Thursday, April 18, 2013

GE's Call Center

I am researching a sealant that I need to install on an expansion joint.  I saw the GE Silicone II Concrete and Mortar Caulk and had a few questions that were not answered on the label.  So, I decided to call the Customer Information Call Center.  I spoke to a woman who was not very helpful. I asked very specific questions. She did answer one of the four.  In further researching the product I noticed that they had a manufacturer listed that was not GE. I called the number for the manufacturer and spoke to a gentleman.  Each time I spoke to him it was like there was a delay in the transmission of my voice.  From the time I would finish speaking until he started speaking was about 10 seconds.  I thought that was very strange, even if they were out sourcing the call center to India or some other far off place.
I asked the one question that I had gotten an answer to from the previous call center person and he gave me a different answer.   He then proceeded to tell me that the answers were all given to me in my previous call.  I confronted him and he indicated that the person I spoke to when I called GE was sitting right next to him and that she was telling him what she had told me on the previous call.  This finally explained why there was the time delay in his responses to my questions.  I pointed out to him that the lady I had spoken to had given me one answer and he had given me a completely different answer.  I contested that comment.  He then went on to say that the way I ask the lady the question was slightly different from the way I had asked him the question, hence the different answer.  He was hanging on a hair on that one.  I asked another question. He indicated that the previous call had answered that question.  I pointed out that the previous call had not resulted in an answer to the question and that the referral to another company was to a dead telephone number. He told me was not going to answer any further questions.

What the heck is going on here? Is this the way you handle customer service?  Also, the assumption that because I called from the same number, I must be the same person. Where do they get that from.
How about truth in advertising. I called two different numbers to two different companies.

Shame on you GE. I am not going to use the product even if it is right for the job.  You just lost a sale for $900.00. Keep up the good work.  I might even sell my GE stock after that one.