This isn’t a dig at any company in particular, they’re all bad!

Over the last few months, I’ve had to deal with Telkom, Vodacom, Apple, various ISPs and a few other companies. Every single one of these times I would have rather removed my nipples with sitting needles than go through what I did.

Telkom

They blame everything on their “computer system.” They can’t correct billing errors until the billing run has been done (almost a month later), they don’t have access to certain things. I have a dispute going back 4 months now and it keeps getting cancelled by Telkom without anyone ever contacting me. I lodge the dispute again and wait. So in total I’ve been billed R2000 too much over the past 4 months and I will be over-billed again at the end of this month and there is nothing they can do about it until after it is done.

Vodacom

I fought them about the contract price increases. It is so difficult to contact Vodacom as all your communications go into a big pile and get divided up. I battled to deal with the same person twice. Once or twice I had to have a public fit on Twitter before I got any help. I settled with them after 3 months of this back and forth. They wore me down.

Apple

I am having issues with iCloud. There is a 1.7GB backup I can’t delete. Neither can Apple. This is my first rodeo with Apple Support. We will have to see how it goes. At least I have the guy’s email address.

VOX Telecom

They have the worst support service in the history of the universe. I have spent hours on the phone with them BEGGING them to fix something. I have dealt with their support so much that even if I know the solution to a problem I know I won’t be able to convince them to fix it. If I was a billionaire, I would buy this company and shut it down.

So why is tech support so difficult? Back in the day, Afrihost was known for their excellent support. I dealt with them a few times and was very happy with their support every time. Then one day it just stopped. I cancelled everything I had with Afrihost because of how bad their support became. What happened? Why can’t any company get support right in this day and age?

Surely there has to be some formula for making customers happy. Surely it can’t be that hard? Or is it just such a low priority at so many companies? Do they actually provide bad support on purpose so that customers will just give up?

Have you dealt with a company that has good support? Leave the name in the comments below. If we all support companies with good support we might just force other companies to provide better support.