ZON: could they hate us any more?

I always find customer service to be the worst experience of most brands, but when it comes to certain brands, they really go the full mile. I pay (yes pay) for premium film channels and have for the last 2 weeks had one of them without sound. And no, not that type of channel – sound would be irrelevant. So why didn’t I do anything about it? Well because I like my weekends to be stress less.

There is only so long you can avoid these things, so I rang the… customer service telephone number (I find it painful to type those two words – customer service). “Owing to the high level of calls, we are unable to help you at the moment. Please try again later. This phone call will terminate.”

Let’s analyse this from their perspective:

We don’t spend enough money on customer support
YOU have to call US back later – we’re busy can’t you tell?
We have screwed up with so many people that you might as well come back some other time (day?)
Why are you so stupid? And why are you so fussy? Nothing’s perfect, why should we be?
Even if you could get out of your contract – the competition is just as bad!

So in return, I feel like doing the same. This month I will not pay my bill and when I get a shirty letter from them, I’ll reply: “Thank you for contacting me. At this moment, I have spent way too much money so there’s no way I can pay you. Please can you contact me closer to the end of the year? Not that things will be different, but at least I won’t have to deal with you for a while. Please don’t reply to this message or contact me. Signed “The Customer”

Alternatively I guess I’ll just pay – isn’t that what we always do anyway? Oh and our President has said that we Portuguese should stop complaining and just get on with it. Sorry… I’m going now…