KQED the last word?

It’s interesting how much I enjoy the programming of NPR and how much I abhor the commercial / process side of what has become a large, impersonal, disconnected corporation.

I keep ‘making allowances’ and finding excuses on KQED’s behalf, and then they work extra hard to show that they are totally disconnected. This is my last, last, last post on the KQED topic.

So, my last word? Just after I got the last communication from KQED (which said to check my credit card statement for a refund, despite the fact that a check was included), I got another letter. This one (received at the end of November) said, in part and paraphrased, ‘Thank you for your pledge of February 23rd……. due to a problem charging your credit card….’

I rolled my eyes, sighed and then burst out laughing – laughing in that belly laugh way that happens just once in a while.

The letter writer’s title? “Total Quality Control Coordinator.”

Back to sighing and shaking my head.

Bad Customer Service, Brand, Customer Experience, Customer Service, Marketing, Media, media, User Experience, WOM

It’s hard to believe….

It’s hard to believe that I am still having issues with KQED, but I am!

They started billing my (dormant, which brings plenty of additional issues with it) credit card again!

I fought my way through a horrible voicemail system (‘If these menu options haven’t helped, please call back later’, huh?) to a real person eventually. Though she was helpful and polite, I ended the call still feeling as though it was my fault (Oh yes, I see you cancelled, but your record wasn’t marked to stop charges). Time will tell whether I really am off the KQED hook!

This has been one of the saddest sagas of the blog for me. I love the content and programming – for the most part – of public radio and KQED, but they really have become a corporate entity that is divorced, totally and utterly, from the membership. The corporate beast seems to have become self-serving rather than serving the members. And as such, I need to stick to my principle of ‘vote with your checkbook’, though it really pains me to do so.

It pains me all the more because every attempt to point out why I am unhappy has simply been ignored – in most cases not even an acknowledgement. The only person who engaged in any way was the new media guy who saw one of my earlier blog posts and contacted my via a blog comment. He is the person who got my membership cancelled – but not the payments stopped – after several months of letters to people who are paid to care about such problems, the general manager and the head of membership.

Sad, sad, sad.

Brand, Customer Experience, Marketing, Product, User Experience

Discount or not?

Peet’s has a great system for its coffee card; when you put at least $20 credit on it, you get a $1 discount. Not much, but a token that, at least for me, is a good way of saying ‘Thanks’.

However, adding credit at the same time as buying coffee seems fraught! I’m not sure whether it is basic arithmetic skills (or lack thereof) or some problem of the processes. Let me elucidate; I usually discover that I need to add credit to my card when it is short of the amount to pay for my coffee. Seems straightforward, but it never is. For example, I’m short, say $2.35; I’ll say “please add another $30 as well”.

Simple? Apparently not. I have had all variations: they add $30, then take the $2.35 from the card: they give me two credit card slips, one for $30 and one for $2.35: I get a credit card slip for the total of $30 plus the items I bought – so what happened to the amount that was on the card before they tried to charge it (“We put it back on the card”). And so on.

It seems simple to me to do what is requested, but I admit to having grown up in a corner store – and we worked the counter with the rest of the family – and so, doing the change equation in my head was a basic skill. And doing it under pressure of an awkward customer too!

But I gave in. So this time I bought my coffee and then, separately, added $20 to my card. “So you’ve added $21?” I ask. “No”, he says, “you only get the discount if you add money when buying coffee.”

Huh??????

Give him his due, he did immediately give me the card for $1 off my next purchase.

But what a weird and wonderful system………….

And, in case you think I’m picking on Peet’s, I’ve had most of the problems with my Starbucks card too. Including, this week, when I was told there was no credit on the card. I NEVER carry a zero value card, so I know it’s wrong. But what can I do? The manager said “Register the card.” I asked if she had tried – I have and gave up. I was registering it as there were free iTunes for doing so – so I was very motivated. But the web form would not accept the data it was asking for….. No matter what I did.

She assured me that if I called “they” would help me and were very good. I haven’t done so, but will report back when I have plucked up the calm to go through this!

Brand, Customer Experience, Customer Service, Marketing, Product Management, Service, User Experience