You Call That Customer Service?

*Warning - Customer Service Rant*

I'm just off a half hour call to Apple's customer service people in which I ripped the guy a new one.

I sent my iPod in for a service a couple of weeks ago because the battery has been cutting out on a regular basis, even though it says that it has up to a full bar left. I was confident that the problem would either be fixed or replaced because their technical support has been excellent in the past.

But no! They sent back the original iPod, saying that there was nothing wrong with it! WTF?!

I decided to give it a while and see how it worked out. Maybe they'd done some stuff to it that would make the battery last longer, we'd see. It soon became apparent that they really hadn't done anything to it and, in fact, the problem was more severe than before I sent it off.

So I called their customer services at lunchtime. I was ready to just explain the problem and insist, politely but forcefully, that they fix it right away because my warranty is up in just over a week and I refuse to pay for a problem that should have been fixed by them weeks ago. Unfortunately I got a complete idiot who couldn't undestand a word I was saying and kept talking over me! And he kept calling me Mrs Eileen, even though he knew it was my first name! So I ended up getting really riled up. But they are coming to collect my iPod again. I swear if they don't fix it properly this time, I'll explode!

I don't like it when people call up customer services to make a complaint and lay into the representative for no reason, other than they're angry about the complaint. The representative is only the middle man who has no control over your problem, other than to pass on your message to the appropriate people who can fix it. But why do companies insist on hiring complete idiots within their customer service departments who have zero people skills? I get mad at them because of the way they are acting! Nothing to do with the original purpose of the call! It's all them!

Man, I have the worst luck with customer service!