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If you had to call a customer service line, where would your patience be on a scale of 1-10?
“Many people start at nine or nine and a half,” said Amas Tenumah, who wrote a book called Waiting for Service. “But you start this interaction and you meet an automated system, right? Press one, press two…”
Then, after a few more menus and buttons, you can bypass the automated system and go to the human, only to be transferred to it apart operator where you must repeat all the information. At this point, Tenumah said, your grace is thin.
“You’re at ground zero, and a lot of people are negative,” he said.
This week, the Biden administration announced more of what it called “daily headaches and hassles that waste America’s time and money.” And it does this by having federal agencies create new business rules. Things like:
- The Federal Trade Commission is trying to make it easy to unsubscribe.
- The Department of Transportation is set to require automatic cash refunds for canceled flights.
There are actions to simplify health insurance documents, eliminate fake product reviews, speed up parent-teacher communication in schools. And, yes, avoid those automated customer service that the White House calls “doom loops.”
All of this is part of a broader economic mission to eliminate modern business practices that the Biden administration believes are exploiting the American people.
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It’s called the “Time Is Money” initiative.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because the Biden administration has consistently touted a more pro-consumer agenda for several years now.
President Biden called for his ongoing crusade against hidden or surprise surcharges in his State of the Union address for the second year in March.
“I also get rid of waste charges. Hidden costs are added to the end of your bill without you knowing,” he said, then added: “I save American families $20 billion a year with all the waste charges I have. I eliminate them and I don’t stop.
So how does this all work? All Things Considered host Ari Shapiro put this very question to Neera Tanden, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council.
“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is involved in the rulemaking process, which will create the rules of the road,” Tanden said. “So a good example for me is, you know, when you’re on a subscription — a streaming service or a cell phone service — if it’s one or two clicks to get the service, it’s one or two clicks to get off the service.”
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Tanden said the administration is seeing many examples of companies wasting time and energy with practices that really only save money over time.
“Essentially, they create friction in people who just give up and keep paying for the service instead of ending the service they don’t want and then getting the service they want,” he said.
There’s pushback — and a call for your ideas
The initiative has drawn criticism from several sectors.
The Chamber of Commerce issued a statement this week saying the initiative could harm consumers: “Businesses succeed by being responsive to customers and have better customer service records, streamlined paperwork, and faster response times than the federal government. – regulations governing business practices and pricing is the wrong approach, always increasing costs for consumers.”
Tanden did not buy.
“I would say that, fundamentally, we think that this should be basic consumer protection,” he said. “If your business model depends on trapping people into services they no longer need, that’s a reflection of how you’re not competitive and you’re not providing good service. And companies should compete on service, not on barriers.”
The White House said some agencies have begun to make changes, and now wants Americans to share ideas for other things they can address. It has set up a Time Is Money portal where people can post their ideas.