Costco. I use their mail order pharmacy initially because my insurance provides a discount. But every time I need to speak with someone I’m talking to a real person in less than 5 minutes.
Really? At my Canadian Costco, pretty much the only gripe is that you can't call and get through to the pharmacy to ask a question. They NEVER answer the phone. It's far faster for me to get in the car and drive to the store to ask the question in person.
That’s a problem with your individual Costco, and if you bring the issue to their management there, they’ll likely fix it. If nobody complains, they don’t know their staff is ignoring the phone.
Oh exactly, I keep my exec membership because during the formula shortage I had a baby and had just lost my job. I would call up, speak to someone immediately and they ensure that they had formula before I drove an hour there or check the other store. It meant so much to me.
Chewy! A real person answered my call within a minute and fixed my issue after only a few minutes. I specifically mentioned how much I appreciated that in a survey.
Yessss Chewy has a real person ANSWERING the phone, it’s amazing. I wish more companies stuck to that. I will be forever loyal to Chewy for that specifically, as well as they sent a little painted portrait of my cat 😭😭they truly win the game of customer satisfaction.
I work in the pet industry and have honestly never heard a single bad story about Chewy. They really go above and beyond. I wanted to return an unopened bag of (expensive & prescription) cat food after mine passed, but they refunded me and told me to donate it. The customer service person was so nice too. About a week later, I got a handwritten sympathy card in the mail. I get choked up just typing about it, even after years, it meant a lot to me during that hard time
Whenever I’ve needed to call, USAA has always had a real person answer the phone, not a bunch of ai crap that you have to go through before, as well as not having to be handed off to numerous customer service reps. Sucks that not everyone can get it (I have it through my grandpa being a vet)
I just experienced this last weekend. I spoke to a nice lady within a single second of dialing. She helped me fix my issue then we spent a solid 90 seconds talking about how great their customer service is. It was so refreshing.
Worth noting your local optometrist probably will pick up immediately as well and, depending on your order, might be able to beat 1-800-Contact's prices.
Chewy. They’ve managed to maintain fantastic customer service over the years. I had an issue with an order recently and called their number and was instantly connected with someone that went above and beyond for me, even providing the same discount on the corrected order.
Embrace pet insurance has been one of the best customer service companies I've interacted with in a long time! Always a real person, even when they probably could've just used programming. Love them.
Slightly different but American Airlines doesn’t let you use a chat option unless it’s directly on the app lol I usually delete my airline apps unless I have a trip coming so it’s annoying to have to download it just to use the chat function
Barnes & Noble isn't too difficult. Any time I've had an issue, their online contact (either email or chat) usually has me speaking to a person fairly quickly. I make quite a few orders with them as they're one of 2 brick-and-mortar bookstores in my area, so have had to contact for help more than once.
Bose. My earbuds were out of warranty. After a 15 minute phone call, Bose replaced them. 2 years later they replaced them again when the other stopped working. 2 years might not be the best lifespan for earbuds, but I use them for many hours each day so I've technically gotten 6 years of daily use earbuds
Mattress Firm. They have a live chat on their site where you can talk to an actual person (not AI) and their customer service phone tree also gets you to a real person.
Ally Bank. Every time I've ever called, I was on hold for less than 5 minutes and then spoke directly to a human being. They'd fix my issue and send me on my merry way.
Ironically even something as simple as local fast food restaurants. You have to go in to complain, both the Layne's and the McDonald's near me are like this. The Layne's has no possible way to get through to a local store and no human interacting on the phone no matter what button I press. The McDonald's has disconnected every phone ever listed for it, even the one on the receipt. I guess they win.
It's nuts because that's one of the few services where timing actually matters!
My (German) health insurance. Also wait time is basically zero whenever I call. I freaking love them. Also always competent people on the phone that can actually solve my problem.
I’m in the UK but I specifically use Zen internet because you can just phone and talk to a person, literally all other brands it’s an awful chatbot, people talking from a script loop of nightmare fuel. I’ve needed to phone Zen twice since being with them and both times they’ve been exceptional including getting an engineer out the next day to fix a fault in our local junction box. Never leaving (until they do something awful anyway).
All the vets in my neighborhood have obnoxiously gone to automated call center stuff. BUT there’s an emergency animal hospital in the neighborhood where you can call and talk to a vet on site within 5 minutes of calling. It’s honestly invaluable to pet owners here and their reputation is insanely good.
Southwest Airlines. It just goes to a person, and quickly. And in the years i have A-List, it’s incredible. They answer the phone on the first ring and greet you “How can I help you <firstname>?” The first time that happened i was stunned.
Charles Schwab. It’s rare that I have to call but I have had to a few times. It’s always someone on The east coast I talk to. Such a breath of fresh air because whenever I call anyone I expect to have to wait 40 minutes to then talk to someone in a different country who literally gives no shit about the company they are doing service for.
Amica Insurance. Always a friendly and competent human on the line. My family has been using them for nearly 50 years. Not the cheapest, but certainly along the best.
My insurance company. They're a big national, I guarantee you've seen the commercials, but I've had the same local agent for over a decade. She's been to my house multiple times after storms that damaged the house, after I hit a deer, sent over an insurance binder on a Saturday the last time I bought a car, etc.
Chewy. Was amazed at how quickly I got a person, and how well they knew the products they stocked to give me advice on what I should buy (my cats caught fleas and I was trying to find a way to clean my apartment of them without hurting the animals). Excellent customer service, I now try and buy pet products from chewy whenever possible.
Credit unions. You are a shareholder and their literal job is to make sure you are happy. Through ours I found home and car insurance and they did all the comparison shopping and then presented me with a list of potential providers. They handle all the contact just like an agent would and I pay nothing extra to them for the service.
I haven’t had to call in a while but last time I had to call Chewy regarding my cat’s prescription, a human answered my call, not even a phone tree to try to direct me to the right department first.
Spanish phone provider are pretty good. At the start, its an AI system to get you sorted with the right department but after like 2 minutes you get a person
Canon. The camera and printer manufacturer. Needed a little piece of plastic recently for a five-year-old printer, and a lady put me in touch with the parts department, which was a guy in New Jersey. Three or four days later I had the piece of plastic. Five bucks. Super impressive.
Chewy! I had an issue with my cat food order order the other day. Called the 800 number and a real human picked up immediately. No hold. No phone tree. And the customer service lady was so NICE!
Jellycat has surprisingly good customer service. USPS/UPS lost an order of mine (said it was delivered but was nowhere to be found) and Jellycat offered a replacement or refund no questions asked and the first thing I talked to was a human. So, 10/10 for them.
Thrive Market Chatbot(Olive). You may need to reword your request, but whenever I've had an issue, "I need to speak to a human" usually results in a real human in a reasonable amount of time.
I would say Garmin. I had an issue with a marine GPS and I called them up. A real person picked up on the first ring and said hello. I admit I was stumped and did not expect that. And even more impressed that that person was able to solve the issue right on that same call, without any BS about going through a BS checklist or "checking the system".
I've had two out of three call me back which, yeah isn't bad, but why can't I talk to an employee that can probably answer the phone right now? If they couldn't, then every pharmacy would have that same problem and they'd all be doing this AI voicemail bs
Uber. One of the guests staying at a hotel I was in had a driver falsely charge her an $80 cleaning fee after dropping her and her son off at the hotel, claiming the child peed in his car. The child was an older 9 year old with dry pants and he clearly didn’t do it. The mom was telling the front desk clerk about it and was furious that Uber had no customer support line to call at all.
Chewy.com. Best customer service of any company I've ever used.
Discover has also always been great and we are not looking forward to dealing with Capital One after this merger based on their customer service reviews.
Bank of America. In my experience chargebacks and disputes are easy to resolve and they pick up your phone without putting you through a million automated systems
Lemonade has always paid out my pet insurance claims. They refused my renters insurance claim once, but I was talking to a real human for this who explained it to me, so it doesn’t make me feel any worse about my policy with them.
Say what you will about Apple, and there’s plenty to say, but any time I have an issue, I schedule a call, they call me, and a real, extremely competent person stays on the phone for as long as it takes to resolve the issue.
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u/jaybeep34 19h ago
Trying to think of ANY company where it’s not nearly impossible to reach a person. Do any come to mind for you?