to be installed on February 24. The installation was rescheduled for March 3, but no one bothered to tell us until 3 p.m. on February 24. An installer visited on March 3, but was unable to make the installation because of an issue with our plumbing. He left the dishwasher in our dining room. I had the plumbing issue fixed, and another installer came to our house on March 10. He was unable to complete the installation because the installer from the previous week had done something to the threading on a part of the dishwasher. Installer number two left, taking the dishwasher with him, and the next morning, I discovered he had done something to the pipes under our sink, which caused the release of water into the under-sink cabinet every time we turned on the faucet.
I will not bore you with the details of the multiple phone calls I have made in the five days since then, or the amount of time I have waited on hold, trying to get Lowe’s Installation Support to send someone to fix the leak and install the dishwasher. Each conversation is quite long, as I have to retell my story to a new person every time. Each phone call leads to the same conversation. They are very sorry. They will take care of it. The order will be expedited. Someone will call me.
No one calls.
Here’s a fun fact. Lowe’s has subcontracted installation to an organization called CRST, and Lowe’s Installation Support claims to have no control over scheduling. Sorry, Lowe’s – you are responsible for your subcontractors.
Today is Thursday. Lowe’s (or CRST?) sent someone to fix the under-sink problem on Tuesday. but no one has been sent to deliver or install the dishwasher. Meanwhile, Lowe’s has our money, and three further phone calls have not resulted in Lowe’s or anyone else taking responsibility for the fact that the delay is due to installer error and failure of communication between Lowe's and CRST. (If you think this was a long description, imagine what it was like to deal with these people in real time.)
I could go on.
As I have mentioned before on this blog, I am old enough to remember a time when the only means of communication were letters and phone calls. There was no call waiting. There were no answering machines. There were no robots asking the caller to “Press one for this” or “Press two for that.” There were no endless attempts to convince the robot to let you speak to a human being. There were no warnings that the call would be recorded for training purposes. There was no being placed on hold. Either a human would answer the call, or you would try again later.
Are the complicated systems in place now really better than this? I don’t think so. In fact, I remember customer service being much easier to access before all these technological “improvements.”
What happens to people who don’t have the wherewithal or the time to work their way through these systems? I guess they give up. And, as I have written before, I think this is exactly what corporate America is hoping for.
It’s time for a revolt or maybe some legislation. In the meantime, where do I submit this letter of resignation?
