If you hate hold music, you'll love this.
Boston-based startup GetHuman
on Wednesday unveiled a new service that lets you to pay $5 to $25 to
hire a "problem solver" who will call a company's customer service line
on your behalf to resolve issues. Prices vary depending on the company,
but GetHuman offers to fight for your airline refund, deal with Facebook
account issues, or perhaps even prevent a grueling call with Comcast to disconnect your service.
"These customer service procedures have become these long obstacle
courses for us," Christian Allen, GetHuman's CEO, said in an interview.
"We avoid them, we procrastinate, and in some cases we don't do them at
all."
Allen knows the struggles with customer service
all too well, after he put off canceling a hotspot service through a
wireless carrier. When he finally got around to making the call, he was
bounced around and ended up stuck on the phone. Three months later, he
had to go through the whole process again because the service hadn't
been canceled the first time around.
"I spent three hours of my life to do this really simple, binary decision," he said.
GetHuman can work as a consumer's assistant, Allen said, but some companies do require more authorization than others.
GetHuman started as a company phone directory that helps people find
shortcuts to a live person. But after realizing that getting people the
right numbers was only half the battle, Allen said, GetHuman decided to
start a pilot of its new "problem solvers" service late last year,
saying it has already served nearly 10,000 people. The eight-person shop
now has five full-timers whose primary job is working the phones trying
to resolve other people's customer service issues.
Allen says his employees are "experts" at this kind of work and he plans on hiring two more callers soon.
There are a few similar services for navigating the maze of customer
service, including FastCustomer, which focuses more on saving you from
waiting on hold.
Not everybody sounds so thrilled by GetHuman's
new service, though. Time Warner Cable, whose new ad campaign jokingly
addresses its poor reputation with customer service, said it would still
like to hear directly from its customers. But you don't even have to
call. They have 24/7 online chat support and the MyTWC app.
"Spending your money on a third party who doesn't know you versus
clicking on an app that lets you do self-service seems like an easy
choice to us," TWC spokesman Bobby Amirshahi said
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