The Telephone Rings!*
*(apologies to JonnyB)
It is quarter to one in the morning and I am woken by the noise.
Me: Hello.
Man: Mr Jones, hello, my name is Raj, I’m calling from Netgear about your wireless router.
He sounds like a nice enough guy. He has a strong Indian accent and he’s chirpy, so I’m guessing it’s not quarter to bastard one in the morning where he is.
Me: What?
Man: My name is Raj and I am calling to ask about your broadband router modem.
Me: One second.
I get out of bed and walk downstairs to speak to him and ask at what they are playing.
Me: Why are you calling?
Man: We have your call logged as an unresolved issue and we were wondering if you were able to get back online and if your modem was working.
Me: That was like three weeks ago.
Man: It’s a courtesy call for the service of all Netgear customers, Mr. Jones.
Me: No, I mean now. Why are you calling at 1245 in the morning?
There is a half-empty silence, which contains the sound “Mist…”, then the rest of the pause.
Man: I am very sorry about this.
Me: It’s working fine and you said it was an ISP problem anyway, which I went on to fix. But you’re calling me in the middle of the night, three weeks later.
Man: I’m very sorry, Mr. Jones. So are you able to get online?
It’s not his fault, I tell myself. He has a lot of numbers to call and he’s doing his job. His manager will probably get angry at him if I complain about him personally. Best thing is to send an email to Netgear in the UK and US and let them know what I think of their flexible methods of serving a global market (or outsourced cost-cutting methods?). Or better still, write about it and send this post to them and mention “Netgear customer service review complaints call centre India broken wireless modem router“.
Me: Yes it’s working. But don’t ever call your customers in the middle of the night.
Man: Thank you for choosing Netgear, Mr. Jones.
—
Dear Sir/Madam,
I have written a review of Netgear’s customer service on my website and would be interested in your response.
If you are going to outsource your technical support, they should operate within UK hours and not those where you have outsourced your labour.
I enclose a link to the post and I await for your reply. The page is now live and I will of course print your reply for our readers.
Regards,
Cliff Jones
Read Netgear’s response
The Telephone Rings - Part 2
January 31st, 2008 at 10:17 am
OK OK, it was me. But I do a good Raj don’t I?
January 31st, 2008 at 11:29 am
Or better still, write about it and send this post to them and mention “Netgear customer service review complaints call centre India broken wireless modem router“.
Style.
You has it.
January 31st, 2008 at 2:45 pm
No apologies required. I have copyrighted the three exclamation marks, but apparently the single mark with a short sentence beginning with ‘I’ comes under ‘general ideas and concepts’ and thus can’t be protected in law. So you use it with my blessing. No rural stuff, mind.
January 31st, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Jeez, Cliff, they called you!
That’s unheard of for any customer services department, isn’t it?
Just be grateful, darn you… ;o)