Ok, no problem right? Look up our EPA website for the two local emission stations in our area and…. oh, they closed them… ok how about Schaumburg, that will work. I call the number on the website and push the option for customer service only to be dumped into another IVR, so I listen to the long IVR and push the option for customer service, again. I get dumped into yet another IVR, good grief only a Government agency can create something so convoluted as this! I recognize the system, VTech computers used a similar tactic back in the early ‘90’s to make it more difficult to get to an actual person. I have now been dumped into 6 IVR’s, this final one says for website information press 1, for customer service press 3, this is a tactic to get you to press 2 which hangs up forcing you to go through the entire process again (don’t ask me how I know).
I press 3 and 5 minutes later a lady answers and I ask her if the Schaumburg facility can handle a 36ft RV, she tells me no. I ask her which one can, she tells me…… SCHAUMBURG…. now I’m confused… She then tells me there are two, ok cool, then she tells me one is full service the other is just testing and the website says so. So while on the phone I check and agree but how does this tell me which one can test an RV? Her response, the full service one of course, uh ok, so testing means no RV’s then? Yep…. 
So, if you live in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago then this facility can handle RV’s with no appointment. If this saves just one person from going through IVR hell it was worth blogging about.
SCHAUMBURG Location:
1675 Mitchell Blvd.
Schaumburg, IL 60193
4 comments:
Heh, this kinda makes me glad to a point my folks ended up out west when they got married, my family's all from Kankakee and I've only ever really spent time in Illinois visiting family and playing the part of tourist.
Illinois is a pain in the arse..I could write pages about their immigration offices and the rudest people on earth working at those offices.
Ugh..
Sometimes it is really fascinating to read real-life stories like yours about companies' and government agencies' poor customer service. There is a lot IVRs can do to improve customer service but that's provided that the system has been designed properly, starting with understanding who calls and what do they want to accomplish. I hope there is somebody at the Illinois DMV monitoring media and getting the message.
K O'Connor,
Unfortunately their IVR is designed to keep people away from talking to their customer service reps. I work with IVR's and after being through theirs there is no way anybody designed it to do anything but not help. Most of it tries to get you to choose yet another automated portion of their IVR, even after you selected customer service.
When I worked for a computer company in the early '90's the upper management had our IVR designed to make it difficult to actually get through to the helpdesk, those lucky ones that did get through rarely got our best support because we were told we had a time limit to take care of them.
If we didn't have the issue resolved in the specified time it affected our review. I bucked the system and took care of each customer until they were taken care of. This actually worked out to my benefit in the long run but that's a different story.
The Government always claims they are here for us, yet they create forms that confuse, IVR's that either hang up, transfer you to nowhere or even more IVR's or when you finally do get to a person they are rude and unhelpful.
I LOVE this country but I HATE dealing with the agencies as they rarely help. Heck visit any Illinois city DMV, you'll wish you didn't.
I would like to point out that in 1997 I worked with an IRS agent that was kind, helpful and helped me solve a big problem. He has since retired.
Since that time, I can't remember one single event dealing with any Government agency where they were of any use. Which is sad.
I agree, there is a lot they can do with an IVR to improve customer service but the Government has meetings about how to create more processes, not reduce them or simplify them.
I hope somebody gets the message too, but I doubt they know how anymore.
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