Fasten your seatbelts, Gentle Reader. This brief post is a full-throated rant.
A few days ago, I was talking to my brother, a retired Navy captain with an exquisitely honed sense of what is appropriate and what is not. During our conversation, he noted that AT&T had slapped him, a longstanding customer, with a $5 “late charge” for writing a check that was $0.20 less than his bill.
C’mon, folks. We’re all human, and we all make petty mistakes like this. As my brother put it in his letter to this corporate lummox, “Maybe I misread the amount being billed. Maybe I simply made a clerical error. I am not sure I recall at this point…I wonder if the people who process your bills are capable of exercising common sense, simply saying ‘Poor old Monroe. He just made a simple clerical error. Let’s let him off.’”
Jeez, Louise. Is this how AT&T is boosting corporate profits? This is a particularly crappy way to treat a customer with an excellent payment record. What the heck is wrong with tacking the errant $0.20 onto his next bill? More than likely, Accounting would not have a hissy-fit.
This post is in no way an attempt to take cheap shots at the hard-working men and women in AT&T customer service. It is an effort to point out a corporate policy that leaves a bad taste in my mouth and sure didn’t leave my brother residing in the mythical kingdom of customer delight.
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