I think that just out of plain orneryness I'd be inclined to tell them "If you want my business I pay in cash. Otherwise I'll spend it someplace else."

Pat:

we've been accepting less than stellar service

I've been guilty of this in the past, not wanting to cause a confrontation, feeling that it is easier to walk away and accept what is, than to speak up and make a change. I know what it felt like to be on the receiving end of a rant - in my working life it was part of my job to answer the phone - provide "customer service" by listening and find a cure for their problem. But now in my private life,  I've made a point to speak up - politely, but forcefully - so that they know what their business is doing is not acceptable. I also make a point to be complimentary as often as possible, and maybe, just maybe that little bit of communication will make a difference.  Edey 

elovestea:

But now in my private life,  I've made a point to speak up - politely, but forcefully - so that they know what their business is doing is not acceptable.

 

I have an idea that if everyone did that, there would be some changes made. Maybe not all the changes we'd like, but I do think we have a choice in how we're treated.  

 

Edey,

You are right about the big companies thinking that another customer will walk in the door.  I was working in tech support and AOL was signing up a million customers a day.  Yep.  A million a day. When I worked at AOL 99 out of every 100 calls we took were from angry people and I wasn't even in billing . . .

 After each of the calls, the customers would get a satisfaction survey which comes back to that technicians supervisor and is figured in to the "stats". At the end of each week, the stats are looked at for each representative to determine who is and is not doing their jobs satisfactorily. Some of our stats were 8 minute call time, .5% idle time (where you are not talking to a customer when there are customers waiting on hold), and survey results.

Many times, there was simply nothing that could be done to solve their problem. I remember one call I got where a man was mad about his bill.  As a tech support rep, I didn't have any access at all to the billing aspect of the system.  I explained that to the customer and transferred him to billing.   I got a survey back from him and he rated my service as "poor" because I wouldn't give his money back.  My supervisor knew I didn't have the power to do so and the record reflected that I sent him to billing, but it didn't matter.  It still counted against me.

 Those mad customers would say "I'm canceling my account and I'm telling all my friends how bad this service is".  Well, I was upset for the fact that I couldn't solve their problems and have a happy customer, but if their computer isn't equipped to do what the software needs it to do in order to connect, there isn't much else I can do about it over the phone.

This creates a domino effect.  If the company demands absolute performance from its employees, but then the employees don't have the ability to resolve the problem, then the customer gets mad and goes somewhere else, the employee gets fired for something that was out of their hands.  So, the employee begins lying to the customers, doing bandaid fixes that won't really resolve the problem, it will just get that customer off their phone and make them some other tech's problem. The company could really care less.  Yeah, they lost a customer, but they "took action" against the employee that didn't "perform".  Now, they'll do better on the next customer.  It was like constantly calling "do-over!!" only with a new tech and new customer each time.

But, back to the original topic . . . I have never heard of charging a fee for paying with cash, only for a charge card . . . I