I experienced some phone service today that, although certainly not as severe as yours, made me seriously think about switching to another company. I was bounced around all over the place, was disconnected once, on hold for over 45 minutes, all to get a simple answer to something which they could have mentioned on their hold recording. The service was rude by the actual live representatives, and my whole impression of the company was tarnished. I think companies forget that their phone reps are the first line of contact that can make or break their relationships with their customers.

I had a similar experience with my Capital One credit card several years back. One of their third party partners contacted me at 9am (early by my standards in those days) and tried to sell me something. I was half asleep so I just told them I wasn’t interested. The rep on the phone said “Too late,” and hung up on me. My sleep-soaked mind didn’t comprehend what was going on until about a week later I get this stack of magazine subscriptions and a bill for $200. I immediately called Capital One and explained what had happened and they told me that they couldn’t do anything about their partners, I would just have to ask them to remove me from their calling lists, and that in order for my account to be credited I would need to return the magazines. When I tried to return the magazines, the partner company told Capital One that I had agreed to the sale and sent them back to me, with Capital One reversing the previously issued credit. I went back and forth before I finally got a hold of a manager at the partner company and we tracked down a copy of the call, in which we could clearly hear me tell the representative that I was not interested and her telling me it was too late. They promised to handle the situation with the employee and removed my name and number from their mailing list and when Capital One credited my account I promptly closed the card. I was less than impressed with their handling of the situation. I was angry they would not let me opt-out from them giving out my information. And I really didn’t want to go through the experience again with any of their other partners.

I agree completely that when a company outsources or gives your information to a third party partner, they need to make sure that any interaction with their customers is representative of the quality that is expected of the brand name. In my opinion, the way Capital One and partner handled the situation was of low quality, therefore that equated to Capital One being of low quality and not a card I wanted to carry. I think it’s the same thing with your assessment of TV Guide.

At the time I had two small babies and the subscription was very low on my list of priorities, so I didn’t bother with trying to figure it all out.

Fast forward to today, and I have them calling wanting me to renew as “your subscription is about to expire, and you will have to renew at the full price!! If you act now, we can give you 4 years for the price of one, if you wait until it expires, you won’t have that option, etc, etc.”

What is interesting about this, and why this post got my attention is the renewal I want to do now. My niece is in Girl Scouts, and they are having a fund raiser. If I renew my subscription through the subscription service the girl scouts uses, then the girl scouts, my niece, and her troop, get credit for my renewal as if it were a sale. SO…now…the telemarketer called, and I told her we would be renewing that way…you should have heard how low the price got if only I would renew through her and NOT the girl scouts.

SO…now I don’t know which way to go…if I renew through the Girl Scouts so my niece gets the credit, will I then end up with another double subscription? And will this third party company be even worse than the previous company that was calling about our “subscription that’s about to expire” at the most inconvenient times?

It just seems like a no win either way, and I do enjoy getting the publication. Why can’t these companies handle their own subscriptions and renewals? Why does it have to be so complicated and inconvenient? Is it because at one point in the life of our subscriptions we unknowingly renewed through a 3rd party?

I did contact TV Guide through their web site to make them aware of this (including date/time of the calls as we as my phone number). If they had nothing to do with the call, I would expect them to respond with a a vehement denial that these folks were calling on their behalf.

As far as whether the people were employees or employed by a company that TVG contracted the work to, I don’t make a distinction. In either case, I see it as the responsibility of TVG to ensure quality control. There are ways of doing this – such as the “secret shopper” method. Randomly seed the customer database with phone numbers that go to a TV Guide quality control rep and guage how the telemarketer treats them.

I assumed it was TV Guide who called. If it’s similar to the guy selling magazines door-to-door – trying to pick up a commission by guessing that I subscribe to TV Guide then it’s a different situation. TV Guide shouldn’t be blamed for someone not really affiliated with it.

On the other hand, it sounded like this person knew when the subscription was going to end. If that’s the case, they are either directly TV Guide employees or indirectly TV Guide employees (through a third party). In either of these cases, I think it’s fair to punish TV Guide. They should be able to control the actions of their employees and they are responsible for the third-party employees if they are giving them information about my subscription.

I left a comment on The Casual Observer, but he makes a great point here that most of the people are getting their product for free on their cable/DVR system. Maybe TV Guide is trying to bully people into subscribing because they have no other legit alternative? That’s probably a stretch.

We had an almost identical situation with the telemarketers for them, and through this I learned what you have, and that is that these are 3rd party companies that are not employees of the magazine they are hawking. They have nothing to lose by being rude.

I am also a staunch believer in and supporter of not doing business with a company that has treated me poorly. To date these companies are: Wells Fargo Bank, in any capacity, and Old Navy. Both due to horrid customer service.
Reader’s Digest still has our business because the poor service was not their doing.

First, I answered a call where the telemarketer told me that someone would be my neighborhood on Monday from the Times and wanted to know if I wanted a free paper. I said sure, why not. Then he said, ok, let me put you on hold. Another woman picked up and said, “So I understand you want to switch to a daily subscription?” I told her no…

Next, my wife got a similar call with a similar deceptive tactic.

After that, I called and canceled my subscription and then when they called back I asked them to remove me from their list.

A few quick notes about my blog. I write on a few different topics each month – customer service (detailing a specific experience), news, sports (especially baseball, since I am a baseball geek), and a book review. An upcoming post will be about archaeology, of all things … needless to say, I’m not a direct competitor to Lazy. I try to give folks a fun, entertaining read, occasionally throwing a satire into the mix. My viewpoint tends to be about a quarter turn away from the average person’s … or sometimes a half turn. But enough about me and my shameless self-promotion …

One of my degrees is in marketing, and the adage that “it is cheaper to retain an existing customer than to attract a new one” was pounded into us relentlessly. Alienating an existing customer during a recession seems like a bad idea – especially when there are free alternatives to your product. At this my, I think my wife had only been renewing out of momentum … she rarely actually READS the magazine (and I don’t watch a lot of TV, so I very rarely read it) – it often lays in the mail pile until I notice that it’s not current and recycle it.

Maybe I’m atypical, but if you annoy me, you have lost me as a customer. Bank of America annoyed us enough with a credit card issue enough that when we refi’d our mortgage, we didn’t even consider staying with them as a lender. (Yep, this is also detailed on my blog. There I go with the shameless self promotion again …)

Companies that outsource retention are handing over their lifeline, in my opinion.

I’ve never bought TV Guide.