I recently had a nasty tussle with Bell Mobility over an account I was trying to sort out.
It was infuriating, not only because I couldn’t seem to resolve a fairly straightforward issue (switching from pre-paid to monthly) but because I was funneled through a system so rigidly compartmentalized that one agent wasn’t able to execute the transaction. It took four agents – four! – over three phone calls and a total on-hold wait time of about 90 minutes.
Good thing I work from home and don’t have a real job or I’d have been sunk. At the end of that ridiculousness, I was so frazzled and vexed that I… took to Facebook to complain.
I wish I could say I wrote a stern, sober but compellingly argued grievance letter to the head of Bell which I copied to my MPP and various patchouli-scented consumer lobby groups collecting signatures for a petition.
But I didn’t. I bitched on Facebook. And you know what? Not only did I feel much better, I actually think I might have been more successful in making my point. And maybe – just maybe – advocating for real change.
Here’s why. Dozens of others came forward to comment on my post and share similar horror stories endured at the hands of Bell or Rogers, our nation’s other completely tone-deaf service provider. Stuff like that gets embedded in people’s subconscious – I am sure of it – influencing their decisions going forward.
The ‘Let’s all bitch and name names on Facebook’ trend is a momentous one. A short while after my rant, my sweet cousin Brenda – possibly the gentlest creature this side of the toilet paper kittens – was so mistreated during a simple yet stupidly inept watch repair transaction that she too took to the web to howl in pain. We could feel it, and we could relate.
In the short term nothing really changes but the optics of those kinds of posts are terrible for these companies. And as any teen twerker will tell you, stuff posted to the mighty Interweb lasts forever.
Sooner or later, Bell, Rogers and their ilk will realize these missives must be shot down on the front lines: through savvy customer care and improved service. And you have to patrol stuff like that constantly. Less money counting, more supervising is what I am saying.
I don’t expect Bell to cave just because some whinging freelancer heaved a furball on Facebook. But if 100,000 others do the same… well, no one likes a furball. Eventually, someone is going to have to haul out the proverbial bucket and baking soda and get down to work.
It was infuriating, not only because I couldn’t seem to resolve a fairly straightforward issue (switching from pre-paid to monthly) but because I was funneled through a system so rigidly compartmentalized that one agent wasn’t able to execute the transaction. It took four agents – four! – over three phone calls and a total on-hold wait time of about 90 minutes.
Good thing I work from home and don’t have a real job or I’d have been sunk. At the end of that ridiculousness, I was so frazzled and vexed that I… took to Facebook to complain.
I wish I could say I wrote a stern, sober but compellingly argued grievance letter to the head of Bell which I copied to my MPP and various patchouli-scented consumer lobby groups collecting signatures for a petition.
But I didn’t. I bitched on Facebook. And you know what? Not only did I feel much better, I actually think I might have been more successful in making my point. And maybe – just maybe – advocating for real change.
Here’s why. Dozens of others came forward to comment on my post and share similar horror stories endured at the hands of Bell or Rogers, our nation’s other completely tone-deaf service provider. Stuff like that gets embedded in people’s subconscious – I am sure of it – influencing their decisions going forward.
The ‘Let’s all bitch and name names on Facebook’ trend is a momentous one. A short while after my rant, my sweet cousin Brenda – possibly the gentlest creature this side of the toilet paper kittens – was so mistreated during a simple yet stupidly inept watch repair transaction that she too took to the web to howl in pain. We could feel it, and we could relate.
In the short term nothing really changes but the optics of those kinds of posts are terrible for these companies. And as any teen twerker will tell you, stuff posted to the mighty Interweb lasts forever.
Sooner or later, Bell, Rogers and their ilk will realize these missives must be shot down on the front lines: through savvy customer care and improved service. And you have to patrol stuff like that constantly. Less money counting, more supervising is what I am saying.
I don’t expect Bell to cave just because some whinging freelancer heaved a furball on Facebook. But if 100,000 others do the same… well, no one likes a furball. Eventually, someone is going to have to haul out the proverbial bucket and baking soda and get down to work.
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