BUFFALO, NY - Quality customer service is hard to come by these days -- especially online -- but one website is now holding other companies accountable and it's a bookmark I have ready to go.
Stella Service puts other companies through the ringer, using many of the same same tests I run on Ways 2 Save.
They call stores at random, test their response speeds, return policies and challenge the expertise of technical support. Their findings are now all available at the click of a button.
CLICK HERE, search for the name of the store you're shopping at and in a split second, you'll get that store's rating, contact information, return policy info and a break-down of exactly who you're dealing with.
Unfortunately, not every major store out there has been evaluated, but more stores are being added every day and this is certainly an asset for any online shopper.
Here's my ranking of service providers where it took the longest to reach a customer service agent:
1) Dell (waited on hold 27 minutes)
2) Verizon Phone (waited on hold 26 minutes)
3) AT&T DSL (waited on hold 19 minutes, was transferred to 3 different people to have an issue rectified).
4) Verizon Hi-Speed (waited on hold 16 minutes, was transferred to technical support in a different country. They were very helpful but the wait was endless).
5) United Airlines (waited on hold 14 minutes)
Here's my ranking of companies where I got through to customer service the fastest:
1. Amazon.com (answered phone in under a minute, email responses overnight returned within 2 hours)
2. Hyatt (answered phones after two rings for reservation assistance)
3. FedEX (after navigating prompts, customer service answered immediately).
4. J Crew (answers phones 24 hours a day, phone answered on all tests after 2 rings).
5. T-Mobile (after navigating a phone tree that was a little annoying in my personal opinion, U.S.-based customer service answered phones quickly).
In a recent survey, here's StellaService's ranking of the best and worst customer service experiences from major online retailers (as it appeared published through MSN Money and Deal News).
Here are the five retailers with the fastest hold times:
1) SierraTradingPost.com (6 seconds)
2) YOOX.com (11 seconds)
3) DisneyStore.com (12 seconds)
4) UrbanOutfitters.com (17 seconds)
5) Grainger.com (21 seconds)
Others fast on the phone: Nordstrom.com (21 seconds), Fingerhut.com (23 seconds), MarketAmerica (25 seconds), LLBean.com (25 seconds) and Cabelas.com (27 seconds).
These are the five with the longest hold times:
1) BarnesandNoble.com (8 minutes, 3 seconds)
2) CSNStores.com (7 minutes, 20 seconds)
3) Macys.com (7 minutes, 12 seconds)
4) Zones.com (6 minutes, 56 seconds)
5) GreenMountainCoffee.com (4 minutes, 50 seconds)
About one-third of the sites surveyed delivered a person to answer consumer questions in less than a minute. The average time to reach a live person: 1 minute and 41 seconds.
The top five email responses came from:
1) OfficeDepot.com (47 minutes)
2) MusiciansFriend.com (59 minutes)
3) Diapers.com (1 hour, 24 minutes)
4) DisneyStore.com (1 hour, 48 minutes)
5) Abercrombie.com (1 hour, 51 minutes)
Others that were quick on email: USAutoParts.net (3 hours, 38 minutes), Gilt.com (4 hours, 43 minutes), PCMall.com (4 hours, 50 minutes), Kohls.com (5 hours, 2 minutes) and Coldwatercreek.com (5 hours, 6 minutes).
The slowest on email:
Crateandbarrel.com (88 hours, 30 minutes)
Fingerhut.com (79 hours, 30 minutes)
Dell.com (65 hours, 11 minutes)
SwissColony.com (52 hours, 29 minutes)
MarketAmerica.com (39 hours, 36 minutes)
STELLAService found the average email response time was about 17 hours. STELLAService had about 1,200 contacts with companies through email and the phone over a recent four-week period to conduct the survey.
Who do you think has the worst customer service? Send me an email mgranite@wgrz.com