Dealing with bad customer service

Let's face it, most or even all of us have had our fair share of bad customer service. I am talking about the type of service where you vow to never go back to that business place and look for a better alternative. I don't know how it is in other parts of the world but in Africa, it is a very common issue. The two main things I know that are responsible for bad customer service are lack of empathy and bad communication. The business owner or customer rep might have very terrible communication skills and not know how to relate to your problems

One very terrible case of bad customer service is when people who have lots of influence or money are given priority even when you're the first person to get there. This sometimes happens in banks, where one person who's at the back of the queue is suddenly called to the front and the cashier gives you the usual "He was here before" excuse. This actually leads to the one place for me with very bad customer service; banks. In fact, I usually associate bad customer service with banks, it's the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of bad customer service.

I always try as much as possible to avoid situations that will make me visit any banking hall, because I always leave with a lot of stress and frustration. A recent one that happened to me was when I tried to upgrade the transaction limit on one of my bank accounts. I called the customer care line and they told me I could easily do it without visiting any of their bank branches, which was definitely good news. They sent me the documents which I printed, filled and sent back to them. Days later, they did a video call with me to verify my identity and ask some security questions.

After the video call which lasted for over 30 minutes, they told me that the account would be upgraded within 7 business days. Ladies and gentlemen, this is 5 months later and the account still hasn't been upgraded. Let's even ignore the fact that it will take them 7 days just to do an upgrade, something that digital banks like opay and Kuda can do within a day. The annoying part is that I kept emailing them and calling the same customer care number I called earlier and I received no feedback. After trying for a week, I gave up and went to open an account with another bank.

The bank I'm talking about is UBA, their customer service is number one on the terrible list. Why couldn't they provide feedback on my account upgrade process? I would have preferred if they told me that the upgrade failed or something negative, a feedback would be appreciated but instead, they kept quiet and even went as far as ignoring my emails and calls (maybe they even blocked me). Anyway, I dumped them immediately and looked for a better alternative but honestly, most of these banks are the same. Their customer service needs serious reevaluation, as I'm sure most of you would agree about the bad customer service in these banks

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