Both of them have more to do with customer service than anything else.
Given my delicate financial state at the moment - who isn't in one, really - these issues came at a highly appropriate time.
Let's start with the rant to get this out of the way.
RANT - PayPal.
I recently found a very gently used skydiving rig. This is something that I stumbled across after searching for weeks. It's perfect, and fits amazing. So, I bought it.
This, my friends, is a massive purchase. But one that's well worth it.
Luckily, the girl I bought it from allowed me to use PayPal so I could charge it. Well, I thought I was lucky.
After a number of issues getting this to go through on the site, I called PayPal customer service to some assistance. This is where the real problems began.
The rep. was not only incredible rude, but completely unable to help. I wasted 20 minutes on the phone with a person who essentially told me that I'm an idiot and that there's nothing she could do.
Just how I wanted to start my morning.
Where I was truly lucky, is that the girl on the other end of the payment allowed me to pay through her dropzone and avoid PayPal altogether.
Thanks for nothing, PayPal.
Now, onto something more positive.
RAVE - American Express.
This past week has been intense when it comes to travel. I went from Cleveland to NYC back to Cleveland, to Michigan that same day then to Lexington, back to Michigan and now I'm finally back in Cleveland.
Get all that? Whew!
Within the last hour I was in Lexington for a client meeting, I went to lunch with a colleague and left my credit card at the restaurant. Oops.
Naturally, I got on the phone while driving, didn't have an account number, credit card number, anything.
Within 5 minutes the lovely man on the phone was able to confirm my account, cancel my card, and have a new one shipped out that arrived at my office about 20 minutes after I did today.
Talk about some bad ass customer service!
Needless to say, when it comes to my finances, AmEx made my day, even after PayPal did their best to ruin it.
Maybe AmEx could pay their reps to train those over at PayPal - certainly they could use it.
Cheers!
-A
Recently I bought a clock app for my old Palm Zire. I bought it because it had a stopwatch feature. Several people have asked me what I use a stopwatch for, and I generally evade the question. I use if for a few things, but truth is, my #1 use of a stopwatch is to time customer/technical support calls. I use the splits to mark how long I'm going through the voice recognition system, how long I'm on hold with the muzak, how long I'm talking to a support rep, etc. (Masochistic, I know!) Ironically, the first time I had a chance to use my new toy a couple weeks back, I was calling GoDaddy.com on behalf of my aunt and cousin, who were having some problems with their web hosting account. I expected to be at least 15 mins, but to my pleasant surprise, I was on and off and problem solved in under 7 minutes! Yes!
ReplyDeleteI had similar success with GoDaddy just last night. It was a little bit longer because we had to reorder something and issue a refund, but they were a great help (and spoke English unlike PayPal support)
ReplyDeletehaving an AmEx corporate is not unlike having the key to the city.
ReplyDeletenothing makes me happier than great customer service
ReplyDeletejoyful - I've heard similar things about GoDaddy!
ReplyDeletematt - I may have to call their customer service just so I can give them a RAVE review.
the asshole - the corporate account is pretty fabulous.
allison - me either!
I HATE bad customer service!!!
ReplyDelete