DiscoverKQED's ForumForum From the Archives: Is Customer Service a Bad Model?
Forum From the Archives: Is Customer Service a Bad Model?

Forum From the Archives: Is Customer Service a Bad Model?

Update: 2025-12-22
Share

Description

To be a modern consumer is to experience poor customer service at some point in your life. The kind of service that has you in a fever dream of pressing “1” for “representative,” getting your call dropped, calling back again, and then asking to speak to a manager who can’t solve your problem. Experts call this kind of service “sludge,” an administrative morass meant to deter, not help, consumers. And for some businesses, it’s a feature not a bug. We listen back to our conversation with journalist Chris Colin about the practice and hear from you: what’s your sludge story?


Guests:


Chris Colin, journalist, The Atlantic

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Comments 
00:00
00:00
x

0.5x

0.8x

1.0x

1.25x

1.5x

2.0x

3.0x

Sleep Timer

Off

End of Episode

5 Minutes

10 Minutes

15 Minutes

30 Minutes

45 Minutes

60 Minutes

120 Minutes

Forum From the Archives: Is Customer Service a Bad Model?

Forum From the Archives: Is Customer Service a Bad Model?

KQED