does online customer service have to suck? · i use netflix, an online dvd rental service. recently i had a question about an issue with my account, so i emailed their customer service. the reply seemed a bit on the auto-response side, and did not answer my question. my reply basically said "thank you, your reply does not answer my question, can you please address this?" the second reply from netflix (turnaround time for both was about two days) was an exact copy of the first one (and for a bit of amusement, the original reply was also part of the second reply as their system appears to maintain the entire support thread). the only difference is that the second reply came from "justin", while the first came from "jeff".

so, it appears likely i will never get this issue addressed, and i'll probably end up dropping the netflix service because of it. if someone at netflix would actually read my email, they could probably address it in very short order. they have no competition at this point, though, so i'm guessing they just don't care. i'm sure it's a business decision, keep costs down by using automated customer service and tolerate the customer losses that result, making up for it with marketing and new subscriptions.

what is most frustrating, is that this behavior is typical of almost all contact i have had with the customer service of online vendors. their focus is obviously on the almighty dollar, not people. how sad. fortunately for me, in this case, the service was just a convenience. there are two great local video stores within only a few minutes from my house. looks like they just got my business back.