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Johnnie Moore is a marketing consultant and facilitator based in London. As well as 20 years of marketing experience he's trained in psychotherapy, NLP and Improv. Find out more at his blog.

Andrew Lark's more than 18 years experience of all facets of marketing, branding, sales and communications spans technology, Internet, telecommunications and consumer sectors. There he has led award-winning programs and teams for brands such as Dell, Sony, SBC, IDSoftware, Nortel, Microsoft and Sun. He is a thought leader and innovator on the convergence of brands, communications and social networking technologies. Find out more at his blog.

Jennifer Rice is a strategist and evangelist for relationship-centric brands. She brings 15 years experience in brand strategy, customer insight and marketing communications, and has worked with companies such as Microsoft, Verizon, Alcatel and Corning. Her current passion is exploring how brands are being impacted by blogs and other social technologies. Her company blog is What's Your Brand Mantra?

John Winsor is the author of Beyond the Brand: Why Listening to the Right Customers is Essential to Winning in Business and the Founder/CEO of Radar Communications, a consumer-centric consultancy. You can find out more about him at Beyond the Brand.

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March 01, 2005

Won’t Anybody Listen?

Posted by John Winsor

I’m bummed! A year and a half ago I signed up for the Premium Listener program at Audible.com. At the time, I was stoked to listen to a few books on my iPod. It seems however, between writing and traveling, I wasn’t downloading the two books a month that came with the subscription.

So, a year ago I tried to cancel my subscription. I went to the Audible website and did everything they asked me to only to find a $19.95 charge on my credit card the following month. I finally picked up the phone and called. After the usual 5 minute wait I talked to a fairly responsible sounding person who said they’d take care of it.

Five nights ago my wife, Bridget, leaned over and said “What’s this charge on our credit card for $19.95 from Audible?” It seems that the friendly customer service representative didn’t, in fact, do what he said he’d do! So much for building trust.

Being in Mexico writing, phone calls are a bit expensive so I went back online to Audible’s site and was promised a fast and courteous response in 48 hours.

So, here I am 5 days later, out 240 bucks and no one to listen to me.

Hello, I’m a Customer. Is anybody home? I used to think your service was pretty cool. Now I’m starting to get bad!

Forget about co-creating, how about doing what you promised or at least sending an auto-response to my email!

Is Audible, and many other brands for that matter, too busy to listen to their customers? Are they really ready for the power shift that’s happening? Before companies, like Audible, can ever think about improving their products and services with the help of delighted customers they might want to think about creating satisfied customers first.

We’re living in lumpy times in the Brandsphere! Welcome to the Wild West.

Comments (15) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: Brand Practice

COMMENTS

1. Steve Portigal on March 1, 2005 08:07 PM writes...

I had Comcast billing me for someone else's cable service (it's complex - it involves me moving and the old account not being properly closed out), and blowing off my first request for help (a few days later I got a phone message with no callback number from someone that says "we understand you are reporting illegal use of your credit card [I was not] - contact your credit card company."

I finally called again, and contacted Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo was able to stop payment on the most recent charge - but have a response to anything more than six months old (some of this was - yes, I do NOT fine-tooth-comb my bank statement - at least I didn't). Comcast did finally acknowledgement this was an issue, but has not followed up. When I contacted them by email they said they had information but they wouldn't give it to me until I call.

It has been many many months and they've done nothing except stop the erroneous withdrawals. Isn't this identity theft or fraud or some other horrible buzzword? I don't know; Comcast isn't saying much.

I am honestly so stressed out by this - it's so incredibly frustrating to have a company taking money out of your bank [without permission - I MOVED and signed up for a new billing service at my new address and told them I was moving and they dealt with my old account - just not the autopay] and then neither them nor the bank takes it seriously enough to resolve.

If you make a complaint and are told that they need time to investigate and resolve, wouldn't it be great if they actually followed up with you?

Anyway, the stress and frustration have led me to avoid calling.

I haven't even written about it; it reveals too much of my own powerlessness to feel safe in retelling.