A light at the end of the Customer Service Tunnel

Ever since we moved I've had several really horrible experiences with customer service, particularly with customer call centers. The worst experience was with AT&T internet services. After we moved, they came out and hooked up our internet on a Monday, and the following Wednesday, they shut it off for no apparent reason. To make an incredibly long story short, Brett and I both spent hours on the phone with their customer care center trying to get the internet turned back on. We were told that the cause of the disruption in our service was due to an error on their end, but getting it turned back on was like getting healthcare reform approved. Finally, after it was turned on, I went online to pay our bill, but was given an error message that said because "changes" had been made to my account, I needed to re-register. I went through the same fiasco again, being transferred from operator to operator, being hung-up on and placed on eternal hold until I finally gave up. At that point, I wrote a letter to one of the executive vp's at AT&T in Texas. I assumed the letter would probably just get lost on some secretary's desk, if it ever made it past the mail room, so I was surprised when I received a voicemail from a lady in Atlanta responding to my letter. She was with Executive Escalations and was very polite and helpful. She credited our account for the entire month and told me if I had any further problems to contact her.

This really gave me a sense of accomplishment because I was proactive and it resulted in a credit on our account. I'm proactive all the time though, with little reward. Take last night at Wal-Mart, for instance. For weeks now the Great Value brand hamburger and hot dog buns have been priced .97 on the shelf, but they repeatedly ring up at $1.13. The cashier always adjusts it down for me, but they never make any effort to call a manager over or tell someone so that either a. the price on the shelf can be corrected or b. the price the register rings up can be corrected. This frustrates me, so last night I decided to go to customer service. I explained to the woman what was happening and she gave me this blank, I'm-off-in-an-hour-and-I-could-care-less look. She offered to adjust my receipt and I told her that had already been done, but that either Wal-Mart or their customers were getting screwed, and the issue needed to resolved. She told me the outside vendors change the prices on the shelf, at which point I told her it was a Wal-Mart brand, and she fumbled for words and then said she'd let someone know. Sure.....