epitomegirl
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SonyStyle.com - horrible experience!
« on: Jul 17th, 2003, 12:38pm » |
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I would like to lodge a formal complaint against Sony and sonystyle.com:
In December of 2002, I visited the sonystyle.com website and purchased one of their digital cameras. I
experienced some problems with my order so I logged onto their live chat to speak with one of the employees. While chatting with the employee I was also on hold with the SonyStyle customer service number 1-800-571-7669. I remained on hold for 25 minutes and finally gave up. Not more than one minute after I ended the phone call, the chat representative informed me that he could not assist me with my problem, that he did not have the same authority level that the phone reps had and that I would need to call the 800 number and wait all over again in order to get further assistance. Needless to say I was forced to wait on hold for another 42 minutes, only to hit another brick wall.
The next person I spoke with was over the phone, and she was neither polite nor could she assist me. It turned out that the live chat representative lied about the authority level of the phone reps. She was bad-mannered and I asked to be transferred to her manager, and for her name. She then blurted out something that sounded like Vonnie or Lonnie. When I asked her to give me the spelling she barely allowed me to finish my question before transferring me to a manager’s voice mailbox - which was full and unable to receive messages. Because of this, my call was disconnected.
Frustrated, I called the 800 number again and waited on hold this time for 18 minutes. The person I
spoke with allowed me to walk him through the checkout process on the sonystyle.com website in order to demonstrate the problem I was experiencing. While involved in this process his LAN connection was
performing very poorly. This caused the phone call to last much longer than necessary, taking valuable time from the employee, myself, and those on hold. He then offered to transfer me to a manager for further assistance. I protested this solution and explained my prior experience with this option, since I did not want my phone call to again be terminated. I was then told by this employee that “this is the holiday season and we’re swamped… we have a lot of customers and you’re only one customer” implying that not only was I being punished for their department’s mismanagement and staffing problems, but since I was only one customer I was not important to Sony. He went on to tell me “I’m not able to do my job well because you have wasted 27 minutes of my time” to which I pointed out that he was blaming me when in fact it was due to the substandard computer connection and working environment Sony provided. Exhausted, I finally told him I would handle it later and ended the call.
Several hours later I called again and was forced to wait on hold for 39 minutes. The rep was very rude, would not answer my questions and continually interrupted me. I told her I was not happy with her
behavior and asked for her name. She gave me her first name and when I asked for her last name she yelled back into the phone “What’s yours?” which did not make sense since she was viewing my order and had already verified my full nave earlier in the call. I gave her my last name again and then asked for hers, to which she barked “I don’t have to give that information to you.” I was flabbergasted by her treatment of me at this point and demanded to speak to her supervisor. She told me that no one was available and I was not allowed to speak with anyone. I had to literally beg her to put me on the phone with a manager, and surprisingly enough a senior manager was available to speak with me less than 5 minutes later. The manager assured me that action would be taken, but she was vague and it was obvious she was not interested in anything other than getting me off the phone.
In summary, I tried to make a quick and easy online purchase from the website of one of the largest retail corporations in the world, and I experienced something I will not forget. I was forced to undergo preposterous hold times, confrontational and outright savage customer “service” representatives and no resolution to my problem. I am still not satisfied with the outcome of this situation.
I am a customer and I would think a valuable one to any company, especially one where I have recently spend hundreds of dollars. Sony is a brand I have been loyal to for the last 22 years, however, the offensive manner in which I was treated has made me feel completely non-valued as a customer and appalled at the defiance of common courtesy among their employees.
A coworker of mine whom I recently became acquainted with has relayed a very similar experience to mine. Her addendum to this letter follows:
My name is Catherine, and albeit I am not as articulate as my co-worker, I can assure you I am equally—if not more—irate. I will never, ever purchase another Sony product off your “web site.” The entire experience has been an exercise in futility, as I have never in my life encountered ruder and more incompetent “customer service” representatives in my life. I have heard the gamut, from “There is NO ONE else you are allowed to talk to.” to “Someone will call you back.” (Of course, no one ever does). I cannot begin to stress the sheer disgust and disappointment I have with Sony at the moment (and have had ever since I [regretfully] placed my order in October of 2002).
July 2003 - follow-up:
Earlier in the year catherine and I mailed 2 copies of the above letter (sent registered mail return receipt through the United States Post Office) to both the CEO of Sony as well as the customer service department for the company and web site. We have received nothing. I cannot imagine how this is possible because if the letter were refused it would have been sent back to us, and if it were accepted we would have gotten back the return receipt by now. In short, this issue is still not resolved. I have made it my personal mission to tell as many people about this as possible so I am posting this all over the Internet. Sony still has not resolved this issue. I expect a resolution asap.
Sincerely,
Carrie (last name ommitted)
email: [email protected]
Catherine (last name omitted)
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