Obviously, there are tons of customer service stories out there. And I’m not the only blogger blogging about them on a regular basis. So now, every Thursday, you can find my personal roundup of rants and raves from around the blogosphere. This week is a bit of a special edition to highlight a major fail and major win recoup for the airline we all love to pick on because they’re so good at putting themselves out there: United Airlines.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned United in a social media post and embedded the world-famous United Breaks Guitars video by Dave Carroll. United’s latest snafu has to do with Step Davis, a professional climber and BASE jumper (among many other talents). On a trip back from Switzerland, United managed to lose her jumping gear – worth over $12k! She tells of the full experience in her blog (plus you get to see some pictures of some of the awesome – in the true sense of the word – stuff that she does).

Steph, of course, did her best in contacting United and trying to impress upon them the importance and value of this gear. They didn’t get it at first. And in the meantime, the Twitterverse sure let @UnitedAirlines know about it!

Whether it was due to the publicity and Tweep-support or to Steph’s relentless dedication in communicating with United to get her gear back, she is now going to be fully compensated for her lost gear! She writes another blog post explaining the details. Now, I don’t know if United managed to recover Steph as a customer, but they did manage to do the right thing and resolve the situation. As one of Steph’s Tweeps said, it’s important to Tweet the good and the bad – it’s only fair to the company, especially after a “slip-up” such as this.

I’d love to hear others’ opinions (rants and/or raves!) about United Airlines.  I’ll admit I have a huge chip on my shoulder when it comes to United*, so I really would like to hear if someone thinks differently about them!

*Gotta love their “give us more money and we’ll give you lots of luxurious leg room” upgrade option. Did ya think we wouldn’t notice where that extra legroom came from? The plane sure as heck didn’t get longer, and I’m fairly sure that you didn’t take any rows of seats out. I did notice, however, that my “cattle-class” seat had even less legroom than before. Thanks, United, for making people with long legs, overweight people (You get to pay twice! Even if we have extra seats!), and people who like to bring luggage with them feel extra-special! Way to enhance the user experience for some of your customers!

Ever since then, I’ve been impatiently for my next TEP bill. Yes, really. I’ve been eager to try out the “new” e-bill system and see how it compares. Also, I told Michael the webmaster that I’d give him my feedback. So here it is!

Step 1: Looks the same at this point!

Step 1: Login to account manager and click on the “View/Pay Bill” button. It’s suspiciously exactly like it was before so far, but I have faith that it will be better! I wonder if it’ll take me directly to my current bill.

Step 2: Look! Pretty and organized!

Step 2: Nope. Not my current bill, but what’s this lovely looking list? Could it be my bills in reverse chronological order, starting with the current bill? It is! What a great change from before, when the list of bills seemed to be randomized like my iTunes on shuffle, or like I was playing hide and seek with my current bill. It looks way nicer, too! And there are pretty buttons that look like buttons and, more importantly, they’re all consistent in appearance so far!

Step 3: I’m going to click on “Pay” now. Wish me luck! Wha? An error dialog box? What did I do? Wait, it’s not an error message. It wants me to set up my bank account information. Hmm. Wasn’t expecting this type of dialog box; it’s a bit odd. Also, it’s a little bit of  a hassle that I have to enter in my banking info again, but it makes sense that I should have to since I haven’t used this particular system before.

Step 3.5: (Not counting this  as a full step, since I wouldn’t normally have to enter in my banking information.) Decent looking form, and the buttons are still looking consistent! They’re still in the wrong order, though, but it’s not the worst of things. And to be fair, Jakob Nielsen says that it doesn’t matter. I’d still like to think there should be a web standard for this, but yeah, not the worst of things. As long as it stays consistent!

Step 4: (I’m not taken directly back to the payment screen, but it’s easier to find now!) Now I click on “Pay” one more time, expecting to be taken straight to my payment screen and be on my way! Except . . . there’s another one of those pesky dialog boxes. What did I do wrong this time? Oh. I see. It wants me to confirm my action. Not sure how I feel about this one – I think it’s unnecessary step.

Step 5: Ah ha! Here’s my payment screen, and doesn’t it look pretty and simple. I enter the relevant information and then I press the “Submit” button and I’m pleasantly surprised to have a very straightforward payment confirmation screen – no extra, superfluous steps like with MyCheckFree! Wow, I was seriously not expecting it to be that easy, but like I said, I’m pleased. And I’m even given a link back to “My Payments” so I can double check or edit my payment if I need to.

Huge improvement, TEP! And thanks, Michael the webmaster, for letting me know this was available for use instead of MyCheckFree! My only complaint, really, is the dialog boxes. They’re a little unexpected, and I’m not sure why they are from the browser instead of the application itself – perhaps that would make them less jarring? All in all, I’m now a much happier customer and not just because my bill was way lower this month thanks to the change in temperature.

• An Open Letter to American Express (from Cracked.com) – This falls into the category of “you can’t be serious!” Read about the atrocious customer service this guy got from American Express.
• Now Hear This: Happy Customers = Evangelists (from promodiva.com) – I personally love hearing about this when it happens. Heck, I love it when it happens to me (like with CarMax)! Have you ever become a fan for life because you were just wowed by the customer service you received. Learn how SiriusXM made some already loyal customers into brand evangelists.
• How many times can you alienate a customer in one interaction? (from Customer Service Stories) – Stories of lost baggage and airline customer service (usually the lack thereof) are a dime a dozen nowadays.  But there are definitely some that still stand out as outrageous. Find out how many times Barry Dalton gets alienated by USAirways when trying to track down his luggage.
• Twitter: the killer app for customer service (from Church of the Customer Blog) – How did AT&T manage to impress this blogger with customer service? I think the first line of the post says it best: “Hello, this is Sam Kaufman from the AT&T Internet Executive Office, and I am calling about your tweets.”

Do you have a rant or rave to share? Let me know in the comments or by emailing me at sara@customerserviceftw.com.

(*I’m making this up, so my apologies if there is actually a web site out there that claims to be the happiest place online and it’s not Disney.)

And without further ado . . .

A while ago, I went online to buy a gift for a friend from the The Disney Store. Everything went smoothly at first. I found the item I was looking for, started the checkout procedure, put in the shipping address… no problems. Then I put in the billing information, and got a strange error:

“Oops! We cannot continue the updating process with the text you have entered.”

Text filters change "Wiener" to "****" without any clear reason why.

I tried everything I could think of. Reentered all the information. Put my street, town, and phone number in different formats. Same error. I tried editing the delivery address (which had been accepted) with my billing address, and… same error.

Finally, it hit me. My last name is Wiener. I’ve been fortunate enough to have reached adulthood without being picked on because of that, but I’m aware that it’s sometimes considered a bad word. I put it in as “Wiene r,” and, sure enough, it went through. At least, the address did. I had to do the same thing with the name on my credit card before it would accept that, too.

I immediately wrote to customer service. In part because I was worried that mangling my name would cause issues with the credit card transaction, but also because I found the idea of my name being a banned word to be offensive.

I received a reply that evening. The representative assured me that the order had gone through and offered repeated apologies about the text filter. So far so good. I was less happy about his proposed solution – if it really bothered me, I could place my order by phone.

I wrote back the following morning:

Thank you for your understanding and apologies. I’m glad to know that the order went through.

I do, however, find myself with something of an unresolved issue. As I understand it, you still have a text filter which is blocking out my name as a naughty word. It’s not that uncommon a name. And it’s not really that naughty. You can find it boldly printed on many packages in your local grocery store. Even advertised in a popular TV jingle.

Frankly, I don’t see what reason you could possibly have for putting in a text filter in the names field of the billing information form. Or, for that matter, any field on that form. We can’t help our family names, and you have no place judging them. Will you also block out everyone who happens to be named “Wang”? Or anyone who lives on a street with a name you don’t approve of?

What good does that filter do? What are you trying to block? Pranksters? I doubt there are many who would bother going through the whole order process just to put in a juvenile fake name. Even if they do, the charges wouldn’t go through.

I got through grade school and summer camp without being picked on because of my name. My father was in the army and never saw a sign of disrespect from anyone who had to address Major Wiener. Now I come to your store, where everyone is supposed to feel magically welcome, and there, of all places, I have to change my name because it’s been blocked out for no good reason?

I realize that you’re a customer service representative, and not personally responsible for the policy, but it’s nonetheless a policy that has to change.

Early that afternoon, I received a reply from a different customer service representative. Without addressing the actual issue at hand, she thanked me for my “candid feedback,” told me that she had forwarded the message to management, and once again offered the suggestion that if I’m having trouble with their online ordering system, they’d be more than happy to take my order by phone.

In the ten days since then, I’ve heard nothing more. The website continues to reject my name on the billing form and replace it with “****” as if it was an obscenity (something I’d originally taken to be a glitch or some kind of security measure).

Disney’s customer service representatives were prompt and courteous in their replies. The order went through in good time and the gift was received with gratitude and excitement. I couldn’t be happier, as far as that goes. And yet I still find myself a less than satisfied customer. Not so long as I find the store itself rejecting me, my name being coldly and needlessly censored.

Disney, I am not feeling the magic. Clearly, your computers aren’t, either. You need to fix this.

UPDATE: Disney seems to have taken the naughty word filter off their order form. But they didn’t tell anyone.

1. Ignore me when I come into the store. Better yet, ignore me when I come up to the register to spend my hard-earned money. Or, you could disappear when I have a question or need help.

2. Bad-mouth your competitor in your sales pitch (or even just in your conversation with me). If your product/service/etc. doesn’t stand on its own merits, telling me that Joe Blow Down the Street sells shoddy couches is not going to win me over into buying yours.

3. Make me wait. Or, even better, make me wait unnecessarily. Most customers understand when you’re busy, but if I see employees standing around and doing nothing while I’m standing around and waiting for service, you just lost me.

4. Make me feel stupid. You’re the expert in this situation; I’m not. This is why I’m asking you the question.

5. Make yourself look stupid. Like I said, you’re the expert in this situation. You should know your product/service/etc. Also, refer to #2 because that’ll make you look stupid, too.

My approved what?

5.5 This one didn’t exactly make the cut, but it will make me laugh at you and shake my head: Have typos, bad grammar, or incorrect punctuation anywhere in your store, your literature, or web site. No, I won’t bye you’re DVD’s.

Before writing my post, I did complain via TEP’s website survey, and I got a quick and courteous response from the webmaster, Michael Beard. I mentioned in the survey how unhappy I was with the e-bill feature and told him to expect a nice long letter detailing my complaints. By this time, despite the reply I got from Michael, I was intent on writing what is now one of my first blog posts. Well, he took it in stride and also managed to solve my problem – all within 36 hours of posting my open letter.

Much to my surprise and delight, there is a different e-bill feature that I can use… and has been for three years. The less-than-helpful MyCheckFree is a legacy feature. And I couldn’t be happier to be through with it!

Here are the emails I got from Michael yesterday and today (posted with his permission):

Sara,

Thank you for sending that link. I’m sorry for the problems that you detailed in your letter, but the information was quite helpful. As you pointed out, that site is MyCheckfree.com, and that’s how they present a billing page for all companies who use their service. That’s one of the reasons we switched to a different provider about 3 years ago. If I had seen this information a while ago, I would have suggested then that you cancel TEP e-bill and, if you’d be willing after that bad experience, re-enroll and try the new service. It’s much more user-friendly and intuitive, and it even looks like our site.

If you are using CheckFree’s services for any other bills, you might not want to cancel TEP e-bill since then you’d end up going to more than one site to pay your bills. If, however, your TEP bill is the only one on the CheckFree site, I highly recommend that you cancel, wait a month as a double-check that everything pending is clear, and then re-enroll. I’m sure you’ll find the new provider much better.

Let me know if you’d like to pursue canceling e-bill, and I’ll work with Customer Service to get that done.

Sincerely,
Michael Beard

and

Good morning,

Since we are already talking about this issue, there is no need to push the request anywhere else. Consider it under way! I will contact Customer Service and ask them to cancel your current TEP e-bill enrollment. I’ll also ask them to let us both know when your next billing cycle is coming up. As I mentioned before, we don’t want to miss anything. After your next bill is generated, you can then sign up once more for the e-bill program. Note that you won’t need to do anything with your Account Manager registration. You’ll still be able to log in as before while you’re “off” the e-bill program. What you’ll see is that the “View/pay bill” button will say “Sign up for TEP e-bill”. Just wait until you get your next bill in the mail, then click that button, and you’ll be on your way with the newer provider.

There is only one program, TEP e-bill, so it would be a bit confusing once you know that there is an old, legacy, provider and a newer one. That’s just because we have one paperless billing option. We are in the process of redesigning the entire Account Manager section, and when it is implemented it will include a button/link to check out the new e-bill system. We have already worked out the mechanics of it so that if a customer decides to switch, all they need to do is click a button. No need to go through the manual process you and I are working out at the moment. As a side note, the reason we couldn’t just mass migrate everyone to the new program is that CheckFree offers more biller enrollments on their site, and switching everyone would have caused a huge problem for anyone paying other bills through them. It has to be customer choice.

Feel free to post my response. You had a very bad time of it in the past, so showing resolution would be great!

I have a few things going on this morning, so I’ll send in the request to Customer Service about your e-bill enrollment as soon as I get back.

Sincerely,
Michael Beard

and finally . . .

Hello again,

Our customer care folks are really good, and quick. I received word back from them that they not only turned off the CheckFree link, but they already switched you over to the new provider. Excellent!

As you navigate around in there, please let me know if you have any questions. There are different options as part of the overall e-bill system, so feel free to contact me with questions. Also keep in mind that we are working on a re-build of Account Manager, which will also affect how this newer e-bill system looks and works.

Take care,
Michael Beard

Thank you, Michael and TEP for being responsive. I haven’t checked out the new system yet, but I’ll be sure to give you my evaluation of it!

Before I get too far into this, let me give the rest of you a little background information. TEP stands for Tucson Electric Power, a UniSource Energy Company. Now, there are a few things to complain about as far as TEP is concerned, but I’m just going to focus on the lovely TEP e-bill feature. (So I won’t mention that they give you very few convenient ways to pay your electric bill.) TEP e-bill utilizes MyCheckFree.com, though you’d be hard-pressed to find this information anywhere on TEP’s website.

Now that everyone’s caught up, I shall begin my Open Letter to TEP/UniSource.

Dear TEP,

We’re not going to talk about all the reasons why your website sucks, but we are going to talk about why TEP e-bill sucks. If you fix nothing else, I beg you, please fix this!

Now, I understand that MyCheckFree is a third-party application. And I’m sure it comes with certain limitations as far as implementation goes. (Not to mention I have my own issues with MyCheckFree.com as it is.) But you’ve got to be kidding me!

I’m an experienced web user. I work for a usability firm. And I still was somehow unable to pay my bill by the due date several times this year because of how jacked up this process is. I thought I’d paid the bill, went through what I thought was the whole process. Next thing I know, I’m getting a shut off notice. What the hell?

Well, I think I have it figured out now, but it still trips me up every damn time. Did I mention it pisses me off, too, every damn time? Let me take you through my user experience:

TEP's e-bill "feature" is at first deceptively easy.

1. I’ve just logged into the Account Manager (which is surprisingly a fairly painless process). I want to view and pay my bill online. Oh, yay! There’s a button that says I can do just that. I’m a happy user.

2. Except… when I click on it, the link doesn’t take me straight to my current bill with an option to pay. Was it so wrong of me to expect that to happen? What did I get instead? I get this:

I can't even find my current bill!

I can’t even be sure I’m on the same site anymore, really. Everything’s changed, and TEP isn’t even in the URL any more. Disruptive user interface changes aside, this page is certainly not what I was asking for when I clicked on “View/Pay Bill”. I see a list of bills… and I’m not exactly sure where my current month’s bill is; this only goes through February 2009. (To be quite honest, this listing of bills is different EVERY time I try to “View/Pay” my bill.) Now… how do I get to my bill to pay it?

3. Luckily, my husband has been through this torture enough times before to let me know the next step, saving me who knows how much time in trial and error. So, I click on “e-bills”. I get a similar, but slightly different looking list of bills. Indeed, my current bill is there now.

4. Now I want to view my bill, just to be sure. Oops, I’m using Safari. Guess I’ll have to switch over to FireFox start the whole process over again. (My husband had the great privilege of figuring this one out. Must have been trial and error to figure out he needed to use a different browser.)

Button order is more important than you think!

5. At this point, I’m more than ready to pay and get out of here. So I click on the link to pay my bill. This screen seems straight-forward enough. The trick here, though, is that the buttons at the bottom, they’re kinda in the wrong order. The most likely action should be right-most. Is this a usability nit-pick? Sure. But it’s not a little point. Like I said, I work in the usability industry; I know these sorts of things. I know that most sites do them wrong. But what do I always, instinctively click on? Yeah, “cancel”. Oy.

6. Once I’m passed that hurdle, there’s another. But this looks like an I’m done screen. If I wasn’t done, there’d be a button or something telling me to “Confirm”. That’s what other sites do. Yes, this is the point at which I failed to pay my bill on at least three separate occasions. I thought I was done. I closed my browser. Oops. Here comes the late notice!

Whatever you do, don’t press the big red button!

7. I think I’ve finally learned that there’s one more step. I don’t think you people at TEP (or maybe this is CheckFree’s fault) realize just how invisible that big red button is. Seriously. I was looking for a confirm, continue, or something similar button. I’m expecting buttons to look the same throughout my process so I don’t get confused. Why the hell would I think to click on a big red one that says “CheckFree” – you know, if I even saw it?

8. Once I found the button and clicked it, I think I’m finally done. Now, if only there were a way to get back to the TEP home page…

TEP, please fix e-bill. Please.

Sincerely,

Sara Onstine

If you’re a “fan” of TEP in anyway, please comment below in the hopes that TEP will actually listen to their customers.

Edited to add: Here’s TEP’s friendly and helpful response!