Has Weber outsourced its customer support?

[Willard]

I called Weber and placed an order last week on behalf of a friend and the person who helped me was based in the US. As customers demand lower pricing, an easy way to cut expenses is to outsource call center to other countries where labor is just cheaper. I'm not saying this is right, it's just the common course for companies these days. in France companies cannot do that. There are policies and laws in place that protect jobs for the people of France. There are also laws that limit working overtime to ensure that two persons are hired where one could "just" work 20 extra hours in the evenings. I'm also not saying this is right but it's nice for a nation to protect its people, which is what's supposedly governments are supposed to do.

 

[Richard in NS]

I am sure Weber has several call centres around the world because of different languages. The company I worked for did to. Just before I retired they switched to a worldwide system where if you were on hold in the US and there was someone say in Europe or India that was available and spoke English, you would get switched to them rather than keep you on hold. This was done to improve customer service not to hinder it and for the most part, it worked. This could be what Weber has done since it seems it is only the occasional time it is happening.

 

[Joan]

Joan, why do you answer the spam calls?

I don't answer all of them, but I am finding out that most of the ones I do answer, have stopped calling. I won't mention here what I say to them. lol

 

[daron_a]

How do we know this for sure?

Well, at the risk of making a profiling judgment, in the course of this claim every contact was with a different person. 5 emails 5 different people with foreign names.
In the past I called a number for Weber and spoke directly with a customer service rep that always seemed very knowledgeable about the products where this time each email was generic and didn't seem to really know the product.
Night and day difference.
They may not have outsourced overseas, but definitely nothing like my past experiences.

 

[Bill Pudim]

I really don’t care where they are located or their first language, I only want competence.

 

[daron_a]

I guess we don't know for sure. For my part, the last time I called them (3 or 4 weeks ago) I had my suspicions and asked the rep if they were still in Palatine, IL. He told me that he was in fact in Florida, which I thought odd but let it go at that. I can't say why daron_a believes this to be true other than it aligned with my own thoughts.

I wanted to add to my thoughts on why I think customer service has been outsourced. During my warranty claim I had exchanged several emails with Weber CS. Having a few warranty claims over the years I always found the CS reps to be very knowledgeable about the products. In this instance I did not call Weber, rather I emailed them since I thought it would be easier to attach pics of the rust problem on my Genesis lid.
This began an exchange with CS reps that was not at all like my past experiences. While they were accommodating in providing a replacement lid, the lack of product knowledge was an issue. I added shots of the emails where they did not seem to know the product. I was finally told after the new lid arrived that I did, in fact, have a Brick Red color, but that it had been discontinued so they substituted the Espresso Brown. Prior to that they insisted that my grill was Espresso Brown. Also, in each of the contacts with CS a different agent responded, 8 different people in total. And while this will not sound nice, each had a name that suggested the CS service was based outside the U.S. That is a totally subjective assumption on my part.

A couple of the emails stated that they were serviced by Zendesk, a customer service "solutions" company. So, it does appear that Weber is at least contracting some CS outside of the company for warranty claims. As I had stated, my past experiences with Weber warranty claims were excellent. Now I have a grill lid that doesn't match the doors and if they had been clearer about that upfront, I would likely be less bothered.

How do we know this for sure?

 

[Bruce]

Yah, they are probably like every other business in the US now and have trouble sourcing and keeping employees.

 

[Chris Allingham]

A couple of the emails stated that they were serviced by Zendesk

I think Zendesk is just the customer management software, not the support agents.

And while this will not sound nice, each had a name that suggested the CS service was based outside the U.S. That is a totally subjective assumption on my part.

Yes, that seems clear from your attachments.

 

[Darren Lebner]

A couple of the emails stated that they were serviced by Zendesk, a customer service "solutions" company. So, it does appear that Weber is at least contracting some CS outside of the company for warranty claims.

ZenDesk is a web-based CS software solution, not a subcontractor CS staff provider. In its bare-bones form, ZenDesk is a web-based event/problem/query ticketing system, and a very decent one at that.

 

[John_NJ]

Didn’t Weber outsource most of their manufacturing outside the United States?

After that, a few office jobs answering phone calls and emails? Small potatoes…

 

[Joe Anshien]

I just tried to get a new fire box on a Summit 470 I had registered under my name for years. I first tried by email as they encourage and they just kept asking for more pics, then receipts, etc. I gave up and called and got it done quickly. I did call in 3 times recently and am pretty sure the folks I talked to all 3 times were not in the US. On the plus side the rep could not identify the light switch for the control panel and put me on hold so long it got disconnected but did call me back right away. I call that a win;-)

 

[John_NJ]

I read this article this morning and it seems pertinent to this thread.

It appears that being able to talk to a human over the phone is being phased out at some cost conscious businesses.

Hopefully Weber doesn’t follow this trend and being able to speak to a human over the phone, wherever they are located is better than interacting with a “chat bot”

It’s Not Just You: Businesses Are Making Their Phone Numbers Hard to Find

More customer-facing phone numbers are being replaced with chat boxes and virtual reservation systems that can make connecting to an actual human being next to impossible.

www.wsj.com

“Companies are taking this short-term view of reducing the load on employees and shunting custimers off to poorly designed chatbots,” Mr. Truog says.

 

[JSaus]

My last encounter was positive. My crossover ignition was not working, even after cleaning. I called them, they asked for pictures and they sent an entire burner set with no questions. I do not care where they are, as long as I can talk to a person and get good results.

 

[Jay D in Jersey]

Frontier Airlines just went to entirely web based customer service. You can't speak with a human. They've eliminated phone contact entirely and it's all web based chat. We'll see how that works for them.

 

[John_NJ]

Frontier Airlines just went to entirely web based customer service. You can't speak with a human. They've eliminated phone contact entirely and it's all web based chat. We'll see how that works for them.

Frontier is figured prominently in the article I attached.

Basically one person quoted said their experience trying to deal with Frontier was so bad they will never fly with them again.

I would hope that companies would rethink using chat bots, but the way technology is progressing, companies will probably just demand smarter, more customer friendly software.

 

[Bruce]

I haven't called Weber CS for a while, but in all the other calls to them, I have found them to be very good. I don't recall having to deal with any foreign accents either.

 

[LMichaels]

Frontier was so bad they will never fly with them again

I see so much of this stuff. But, lets face it the American consumer will not follow through on that. It's a price and availability driven thing. So if Frontier is the company that has a ticket to their destination at the price they want they sure as hell will park their butts in a Frontier seat, or buy xyz product again.

 

[Bruce]

Larry, I have to completely agree with you on that.
Well, maybe 95%. There are instances and times where people will simply refuse, but it usually has to be a significant issue to completely get someone to completely swear off something as significant as airline travel.

 

[John_NJ]

I see so much of this stuff. But, lets face it the American consumer will not follow through on that. It's a price and availability driven thing. So if Frontier is the company that has a ticket to their destination at the price they want they sure as hell will park their butts in a Frontier seat, or buy xyz product again.

Maybe. I think I read you worked for an airline at one time.

My previous job I was a frequent flyer.

I certainly wouldn’t fly on an airline that I couldn’t call and speak to a human.

Lucky for me, I don’t fly for businesses anymore. I got out around 2010, and most of the people I worked with told me how air travel went downhill after that time,

 

[LMichaels]

Larry, I have to completely agree with you on that.

Oh yeah. It was painfully true when we had PIA customers at the car rental agency I semi retired to after United Airlines. We'd see customers get all huffy and swear they would never be back to rent a car and sure as heck, 2 weeks later the same PIA would show up. We'd sometimes throw it back at them too LOL