Don't bother us. Visit our forums and FAQ's...

Customer service is the number one thing I consider when determining whether or not a company will get repeat business from me. I don't have a lot of money, I have even less time, and I generally don't like crowds, shopping or running errands. If I am going to endure those things, I better damn well get treated like my business means something to you.

Many of you have read my Hub Five-er Up about a poor experience I had a gas station that I will not return too because the ownership put the needs of the employee ahead of mine. While it's nice to see an employer stick up for his employee, it's also reprehensible. What happened to the days where the customer was always right? I will no longer dine at certain restaurants because ONE employee made the experience unbearable. Its true. One bad apple DOES spoil the whole bunch.

Take note, business owners.

And that's why this trend for websites to use forums and FAQ's instead of making employees available live, or at least via e mail, is disturbing and down right infuriating. Each person and each problem is unique. I can't remember one instance where a problem I had was solved by reading the FAQ's or consulting the forums.

Anyone who's spent any time trying to figure out the nuances of a specific web site by wading through the forums should understand this frustration. If you can find someone who will not respond to your "stupid" question without being snarky, they probably still won't be able to answer your question. Forums are not safe places and often times the moderators are the worst behaved out of everyone.

One of the reasons I recently left Wizzley is because I could not reach anyone on staff for help with my account. I had a very simple question that probably could have been answered in two seconds if I could have reached a staff member. Instead, I waded through a bunch of useless info in the forums and FAQ's, which concluded by a  mod telling me what I already knew while offering no further helpful advice to solve my problem. For confidential reasons, I can't get into those specifics but, suffice it to say, if they'd made someone on their staff available, I'd still be a Wizzley writer. I'm not, and the site has no one to blame but themselves. I hope droves of writers leave the site. No one is bigger than their customers (as writers, we bring customers, which brings them income. Essentially, writers on paid sites such as Wizzley and Hubpages are customers just like readers) and, without customers, you don't exist or turn a profit.

I don't care how big or important you think you are. If your customer has to wade through a sea of snarky malcontents residing in their mothers' basements in the forums and rude moderators, they may just choose to purchase a product or service from your competitor who DOES offer satisfactory customer service.

This is a trend that needs to go out of fashion. In a hurry.