customer service

Is customer service going too far? A friend just called me with a little story. She was having problems with her printer and asked for help from the help center. As a reply she received a rambling email which basically said "buy a new cartridge" . She, in her lovely English polite way, replied saying "thank you." She then received an email going on and on about how much they value her service and attitude etc etc. - shame I don't have the email to include but it was really long. She then got asked to take a customer service survey! So, her politeness has meant she has been asked to take a survey which when filling in she must add a comment such as "How much time do you waste writing long-winded emails to me when you could be taking other calls?!"