Companies Offering Dumb Customer Service

[Creeper]

Sounds to me like a feature they forgot to include in the app. If they allow cash back on credit cards, or their Walmart cards I don't see why the app would not allow the same feature. But I don't know anything about Walmart. There isn't one near me.

 

[CalPolyTechnique]

Any DMV.

 

[Creeper]

I am in the middle of a boilover as we speak. I am not sure who I am more mad at. I have been a Verizon FiOS customer for years. They provide my internet services. When I first got it they gave me email service so I set up an email account and use it for just about all my personal and professional contacts. All was well. A few years ago Verizon dropped email service and handed it over to AOL which took all Verizon's email accounts to manage. They let Verizon customers keep their verizon email addresses so we didn't have to notify everyone of any address changes. A couple of years ago AOL decided that customers who use 3rd party email apps, like Outlook or Thunderbird, needed to stop using their passwords and start using an AOL generated app password instead. If you used a 3rd party email app on your phone or PC you needed to go to AOL to generate a random password and copy it into the password field of your 3rd party app! This, according to AOL was a security feature. It is not, no matter how many times they claim it is so.

In any case, today I needed to move my email app to another machine. Of course when I did this I needed to generate a new app password on AOL's website and of course when I tried it I got a message that this feature is no longer working. I spent an hour looking for something on AOL's website to help me resolve the problem. Nothing. Finally I called their customer service number. The person answering the phone spoke with a heavy accent and I could barely understand her instructions. After a few minutes I repeated to her what I thought I heard. "Wait a few hours and try it again?" Then I asked "what happens if it is not working in a few hours? What should I do? What do you think she said in reply? "Give us a call back." Of course. Why couldn't she just assume I waited a few hours, it didn't work, and now I am calling back?

Now you all know when I call back, because we all know waiting a few hours is not going to work, someone else is going to tell me to wait a few hours and try it again, right?

So I am without email and I don't know who I hate more, Verizon, or AOL/Yahoo. After all, everyone knows AOL sucks, but Verizon threw its customers over the fence to them so maybe the real culprit is Verizon. I decided it was Verizon, so I went to their twitter account, found a tweet about how to read their bill, and asked them where on the bill can I find the charge for them screwing me by giving my email to AOL.

 

[Creeper]

As a follow-up to my email problem, I went to AOL's twitter account and complained. They asked me to DM then with my information which I did. Their response was they made a change to the way they generate app passwords and I had to use a browser that does not block cookies and stuff, and I had to have used this browser to log into AOL in the last 2 days! If I couldn't do that then I was SOL. They told me I could use their app or their web based email site. I think they are pushing their apps and site to generate ad traffic and revenue, which is BS if true.

I replied to them asking if they were saying either I give up Outlook which I have been using for 15 years, or give up AOL, They said to keep trying the app password generator but they could not tell if or when it would ever work again!

I took their DMs and sent them to Verizon over twitter (public). I asked Verizon if this is what they intended for their customers when they flushed us down the toilet bowl known as AOL I got a reply from a customer service guy who said this was all terrible and not the experience they wanted for their customers. (how could Verizon not know this is what AOL was like?) He also asked me to DM him with the specifics so I did. I got another reply from Verizon telling me they couldn't help me and that I should contact AOL!

I am not considering changing email accounts for the first time in about 20 years and possibly changing ISPs, but that's a tricky thing because I will have to give up high speed internet.

My other option is to escalate the problem to Verizon and/or Yahoo/AOL management. I think it will be fruitless, but perhaps cathartic. Anyone have any other ideas on things I can try. I am open to having some fun with these clowns.

 

[Runwildboys]

As a follow-up to my email problem, I went to AOL's twitter account and complained. They asked me to DM then with my information which I did. Their response was they made a change to the way they generate app passwords and I had to use a browser that does not block cookies and stuff, and I had to have used this browser to log into AOL in the last 2 days! If I couldn't do that then I was SOL. They told me I could use their app or their web based email site. I think they are pushing their apps and site to generate ad traffic and revenue, which is BS if true.

I replied to them asking if they were saying either I give up Outlook which I have been using for 15 years, or give up AOL, They said to keep trying the app password generator but they could not tell if or when it would ever work again!

I took their DMs and sent them to Verizon over twitter (public). I asked Verizon if this is what they intended for their customers when they flushed us down the toilet bowl known as AOL I got a reply from a customer service guy who said this was all terrible and not the experience they wanted for their customers. (how could Verizon not know this is what AOL was like?) He also asked me to DM him with the specifics so I did. I got another reply from Verizon telling me they couldn't help me and that I should contact AOL!

I am not considering changing email accounts for the first time in about 20 years and possibly changing ISPs, but that's a tricky thing because I will have to give up high speed internet.

My other option is to escalate the problem to Verizon and/or Yahoo/AOL management. I think it will be fruitless, but perhaps cathartic. Anyone have any other ideas on things I can try. I am open to having some fun with these clowns.

I just use Yahoo. I also have a couple of emails accounts, but only because I needed them for the services I was signing up for. I never actually use them.

 

[Creeper]

I just use Yahoo. I also have a couple of emails accounts, but only because I needed them for the services I was signing up for. I never actually use them.

Yahoo apparently own AOL now.

But I temporarily resolved my issues. I opened a new gmail account and set it up for my outlook client. Then I set up a forwarding rule for my Verizon/AOL account to forward all my email to my google account - which is collected by Outlook.

It is a work around an I suspect AOL will not allow this to be a permanent fix but for now it works. The only problem is sending email which I still have to do on thee AOL webmail page. I am continuing to complain and make a nuisance of myself hoping the eventually fix the problem.

 

[Runwildboys]

Yahoo apparently own AOL now.

But I temporarily resolved my issues. I opened a new gmail account and set it up for my outlook client. Then I set up a forwarding rule for my Verizon/AOL account to forward all my email to my google account - which is collected by Outlook.

It is a work around an I suspect AOL will not allow this to be a permanent fix but for now it works. The only problem is sending email which I still have to do on thee AOL webmail page. I am continuing to complain and make a nuisance of myself hoping the eventually fix the problem.

Good luck, brother!

 

[nightrain]

Company: Walmart

I rarely carry cash. The Walmart app is one of my favorites on my iPhone. I connected my debit and credit cards to it. It makes self-checkout a breeze. Usually.

Today, there were some young men at an entrance fundraising for their youth baseball league. I told one of them I would donate when I left the store.

This was the first time I tried self-checkout with the intent to withdraw cash in addition to my purchases. There was no option to choose getting cash back on the register when I used my app. That could not be correct, right? So, I called over a customer service representative monitoring self-checkout.

I asked how can I get cash back? She asked whether I was using a card? I said no because I was using my Walmart app, which is connected to a card. She was honest and said she did not know if it would give me a cashback option using the app. I did not want to hog my register and keep someone else from checking out sooner, so I choose 'checkout'.

Yep. No cashback option appeared and the register finalized my purchase.

Luckily for me, the store had an ATM, which I used to give the young men some cash. Of course, the ATM tacked on a $3.00 service fee to handle the transaction, which would have been free if the register had allowed cashback using the store app.

It seems like dumb customer service to me. A huge, multi-billion dollar retail company like Walmart allows any debit or credit card customer to get cashback at the self-checkout register. Yet, a Walmart app customer, who ties their cards TO the app, cannot do the exact same thing. It does not seem like the latter purchasing option was well thought out.

Your bank is likely not keen on third party apps having access to you FDIC protected account for cash withdrawals.

 

[Creeper]

Good luck, brother!

Thanks, but it has gone from bad to worse. My Verizon FIOS TV service went out about 2 hours ago and I have had a nightmare of a time with Verizon's websites and troubleshooting apps. Now I am on hold with them for about 30 minutes waiting to speak to someone about the problem. I may be ditching Verizon after this. Their customer service is awful.