Won't Anybody Listen?

I just posted this over at BrandShift but felt like I needed to get this off my chest here as well.

I’m bummed! A year and a half ago I signed up for the Premium Listener program at Audible.com. At the time, I was stoked to listen to a few books on my iPod. It seems however, between writing and traveling, I wasn’t downloading the two books a month that came with the subscription.

So, a year ago I tried to cancel my subscription. I went to the Audible website and did everything they asked me to only to find a $19.95 charge on my credit card the following month. I finally picked up the phone and called. After the usual 5 minute wait I talked to a fairly responsible sounding person who said they’d take care of it.

Five nights ago my wife, Bridget, leaned over and said “What’s this charge on our credit card for $19.95 from Audible?” It seems that the friendly customer service representative didn’t, in fact, do what he said he’d do! So much for building trust.

Being in Mexico writing, phone calls are a bit expensive so I went back online to Audible’s site and was promised a fast and courteous response in 48 hours.

So, here I am 5 days later, out 240 bucks and no one to listen to me.

Hello, I’m a Customer. Is anybody home? I used to think your service was pretty cool. Now I’m starting to get bad!

Forget about co-creating, how about doing what you promised or at least sending an auto-response to my email!

Is Audible, and many other brands for that matter, too busy to listen to their customers? Are they really ready for the power shift that’s happening? Before companies, like Audible, can ever think about improving their products and services with the help of delighted customers they might want to think about creating satisfied customers first.

We’re living in lumpy times in the Brandsphere! Welcome to the Wild West.