Or maybe in my case I am working for the phone company. Don’t you love the fact that you can receive and pay all of your bills online? For me it is a double-edged sword. It’s much more convenient, but for some reason the amount of the bill does not register as strongly as it used to when I had to get out the old checkbook and pay the bill. So when I got my phone bill the other day it seemed a bit steep, but I wasn’t totally sure. That’s when I realized I couldn’t even remember the password to login to my account, because everything just automatically gets paid…convenience has made me lazy!!
Finally I got myself logged in and sure enough there was $13.75 that didn’t seem to belong. I called in to find out what had happened. The woman I spoke was extremely nice and helpful. She told me that they had changed their billing cycles and the $13.75 was for the gap between the old and the new cycle. I asked why there would be a monetary difference….if it was just timing wouldn’t the amount still be the same? After reviewing it she agreed and told me it was a billing error and she would credit my account.
Very easy and very painless. What I found interesting was the total lack of apology. She was very nice and there was nothing offensive about her service, but no one really seems to feel the need to apologize these days. I probably apologize too much sometimes, but the occasional courtesy wave (not finger) when you’ve let someone merge into heavy traffic or an “I am so sorry we tried to get you to pay $14 you don’t owe us” can go a long way.
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