1. I expect you hear what I'm saying (or typing), and not ignore the essence of it.
Example: If I say "I want to cancel my account", you cannot respond: "I understand you are having trouble with your account." That's not what I said.
2. I expect that you respond in a timely manner.
Example: I do not have time to wait for 4 minutes between IM messages from you. And you certainly can't hang up the chat if I take 3 minutes to respond to one of your messages if you keep taking 4 minutes.
3. I expect you to remember what I said earlier in the conversation.
Example: if you ask me for the last order number, and I give it to you, you cannot ask me the same question again 2 minutes later. In particular you can't do that if it's a text chat and all you need to do is scroll up.
4. If I ask for a supervisor, you need to connect me to a supervisor.
Example: You cannot pretend that you didn't hear that, or claim that they can't help me. At the very least, they can listen to what I have to say about their employee or their process.
Is that too much to ask? I'm not even asking for competence, or friendliness, or that you apply what you learned in emphatic response class. Just that you don't drive me insane!
(All of the above just happened in a 45-min, unsuccessful chat with Skype support. I was attempting to close an account and refund a cash balance. I would have posted the entire transcript but their web chat app deletes the transcript as soon as the chat is over. To protect the guilty I'm sure.)
The January 2012 Worst Customer Support Experience goes to Skype. Congratulations, it's an accomplishment.
P.S. The account is still open and I still don't have a refund.
