Once the waste has been cut out of this bloated Federal bureaucracy, do American’s have the right to expect — gasp! — QUALITY CUSTOMER SERVICE?
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STORYTELLING 101 with Mike Rowe, Part Two: THE HOOK
April 17, 2025
3 Comments
I worked as a chemist/ tech advisor for a leading epoxy manufacturer for 22 years until retirement. The policy for answering phone calls was do it immediately. Email Inquiries same day or no longer than 24 hrs. So, I race sailboats and have for 40 years. I had a Gill Regatta watch that did everything I needed to race – starts are a timed endeavor and the watch worked great. Until the battery needed replacement. Then it had to be sent in to Gill to replace it. A giant pita but OK. So I called their tech support and could… Read more »
Bill: happy early birthday!
May your coffin be made from 100-year-old oak trees planted tomorrow.
Sometimes (rarely) cuts result in bad situations but generally only in union shops. When I worked in a union shop, the working environment (a junior college) was ugly as sin–duct tape over the rips in the cheap carpeting, paint the classrooms once every 5 years, clean the classrooms once a semester and wax the floors once a year. This was called “deferred maintenance” and we were told it was the “new normal” during the Obama years. It resulted in “broken window syndrome.” The college truly couldn’t afford to do the maintenance, but the union salaries continued to rise every year……We… Read more »
I love the streamlined pig, streamlined but still a pig.
SS (like most commercial) call/service centers are all about processing scripted responses. If this … then that … Now continue this thought exercise to its natural conclusion, which is that the ‘future’ call centers will be 100% AI … which are basically computers running scripts (which are just s/w programs executing if, then, else, while, and/or, loop, etc. commands) based on input responses (from call/text) then communicating results w/text +/or human-like voices (that are getting better every day). If the inquiry becomes too complex (too many failed loops), the AI might bump the inquiry up: (1) to a more intense… Read more »
I am still working and contributing to SS, but being over 65 (69) I am also getting SS. Have been since 65.
Yes, you can do that. You just pay taxes on a portion of your SS payment if you earn over $25,000. 50% is taxable if under $34,000, and up to 85% if over. Trump wants that to go to zero.
Go Trump, do it! Do it hard, and fast!
I still get medical coverage, so Medicare, supplemental and Medicaid is not necessary..
Yet.
Well….Steve…I just bought both an iPad mini and a MacBook Pro…I also bought AppleCare for both and, when I had questions, I called the AppleCare number and my call was answered first by a computer asking if I were ready and then a real person came on. No wait…The representative stays on as long as necessary and, with permission, comes into your device to see what the problem is. The problem with SS online is that too many people receiving it have allowed themselves to be computer ignorant when, in fact, computers were evolving when they were in their 30s.… Read more »
Because, as I said in the comment immediately below, you have to pay for what you get. If you need a better grade of support and you’re willing to pay for it then that’s what you get. It’s a win for both you and Apple. I don’t need that level of support so I’m not willing to pay for it. If I needed it, I’d have to pay for it. It’s actually pretty smart for Apple Inc. to offer something like Applecare. It allows them another revenue stream while at the same time providing their customer base with a valuable… Read more »
When it comes to government it would be awfully nice if we got what we’re paying for. The other side of that coin is you have to pay for what you get … Great customer service and tech support are EXPENSIVE. Many companies outsource their tech support to offshore specialty contractors in India, Latin America and Southeast Asia. They don’t do this to rip you off and screw with you on the backend after they have made the sale and gotten your money. They do this to keep their prices competitive. I hate talking to offshore tech support/customer service and… Read more »
I do a lot of my own technical support. I check youtube for assistance, and use my own computer experiences as a guide.
In general, given time and being left alone uninterrupted long enough I can generally figure it out.
However, with 4 dogs, and a somewhat handicapped wife, it’s often easier, and faster to just call especially if I have a time crunch.
Yeah, me too the same plus I almost never have a time crunch. I find it amazing that so much of this stuff works as well as it does and needs so little support to begin with. Living by myself I have a fairly comprehensive “smart home” set up. This is really helpful and controls everything from my HVAC to lights to security gear to entertainment equipment. When I want to watch TV at night I say “Computer … Set condition one”. A pleasant female voice responds “Sir, set condition one. Aye, aye sir.” and the lights go dim red,… Read more »
I’m a bit envious of your setup. (just a bit?😂)
Now, of I could duplicate it (but have more smart alec responses and less military) and add in “Feed, walk and clean the dogs messes.” , I could relax better. (I do have their food, meds, and treats on autoship. Also costs less that way. I Also rig it so that shipping is free)
But i know better than to try anything like this with my wife.😏 That way lies chaos…at best. Hellfire comes to mind.😬
A relative just went through a frustrating, arduous attempt at initiating social security payments. She’d waited until age seventy – just retired – and tried to do this online. First there was an issue with “already registered”, then “password” was wrong. This resulted in a lockdown in attempts. Calls to SS for help waited 3:40 minutes with no call and 2:45 again with no call. She left a number to call back early in the morning and got an extraordinarily pleasant, empathetic person who voided the lockdown. But things still were unable to be resolved until her suggestion to the… Read more »
It sounds to me from what you’re saying that your relative experienced a phenomena common to all technical systems. That wasn’t a problem isolated to only government systems. I had “registered” online with Social Security decades back so I could monitor the state of my account. I waited until 65 to file for retirement because I wanted everything to start at once; retirement benefits, Medicare, etc. I filed at the earliest possible date before I actually turned 65 so that everything would kick in the month of my birthday. I had absolutely no problem at all. In fact, after I’d… Read more »
Agree. I also established SS online account LONG before I retired @ 65, which allowed me to review how/when long before I pulled the trigger. It was ezpz.
Glad to hear it. The system could be easier, but fraud is an issue the easier it gets, I suppose.
Even then with not being particularly easy there’s a lot of fraud and error. I check my billing for Medicare and such looking for fraud and if I find any, which I have not, I’ll report it. Because those people are stealing from a system a lot of people including me need and in doing so, degrading that system. There are victims. It’s usually human error that is at the root of opportunities for fraud. There’s a lot of that human error stuff. My driver’s license was set to expire during the early part of COVID in 2019. I didn’t… Read more »