I had a particularly difficult client “discussion” today (nothing to do with writing) and foremost in my mind was wanting to punch the guys lights out, but for some reason I thought of how Keith and Ioa deal with some of the criticism about their fantastic product posted on here, and I didn’t do so. Maybe next time!
On the other hand, I had to deal with Comcast the other day, and got a customer rep named Joe who told me he was working in the Philippines. He had an American accent, picked up from his many clients, and I asked him about life out there. We chatted amiably for a few minutes, he took care to get all the correct information, and our problem back in NJ was resolved in a few hours. So it goes.
jus’ sayin’ 
Recently, one of our UK companies apparently wanted to relocate their customer services phone operation to Manila. They offered their existing staff in the UK the opportunity to relocate to the new base … at a salary concomitant to the cost of living of a local in Manila! I wonder if anybody took it up!
On the other side, recently, we’ve had to deal with Virgin Online customer services, located somewhere in India, and have had courteous, helpful and efficient exchanges.
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Customer Service is the number 1 reason I will stay with a company and the number 1 reason I will leave a company.
I sure you meant to write “Keith and Ioa” and not just “Ioa”. 
That’s true to an extent for me, too. For instance, I will never, ever use LoveFilm, even though Amazon now owns it, just because of dire customer service I received from them when I used them - it still grates when I think about it, but I won’t bore you with the details. Companies can make mistakes, but it’s how they deal with them that matters, I think. I used to use FlowersDirect.co.uk for sending out flowers (yes, I’m unimaginative when it comes to Mother’s Day), and one year they completely failed to deliver. When I contacted them, they didn’t give a toss - they said they’d just send them out the next day and that’s all they could do. By contrast, the one time InterFlora messed up, they apologised profusely and sent out extra flowers and chocolates - guess who I use these days?
Wow, those were some boring anecdotes.
And don’t get me started on Apple:
The award winning Belinda Balloons, Mobile Dominatrix, appears to go down very well with most of her clients. You never hear of anyone kicking off about bad service. Mind you…I suppose it depend on how you define, bad, doesn’t it. 
As a company, you need to be focused on making money. I get that. But for great customer service it helps to train your representatives in the School of Jessie J and B.O.B.
Yeah, I can’t imagine Apple’s very popular around L&L land lately. (For good reason.) I always had a good experience calling them at my old dayjob, but UW had super whupass Apple Care support with them–there was an Apple person on campus, and I believe it was actually a state contract.
We’ve had good experience with Comcast, too. For instance during the last hurricane, power fluctuated, came back on, and our internet went out. We called, thinking we’d get it in the queue. Several hours later, first thing in the morning, we get a call from a representative asking if our internet was still on. (They’d restored it sometime overnight.) Granted, we’ve got the business class of broadband. There might’ve been some sort of sacrifice involved, as well.
Seems like if you don’t pay for it, you don’t get decent customer service anymore. I think we’d still be waiting on service, if we hadn’t had a business contract with Comcast.
guardian.co.uk/money/2013/ma … s-giftcard
Speaks for itself. You wonder sometimes, if Apple have any regard for their customers at all.
I’ve heard that one happening before with iTunes. I think they were told that they’d have to go through the retailer, since Apple insisted it wasn’t their fault…
I read that article over the weekend and my thought was that every single Apple employee knows how they personally would react if it happened to them so why would they assume someone else would react any differently?
If it’s legitimate (and it seemed to be) then give them the replacement £50 vouchers and they have a customer for life, be awkward and you have lost a customer for life. What is £50 to Apple? Is it that difficult to see that? But then again what is one customer to Apple? Nothing.
The same applies to all customer service - all “customer service” is designed by people who would themselves get p***ed off if treated badly so why design it that way? Is it just incompetence or stupidity?