Readers tell their own customer service woes

After more than a month of waiting, my freezer is working again.

At least for now.

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about horrible customer service experiences I have had recently. One involved an upright freezer we received less than a year ago that stopped working in mid-August, leaving us with ruined food, frustrating customer-service calls and a six-week wait for a repair visit that finally came Monday.

I wasn't home when the repairman showed up, but my wife was. She said that before he left he encouraged her to pay $93 for an extended warranty on the freezer, because that would reimburse us for up to $250 in ruined food if the thing stops working again.

It made my wife and me wonder if the company really has that little faith in its product, or if they just want to gouge their customers as much as possible.

Maybe I'm just naive. But reimbursing me for food I lost because their product stopped working doesn't seem like something I should have to pay for in advance. It just seems like it's the right thing to do, extended warranty or not.

Regardless, I'm sticking by my earlier promise to never again shop at this particular store.

And judging by the flood of e-mail I've received on this topic since my first column, several of you are just as fed up as I am.

Before I share some of your comments, let me explain why I didn't name the companies involved in my original column, and why I'm not going to name them today, either. The point of the first column was not to take specific companies to task, but rather to point out a larger problem using a couple of specific examples.

I think some of your responses serve the same purpose.

A reader named Dan responded to the initial column with an online posting, asking what the problem is with telecommunications companies, in particular.

"Is it the industry that breeds the contempt they have for customers?" Dan asked. "My wife and I are totally disgusted with the (lack of) customer service so abundant today. We have decided that if we receive lousy customer service, we are going to let people know about it, both higher-ups as well as friends and acquaintances. I say we should all stop accepting shoddy treatment as customers. If we all do this, things would change quickly."

That was exactly the point of my first column, Dan. I'm glad you're on board!

A reader named Carol felt the same way.