How Not To Do Customer Service: A Tale of Customer Service Gone Wrong

This post is based on a personal experience.

I found a charge on my latest credit card statement that I didn't make and called the card company to request having it removed. This resulted in a 54 minute odyssey through three departments and well over 30 minutes on hold. 

Aggravating factors:

• Each time I was transferred I had to answer multiple security questions about my account - as if I was going to morph from a legitimate customer to a fraudster during a phone transfer. Really?
  
• When I asked if they could call me back instead of keeping me on hold, they just kept asking me to hold. They could learn from Southwest Airlines. They actually offer to call people back when the airline deems the hold time too long.
  
• They could not figure out where the charge came from as it was missing some sort of code. Scary: a credit card company cannot verify where a charge came from? Doesn't make me feel "safe" having them handle my account.
  
• One single melody played over and over and over any time I was put on hold. When I asked the latest person who answered the phone, she indicated that she was aware of the fact that they only play one melody and apologized. To make matters worse, the sound track was so bad it appeared to be recorded off a bad radio transmission with lots of static. Apparently this is one way the company uses to discourage customers with a legitimate issue from filing such a claim.
  

If this company was focused on customer service, they could have made this a much better experience by:

• Allowing one department to handle the situation instead of three.
  
• Having someone available who could actually identify where this charge came from.
  
• Giving customer service the authority to put a hold on a charge while the matter is being investigated further.
  
• Allowing customer service to return a call to a customer instead of keeping the customer on the phone.
  

If a brief time on hold was truly necessary:

• Having a variety of melodies available
  
• Ensuring high sound quality

With the right training and authorization in place, this call could have been handled in a matter of 5 minutes and could have made me a more loyal customer. Instead it took almost 55 and has me looking for other options.

Does your company treat their customers like unwelcome interruptions or make the process of filing a claim easy?