Why Is Frontline B2B Customer Support So Hard? Part 1

I haven’t been sleeping well and I get cranky with less than 10 hours of sleep.  I visited a sleep doctor and he recommended an in-home sleep study to determine if I have sleep apnea (spoiler alert: I do not).  

They ship a contraption out that’s a combination of watch, chest sensor, and finger sensor.  After a quick app install and connection, I put on the watch, tape one sensor to my trachea, shove the other one onto a finger, and then attempt to sleep.

After the sleep study is done, I’m instructed to either recycle the unit (in my case, it’s only the Best Buy in Union Square in NYC) or send it back to the vendor so they can recycle it.  They even call it a Green Program.  Great!  I’ll do that; it helps the company (no doubt they are repurposing the watches) and it saves me a trip.

I go to the website, request a shipping label, and the website simply reloads.  I tried 4 or 5 times; no shipping label.

I send in an email to their support team (Apr 1, 2025, 1:54 PM)

Hi there,

I'm trying to get a return shipping label to recycle a watch but your website is erroring out.  Is there a way for you to send me one over email?

Thank you,
Liz

‍

Immediate response (Tue, Apr 1, 2025 at 1:55 PM):

Hello,

We have received your request and Case# 00377101 has been created.‍

Request Summary:
Subject: watch return shipping label - US
Description: This message originated from the Internet. Please be careful when opening any attachments.

‍

Their response (one day later: not bad.  Apr 2, 2025, 3:28 PM)

‍

Good Afternoon, 
 
The website is https://www._____.com/greenprogram/  Also you must use a laptop or desktop, to request label. Please also be advised, if it's a WP1 device is disposable and doesn't need to be returned.

‍

I begin to get angry.  Okay, fine, it’s good to check I’m not on a cell phone and to validate that I’m at the correct URL, but what’s the point of this email except to say “do some more work and by the way, maybe not return the watch?”.

I write back (immediately, obviously: Apr 2, 2025, 3:37 PM)

Hi Shanterra,

That's the site I'm on, and like I mentioned, the website code is erroring out and not generating a label.  Can you please provide another way or send me a label manually?

Thanks,
Liz

‍

Two days later (okay, still fine-ish: Apr 4, 2025, 2:43 PM), I get this response.

Good day, 
  
If you can provide me your first and last name & the correct mailing address. I can generate and email you the return label.

‍

Great!  We are getting somewhere!

I respond, again, immediately (Apr 4, 2025, 4:14 PM):

Hi Monique,

It's Elizabeth Zalman, XXXXXXX.

Thanks!
Liz

‍

You know what’s coming… TEN DAYS LATER, my boyfriend asks when the stupid watch is going to get off the kitchen table and I realize I haven’t gotten the label!

I write (Apr 14, 2025, 6:48 AM):

Hello - are you able to send me the shipping label?  I provided my address 10 days ago. 

Thanks,
Liz

‍

A few hours later (Apr 14, 2025, 11:03 AM)... wait for it:

Hello,
 
Here is the link for the green program return label:
 
www._____.com/greenprogram/us/   	

‍

In (self-admittedly) not my finest moment, I write (Apr 14, 2025, 11:05 AM):

Guys - I told you this website is erroring out.  I can't get a label printed.  You offered to send me a label.  Can you do it or not?

Liz

‍

And then (Apr 14, 2025, 11:11 AM):

We apologize, perhaps the website is down. You can either try again at a later time or feel free to recycle locally according to your area's electronic waste guidelines.

‍

At that point, I gave up and sent my head of support an email that said “I’m done”.

What was so hard about this process?  Even if I ignore the fact that the reps didn’t look at the prior ticket history, and fell down across a ten day period, how is it possible that a rep can send a note that 1) resends me the website URL, and 2) maybe our website is down?  MAYBE THE WEBSITE IS DOWN?  In the time it took them to type it, they could have loaded the website and seen that it WASN’T DOWN!.

Going back to the original business premise, I’m sure the corporate entity wants these watches back.  It’s cheaper for them, and a Green Program is solid branding.  Why do the support reps exist at all then?  What is their purpose?  And if they are this brilliant with shipping labels, imagine what would happen if I had an actual question about their product?!?!  If this is L1 support, what does L2 look like?  Does it even exist?  It boggles the mind.  

Net: 

• The watch is still on my kitchen table.
• I still need to take a trip to Best Buy to recycle it, unless I want to be a terrible human and throw it in the trash, which I just can’t do, thinking about battery acid seeping into the ground.
• I wasted my time.
• The customer support team wasted their time.
• The company still doesn’t have a watch to repurpose for the next customer, and has therefore negatively impacted their net margin in two ways (costs - watch, OPEX - support headcount)
• Nobody got what they want.
• Nobody is happy.

And this is the baseline for B2C support.  Perhaps there is another way…

In my next post, I will further rant about B2B support at a unicorn company and then tell you why Sandgarden is the answer to everyone’s prayers.  Thanks for reading, as always.  

* *  *

Two postscripts: 

First, it occurred to me only while writing this article that I should have tried another browser.  The website is old enough, right?  I was able to get the label to show up in Chrome, but Firefox was erroring out:

‍

‍

‍

Shame on me for not doing that right away, but the point of the article is not how does the customer debug their problem.  It’s how does customer service help the customer.  I suppose I no longer need a Best Buy trip though!

Second - one of the most delightful parts of this sleep study was all of the extra information I received!

‍

‍

‍

Like… how cool is it that I snore at less than 40db for 1.8% of my sleep, or 6.7 minutes?  Or that my heart rate was between 52 and 97?  SO COOL!  I apparently adore this self-quantification stuff even as I will continue to profess to be a Luddite.