Category Archives: customer service

Ask the right question

I was in Sports Basement today picking up a bike tube. As the cashier rang up my puchase, he asked me “Is this your first time at Sports Basement?”. I answered “no.” What’s wrong with this? Well, your best customers … Continue reading

Bad Wired, no cookie

I got some junk mail recently advertising the Web 2.0 Expo. I called O’Reilly. They removed me from their list. I wanted to find out how they got my name. Customer service put me through to the conference publicist. The … Continue reading

Writing the DMV

I emailed the director of the California DMV to see why new license plates take so long to arrive. Let’s see if he writes back: From: Paul Schreiber Subject: DMV’s great (and terrible) efficiency Date: September 27, 2006 9:09:18 am … Continue reading

T-Mobile and Amazon don’t really like you

My sister likes to talk on the phone. A lot. And Cingular charges use $85 for a family plan where we share 1250 minutes. And 35 cents/minute for extra minutes. Highway robbery! With T-Mobile, we could get 1500 minutes each … Continue reading

textbook pricing scams

Freakonomics readers get a lesson in price discrimination (or bad customer service): Interestingly, as I gave a lecture on “Price Discrimination”, using an example of the demand for textbooks (relatively inelastic) vs. novels (relatively elastic), the students pointed out that … Continue reading

how to piss off your customers

nineteen ways to lose a customer: accuse them of stealing make fun of their names (+7 more) hide your product (+9 more)

cingular sucking

teli gets shitty customer service from cingular.