Many countries and some US states have laws against vexatious litigants. A similar approach should be used against malicious customer service like this.
I would like to see laws against constructive illegal practices, or at least an assumption that any forseeable outcome of the company's policies is considered by the court to have been the intentional outcome. Codify "the purpose of a system is what it does" into a legal presumption.
Say, Wells Fargo giving their front line staff unattainable targets for account openings, which was a somewhat deniable way to mandate that staff illegally open accounts for everyone that they interact with.
Or, a gym requiring a certain retention rate for customers calling to cancel. Predictably, this just results in the call center staff illegally refusing to cancel the gym membership, so it's tantamount to a company policy that customers can't cancel their accounts unless they get lucky.
Or airlines that are required to give you compensation, but only do so if you ask, and ask in a very specific and timely manner, for example, hotel compensation for cancelled flights.
Comments
Many countries and some US states have laws against vexatious litigants. A similar approach should be used against malicious customer service like this.
I would like to see laws against constructive illegal practices, or at least an assumption that any forseeable outcome of the company's policies is considered by the court to have been the intentional outcome. Codify "the purpose of a system is what it does" into a legal presumption.
Say, Wells Fargo giving their front line staff unattainable targets for account openings, which was a somewhat deniable way to mandate that staff illegally open accounts for everyone that they interact with.
Or, a gym requiring a certain retention rate for customers calling to cancel. Predictably, this just results in the call center staff illegally refusing to cancel the gym membership, so it's tantamount to a company policy that customers can't cancel their accounts unless they get lucky.
Or airlines that are required to give you compensation, but only do so if you ask, and ask in a very specific and timely manner, for example, hotel compensation for cancelled flights.
You should be able to invoice for your own time trying to fix their error.
I'm actually surprised the sort of sludge described in the article isn't already illegal.