How to Piss Off a Satisfied Customer

For the past few weeks, I have been ignoring a repeating email request to take a survey that my water company, Maine Water, insisted I take, but finally to get them off my back I clicked into the "survey" and answered their questions. Some of the questions appeared to show concern on their part about how satisfied I was with their service. I gave them high marks because basically I have been satisfied with the service. The one thing I have not been satisfied about is that I have not been able to successfully navigate their online payment system. For the past year or so (and the bill is quarterly) I have tried and failed any attempt at paying my bill without calling their representative. The survey provided no reasonable means for me to mention that deficiency other than to mention it by giving the lovely lady I spoke with yesterday when I paid the bill a low mark for something like did the representative satisfy all my needs. So basically, the survey made me blame the phone representative rather than the actual culprit, the company handling the online payment system.

But it got worse.

The survey, which became tedious asking long wordy questions, started questioning me about how I felt about all the efforts they have been making towards social and environmental issues, DEI and hiring issues, you name it, and this just went on and on and on, page after page of the survey.

Finally I began to realize, and this came to me in the night long after the survey was done, that the survey, which was more a push-poll than a customer satisfaction survey, asked a pile of questions that left me feeling that should it happen that I could care less about all the social garbage they were asking me about then there must be something wrong with me - not something wrong with their service, something morally wrong with me.

What the hell???

Then at the very end they had the gall to ask me what method I thought would be the most satisfying for me when they decided to raise their rates!