Email Bad Service

[l_o_lostshadows]

Dear Way too many companies,

You know that little link at the bottom of your web page? The one that we have to click to send you an email to ask you questions not covered in your faq, or related to a specific problem we're having?

Would it really be that much trouble to hire a few actual people to answer them?

I understand that you probably get a

Comments

[polylizzy]

might I just say

FACEBOOK is awesome at this (the fail, not the human reading any e-mail you send them).

[historychick49]

Hotmail used to be the same, too (haven't had a Hotmail account in probably 7 or 8 years, so I don't know if they've changed).

[sarijw]

I kinda want to know what B&N did that makes them lose at math.

I have to send form letters at my work. So, just because it's a human, doesn't make it better? But yes, I agree. And I think your idea would help toward making people respect a company a lotmore.

[l_o_lostshadows]

The form letter insisted my package would get there in 1-3 business days.

I'd sent them the email on day 4 because the tracking info hadn't showed any sign of the package actually going anywhere since day 1.

Call me crazy, I thought it might have been lost, and asked them to look into this.

[acrimsonrelease]

95% of emails are probably things that ARE covered in the FAQ.

Have you tried calling rather than emailing?

[l_o_lostshadows]

I do realize that's why at least the first layer of email responses is generally a form letter. But it's still annoying that make no effort to filter out the emails that need a non-form letter answer.

Not everywhere gives you a phone number. Not everything happens within the hours the phone is staffed. And, as was the case with the email that triggered this rant, you need to send them info that isn't that easy give over the phone.

[myownimprov]

This makes it sound like you write a lot of emails...

[l_o_lostshadows]

I've had email since the early nineties. This rant was a long time brewing.

[l_o_lostshadows]

If some of them are from real people, I think they'd fail a Turing test. :(
Businesses encouraging employees to give that impression to customers is even worse than the computer programs doing it.

I've never emailed my bank, so I don't know what their responses are like.