The Brads - When all Else Fails
January 11th, 2010
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Brad Colbow is an independent web designer and illustrator living in Cleveland Ohio. He is the owner of Colbow Design and creator of the web comic, The Brads. If you’re looking for fun and practical website design Contact Me.
Website © 2010 Brad Colbow. The Brads is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License
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John Miller
January 11, 2010 at 1:00 pmThis has to be one of my favorites so far - hilarious! And you could easily substitute att for Time Warner, Dell, Progressive,....
Stephen Jenkins
January 11, 2010 at 1:00 pmI tweeted a very abbreviated version of this sentiment: “Damage control is not customer service.”
David W.
January 11, 2010 at 1:00 pmThis exact same thing happened to me the week before christmas with FedEx!
Kendal Richer
January 11, 2010 at 1:00 pmAwesome! Also, do not call if you have a barking dog in the vicinity… it will put you through to the spanish language menu everytime. I kid you not.
Design Informer
January 11, 2010 at 1:00 pmSo funny but true. I’ve actually dealt with Verizon last month, and it felt exactly like that. I got transferred and transferred and a couple of times, while I was talking to them, I got disconnected for some odd reason.
I also tried to see if I can get a phone number straight to a department that I wanted and they said no, I have to go through the horrible automated response line junk before actually talking to a real person.
Chad Engle
January 11, 2010 at 1:00 pmThis is so true! I had a bunch of utility bills wrong recently and this was about the sum of my day. I almost spit my coffee on my keyboard. Thanks Brad!
Kyle
January 11, 2010 at 1:00 pmThis is great!!!
We, too, are on the verge of canceling our ATT U-verse service. What a nightmare of a company to deal with. Same is true for many other B2C behemoths.
Nikki
January 11, 2010 at 1:00 pmOMGYES! This happens far too much. Thank goodness for Twitter.
Maria
January 11, 2010 at 1:00 pmHappened with me and Bose. And another time with Comcast. Why call the number? Just tweet a whine and help will come.
@mlanger
Beth
January 11, 2010 at 1:00 pmDid you know you can’t even call your local ATT store? The local numbers route you through the master phone tree. Such a nightmare.
Liz Hunt
January 11, 2010 at 1:00 pmIs it just me, or does Brad’s face look a little more red with each panel?
kyle steed
January 11, 2010 at 1:00 pmWe are calling to cancel our ATT uVerse service today actually. So this is perfect timing. Not to mention it’s hilarious. Another solid comic Brad.
Andrew
January 11, 2010 at 1:00 pmthey do suck. they won’t trace a call made from my phone which was in my girlfriend’s purse that was stolen on saturday night with like $300 cash and $1,000 in gift cards in it. they claim they don’t have the ability. jerks…
Bridget Stewart
January 11, 2010 at 1:00 pmApparently, Brad will have to make yet another trip to the Apple Store after slamming down his iPhone on the desk, scratching/shattering the face.
Also, Brad does speak so softly sometimes that “Help” does sound like “Sasquatch.” I can’t really find fault with ATT for that.
Brad Dielman
January 11, 2010 at 1:00 pmOne of my favorites, Brad!
@John Miller - You can also substitute the EA support line. Horrible.
@Bridget Stewart - Oddly enough I do have to make a trip to Apple Store and it is iPhone related. Coincidence?
Konrad Neumann
January 11, 2010 at 1:00 pmbrilliant. I actually just had that happen to me with comcast
Josh Walsh
January 11, 2010 at 1:00 pmMore panels… We want more panels!!
Priceless.
mikeo
January 11, 2010 at 1:00 pmreally? i never had a prob…. i can’t finish that - they are gawd awful.
Russell Lephew
January 11, 2010 at 1:00 pmThanks for the funny, B-Rad. I needed the mid morning pick-me-up
Jeff Finley
January 12, 2010 at 1:00 pmHaha, nice. So are you saying complaining on twitter actually expedites the process of getting support? Or maybe once you describe your problem they’ll just tell you the customer service phone number.
Daniel Groves
January 12, 2010 at 1:00 pmHappened to me as well before. Quite handy a thing, twitter.
Jamie Chung
January 12, 2010 at 1:00 pmThis is so true that it hurts. That automated system is so hard to work with.
Greg
January 14, 2010 at 1:00 pmSpot On :D
OK. The answer is…
(Keep this to yourself or you’ll spoil it)
Go to the government regulator’s site, where these guys have to provide submissions on proper company headed notepaper. Search a bit ‘till you find something from the company you’re after. Take a note of the company’s REAL phone number and call reception. Ask (very politely) to be put through to the Marketing director (or a director of your choice, but Marketing usually works). If they ask what its about make up something true but esoteric, so they’ll not palm you off with someone else. If they can’t get the requested director or offer you the secretary, don’t be put off - if you’re nice to the secetary they can also be very helpful. BE POLITE and FRIENDLY AT ALL TIMES and don’t bore them with every last detail unless they ask. Just let them know that you love having them as your supplier but feel let down by -insert ONE sentence summarising your problem, here - . They’ll get details when they’re ready
Kevin
January 15, 2010 at 1:00 pmHave actually had similar experiences with ATT. “Hmmmm. I’m sorry I didn’t get that. Please say which service you would like assistance with.”
Max D
January 28, 2010 at 1:00 pmha! yes att is really that bad and worse.
Brad Sherrill
February 11, 2010 at 1:00 pmmachines are coordinating our human communications faster nowadays
Pk Anane
February 11, 2010 at 1:00 pmlol.. we have the same problem here with Vodafone in Ghana. Once we created a facebook group and had about a 1000 in a couple of months they started sending us personal facebook msgs to solve our problem
elayidom
February 14, 2010 at 1:00 pmExcellent! Really solid one, most of the IVR customer service area like this. I think companies are competing and finding new ways to irritate their customers.
Mo
March 2, 2010 at 1:00 pmWonderful stuff. Reminds me of the automated “buy your parking ticket” over the phone service.
“Please tell us your car registration number.”
“TG68 SAB”
“Did you say FA99 RPQ? Yes or No.”
“No.”
“Please tell us your car registration number.”
“TG68 SAB”
“Did you say KT11 AZP? Yes or No.”
*sod it, I’ll risk the fine dammit*
——-
Daniel Danopia
July 14, 2010 at 3:20 pmI hate Verizon for this. I also learned that, even if there’s not a windows box in site (because my desktop is linux), I have to hit “Windows” at the OS menu (first is windows or other, and other is mac or other). When I do other/other the bot literally hangs up on me.