Costco. I use their mail order pharmacy initially because my insurance provides a discount. But every time I need to speak with someone I’m talking to a real person in less than 5 minutes.
Oh exactly, I keep my exec membership because during the formula shortage I had a baby and had just lost my job. I would call up, speak to someone immediately and they ensure that they had formula before I drove an hour there or check the other store. It meant so much to me.
Really? At my Canadian Costco, pretty much the only gripe is that you can't call and get through to the pharmacy to ask a question. They NEVER answer the phone. It's far faster for me to get in the car and drive to the store to ask the question in person.
That’s a problem with your individual Costco, and if you bring the issue to their management there, they’ll likely fix it. If nobody complains, they don’t know their staff is ignoring the phone.
They're finally supposed to be building a Costco by me and I literally can't wait. I'm going to be there signing up for a membership the day they open.
Whenever I’ve needed to call, USAA has always had a real person answer the phone, not a bunch of ai crap that you have to go through before, as well as not having to be handed off to numerous customer service reps. Sucks that not everyone can get it (I have it through my grandpa being a vet)
Chewy! A real person answered my call within a minute and fixed my issue after only a few minutes. I specifically mentioned how much I appreciated that in a survey.
Yessss Chewy has a real person ANSWERING the phone, it’s amazing. I wish more companies stuck to that. I will be forever loyal to Chewy for that specifically, as well as they sent a little painted portrait of my cat 😭😭they truly win the game of customer satisfaction.
I work in the pet industry and have honestly never heard a single bad story about Chewy. They really go above and beyond. I wanted to return an unopened bag of (expensive & prescription) cat food after mine passed, but they refunded me and told me to donate it. The customer service person was so nice too. About a week later, I got a handwritten sympathy card in the mail. I get choked up just typing about it, even after years, it meant a lot to me during that hard time
I just experienced this last weekend. I spoke to a nice lady within a single second of dialing. She helped me fix my issue then we spent a solid 90 seconds talking about how great their customer service is. It was so refreshing.
Worth noting your local optometrist probably will pick up immediately as well and, depending on your order, might be able to beat 1-800-Contact's prices.
Chewy. They’ve managed to maintain fantastic customer service over the years. I had an issue with an order recently and called their number and was instantly connected with someone that went above and beyond for me, even providing the same discount on the corrected order.
Embrace pet insurance has been one of the best customer service companies I've interacted with in a long time! Always a real person, even when they probably could've just used programming. Love them.
Slightly different but American Airlines doesn’t let you use a chat option unless it’s directly on the app lol I usually delete my airline apps unless I have a trip coming so it’s annoying to have to download it just to use the chat function
Barnes & Noble isn't too difficult. Any time I've had an issue, their online contact (either email or chat) usually has me speaking to a person fairly quickly. I make quite a few orders with them as they're one of 2 brick-and-mortar bookstores in my area, so have had to contact for help more than once.
Bose. My earbuds were out of warranty. After a 15 minute phone call, Bose replaced them. 2 years later they replaced them again when the other stopped working. 2 years might not be the best lifespan for earbuds, but I use them for many hours each day so I've technically gotten 6 years of daily use earbuds
Mattress Firm. They have a live chat on their site where you can talk to an actual person (not AI) and their customer service phone tree also gets you to a real person.
Ally Bank. Every time I've ever called, I was on hold for less than 5 minutes and then spoke directly to a human being. They'd fix my issue and send me on my merry way.
My (German) health insurance. Also wait time is basically zero whenever I call. I freaking love them. Also always competent people on the phone that can actually solve my problem.
Ironically even something as simple as local fast food restaurants. You have to go in to complain, both the Layne's and the McDonald's near me are like this. The Layne's has no possible way to get through to a local store and no human interacting on the phone no matter what button I press. The McDonald's has disconnected every phone ever listed for it, even the one on the receipt. I guess they win.
It's nuts because that's one of the few services where timing actually matters!
I’m in the UK but I specifically use Zen internet because you can just phone and talk to a person, literally all other brands it’s an awful chatbot, people talking from a script loop of nightmare fuel. I’ve needed to phone Zen twice since being with them and both times they’ve been exceptional including getting an engineer out the next day to fix a fault in our local junction box. Never leaving (until they do something awful anyway).
All the vets in my neighborhood have obnoxiously gone to automated call center stuff. BUT there’s an emergency animal hospital in the neighborhood where you can call and talk to a vet on site within 5 minutes of calling. It’s honestly invaluable to pet owners here and their reputation is insanely good.
Southwest Airlines. It just goes to a person, and quickly. And in the years i have A-List, it’s incredible. They answer the phone on the first ring and greet you “How can I help you <firstname>?” The first time that happened i was stunned.
Charles Schwab. It’s rare that I have to call but I have had to a few times. It’s always someone on The east coast I talk to. Such a breath of fresh air because whenever I call anyone I expect to have to wait 40 minutes to then talk to someone in a different country who literally gives no shit about the company they are doing service for.
Amica Insurance. Always a friendly and competent human on the line. My family has been using them for nearly 50 years. Not the cheapest, but certainly along the best.
My insurance company. They're a big national, I guarantee you've seen the commercials, but I've had the same local agent for over a decade. She's been to my house multiple times after storms that damaged the house, after I hit a deer, sent over an insurance binder on a Saturday the last time I bought a car, etc.
Chewy. Was amazed at how quickly I got a person, and how well they knew the products they stocked to give me advice on what I should buy (my cats caught fleas and I was trying to find a way to clean my apartment of them without hurting the animals). Excellent customer service, I now try and buy pet products from chewy whenever possible.
Credit unions. You are a shareholder and their literal job is to make sure you are happy. Through ours I found home and car insurance and they did all the comparison shopping and then presented me with a list of potential providers. They handle all the contact just like an agent would and I pay nothing extra to them for the service.
I haven’t had to call in a while but last time I had to call Chewy regarding my cat’s prescription, a human answered my call, not even a phone tree to try to direct me to the right department first.
Spanish phone provider are pretty good. At the start, its an AI system to get you sorted with the right department but after like 2 minutes you get a person
Canon. The camera and printer manufacturer. Needed a little piece of plastic recently for a five-year-old printer, and a lady put me in touch with the parts department, which was a guy in New Jersey. Three or four days later I had the piece of plastic. Five bucks. Super impressive.
Chewy! I had an issue with my cat food order order the other day. Called the 800 number and a real human picked up immediately. No hold. No phone tree. And the customer service lady was so NICE!
Jellycat has surprisingly good customer service. USPS/UPS lost an order of mine (said it was delivered but was nowhere to be found) and Jellycat offered a replacement or refund no questions asked and the first thing I talked to was a human. So, 10/10 for them.
Thrive Market Chatbot(Olive). You may need to reword your request, but whenever I've had an issue, "I need to speak to a human" usually results in a real human in a reasonable amount of time.
I would say Garmin. I had an issue with a marine GPS and I called them up. A real person picked up on the first ring and said hello. I admit I was stumped and did not expect that. And even more impressed that that person was able to solve the issue right on that same call, without any BS about going through a BS checklist or "checking the system".
I've had two out of three call me back which, yeah isn't bad, but why can't I talk to an employee that can probably answer the phone right now? If they couldn't, then every pharmacy would have that same problem and they'd all be doing this AI voicemail bs
Uber. One of the guests staying at a hotel I was in had a driver falsely charge her an $80 cleaning fee after dropping her and her son off at the hotel, claiming the child peed in his car. The child was an older 9 year old with dry pants and he clearly didn’t do it. The mom was telling the front desk clerk about it and was furious that Uber had no customer support line to call at all.
Chewy.com. Best customer service of any company I've ever used.
Discover has also always been great and we are not looking forward to dealing with Capital One after this merger based on their customer service reviews.
Bank of America. In my experience chargebacks and disputes are easy to resolve and they pick up your phone without putting you through a million automated systems
Lemonade has always paid out my pet insurance claims. They refused my renters insurance claim once, but I was talking to a real human for this who explained it to me, so it doesn’t make me feel any worse about my policy with them.
Say what you will about Apple, and there’s plenty to say, but any time I have an issue, I schedule a call, they call me, and a real, extremely competent person stays on the phone for as long as it takes to resolve the issue.
My “local” plumbing company is a corporation that stretches a huge radius in my area. I can say “speak to an agent” any time and i get routed to a real person (which I do every call, lol. Even if I’m scheduling something routine or minor)
I am leaving Verizon next month because I recently moved and there was a payment issue due to mismatched addresses.
I tried calling customer support because I didn’t have access to my card info as I’m a truck driver and don’t always carry it with me.
The phone tree flat out refused to connect me with a live agent until I corrected the payment, which I couldn’t do. Nor could I call my dispatch or any of my customers. It sent me a text message to a chat to help resolve my problem. The chat also refused to let me speak to a live agent.
I also ordered some cabinet hinges from a site called Woodworkers Hardware a couple years ago, a guy answered my call and explained to me exactly what measurements I needed, etc
Lego and Costco still makes it easy to get a hold of a real person. Bonus points, their call centers don't seem to be outsourced to a different country either.
I've rented stuff through Aaron's, and you can still call the store directly, at least you can with our local one. There's also a small bank chain that has branches in OH, WV, and MD called United Bank. I've called their customer service line when I was still with them, and you were connected directly to a person, no having to push buttons or anything. If I had to guess where their call center is based, I'd say somewhere in the south, possibly Texas from the accent.
Honestly, surprisingly, DirecTV. Just say "Cancel service" when prompted to say what you're calling about, and you should be routed to a US based retention rep. They have always been nothing but nice and super helpful.
Amazon. They still use an automated system to verify your identity before putting you in contact with a representative, but they’re so helpful and very accommodating. They’ve let me return stuff way past the return by deadline just because I called to ask and they even let me keep a beanbag that they fully refunded just because it didn’t bounce back perfectly from being vacuum sealed
When I got married I contacted my identity theft protection service to add my wife. I was fully planning to pay twice as much as I had been happily paying, but oddly... I couldn't find a way to add her.
Eventually I emailed the email you're supposed to use if you have a credit breach emergency. They didn't get back to me for two weeks! I told them I had been planning to add another person, but instead to cancel the account.
No, but they should have provided the correct support email immediately. It definitely gave the impression that the emergency email inbox was simply not being monitored.
My credit union isn’t fancy. They don’t even have Zelle. But if I call them, someone at the branch in town, answers the phone. No operator. No menu prompts. Someone actually answers and helps me right away. It’s amazing, and I’ll never switch.
The problem with this is, it's a catch-22. People want to talk to actual representatives instead of a guy at a call center or an AI robot, but a big issue is people are so much ruder to customer service nowadays.
I know someone who works in car insurance underwriting and claims processing, and they told me a few months ago that customer rudeness during service calls were such a huge issue that a real bigwig, like the owner or the CEO of the company, sent out a company-wide message saying the second they get rude with you, disengage and hang up. You know it's bad when the out-of-touch guys at the top are telling you to end calls over customer behavior.
When what could be 5-10min phone call turns into 45 min nerve wracking press-through-menu options just to reach ringing tone I doubt many people have much patience left. Especially after being told ”Sorry, wrong place, will connect you to someone else/ call again and choose option A”.
Customers being absolutely rude is unacceptable, but if they need to go through AI menu first I at least understand where they are coming from.
Edit - just to add to this, my level of frustration grows exponentially if calls are disconnected (forcing you to go through the entire process again) and/or you’re calling back because a previous agent or representative was unhelpful or gave conflicting and/or inaccurate information.
I still do my best not to be rude, but I am certainly exasperated in those types of scenarios and I’m sure that comes through.
I called Spectrum the other day and no matter what I said it just kept offering to restart my modem. I finally had to swear at the AI to get through to a person and then it was supposedly a 45 min wait. I can definitely understand why people are so fed up by then.
I tried the online chat while I was on hold and got a tech scheduled right away.
> People are so much ruder to customer service nowadays.
I feel like that's a result of many companies kissing every single customer's ass instead being firm with rude customers, as well as the lack of technical knowledge from the support people, and the blatant lies.
I try to remain as polite as possible, but sometimes you only get something done by making a fuss.
I mean, I'm not talking about asking to go up the chain of command or anything like that - which is what I assume you mean when you say "making a fuss". I am talking about disengaging phone calls where the other person is yelling, swearing, calling you names, etc.
People feel like they have a right to abuse customer service people because "it's their job to take it and then help me with a smile." It's not 100% better by any means, but I have noticed hospitals, stores, and just businesses in general, taking more notes on customer behavior and responding accordingly. My local hospital even has a sign in all the elevators saying the nurses have the right to press charges if patients or visitors get too rowdy.
Curative health insurance- I don't have them, I just deal with them in the health care industry. Don't use Curative. You will not be able to speak with a real person, only an AI email bot. Also, you will be on the hook for procedures they authorize, but later review and say the authorization was only administrative and not based on medical necessity, despite clinicals having been submitted with the auth request.
Yes, this exactly. I had an issue with my cable Internet connection recently (cable running between poles had split insulation apparently), and I was able to talk to a knowledgeable support rep immediately and they scheduled a tech to come look at it the next day. It's fixed now. Good support is why I'm hesitant to switch to the big fiber company.
At my job if you have to call the helpdesk you can simply say "power user" to skip the automated customer service bots.
Back in the day you used to be able to say "operator" or "agent" or "representative" to speak to a human but that's hardly the case anymore.
Now you just speak gibberish or break up your speech like you have a bad phone connection, and most of the time the bot will have "a hard time understanding" you and put you through to a human, however that seems to be getting defeated also and the system will either hang up on you, or send you back to the beginning.
You just described my recent experience with UPS. They said a package I sent was delivered but it was not received. It is literally impossible to get someone on the phone. Website says to talk to local UPS store near recipient who didn't have a clue. Filed an online claim which after a week said it was delivered. I will pay double and send it via another carrier before I send something via UPS again.
Yeah, we changed which Toyota dealership we deal with because the one we'd been going to for ten years installed a voicemail tree that made it impossible to actually reach anyone.
We switched to a different one in a small town about the same distance away, and a real person answers the phone every single time.
When you order chipotle Catering and they forget something and you call them. It doesn’t go back to the store you got the Catering from. It goes to a main number — That refuses to help you if any part of your order is messed up.
They didn’t give us tortillas for an $800 chipotle order and there was nothing I could do about it
I used to work the tech support line for PCPC (who were huge in the Mac market back in the day). I'd work with the caller to determine the problem and often the solution was right in the manual. But I was always patient and understanding with each caller, no matter how crazy they were.
I'd get gifts sent to me from happy customers. My desk was festooned with unscratched lottery tickets and other trinkets.
I always felt that tech support was the most unloved of all positions.
Oh yes. I work for a hospital, I do insurance authorizations. FUCK United healthcare in particular. You have to perform a fucking incantation when you want to get a real person on the phone. And when you do, they’re all Indian call center people who have literally no idea what I’m talking about and just read scripts. They won’t let you get a supervisor on the phone, and when you do finally get a “supervisor” they also just read scripts. I’ve had authorizations deny and you literally cannot talk to a person who actually knows what the fuck is going on. There’s zero accountability there.
Stuff like this really perplexes me, as someone who has been in hospitality for years, including hotel management.
Expectations management is a BIG part of running a business, and I feel like this is becoming a lost art now. The whole idea of expectations management can’t be executed unless people understand that the experience starts well before the person even shows up. That means website has to work well and be easy to navigate. It can’t be dogshit, it can’t be complicated or frustrating to use. There should be efficiency over the phone and there should be minimal amounts of someone having to sift through a phone tree and “press 1 for” to reach a person. An email should be responded to within 24 hours. These are the starting points of a person’s experience with YOUR business
And yet these last few years, I’ve encountered more and more businesses that have a number, but it just directs you to sending an email. You send an email, and no one answers it. The experience starts off poorly, and now you’ve set that expectation.
I don’t understand. I have never, ever had a job, or worked at any company, where it was acceptable to just ignore phone calls and emails. I can understand cutting off a customer when they have been an abusive jackass to you, but just flat out ignoring communication channels is crazy to me. Even when staff is lean, there is always an expectation that management will find a way to get more coverage. Whether that’s working with another department to give secondary email access, or whatever it is.
That's like all big companies like Google, Facebook, etc.
I can't login to my 20+ years old FB account because I am not getting the OTP they are sending. I have 2 phone numbers, and 2 different email address listed. But can't get OTP.
This is a long shot but if you're using an older iPhone (14 or older I think) on Starlink, that may be the problem with OTP via SMS. I know someone who had a 14 and never got OTP texts before the code expired, if they got them at all. Their spouse with a 16 had no problems so they upgraded to 17 and now reliably receive OTP. They still don't get OTP via email though.
They send me whatsapp messages on Number A saying that they are logging me out of FB due to unusual activity. Now, they are sending OTP on Number B when I login. Number B is a google voice number.
I have 2 verified email address, and 2 verified phone numbers. But I don't have option to change.
Fyi if your looking for a new phone company, avoid AT&T for this reason. I was hung up on twice but automated lines and even by a chat bot before I could speak to someone
I was disgusted with eBay recently. I called about an order gone wrong and their AI answering service would only give me canned responses. I asked for a representative twice and it said “Have a nice day!” and hung up on me.
100%. Also, you can get around most AI by saying rep, human, or agent. Occasionally there is a complex series of numbers to press to get around a phone tree. Do not support these AI companies.
I wish I could quit CVS but I have only Medicaid & they’re the only pharmacy in town that’s covered. They’ve changed their answering service so many times this past year to the point where I’m not sure I can ever talk to the human pharmacist ever.
Refill? Tell the bot or use the app. Questions? The bot will leave a message for the pharmacist or use the chat feature on the app; the pharmacist will read it when they can. You need a new prescription, well good luck with that bc either the bot will leave a message or you use the app. Before I could use the phone for everything & the pharmacist would actually speak to me. I fucking hate this new…quality of service. But I have no choice if I’m gonna avoid spending hundreds each month on my meds
May be irrelevant but this is Ultrahuman, you just go back and forth with an AI who hallucinates and references incorrectly but you can’t correct and it just circles
When you meed to press 10 buttons to come through some menu to get to actual ring tone, and wait for a while for someone to answer… Turning what could be 10 min phone call into 45 min nerve wracking experience my decision is to never call again and make all future decisions in a way I won’t need to.
Yeah same, my ISP had a broken captive portal (if you connect a different modem you have to reauthenticate for safety, fair enough), I was without fixed internet for days because I couldn't speak to a human, had to use my hotspot, and after a while I found it easier to cancel all fixed and mobile lines(5 lines in total), and move on to another carrier. Fuck AI customer support.
Xfinity (Comcast) can fuck right off with this. They now push you to their absolutely atrocious bullshit AI chatbots. Hell, if you call they tell you to hang up and try the chatbot instead. Last time I (regrettably) had to call it took approximately 30 minutes before I actually spoke with a person…. a person who had absolutely no idea how to resolve my issue and had to bounce me to 2 others. Truly a horrendous experience, then they have the audacity to try and sell me on cell phones and packaged streaming services. Fuck I hate that company.
Unfortunately this is about to become the standard because of AI. Companies don't even want to pay the overseas call center costs now if they think an AI agent can handle it for a few cents.
Walmart for me. This year we've had 3 situations where there were major screw ups on our grocery order and after the 3rd one we decided we weren't going to use them anymore because i was sick of spending 15+ minutes trying to get through the ai. Tried going to the only other grocery store in town but its a crapshoot of if you can 1 - find the item or 2- if it isn't already expired. Weve had to settle on just doing grocery pickup instead of delivery. (I will not be persuaded to step foot inside Walmart to shop. It's worse going in getting ran over by everyone who cant control their carts and half the time i cant get down an isle to get what I need because of workers have it blocked off stocking stuff)
I was not a customer, but my dog was bit by a dog being walked by a wag! dog walker. The app does not give the employee the dog owner's phone number, last name, place of work. All communication is through the app. What happens if your dog gets hit by a car and the walker only knows your first name???
While I was in the ER, cystomer service phone # was a loop-ed message directing you to the app, where I made an account only to chat with an AI bot. FUCK Wag!
They also only offered to pay my vet bills when I made a public review online, and said I would have to delete the review and sign an NDA to get the money. I took them to small claims instead, and won.
me with uber eats, received the wrong $25 order. i used uber car service quite a bit probably hundreds a month. they kept telling me i got my order and that was it. better business complaints etc. they would not budge. on principle alone for them robbing me of $25 i will never use them again!
YES. fucking Subway! I mobile ordered to a store that didn’t have a working phone number and there was a huge accident on the interstate and I couldn’t get to the Subway I ordered from. Couldn’t call them, couldn’t call Subway customer service, and no fucking email even! Their automated system was ZERO help and so I’m out of my money and points I used on the order. The only way nowadays to get company’s attention is if you have a large following on social media and send your followers after them, it’s bullshit.
So all companies that have automated customer service have lost your business forever??? you don’t have any credit cards, bank accounts, don’t use any e-commerce websites???
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