The US govt has some of the worst support I've ever witnessed in my entire life.
1. I was audit by the IRS this year and so far I've logged about 6 hours of waiting on hold over ~15 individual call attempts of which I was never able to speak to someone beyond their initial call center.
Then I sent in the requested receipts as per their instructions. They told me the receipts -they- requested weren't proof enough, so I had to provide additional paperwork.
This has been an ongoing process for around 8 months and it's still not revolved. They haven't contacted me in about a month since the date they told me my case would be reviewed, so who knows what happened. Given they haven't asked me anything else or sent me a notice or bill warning, I'm guessing they finally figured out I wasn't lying all along.
2. I also once got denied a new social security card because I had an expired driver's license and no credit card. I brought a ton of documentation as per their website and had enough proof of ID. The lady at the desk told me "I'm sorry, I can't issue your request" so I showed her their own website with the proper forms of ID and she just repeated the same phrase. I left the place and mailed everything in along with a letter and my card was renewed but it took over 3 weeks.
3. After waiting 2.5 hours on hold for health insurance I finally got a person who told me they can't handle my request (even though this was the number listed on their website), so they forwarded me to a new number, and then I waited on hold for another hour, and then as soon as I got connected, they asked for a million pieces of information from me and hung up before processing anything. It was like 4 hours of a total waste of time and then I got penalized thousands of dollars in the end for not having insurance.
The worst part about this monopoly is we pay a ton of money towards taxes but get treated so poorly.
I once witnessed some little girl twist her ankle on a severely broken side walk. It took the town 3 years before they finally decided to fix it. It also took them 3 months to complete the job which was to redo about 20 feet of side walk.
Blame congress for the IRS - certain political elements would like to eliminate the IRS - they have this idea, that if we starve it, people will hate it so much we can make it go away.
Nevermind the fact that the IRS wont go away till there isnt an income tax anymore.
Centrelink, Australia's welfare and social services provider, has this beat. You can't get service in offices anymore without an appointment. If you try to do something transactional they direct you to a bank of Internet-connected computers where you have to go through their website. For elderly or less technologically literate people this is an absolute nightmare. If you can't do it online you have to call them. Again, if you try in their offices they will send you to a phone which you can use. Official average wait times are 16 minutes but that's bullshit. Everybody has had the experience of waiting for 2.5 hours, and then getting cut off when the robot answering the call inevitably transfers you to the wrong department. People have literally attempted suicide when faced with the prospect of having to deal with Centrelink again. Our government of sociopaths applauds this system, seeing it as a deterrent for people to be on welfare and encouraging them to "get a job".
Oddly, my situations were all very pleasant. My contact with the IRS was all by mail. Each time I'd mail them something a clock would restart (6 weeks or something like that) and they'd respond a few weeks later (clock restarts) and we'd go back and forth me sending them some paperwork, and they asking for something else.
Eventually they got what they needed and we all moved on. It was a bit drawn out but I also enjoyed the amount of time I had to respond.
On the other hand when it comes to insurance I had a run in with State Farm who I'm 99% sure has a system entirely setup to ask repeat questions (same person asking the same questions and they're looking at the paperwork where I already answered it too...), provide inaccurate information, and simply delay you long enough to drop whatever claim you have. It felt like an actual scam...
I live in New Zealand - things are much much simpler when the country is small.
Generally New Zealand govt services are fast and painless. If I ring the IRD (==IRS) they just register the phone number and call back. The person is genuinely helpful, and they generally are just keen to get your money with the least amount of hassle to anyone. Very simple taxation policy helps too (e.g. totally reduced the special taxation cases, such that most people have to spend zero time filing taxes, it is done automatically and you just get a bill or refund!).
I ordered a replacement passport last week - it was all online including the uploading the photo - and it was couriered to me a few days later.
This is repeated in many different services. There are horror stories -- mostly I hear them about health/ACC and sometimes Work and Income (social welfare). But you regularly hear good stories about those too.
So it is at least possible for monopoly services to be good.
Some politicians have the goal of making these things run as ineffectively as possible. Underfunding initiatives and then claiming they don't work well is a tried and tested method for attacking government services.
NZ's taxation department has suprisingly good customer service - but from what I understand, that's a deliberate way to get people to give them more money without having to use their coercive powers.
I saw harvard.edu and was optimistic that this was going to be a real study. Instead it was just "haha, IRS support sucks, monopolies are bad." I've called the IRS support line multiple times for fairly non-trivial problems and had nothing but good experiences.
And that's if you're lucky enough to get to talk to someone. One third of calls are summarily disconnected.
> Our study showed that 1 out of 3 calls to the IRS Collections Line for Businesses would be disconnected, with this sometimes occurring after 2 hours of waiting.
Ironic that you complained about lack of data and then launched into an anecdote.
I have a few anecdotes about the DMV. I wonder if research would back up my hunch that the DMV is really bad at customer service. I'd certainly bet on it in a prediction market.
I’ve called the IRS recently due to them losing my filings, hard to get a person on the phone, even their advocates told me everyone struggles with it, the robot hangs up on you, when you do get someone they have no idea what to do an transfer you around, some agents just make things up, contradict policies they just told you. I ended up physically going to their office to drop off the paper work to get an official receipt they received my filing for when they lose it again. Next step is contacting my local congresswomen’s office for help. My experience at least with something very simple.
I had horrible times with the IRS. Including demanding to speak to me directly despite a speech impediment that often makes me hard to understand in the phone and then hanging up because they couldn't understand me. I think that is an ADA violation. After doing stuff like mixing up tax payment checks and applying my parents' tax payment check to mine and my smaller one to theirs.
I don't mind paying taxes just make the system streamlined okay.
I had to call the IRS once a few years ago to dispute their dispute of my tax returns and was put on hold for 2 hours, only to be told that my returns were correct all along.
Me too. In the past, the IRS has been very helpful to me with suggestions for complex situations. I can only say positive things about their support. Perhaps now that they've been so defunded their support is bad, I don't know.
I think the IRS had tremendous support. The people are knowledgeable and almost always compassionate. They know you are probably at least a little scared and work to find a solution that doesnt add to your fear.
I had to call the IRS recently and had a pretty good experience. The lady was super helpful and provided me with some resources I didn’t know about before.
Totally different experience with the IRS. My one phone call with them was an excellent experience. I got someone much much more knowledgeable than me who quickly and clearly walked me through what I needed. My colleague has had a similar experience.
Had a family member who was audited by the IRS every year for years. Each time IRS received a tax lesson. Only stopped when family member got US Representative and both Senators to lean on the IRS.
As an Australian my experience of the IRS has thankfully been limited (not as limited as it should be), but each time I have had the misfortune of calling them they have just read out in a monotone the text on their websites word for word. Maybe my experience is because I am not a US tax payer, but it certainly wasn't helpful.
This is why SaaS companies created Customer Success. They need to win your business year over year. Once they realize you can’t switch, the audits and price hikes begin, and the support ends.
Any New Zealander who is with one of our two dominant internet/phone providers (Spark and Vodafone NZ) has experienced this well - long waits to get someone in the Phillipines who can't actually help you, and doesn't quite understand what they're doing.
They only really compete for new customers, so if you ever ring them to sign up, well, boy howdy that's a whole other experience. Calls answered immediately by knowledgeable people.
Duopolies - for when you like pretending you have a competitive market.
Could this assessment be extended to "companies can be guessed to be large by calling customer support"? I can think of few examples of large companies, monopolies or not, having good phone customer support; many large companies outsource their call centers, which could contribute. This method of assessing "monopolies" will give many false positives if the answer to my question is yes.
A rather odd one is the Swedish tax authority, they generally have good to excellent support within the legal framework they have to work with. They are better than almost any company I've had to deal with, and usually whomever you get to talk to either know what they are talking about, or can refer you to someone who can. There are probably people with negative experiences too, but I've yet to hear a single horror story about their service!
As with any tax authority, you shouldn't try to keep them from their coin, but it seems like somewhere along the way they figured out that they didn't get more money if they had shitty service, but rather the other way around. It's probably also easier, and cheaper to retain people if not everyone hate your guts simply because you work there.
The best customer support I've received is from DigiKey - they have millions of components you can order in quantity 1, and if they make a mistake they'll overnight you a replacement at their expense, basically no questions asked.
Amazon’s customer service is still very good to excellent especially considering the volume they handle and the loss they take on return frauds. It’s still no Costco or Nordstrom but Amazon is the gold standard for online retail experience.
In the last year Amazon stopped price matching themselves (used to be within the last 30 days). Now even if the item is still in the mail they require you to ship it back at your cost and re-order at the lower price.
They've also modified their Wish List/Gift List to remove the "Buying this elsewhere" button. Now you have to purchase from Amazon.com or ruin the surprise if using a friend's Wish List. This isn't reflected in Amazon's help site[0] and their customer service spent three weeks investigating this only to tell me they're "Constantly trying to improve the site"(???).
My point is, that Amazon's CS is slipping. It used to be fantastic, now it is fine, but definitely getting less friendly in terms of policy even if the agents themselves are still pleasant. They're more or less ruined their own Wish Lists.
Amazon actually has awful customer service if your inquiry can't be solved by either refunding or reshipping your order.
Had them repeatedly ship something glass in inappropriate packaging, it showed up shattered every time. Pleas to "please package appropriately" were repeatedly ignored. Finally I gave up and decided I didn't really need the item anyways.
This spills over into Whole Foods as well, from my experience. I personally don't know quite how to feel about the idea that Amazon bought them out, but the in-store customer service is leagues above Walmart and on par with Publix.
Social media support might be a better option. I see a lot of monopolies blatantly ignore masses of complaints on their Facebook page.
I can't imagine anything worse for PR. Post a "Happy New Year" picture and have 20 people mob that post complaining about terrible service and how they're unable to reach customer service.
This article makes good argument. I want to note, though, that Comcast support has done a 180 for several calls I made.
I receive their call back in seconds. I usually talk to someone in India whose both highly enthusiastic about hearing from me and apologetic about the circumstances. If anything, they're too nice since it comes off as unbelievable. They've credited my bill without me asking maybe twice. When I need a tech, they're usually backed up a bit but bump me into next day somehow. Ive always suspected that was a gimmick.
That's the gist of it. They know what they're doing, really polite, better connection quality than past maybe, and super helpful. I think Comcast is both trying to improve its image for leverage in public debates and/or using better support to improve retention. Im loving it either way. Plus, the remote reboot feature on the mobile app. Saves time and trips.
Sometimes the best approach is to do everything by registered mail, with a return confirmation.
You keep copies of everything included in each mailing, that way if it reaches court you hand everything over and your documentation does the talking.
I have found as soon as i take this approach it gets sorted straight away and is never a problem as they realise that they dont have a leg to stand on.
In another case a business always had their used cheques returned to them once processed by the bank.
When the tax office repeatedly stated a payment had not been made.. their accountant said over the phone to the tax office "thats funny because i am holding their processed check returned to them with the tax offices recieved stamp on it.." it was then magically immediately fixed.
I think its because of people not wanting to do their job within their department so they handball it when ever possible, on the smallest excuse.
Last winter i faced a non-standard situation with Microsoft Office subscription. I moved to another country and had no active CC from the original country working anymore - realized only when my Office stopped working - and had no way to switch country or payment method before paying my arrears - which i counldn't do because of not having the damn payment method...
Surprisingly, MS support was quick and absolutely helpful in resolving this for me - took no more than 15 minutes - and they ended up simply waving my arrears so i never paid that $10 - and let me enter new payment method.
Complete inverse of my experience. HMRC (the British IRS) are exceptionally good over the phone. As indeed were the divorce courts. Maybe the British government see the British jurisdiction as optional for their highest ticket clients :-P
The worst offenders in the UK have been cell-service providers, where the competition is fierce, and companies like Sports Direct, where the margins are tiny because the competition is so fierce. Good luck with low-cost airlines too, where the Heathrow-monopoly-abusing (according to VS) British Airways are also great on the phone.
I have this issue with my student loans. They let it sit for weeks 'in processing' while I accrue interest on it.
What am I applying for? IBR. Income based repayment because I'm effectively poor. It just sucks seeing the balance grow and grow and have my credit wrecked, just because they let my paperwork sit in processing. I turn around and re-submit stuff when they ask within a day. For them it's 2-4 weeks between replies. JFC.
I recently had to call the Dutch tax service help line Belastingtelephone and the experience was rather pleasant. You have to wait 15-30 minutes sometimes, but you do get connected to someone who really can help you. I had to fill in a number of rather obscure forms recently and I called them 3 times in total. Each time I had my questions resolved with about 30 minutes.
I got audited by the IRS... I had accidentally forgotten to file one of the many 1099 forms I had received that year. The agent handling the audit easily had some of the best customer service I’ve ever experienced and I was able to get the problem resolved.
[+] [-] nickjj|7 years ago|reply
1. I was audit by the IRS this year and so far I've logged about 6 hours of waiting on hold over ~15 individual call attempts of which I was never able to speak to someone beyond their initial call center.
Then I sent in the requested receipts as per their instructions. They told me the receipts -they- requested weren't proof enough, so I had to provide additional paperwork.
This has been an ongoing process for around 8 months and it's still not revolved. They haven't contacted me in about a month since the date they told me my case would be reviewed, so who knows what happened. Given they haven't asked me anything else or sent me a notice or bill warning, I'm guessing they finally figured out I wasn't lying all along.
2. I also once got denied a new social security card because I had an expired driver's license and no credit card. I brought a ton of documentation as per their website and had enough proof of ID. The lady at the desk told me "I'm sorry, I can't issue your request" so I showed her their own website with the proper forms of ID and she just repeated the same phrase. I left the place and mailed everything in along with a letter and my card was renewed but it took over 3 weeks.
3. After waiting 2.5 hours on hold for health insurance I finally got a person who told me they can't handle my request (even though this was the number listed on their website), so they forwarded me to a new number, and then I waited on hold for another hour, and then as soon as I got connected, they asked for a million pieces of information from me and hung up before processing anything. It was like 4 hours of a total waste of time and then I got penalized thousands of dollars in the end for not having insurance.
The worst part about this monopoly is we pay a ton of money towards taxes but get treated so poorly.
I once witnessed some little girl twist her ankle on a severely broken side walk. It took the town 3 years before they finally decided to fix it. It also took them 3 months to complete the job which was to redo about 20 feet of side walk.
[+] [-] Aloha|7 years ago|reply
Nevermind the fact that the IRS wont go away till there isnt an income tax anymore.
[+] [-] AzMoo_|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] duxup|7 years ago|reply
Oddly, my situations were all very pleasant. My contact with the IRS was all by mail. Each time I'd mail them something a clock would restart (6 weeks or something like that) and they'd respond a few weeks later (clock restarts) and we'd go back and forth me sending them some paperwork, and they asking for something else.
Eventually they got what they needed and we all moved on. It was a bit drawn out but I also enjoyed the amount of time I had to respond.
On the other hand when it comes to insurance I had a run in with State Farm who I'm 99% sure has a system entirely setup to ask repeat questions (same person asking the same questions and they're looking at the paperwork where I already answered it too...), provide inaccurate information, and simply delay you long enough to drop whatever claim you have. It felt like an actual scam...
[+] [-] robocat|7 years ago|reply
Generally New Zealand govt services are fast and painless. If I ring the IRD (==IRS) they just register the phone number and call back. The person is genuinely helpful, and they generally are just keen to get your money with the least amount of hassle to anyone. Very simple taxation policy helps too (e.g. totally reduced the special taxation cases, such that most people have to spend zero time filing taxes, it is done automatically and you just get a bill or refund!).
I ordered a replacement passport last week - it was all online including the uploading the photo - and it was couriered to me a few days later.
This is repeated in many different services. There are horror stories -- mostly I hear them about health/ACC and sometimes Work and Income (social welfare). But you regularly hear good stories about those too.
So it is at least possible for monopoly services to be good.
[+] [-] maym86|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] EdwardDiego|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|7 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] enraged_camel|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] masonic|7 years ago|reply
In fact, repair of sidewalks between private property and the street are almost always the responsibility of the property owner.
[+] [-] CobrastanJorji|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nostromo|7 years ago|reply
https://blog.callenq.com/irs-hold-times-disconnect-data-10k/
And that's if you're lucky enough to get to talk to someone. One third of calls are summarily disconnected.
> Our study showed that 1 out of 3 calls to the IRS Collections Line for Businesses would be disconnected, with this sometimes occurring after 2 hours of waiting.
[+] [-] ellyagg|7 years ago|reply
I have a few anecdotes about the DMV. I wonder if research would back up my hunch that the DMV is really bad at customer service. I'd certainly bet on it in a prediction market.
[+] [-] xae342|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Nasrudith|7 years ago|reply
I don't mind paying taxes just make the system streamlined okay.
[+] [-] huy-nguyen|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] SeanLuke|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] goatherders|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stephenhuey|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] paulmendoza|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Naga|7 years ago|reply
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/cra-blocks-cal...
[+] [-] autotune|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hueving|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gameguy43|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tomohawk|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] danieltillett|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mathattack|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] EdwardDiego|7 years ago|reply
They only really compete for new customers, so if you ever ring them to sign up, well, boy howdy that's a whole other experience. Calls answered immediately by knowledgeable people.
Duopolies - for when you like pretending you have a competitive market.
[+] [-] barrow-rider|7 years ago|reply
Hell, when I was in the Oz I was a PM for Telstra working on getting better call center infrastructure setup for offshore calls...
[+] [-] stcredzero|7 years ago|reply
I'm also reminded of what it was like to hire a taxi in the days before Uber and Lyft.
[+] [-] siegecraft|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] estro|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lostmyoldone|7 years ago|reply
As with any tax authority, you shouldn't try to keep them from their coin, but it seems like somewhere along the way they figured out that they didn't get more money if they had shitty service, but rather the other way around. It's probably also easier, and cheaper to retain people if not everyone hate your guts simply because you work there.
[+] [-] arcticbull|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] da02|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bitxbit|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Someone1234|7 years ago|reply
They've also modified their Wish List/Gift List to remove the "Buying this elsewhere" button. Now you have to purchase from Amazon.com or ruin the surprise if using a friend's Wish List. This isn't reflected in Amazon's help site[0] and their customer service spent three weeks investigating this only to tell me they're "Constantly trying to improve the site"(???).
My point is, that Amazon's CS is slipping. It used to be fantastic, now it is fine, but definitely getting less friendly in terms of policy even if the agents themselves are still pleasant. They're more or less ruined their own Wish Lists.
[0] https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=...
[+] [-] astura|7 years ago|reply
Had them repeatedly ship something glass in inappropriate packaging, it showed up shattered every time. Pleas to "please package appropriately" were repeatedly ignored. Finally I gave up and decided I didn't really need the item anyways.
[+] [-] cryptonerd2212|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gesman|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] muzani|7 years ago|reply
I can't imagine anything worse for PR. Post a "Happy New Year" picture and have 20 people mob that post complaining about terrible service and how they're unable to reach customer service.
[+] [-] nickpsecurity|7 years ago|reply
I receive their call back in seconds. I usually talk to someone in India whose both highly enthusiastic about hearing from me and apologetic about the circumstances. If anything, they're too nice since it comes off as unbelievable. They've credited my bill without me asking maybe twice. When I need a tech, they're usually backed up a bit but bump me into next day somehow. Ive always suspected that was a gimmick.
That's the gist of it. They know what they're doing, really polite, better connection quality than past maybe, and super helpful. I think Comcast is both trying to improve its image for leverage in public debates and/or using better support to improve retention. Im loving it either way. Plus, the remote reboot feature on the mobile app. Saves time and trips.
[+] [-] basicplus2|7 years ago|reply
You keep copies of everything included in each mailing, that way if it reaches court you hand everything over and your documentation does the talking.
I have found as soon as i take this approach it gets sorted straight away and is never a problem as they realise that they dont have a leg to stand on.
In another case a business always had their used cheques returned to them once processed by the bank.
When the tax office repeatedly stated a payment had not been made.. their accountant said over the phone to the tax office "thats funny because i am holding their processed check returned to them with the tax offices recieved stamp on it.." it was then magically immediately fixed.
I think its because of people not wanting to do their job within their department so they handball it when ever possible, on the smallest excuse.
[+] [-] anovikov|7 years ago|reply
Surprisingly, MS support was quick and absolutely helpful in resolving this for me - took no more than 15 minutes - and they ended up simply waving my arrears so i never paid that $10 - and let me enter new payment method.
[+] [-] peteretep|7 years ago|reply
The worst offenders in the UK have been cell-service providers, where the competition is fierce, and companies like Sports Direct, where the margins are tiny because the competition is so fierce. Good luck with low-cost airlines too, where the Heathrow-monopoly-abusing (according to VS) British Airways are also great on the phone.
[+] [-] jamesholden|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] AndyMcConachie|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jdavis703|7 years ago|reply