What experts say about how to deal with bad customer service involving your money
CHICAGO (CBS) – Lately, a rash of CBS 2 viewers have reached out about their battles with banks.
In some cases, their fights spanned a year or more to get their money back after a dispute. Then, magically, when CBS 2 gets involved, the banks fix their mistakes.
That got us wondering, why does it take a TV station to take an interest? CBS 2's Lauren Victory took a closer look at the state of customer service.
Money, checks, and bank accounts. Victory said she felt like an amateur accountant after meeting folks like Charlotte Warren, Peter Spyropolous, and Gene Krichevsy and hearing about their troubles getting their money back.
"It's horrible," Krichevsy said about his situation. "It's been a nightmare for over a year."
They have all been in months-long battles with banks over hard-earned cash.
The trio of bank customers got caught up in maddening bureaucracy, each in a separate case. So CBS 2 turned to a trio of customer service experts to see why everything seems like a fight these days.
Consumer advocate Christopher Elliott publishes tips to battle bureaucracy all over his website; Jagdip Singh is a professor at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, and Mahesh Subramony is a professor of management at Northern Illinois University.
Singh and Subramony both study customer service.
Charlotte Warren, of Naperville, was at the center of one recent story when a bank would not accept her U.S. government-issued check. Analytics flagged her account.
"These risk scores have been found to be flawed," Singh said.
So first, a computer identified Warren as a risk. Then the human bank employees couldn't or wouldn't fix the issue.
"Customers don't want you to spend some time on it," Singh said. "They just want you to solve my problem, get me to where I need to go."
Technology can frustrate customers even more, from those automated phone systems, like when a chatbot becomes your first point of contact, according to Subramony.
Also fake humans texting with you – customers are often at their wit's end, even before interacting with a real human, not that it gets much better then.
"There's a labor shortage," Subramony said. "The employees are not well trained. I think it's creating some of the issues that we are seeing."
Victory: "Do you think companies should do a better job training their employees in empathy?"
Subramony: "Yes! It's empathy, with some cognitive ability."
Charlotte, Peter, and Gene fought customer service and won, but only after CBS 2 got involved.
In total, almost $90,000 was at stake.
So what happens when you don't have a news reporter helping out? How can you better advocate for yourself?
That's where Elliott Report comes in.
"One of the biggest mistakes that consumers make is calling because there's no record of your conversation," Elliott said.
He added: do use email to put everything in writing. Don't use capital letters or curse words. That could get caught in spam. Stop it with the threats too, Elliott said.
"'I will never use business with your company again.' What incentive does a company have to help you if they know they've lost you as a customer?" he said. "And then, the other one, my favorite is, 'I'll see you in court.' Well, those emails just get forwarded to the legal department and they sit there."
So when the paper trail is (digitally) in hand, it's time for the next step.
"You can forward the entire threat to a supervisor and I do publish the names and numbers of those supervisors on my website," Elliott said.
He does so for hundreds of companies. He's something of a vigilante for those unjustly serviced by customer service.
So when is a good time to escalate your claim?
After you're able to demonstrate the customer service representative at the current level can't or won't help, said Elliott. He added that before making any complaints, make sure you read the fine print to know you are in the right.
For more tips from Elliott, visit Elliott.org or ElliottAdvocacy.org for more direct help.
