Customers schmustomers

Customer Service amuses me. In no other situation is such rude and vehement complaining so richly rewarded. It seems to me that a better business model would be "here is our company's token of appreciation for not complaining..." CS is all about damage control: keep as many customers as happy as possible so they will keep giving our company money.

What I absolutely hate are companies that charge ridiculous fees and use nonsense to try and justify it, banking on the fact that most people either won't know or won't work up the ire to do anything about it. And I absolutely love it when those same companies are eating crow because their idiot customers aren't as idiotic as they thought. It absolutely makes no sense to me that in this economy, companies would do anything that would alienate potential customers.

Case in point: US Airways (or Err-ways as I like to call them) recently recanted its policy of charging for sodas and coffee on domestic flights. It seems enough people just wouldn't put up with being nickel-and-dimed when they already paid several hundred dollars for the airfare in the first place.

The source of today's diatribe: Verizon Wireless. The nation's self-proclaimed largest provider of wireless phone service has recently started charging an extra $30 a month for people to use a smart phone. Worse, they are using absolute mullarky to justify this charge. I wanted a smart phone, but I could never justify increasing my cell phone bill by almost 50% to buy a smart phone, so I've been asking questions. "Well it costs a lot for us to implement and maintain our 3G network, it's the largest in the country, you know" said one walking acne boil. That's fine, how about I just not use the dial-in network and use the Wi-Fi at my home and school, that way I don't have to use your super-expensive (although expansive) network. "Nope, doesn't work like that. If you want this phone, you have to have this data package. That's our policy."

That's your policy? A $30 a month charge for a phone that runs Windows Mobile? No matter how I try and reason with these people, nothing changes, no one listens. People are losing their jobs, losing their houses, cutting back in any way they can... I just hope they don't plan on selling a lot of these. Maybe then they might actually listen to their customers who present a valid argument and work something out.

Or they can wait a couple of months, realize that people are leaving in droves, and try and unring the bell.