NY State - No labor

I am currently collecting unemployment benefits from the state of New York and had a question on a recent claim I submitted. The question had a simple yes/no answer. One of their reps should be able to answer it in under 30 seconds. I had checked the website (where I posted the claim) and could not find the answer.

On the website was posted the number to call. Like so many other entities I was routed through a VRU with enter this and press that, all the while encouraging me to go to the website or get an automated response. Having been through the website, I need a human to answer my question. Finally after 6 minutes I hit the option for a person and what did I hear...

"All of our specialists are busy helping other customers, please call back later at another time". And then the phone hung up. They hung up on me. I'm their customer and they hung up?

A normal customer focused organization would post a message like "We are experiencing heavy call volume at this time, please remain on the line to retain your place in line" or "We are experiencing extended wait time in excess of 15 minutes, please remain on the line or call back during regular business hours". Something to give a customer a choice.

But no... in New York State's Department of Labor we just hang up on you. Automated like.

Here's the history of my attempt to reach a human:

• Called 1-888-209-8124
• Listened to welcome message

• Listened to Options
• Pressed 1 for English

• Extended benefits message played

• Listened to Options
• Pressed 9 for Main Menu

• Listened to Options
• Pressed 4 for question on claim already filed

• Website advertisement played
• Phone rings
• EEO message played

• Entered my SSN
• Pressed 1 to validate SSN
• Entered my PIN

• Claim status message played
• Website and call center advertisement played
• "Remain on line for additional options" message played

• Listened to Options
• Pressed 4 for other questions

• Listened to Options
• Pressed 2 for question on weekly benefits

• Website and call center advertisement played
• Processing claim message played

• Listened to Options
• Pressed 3 to ask a question

..... and then i heard something like .....

"Please hold. We're sorry we are experiencing a high volume of calls at this time and all specialists are helping other customers." Then the website and call center advertisement played once again (4th time on the call). Then it told me to call back later and the New York State Department of Labor hung up.

After listening to 10 messages/advertisements and 6 options of what numbers to press, they hung up.

The New York State Department of Labor Commissioner is M. Patricia Smith. Perhaps the M is in 'My People Won't Answer the Phone'.

B&B - no Imperative

On Saturday I received this letter from my insurance broker, Brown & Brown of Delaware. Brown & Brown bought the business from Chase Insurance and fronts for AIG who provides the insurance.

You would think if an insurance carrier is going to drop a client, and a broker feels "It is imperative that the carrier receives your payment so that your coverage is not in jeopardy" that they would've called to find out what happened to the payment.

In my case, it should've been a direct debit but who knows what happened.

What I do know is that my broker, Brown & Brown, sent a letter on July 9th stating that payment needed to be received by July 11th. The letter arrived on July 12th.

What I do know is that my broker never called on the 9th when they sent and signed the letter. They've got my home number and cell phone. Both phones have voicemail. If they had reached me on the 9th, I could have FedEx'd the payment in time to arrive on the 11th.

What I do know is that in a few minutes I had an online quote from GEICO that was significantly less than Brown & Brown. I followed it up with a call to GEICO to answer some questions and in less than an hour I had insurance forms in my email.

What I do now know is that GEICO accepted a credit card for the payment (points!) and that it is now on recurring payment so that my card will be automatically billed on renewal.

The contrast between Brown & Brown and GEICO is striking. GEICO now has a new fan and loyal customer.

Brown & Brown could take some lessons on customer experience and may need to update it's website boast from "At Brown & Brown, we know that we must be as agile as the cheetah in order to thrive in the competitive insurance environment" to "At Brown & Brown, we know that as Ostriches with our heads in the sand our customer is on his own in this environment".

iPod unTouched

Earlier this year I bought the Apple iPod Touch. Wonderful device that handles my calendar, contacts, music, web access and so much more.

Apple recently announced an upgrade to its iPhone and iPod Touch products, software version 2.0 that would allow you to load new applications (from third parties) to run on the devices. Apple also announced an upgrade to iTunes to v7.7 that would allow you to search, purchase the applications and load them onto your PC.

Today, timed to coincide with the worldwide launch of Apple's iPhone 3G, Apple released iTunes 7.7 and iPhone / Touch software 2.0. Like thousands of others I upgraded to iTunes 7.7 and searched the iTunes application directory and found many applications that I liked and downloaded them to my PC.

Here's my new iTunes 7.7 with 15 applications ready to upload to my Touch.



The problem is that Apples servers were so overloaded with iPhone 3G activations and issues that the 2.0 software upgrade looped, failed, dropped. iTunes at times recognized that my iPod Touch could be upgraded but would put me in an endless loop of "Learning More" and needing an upgrade. After 14 hours of trying today, I have new applications that I cannot use as iTunes is failing.

Here's the screen acknowledging that an upgrade is available:



Here's the beginning of the loop that went back to the screen above:



Occasionally, I would get this message that implied that my connection was at fault when Apple's network was having issues:



After reading some blogs and news reports, it looks like thousands of people got nailed today by Apple. At least I wasn't nailed like the iPhone owners whose phones started the upgrade, didn't finish and now they don't have a working cell phone.

Here are some related articles of others feeling the pain:

• CNN
• Fortune
• CNET News
  
• Information Week
• Boston.com
  

Unfortunately for Apple, we now have a new lexicon including: iPocalypse and iBrick.

Usually Apple gets its product launches right. Maybe next time they will stagger the launch so that new phone activations start on a certain day and upgrades to the new software start on another day. For over-promising and under-delivering, Apple and it's load capacity honchos joined the ranks of Companies Acting Badly.