It all started simply enough. I dialed my son’s phone number, something I’d done hundreds if not thousands of times before. But instead of connecting, I got an automated message, “Customer not in network.”
Seemed odd. We are both Verizon Wireless customers. It must be some glitch. I hung up and tried again. Same result.
Following what seems to be standard protocol with any electronic device, I shut off and restarted my phone. When that didn’t work, I felt a pit in my stomach and dread at the prospect of having to reach out to Verizon for help. I’d had too many unpleasant customer service experiences with Verizon, Comcast, Bank of America, etc.
The payoff of those experiences: a feeling of powerlessness, frustration, elevated blood pressure, customer dissatisfaction, and often a still unresolved problem. I am not alone.
Last June, the US Customer Experience Index recorded “an all-time low after declining for an unprecedented third year in a row. … ‘US consumers,’” it indicated, “‘are having on average, the worst experiences in a decade.’”
With the holiday season freshly behind us, the exchange of gifts meant to show love and appreciation will quickly be replaced by truly unpleasant customer service experiences for millions of people who get a new phone, computer or some other electronic device or who want to return or exchange something they were given.
Welcome to America’s customer service nightmare.
A bit of poking around revealed that there is a word now being used to describe the way people feel about calling customer service at Verizon or elsewhere: “telephobia.”
Telephobia, “a general fear of making phone calls,” is often associated with concerns about navigating complex customer service systems, dealing with potential wait times, or feeling uncomfortable explaining technical issues to a representative.
Calling Verizon or many other large American companies most often means spending hours trying to get help from people who seem to be paid not to help. That is, if you can get to a person — that only happens if you convince some AI-driven machine that you and your problem deserve a human response.
And if you are lucky enough, like Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz,” to get an audience with the Wizard or to talk to a live human being, that doesn’t mean your problem will be solved. Ask anyone who has called Verizon, Comcast or their internet service provider. Here is one example from something posted on Reddit.
“Anytime I need to call Verizon it’s an absolute nightmare. … I called in once to straighten out Gift Cards that were awarded to me. Even WITH a letter from Executive Support, I was transferred to 5 different departments, told inconsistent things, lied to, and wasted an hour of my time for something that should’ve been so simple.”
In my case, after I was connected to a Verizon customer service representative and explained my problem, I asked if she’d ever had to deal with my problem before. “No,” she responded, but she assured me she would be able to resolve it if I was OK with being put on hold.
Ten minutes later, she returned and again told me she knew what to do. But she didn’t.
Ninety minutes passed, and my problem was not resolved. I gave up.
Later in the day, I tried again, hoping to get a more knowledgeable and helpful customer service representative. One hour and forty-five minutes later, no luck.
I asked her to transfer me to someone who might have had some experience with my particular problem. She put me on hold for 30 minutes, only to come back and tell me there was no such person.
The next day, another try. Another wasted hour and a half.
I then waited a week, mustered my courage, and called again.
This time, I got through to someone who assured me he knew exactly what to do and would solve my problem in 10 minutes. He asked me to do all manner of things, including turning off my phone and removing the SIM card.
Ten minutes came and went; he still couldn’t figure out how to fix my problem. After an hour he advised me to go to the nearest Verizon store.
So, after a total of more than six hours on the phone, I was passed down the food chain. This is another classic move in America’s customer service world.
This kind of experience is why, as a March 2023 NPR story noted, “Americans are more unhappy with the customer service they’re getting than ever. … 74% of Americans say they’ve had product or service problem in the past year. … The incidence of problems has more than doubled since 1976.”
Bad customer service, NPR says, results from “a shortage in workers in some industries, the proliferation of tech as a part of the process, and a lack of incentive for companies without competition.”
People asked to handle calls and provide customer service are victims of a system that pays them little to deal with disappointed or angry consumers and have poor working conditions. Fox Business quotes customer service consultant Amas Tenumah, who observes that “‘customer service has been deteriorating in the U.S. for decades due to companies’ cost-cutting measures.’”
Things have gotten so bad that the United States does not even rank in the top 10 among countries regarding customer satisfaction. We come in below Mexico, the United Arab Emirates and Russia.
And it is unclear that businesses understand just how bad the situation is. Temumah argues there is “a major disconnect between what companies see as good customer service and what consumers expect. … 80% of companies think their customer service is going well, while only 8% of customers agree.”
But America’s customer service nightmare is not experienced equally by all segments of society. According to Harvard Business Review, “women, African Americans, and Latinos … experience higher hassle costs when dealing with customer service.” This also is true for members of economically disadvantaged groups.
Anyone who experiences a customer service nightmare, no matter who they are, may feel that they are not valued and can do nothing about it. All of this erodes civility and trust and, as I have argued previously, has profound political costs.
My own story has what some would call a happy ending. The clerk at the Verizon store fixed my phone while opining that the people I’d talked to on the phone “did not know what they were doing.”
He changed the SIM card, and I called my son. It worked.
For now, I can put my customer service nightmare behind me. But for others, all I can say is, good luck.
Austin Sarat is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College. His views do not necessarily reflect those of Amherst College.
