High Call Volumes?

And they always blame it on the holidays.  Which we know, of course, not always to be true (so far, customer service has become more and more degraded in the past 6-7 months).  When they hit rock bottom, maybe they'll do something about it.

This company is a complete and utter joke, and that's all because of how they treat their customers after they make a sale.  If this isn't rock bottom, then I am afraid to see what rock bottom truly is.

I know that this company has been around for a long time but based on my limited experience and the statement that customer service has become more and more degraded over the last 6-7 months, I predict that Simplisafe won't be viable for much longer.  I told someone that I got their system last month and they told me about what they'd heard about customer service and asked me if I was crazy.  Word is spreading that they are a terrible company to deal with and once that happens, they either make changes or end up going away.  Another thing to consider is that if they have steadily refused to make improvements on their customer support, could it be because they don't have the available funds to pay a decent support staff.

I really do wonder how close they are to just failing as a company.

I was going to return my system.  I sent them a number of emails that they never responded to and tried calling a number of times, only to be hung up on.  I finally decided to keep the system.  I am currently paying ADT $58 per month.  I got my Simplisafe system for $360 during the 50% off black friday sale.  I am saving $33 per month with Simplisafe and the system will pay for itself in less than a year.  If I can go a year without needing to call support for any reason, I end up better off.  I can revisit the situation next year and see if there's anything better out there.

So I am keeping it.  But that doesn't mean that I will stop bitching about how bad they are as a company.  Customers shouldn't have to put up with this and it's an insult to all of their customers.

SS does have their quirks, which are not at all customer oriented.  Doesn't make them a "bad" company, since they provide (most people) top of the line functionality at a very reasonable price.

And that's great, until you need help.  A company is only as good as its customer service because when things go wrong is when a company can show whether it has true customer focus or whether they only care about their bottom line.

I finally gave up trying to contact their customer service because I literally could not get someone to talk to.  The closest I came was getting hung up on about 15 seconds into a call.  And all emails have gone unanswered.  If I wanted to return the system, I wouldn't be able to because I wouldn't be able to get through to them to get an RMA to do it.

If you have a look at the BBB website, most of the complaints on it are about people not being able to get in touch with customer service either because they didn't get what they ordered or because they were trying to return something and weren't able to get through.

At least they respond when you file a complaint against them on BBB.  It's the only way that they get to keep their A+ rating and that rating is very important to them.

What Customer Service? I got dumped off their website when trying to setup my account. Now that I have the system (after a month of waiting), the web site jumps straight to setting up the base station. WTF good is setting up the base station if you haven't even completed an account?

I have emailed at least half a dozen times and no response. I would really like to at least try the system for the 60 days, but I'm not going to effin set it up without a complete account - safeword and all that crap.

PATHETIC

I sent to the "suggestion box" team.

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One happy customer tells many people and one unhappy customer tells EVERYONE!  What would you prefer?

Your customer service has a lot to be desired.  Cannot get anyone to pick up the phone... terribly Long wait times on hold and no one has yet to pick up or call me back.  I had to call the sales department to try to get to the service department... the guy connected me ... I was on the phone troubleshooting and the young lady and I got disconnected and then NO call back!  I, of course, wasted MY time to call back and was on hold AGAIN for 30 + minutes and I hung up AGAIN!

My concern that if my family is being protected by Simplisafe and they can't handle picking up the phone...especially because you are a virtual company...to help set up my system...then how will I know I'm being protected...God forbid?

I have no idea of the experience of others but this experience is awful and frankly uneasy to have you protecting my family and that's all I want.

As a business coach and trainer...I suggest that...

A.  Your teams need more customer service training or of course, that may be unfair because I've barely spoken to anyone

B. better systems infrastructure to manage call volume and responses

C.  As a technology company ... a secure chat service ... a call back service

D.  When a CSR takes a call...they should ask for my number in case we get disconnected and they can call back

E.  All of the above and not complicated... it's your business model

F.  Ignore the suggestions and say 'Mike is unimportant and suggest that he gets a life.'

As a result, based on the above...I will NOT likely get a call and this notice would have been a waste of my valuable time and the safety and lives of my family.

I would be happy to spend $1 a day vs. 50 cents and twice the price for the equipment to have peace of mind.  

Any suggestions for me?

I get it's not perfect.  and I'd be open to listening and not canceling the service that I don't have "Fully" set up yet.

Thank you.

^ This is excellent and what I've been thinking since I got involved with them back in November.

One suggestion - they do not appear to pay attention to this forum and they don't care about it.  What they do care about is what people can see on the Better Business Bureau website.  I'm not suggesting that you file a complaint, but you can also do a review of the company on BBB.  I suggest that you put this there as well, or something similar to it.  I already left them a review.  I'd suggest that everyone who is displeased with customer support do the exact same thing.

It might be the only way to get them to take notice.

The problem with BBB is people think they are actually reliable indicators of customer satisfaction - because other businesses, govt departments, community entities, et al, continue to advise consumers to "check the BBB rating".  It's an outdated system that only helps the business (whether that's a do-nothing attitude for the business, or, an opportunity for the business to improve based on customer ratings).  If customer complaints (verified of course) were a larger factor in the rating, it would be on a fair and level playing field.  

I'm not saying not to file a formal complaint with BBB, but be mindful that your complaint most likely won't do diddly to the rating.

Waiting on hold as I write this. It's a little frustrating, but willing to hang with it for a while. Can say though that a call back option rather than a simple hold is way, way nicer than the very bad hold music. Yowzers. It burns.

^ I've noticed they respond with boilerplate answers most of the time.  And if a customer continues the dialogue because they're not happy with the resolution offered (um, not really offered) by SS, then it is resolved most likely because SS doesn't want to deal with it.  The refunds and returns are the worst.