Re:Google Voice lost my business number. How I got it back, ...
by ghaff on Saturday October 20, 2012 @12:39PM
(#4677473)
There's a real tension between stability and pace of change and finding that balance isn't easy.
That said, some Internet companies--I'd add eBay in my experience, Facebook also based on lots of stories--use huge amounts of automation and just don't seem to have the processes (and likely the staffing) to resolve problems with competent individual attention when a person has to intervene. It's partly a matter of scale but Amazon, for example, seems to do a much better job overall.
Re:Google Voice lost my business number. How I got it back, ...
by KaoruAoiShiho on Saturday October 20, 2012 @01:17PM
(#4677591)
Amazon also is an expert at losing money and having no margins.
Re:Google Voice lost my business number. How I got it back, ...
by ghaff on Saturday October 20, 2012 @03:20PM
(#4677983)
Retail, in general, is a low margin business. In any case, notwithstanding Amazon's current financials--it's been investing a lot in expansion--any retail business, even a large volume one, that can't do a reasonable job at customer service (a fair bit of which will inevitably involve talking to a human) is probably not going to be very successful.
Exactly. It's always puzzled me why they don't offer a higher tier of support for more money.
The only reason I've been able to come up with so far is that they want to keep the flexibility to rapidly evolve their services. Customers who pay more money tend to get bent out of shape when you do that. But I think there ought to be a happy medium where 1) it's understood that things can change, and 2) you have at least email support for the service you're buying, and maybe even phone support. Peace of mind is worth a lot of money for some things.