Yak: Great prices, sucky service

Well over a month ago, my long-distance stopped working. When I called my carrier, Yak, they told me it was because I had switched to a competitor. No, I said, I haven't. They gave me a number to call to confirm my long distance carrier. I called: "Your long distance carrier is Yak."

Back to Yak. Turns out they'd cut me off because my credit card had expired, and they'd never bothered to ask me for the new expiry date. I gave them the new card number. It was declined. I called the bank and confirmed there was nothing wrong with the card. Not only that, the bank guy said that when a transaction is attempted and declined, it shows up in their system. There was no transaction showing -- meaning the Yak person hadn't run the transaction properly. I was shocked to hear this, considering I'd had to repeat the card number three times for her, slower each time, and trying to remain polite as she hesitantly repeated the numbers back to me, with varying degrees of accuracy.

I tried emailing Yak. Ha! No acknowledgment of receipt. I figured it went into the vast junk bin where all those "info@" emails go.

Eventually, I got my long-distance running again (I was using a phone card in the meantime), after confirming that I wanted to "switch back" to Yak. (At this point it seemed hopeless to try to explain I'd never switched away.) I was told it would take 5 business days. A week later, still no long distance. When I tried to make a call, I got taken to the music you hear when you are on hold at Yak. I called customer service. I was told the problem was that I had not informed my previous long distance carrier I wanted to switch away from them. There was no previous carrier, but never mind. I was on the phone with perhaps the one competent person at Yak customer service. She actually opened my file and realized the company was still blocking my access because of the old, expired credit card. Voila.

It was all just a bad memory. Until yesterday, when I received an email -- twice -- from Yak customer service. Apparently the automated response to emails sent to the black hole of "info@" kicks in after a month or so. Here is what it said (italics in original, my commentary in bold):

We apologize for the lengthy delay of answering your customer request. Due to the overwhelming popularity of our recently added yak products & services, we have been inundated with email and telephone inquiries. (Translation: we do not have enough customer service reps. We are apologizing, but we don't feel bad enough to actually do anything about it -- like hire more people. Plus: "delay of answering"? Huh?)

If you still have an outstanding customer service issue, please accept our apologies and contact us by dialing toll-free to 1-877-445-0835 or resend your original request to info@yak.ca. (We have ignored your original request. If you would like the illusion that there is a faint hope your problem will be solved, send it to us again. Bwa-ha-ha-ha!)

We appreciate your enduring patience during this exciting time.

That last line really got me. "Enduring patience" is probably more apt than they realize. But "exciting time"? Exciting for whom? I tell ya, I am filled with excitement waiting for them to actually solve the problem they caused. And I am sure the poor souls in their call centre are brimming with excitement trying to do the work for which they have clearly not been trained.