Annoyingly Broken Web-Based 'Customer Service' [Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος]

I just tried to submit some questions via the "Contact Us" page on the AT&T Wireless Services web site. The message didn't go through, and I got an error message saying "try again later", so I hit the 'back' button on my browser, and tried re-submitting my message later. And again later still. Then I started experimenting.

Here's how the messages I posted through that page came back to me (with slight editing for format and to remove extraneous machine-added verbiage):

From: dglenn@radix.net
To: customer_service@attws.com
Bcc: 
Received: 07/24/2002 22:23:24
Subject: Website Feedback

Trying to send a message on another topic, I get:

=================================

Application Message
An error has occurred while processing your request. Please try again later.

Message 1310

=================================

but trying again later hasn't produced any different results so far.  

I'm trying this in order to check whether Message 1310 refers to a 
size limit on email or something ... if it does, I'm going to be 
Very Annoyed, since there's no warning of a limit before a user 
spends a while typing up his or her message.

And a couple minutes later:

From: dglenn@radix.net
To: customer_service@attws.com
Bcc: 
Received: 07/24/2002 22:27:24
Subject: Website Feedback

Okay, my last message was accepted by your system.  Now the question:  
How small do the chunks I chop up my first message (the one that keeps 
getting rejected with an uninformative error message) have to be?

And why is there a limit so small that my customer-service questions 
won't fit?  Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose?

Finally:  FIX THE ERROR MESSAGE to indicate what the actual problem is, 
rather than hinting that it's some temporary server problem or 
something!!!  Better yet, indicate what the message-length cutoff is 
Before The User Starts Typing!

This is not very advanced user-interface design -- these are 
_fundamentals_.  There's no excuse for getting these wrong.

I hereby hold the designers of the AT&T Wireless Services Online Customer Service web site (or whoever at AT&T disregarded the designers' advice and told them to build it brokenly) up to ridicule. They got the easy stuff so very, very wrong.

I'm not sure I even got a useful email address out of it as a side effect (I prefer to send messages from an environment that logs things alongside all my other outgoing mail when it's sent, and users my choice of editor, rather than using a web interface to send email). Part of the verbiage I deleted said not to reply to these messages, but to send any further questions via the website. *sigh*

Part of the Too Large Message was a complaint that couldn't get to the information I sought because the site requires JavaScript to get to those sections, and another part was about an ongoing billing problem I've been having difficulty resolving over the phone.

January

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
1 1	2 1	3 1	4 1	5 1	6 1	7 1
8 1	9 1	10 1	11 1	12 1	13 1	14 1
15 1	16 1	17 1	18 1	19 1	20 1	21 1
22 1	23 1	24	25	26	27	28
29	30	31

Sun

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

Welcome to the wonderful world of customer service. Believe me, you're not alone. I've seen entire television documentaries on this subject and type(s) of problem(s). I just figured out today that my mortgage company doesn't allow access to account if they are "overdue" - as in, the payment was sent, and possibly even reveiced, but not posted. So you can't check up on any payments and you have no idea that there might have been a payment received late until you get a notice in the mail from their lawyers and then, of course, they won't discuss it woth you - you'll have to get a lawyer. I ended up having to go to court last year over the whole thing - the court was peeved because apparently you just show that you paid and that's it... the mortgage lenders' lawyers were supposed to see that and shut up - but no they still took me to court over it. I just got another notice from them today - apparently another payment not received and instead of telling me so I can fix it - they're taking me to court. I've moved. I may have to go back to Illinois (from West Virginia) and I wonder if I will see some of the same people who were there last time. Last time in court the poor guy before me (Juan Sanchez) was getting his house repossessed when he had made all the payments (on time, even - and had proof of such). The amounts they said he owed didn't match up to his actual mortgage payment amounts (according to the original lending statement - even including any late fees and such). The court concluded the lender must have the wrong Juan Sanchez or something. Poor Juan had missed 14 days of work going to court over this and they couldn't ensure that he wouldn't miss more. Apparently Juan is at a loss - he can't file suit against them for the hassle because it's no one's fault (so says the lawyers and the court). Not to belittle your frustrating experience(s) - I have come to expect complete incompetance from about 95% of any company's communication methods. You can always go to the state consumer affairs - and I have had some luck getting on the phone and being transferred from person to person to department, etc, until I find a person with clue. THen I get their name, phone number, extension, etc. and call them about everything. THey usually can't help with just anything, but they'll usually try. The only danger here is that sometime different departments have different information - I also found out from the mortgage lender that not all departments have updated info. So the lawyers say I missed a payment and I owe a certain amount - which even if I did miss a payment is the incorrect amount because they are dealing with a department which has incorrect information - at least according to this other department.

I've also had some luck trying to only deal with companies that have phone numbers - not just email. Some of the companies online really just want you to email them and if you can't get the system to work, you're at a loss.

Evolution. Can we ever get rid of some of these vestigital organs? Probably not - the evolution rate is too high for the complexity of the organism(s). Result: maladaptive organisms. Low fitness...
death...

<BIOLOGISTS!!! :P all things must die - only to be BORN AGAIN! <Philosophers!!! :* Have a great day anyway!!! Ru

[link] [reply]

Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

Annoyingly Broken Web-Based 'Customer Service'

Customer Service

Links

January