The Customer Service Hall of Shame

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Added: Sat. Mar 07, 2009 10:28am

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On Friday, I received a call from a young man indicating he was conducting some research on behalf of Bank of America. It was a customer satisfaction survey. After he told me the conversation was being recorded, I took the liberty of giving him a piece of my mind. I told him it disturbed me that Bank of America was spending, perhaps millions, to get opinions on their customer service---and the fact that they could be using bailout money was downright disgusting.

Bank of America's attempts to improve its customer service comes on the heels of poor ratings they've received over the past couple of years. In a 2008 MSN Money-Zogby International survey, 31% of respondents familiar with Bank of America's customer service rated it "poor." In 2007, 30% rated it "poor." Why? Because employees don't seem to have a clue on how to really help you when you call them on the phone. One time my husband discovered a charge with his online account but the employee he talked to couldn't explain the charge. He later discovered the bank had changed a policy but failed to inform him about it.

Bank of America ranks #7 on the Customer Service Hall of Shame List, along with these other Companies:

1. AOL

2. Comcast

3. Sprint Nextel

4. Abercrombie & Fitch

5. Qwest

6. Capital One

7. Bank of America

8. Time Warner Cable

9. HSBC Finance

10. Cox Communications


Perhaps if these Companies put more money into training their employees on how to give good customer service and in depth training on what the company does, they wouldn't have to spend so much money trying to figure out their problems.

Are there any companies you think should be added to the Customer Service Hall of Shame?