Customer service at my ISP

Negligent customer service really annoys me and unfortunately I seem to be coming across it a lot at the moment - maybe its me, not "them". My latest ISP is a support quicksand, I logged an online trouble ticket on 24th Jan and never heard from them again. I followed it up with a phone call today and the tech phone support desk announces they don't have access to the trouble ticket system - "that is another department" - but he takes my ticket number down anyway! My problem was resolved over the phone but I couldn't be transferred to anyone of meaningful responsibility to voice my opinions on my customer service experience. My dissatisfaction in their support service would be passed on to the "relevant people" by my trusty new friend on the phone.

So, I learn't a few things today:

1) My ISP tech support doesn't have access to its own tech support systems.
2) They also don't appear to have any structured way of managing complaints.
3) The individual person involved didn't seem to care about me or indeed that his life would be easier if there was a complaints process he could follow.

Taking into account the fact that I didn't sign up with this ISP - I was sold with a bunch of other customers by an ISP I had been with for over 10 years - I will be shopping around for a new ISP - that was a bad investment for the purchaser - no recurring revenue from me - I wonder how many others they have stuffed around and lost. With the easy availability of non ISP email addresses like Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail etc - there is no need to be worried about the ISP email address being a personal asset - it can be changed at the drop of a hat.

This rant is about customer service - but really the issue is about poor or non-existent business processes. Efficiency and effectiveness are what all companies should be striving for. Get good and clean about what you do - particularly around any customer facing area - happy customers spend their money and come back for more. It is that simple.