one chart and two hours later...

Yesterday afternoon I got a message from eFax, telling me that my monthly service fee was going up from $9.95 to $12.95 per month, a 30% increase. My first thought was "oh yeah, my eFax account. I really don't need that anymore, I should just cancel it." (At which point the voice of my inner discriminatory pricing fan kicked in and said "God knows how many subscribers they'll lose because of this email -- the casual folks who rarely use the service and tend to even forget it's there...they should have just raised the price on the active users, and left the 'set and forget' ones alone.")

My second thought was "let's go cancel my account." Easier said than done. An 800 number for customer support was non-existent. The help section of their website was useless, and the account management form only offered options to update my billing information. But then, buried deep in the FAQ -- question #83 out of 83, no less -- was the answer: I had to click to join a live chat session with a customer service representative. And that's where the fun began.

Now, I'm normally a fan of chat-based customer service. When done well, it can be a quick, easy and painless way to get a fast answer to a direct question. When done poorly, however, it can be very, very frustrating.

eFax uses an online chat service from LivePerson, which is helpful enough to tell you what position you are in the queue, and how many people are in the queue, but not quite helpful enough to provide you an estimated wait time until your chat with a representative. So, when I clicked to chat and entered the queue, I was in position 20 of 20. Two minutes later the chat window stole focus from whatever else it was I was working on, and informed me that I was now in position 18, with 24 people in the queue. Two minutes later I was 18 of 26. Etc., etc.

Now, about ten minutes in, I noticed that while I had advanced to position 16, the queue was now 29 people long. So since the chat window was coming to the front of my desktop every two minutes to let me know where I was in the queue, I started to note the time and position, and chart it.

All told, it took me 134 minutes to be first in line and have my question answered (which it was, reasonably expeditiously, after a couple of scripted last ditch efforts by the chat rep to save my account). 134 minutes, 19 position advancements works out to be an average of 7 minutes per customer in the queue. At one point (my minute 94) there were 69 people in the queue. If that 69th person and everyone in front of them had stayed in the queue, and reps had been clearing folks at that average rate (one every 7 minutes), it would have taken them over 8 hours to be served. As you can see from the chart, though, there was a fairly healthy queue abandon rate -- from a high of 69 customers in the queue down to 40 by the time I left. Still -- that 40th person would likely be stuck "on hold" for 4.7 hours assuming the rate stayed constant and no one in front of him or her abandoned their place in line.

There's probably a reason eFax is raising their rates 30% -- they need to stay in business. And customer service is probably one of their biggest variable costs, so I understand their desire to minimize the expense needed to serve each incremental customer. But the two-plus hour "hold time" I experienced (not to mention the 8+ hour theoretical hold time of that poor 69th chap) completely killed any hope that eFax had of saving me as a customer when it came time for their rep to provide the (reasonably generous) scripted offer of a few free months and an upgrade in service level...

I will say this, however. Had I spent two hours on the phone waiting on hold to cancel my account, I would have been calling the Better Business Bureau. Instead, it was a two hour wait for an online chat, and the upshot is that I'm posting here...

Comments

[pb]

Online chat is the worst customer service method for most inquiries for both the company and the customer.

[josh]

I worked at LL Bean customer service last Christmas and am surprised you singled them out. I think there was basically one guy manning the online chat, and he was usually passed out drunk.

[michael]

Was his name Scott? Maybe his intoxication actually added to my experience...he was awfully friendly. Probably just on his way to the state you usually saw him in...

[dick]

I want to know how you find the time to chart out things like this, nicely color coded even, amidst an officer position in a company, running two websites, and having a family. I'm starting to feel like more of a loser every time I visit your site.

[jkottke]

pd said: [Online chat is the worst customer service method for most inquiries for both the company and the customer.]

Any sources, data, or even anecdotes to back that up, or are you just throwing it out there?

[mlivneh]

I had my own dreadful experience with the eFax customer service.
I was recently charge more then $300 for some mysteries services, the incoice was hard to decipher, cluttered with “service adjustment” items.
In response to my eMail I was requested to call the call center.
The rep on the phone started with reading out to me a standard text of the screen, this took several minutes and was not less confusing then the bill itself.
It was only after I had interfered that she was willing to investigate the issue.
At that moment I was so much frustrated that I decided to cancel the service.

[phyllis]

I am a efay user, Could annbody tell me how to cancel it? thank you!

[3822]

EFAX SUCKS ! ! WHERE CAN I FILE A COMPLAIN?
THEY KEPT CHARGING ME THE SAMETHING. I HAD TRIED TO CHANGE THE PLAN THREE TIMES !! I EVEN GOT THEIR CONFIRMATION EMAIL, BUT THEY KEPT CHARGING THE SAMETHING. IS THERE ANY PLACE THAT WE CAN FILE A COMPLAIN?

[lonny]

i was victim of fraud, someone set up an efax account using my credit card, heres a log of my chat with them online.

Welcome to chat.
The session has been accepted.
{Amy R.} Hello, Lonnie. Welcome to j2 Global online support. I am Amy, your online Live Support Representative. How may I assist you?
{lonnie} someone signed up for an account with my credit card, i didnt, it was a few months ago, i have just returned home from a trip and saw charges by efax on my card
{Amy R.} In this case, I would suggest you to contact our Customer Service Department at 1-323-817-3205.
{Amy R.} When you dial the number please do not select any option. Please wait for Customer Support personnel to pick up the call.
{Amy R.} As they will be able to assist you better with your issue.
{lonnie} i contacted you guys, they gave me you to talk to, i have contacted my credit card company, i am not paying for any of these charges, i want them charged back
{Amy R.} Are you referring to cancel your fax account?
{lonnie} yes, i want the account cancelled, my credit card company can take care of the rest
{Amy R.} I am sorry to hear that you wish to cancel. Could you please provide me your fax number as well as the PIN for verification?
{lonnie} Hello!!! i dont have the acount, i dont have a pin....someone does, whover set up the account on my card
{Amy R.} Could you please provide me your email address so that I can locate your account?
{lonnie} yes, they did use my email address, it is lonnysterling@gmail.com
{Amy R.} Yes, I am able to locate your account with the above email address, however, your fax number is 14037708153.
{lonnie} its not my fax number, its whoever set up the account using my card in a fraudulent way
{Amy R.} In the absence of PIN number, could you please confirm the last 4 digits of your credit card number for verification with which signed up for our service?
{lonnie} 0439
{Amy R.} Thank you for providing your information. Please give me a moment while I go through your records. In the meantime, please type the number corresponding to your reason for cancellation:

1) Moving to another provider
2) Bought a Fax machine
3) Business or role changed
4) Short term project completed
5) Financial reasons
6) Problems with Faxing or Billing
7) Dissatisfied with Quality of service
8) Too Costly
{lonnie} none of them apply to me, it was fraud, someone else did it, not me
{Amy R.} Thank you for your feedback, Lonnie. Please give me a moment.
{Amy R.} Thank you for waiting.
{Amy R.} Okay, I understand and respect your decision for cancellation. I will cancel your account with us immediately.
{Amy R.} I'm sorry that you are leaving eFax. At eFax, we are continuously improving our products and services. Please do consider us if your faxing needs should change in the future.
{Amy R.} I appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience caused to you.
{Amy R.} Is there anything else you would like to have assistance with?
{lonnie} I want the money back that was charged to my card
{Amy R.} We are sorry. As per our company's policy the refund of the monthly fee will be refunded only if you contact us within 7 days of being charged to cancel the account. As you have contacted us after 7 days, there is no refund applicable in your case. Since, you were last charged for the monthly fee on 01/30/2007.
{lonnie} Are you on glue? you keep talking like i am a customer, i am not, i am a victim of fraud...not a customer
{Amy R.} Lonnie, this department is basically for the cancellation of fax account and I have cancelled this account as per your request. If you have any issues regarding billing you could contact our billing department at 1-323-817-3205.
{Amy R.} When you dial the number please do not select any option. Please wait for Customer Support personnel to pick up the call.
{Amy R.} But I assure you that I have already cancelled your account and you will not be charged anymore for the same.
{lonnie} all the time you have talked like im a customer cancelling, im not, im a victim of fraud. i am saving a copy of this chat to put on my consumer website so people can see how efax operates, thank you.
{Amy R.} We would appreciate if you could spare a minute in filling the survey form as it would give us your valuable feedback which would help us to improve our services. Here is the link where you can fill the Survey.
http://www.endusersurvey.com/default.asp?project_code=j2cxlc&code=7446
{Amy R.} Thank you for contacting j2 Global Online Support, I hope you found our session helpful.
{Amy R.} Good-bye and take care!

[Koby]

Thanks so much for the post. Your post and http://www.FaxCompare.com helped make choosing an internet fax service a breeze.

[t]

eFax started out with a "limited service" option for $6.95, but you immediately hit the wall on useage, and your assigned number is not in your area code, so they offer a eFax Plus option with your assigned number in your area code and greater number of faxes per month. But wait, you say, what's that second fax number charge? That's your old limited feature trial account, which was ALSO reset to eFax Plus, now you're paying $33.90, and if you don't catch that right away, they start charging $33.90 on the 1st and on the 30th, now you're up to $67.80.

Any complaint or request for termination sent to their online comment or their Contact US address is ignored and no response. You have to find the link to their ChatLine, and it's not easy, you have to read through your service agreement. Then you get MarkL or NancyT, except they chat like they're on glue, and the first thing they ask is for you to pick a number from 1 to 8 for the reason you are calling, then you get piled on with page after page of pre-scripted response, and if you still try to terminate your account, they try the famous 'two months of free service' trick, which they will recoup within four.

If you still insist, no, no, no, terminate my account, you never really know if they do or not. My best advice is to find the Chat, when they ask How can I help you, give them your eFax and e-mail account name and say Terminate this account now, or I'll call the FBI.

Then call your credit card company and say you left your card at some store and they can't find it.

End of story.