But I should get credited for vm

[Kara]

Well, with my company we can offer courtesy minutes or a $5 credit for known network problems affecting various services (voicemail, text messaging, whatever the case may be).

It all depends on the problem though. If it's truly something wrong with the service, then we'll credit. If it's user error (customer was messing around with her phone and somehow changed or deleted her voicemail forwarding option), then no credit for her.

[Andara Bledin]

I'm on the Sucky Customer & Sucky Company side with this one, too.

If there is a legitimate claim where a part of a paid service is non-functional, then the company should own up and do something for those customers that request it. Even if it's some throwaway credit of $5 or something similar.

Not only will you save more than that $5 in not having to talk to that customer anymore, it will create a feeling of goodwill in the customer and a greater sense of loyalty. And, if your company has any clue, that $5 can be written off as promotional expenses.

That doesn't mean that you should let sucky customers run rampant, but those with legitimate complaints can be diverted quickly and painlessly with even just a pittance of a credit.

^-.-^

(as an aside, my internet provider actually credited me fully several months in a row for the service being intermittent, and it turned out to be the phone company's fault. I love my internet provider)

[TNT]

If you didn't pay for the service, you wouldn't get the voicemail, therefore it's not truly free - I think that's where the logic comes from here. The customer was an ass, but I think they had a point here - albeit badly made and suckily done.

Rapscallion

I disagree, albeit for legal reasons. My company sells landline service for a certain amount per month. We provide all the features US telcos normally charge extra for at one low rate... long distance, voicemail, etc., etc. etc. But we make it clear that we offer basic telephone service for $xx per month and toss in "free" long distance, voicemail, etc. If the customer doesn't want those features, that's fine... we can remove them. But the price is still going to be $xx per month... you don't get a lower bill by removing free features.

But, it leads to the problem of what to do if a feature doesn't work. If we said, "your voicemail has been out for two weeks... we'll give you a credit of $2.50," the customer could then say, "Aha! You value voicemail at $5.00 per month. I want it removed from my account and my bill lowered by $5.00." Trust me... it happens.

Then again, if a customer's voicemail has been out for two weeks... well, we can't fix a problem unless we know it exists. And features like that are easily fixed within minutes... once we know about it.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I think the company is in the wrong here. How convenient for them that, when they have technical problems with their voice mail, they don't have to compensate any of their customers because their customers have not technically paid for it. Very crafty, and a little bit underhanded. I might be an SC in this situation, too. Its ridiculous to think that no one signed up for a higher-priced package to get that voice mail feature. These people have essentially paid for it by paying more in general for their services.
Lets be honest - if the company didn't think anyone would sign up for a more expensive package than they otherwise would have, simply for the voice mail feature, then why do they offer the voice mail at all?

I agree 100%. Voice mail is part of the service package the customer purchased, and as such she should be able to expect that feature will be working. It is not "free".

And because voice mail was not working, and she does rely on it when she cannot answer her phone, she should get a credit applied towards her bill, if for no other reason than compensation for inconvenience and retaining the customer.

The customer didn't need to be such an ass, but then again I might get the same way if my voice mail was not working and my provider kept giving me the runaround.

[Andara Bledin]

But, it leads to the problem of what to do if a feature doesn't work. If we said, "your voicemail has been out for two weeks... we'll give you a credit of $2.50," the customer could then say, "Aha! You value voicemail at $5.00 per month. I want it removed from my account and my bill lowered by $5.00." Trust me... it happens.

Well, you would head this one off by the manner in which you offered the credit.

Instead of giving a credit for a complimentary feature not working, you would offer a credit for the inconvenience caused by the service not being fully operational.

This puts no price on any individual part of the service, thus not giving them an angle to finagle a lowered rate on the exclusion of said service.

^-.-^

[mrtauntaun]

Well, with my company we can offer courtesy minutes or a $5 credit for known network problems affecting various services (voicemail, text messaging, whatever the case may be).

I think this is more than fair, and a good gesture by a company, even for a 'free' service. It maintains goodwill, would keep me happy as a customer and offer the company an out by calling it a courtesy fee. Granted a technicality, but calling VM free in a paid, packaged bundle is a technicality as well.

[Freemage]

Let me put it this way to those still in doubt:

If I go into the local sub store, they list a variety of 'free' ingredients that come on sandwiches--mayo, mustard, oil & vinegar, various veggies, etc.

Now, what 'free' means is that, if I say, "Hold the mustard," it does not get me a 5-cent discount on my sub. It does NOT mean, however, that if the mayo has gone bad, that I should not be compensated for being handed a wrapping full of botulism on a bun. Nor does it mean that, if I tell them to put hot peppers on, and they don't, that I shouldn't have the right to go back up and ask them to correct the problem.

Now, two weeks of missing voice-mail service is something that can't really be replaced. So, yeah, a token "inconvenience kickback" is exactly the sort of thing I'd expect as the customer in that situation. It could take any number of forms, even--a coupon for merchandise at any of the company's stores, for instance (and let's face it: a $5 coupon ain't gonna actually buy much at a cell phone shop, so it probably is just a discount on something else that I might buy there).

[Bonnie Bitch]

So . . . the customer is saying that her voicemail was down for two weeks . . . why didn't she call two weeks ago and figure out what's wrong?

And let's just say that it's difficult to determine whether the voicemail is working or not (like messages weren't being saved or somethin or maybe she hardly gets voicemail) - then how would she know that it had stopped working two weeks ago?

I agree. Sounds like the SC/entitlement whore was scamming for a freebie.

[mrtauntaun]

I agree. Sounds like the SC/entitlement whore was scamming for a freebie.

How so? Sound reasonable to me. I wouldn't know my VM wasn't working for a few weeks until i tried to call it, or a friend told me. That could take weeks.

[Bonnie Bitch]

How so? Sound reasonable to me. I wouldn't know my VM wasn't working for a few weeks until i tried to call it, or a friend told me. That could take weeks.

Bundled phone service (like our offerings at FU-Telephone) is, as another poster pointed out, like ordering a sandwich at the local sandwich shop. A 6 inch turkey sandwich costs $2.99 (made up price), and that includes lettuce, tomato, cheese, alfalfa sprouts, mayo, ketchup, gespachio, guacamole, olives, and honey dijon mustard, whether you want all the fixings or not. If one forgoes the fixings, the sandwich still costs $2.99 (made up price).
If one does request all the fixings and does not get the requested tomatoes, one will not get extra tomatoes and/or a discount on the next sandwich when one returns two weeks later to bitch about it.
I'm sorry, but not noticing that an optional, included feature is missing/inoperable/out of service is the customer's fault. Credit should only be issued from the time the complaint was lodged and notated, not retroactive to an arbitrary date fabricated by the customer.

The SC in question is responsible for keeping abreast of her service and its functionality. If the service malfunctions, then it is the customer's responsibility to report the issue in a timely manner. The only reasonable expectation for credit is remuneration for time without service from the lodging of the complaint, not to an arbitrary date fabricated by the customer.
Hence, the SC was scamming for free credit.

As my sainted mother, Beah Loudmouthe-Bitch, used to say: "Honey, if it's broke and you're payin' for it, bitch about it."

[Freemage]

Bundled phone service (like our offerings at FU-Telephone) is, as another poster pointed out, like ordering a sandwich at the local sandwich shop. A 6 inch turkey sandwich costs $2.99 (made up price), and that includes lettuce, tomato, cheese, alfalfa sprouts, mayo, ketchup, gespachio, guacamole, olives, and honey dijon mustard, whether you want all the fixings or not. If one forgoes the fixings, the sandwich still costs $2.99 (made up price).
If one does request all the fixings and does not get the requested tomatoes, one will not get extra tomatoes and/or a discount on the next sandwich when one returns two weeks later to bitch about it.
I'm sorry, but not noticing that an optional, included feature is missing/inoperable/out of service is the customer's fault. Credit should only be issued from the time the complaint was lodged and notated, not retroactive to an arbitrary date fabricated by the customer.

The SC in question is responsible for keeping abreast of her service and its functionality. If the service malfunctions, then it is the customer's responsibility to report the issue in a timely manner. The only reasonable expectation for credit is remuneration for time without service from the lodging of the complaint, not to an arbitrary date fabricated by the customer.
Hence, the SC was scamming for free credit.

As my sainted mother, Beah Loudmouthe-Bitch, used to say: "Honey, if it's broke and you're payin' for it, bitch about it."

So how often do you call up your voicemail when there's no indicator saying you got a message? Just asking. Because that's the situation, here.

[Andara Bledin]

Actually, that sandwich thing is kind of funny, because if one calls the shop, one will get a free sandwich on their next visit. I do this all the time when food places mess up my order. I'm never mean or rude, and I've never requested any compensation, but I've always gotten a replacement for the food item they messed up when I was there the first time.

As for not noticing that the voicemail isn't working, I can totally understand that. My phone service has been out for, I guess, about a week, week and a half now. One of my brother's friends mentioned it to him sometime this last weekend. We almost never use the phone, so none of us would notice if it didn't work. I suspect that voice mail is the same way. Until someone complains about a message not being answered or being unable to leave a message at all, the person whos service it is will just think that nobody has been leaving messages, not that the message service is non-functional.

(as to why my phone service is out, AT&T's (formerly SBC) website payment system is really not quite up to snuff. This is the second time (first time since AT&T bought SBC out) that I've had an online payment, for which I have a confirmation number, not go through on their end. I hated AT&T when I had to threaten to charge them with harrassment to get them to stop pestering me to use their long distance [which I already had], and I still hate them now that they're my local service, too)

^-.-^

[mrtauntaun]

Credit should only be issued from the time the complaint was lodged and notated, not retroactive to an arbitrary date fabricated by the customer.

Who's to say it's arbitrary? For all we know, this date could in fact be legitimate and verifiable. Take the following scenario: My friend calls me, asks me if I got his voicemail he left me two weeks ago. I say no, and proceed to check my VM. No indicator light, and I call only to find it is indeed not working. This is not arbitrary, this now has a verified point in time as to when the outage can be traced back too.

If we were to go to the scenario you describe, no credit would be given as, unless this is a network wide type of outage that requires some real man hours, the problem will likely be fixed in a matter of hours (on average).

Now the company can tell me that they will only credit my account from the date of the complaint and that the date is not verifiable (which it likely is if they follow the root cause to resolution), but this will not keep me as a customer.

[ShortTemperHatesStupidity]

I have to say I'm really impressed with the way this thread is panning out. There are some really legit points being made on both sides.

/interjection

[protege]

The customer didn't need to be such an ass, but then again I might get the same way if my voice mail was not working and my provider kept giving me the runaround.

Add me to that group too. I have *very* little tolerance when i get the runaround. Call me an SC, but I do not enjoy having my time wasted. And yes, I also think that if I'm paying for something, it damn well do what it's supposed to.

Here's something else to think about: suppose the customer goes on vacation for a month, and their vm service goes out. How could they be on top of it? I don't know about most people, but when I go on vacation, I rarely check my messages.