How do people in the US describe customer service in 2026? ‘Debilitating, depressing, enraging. Ugh’

Illustration: Guardian Design/Getty ImagesView image in fullscreen Illustration: Guardian Design/Getty ImagesConsumedConsumer affairsHow do people in the US describe customer service in 2026? ‘Debilitating, depressing, enraging. Ugh’We asked people in the US about their customer service battles and hundreds responded on the financial and emotional costs

Guardian readers from across the US wrote in to tell us about their battles with big companies, and the time, expense and emotional toll exacted by businesses they say are prioritizing the bottom line over all else.

Readers’ main complaint is not that it is impersonal, it’s that it doesn’t work for anything but the most basic customer service tasks, like checking balances, changing addresses or making payments, things most customers are doing online anyway.

About one in 10 of the reader responses we have received so far called out automated chatbots as endless doom loops, a massive time suck, and steep hurdle to resolving product problems and fraud claims.

“It’s the bots. Daily battle with stupid, useless, brain-dead bots on the phone, trying to reach a human being to learn or explore or resolve some damn thing,” wrote a communications professor from a university near Boston. “Infuriating, exhausting, debilitating, depressing, enraging. Ugh.”

After that, frustrations with telecom overcharges and installation, declining product quality everywhere from tractors to garden hose accessories and pantry staples, and struggles with finance companies and health insurance coverage topped the list.

Many readers cited overlapping company failures that created nightmare scenarios: hundreds of dollars lost, days spent trying to rectify mistakes, scrambles over Thanksgiving dinner and health-threatening lapses.

When her local CVS said at the last minute it would not be able to fill a daily prescription for six weeks, Melanie Cooley, an Arizona educator, tracked down a pharmacy that had it in stock in another state, and arranged for it to be shipped to Indianapolis, where she would be traveling. The express delivery arrived days late, then went to the wrong mailbox.

“It took almost three weeks and assists from friends and family in three different states to get one bottle of pills,” she wrote. “I spent an extra $50 on top of my co-pay to get the meds to me.” She was off the medication for two weeks. CVS said: “Our pharmacy teams make every effort to ensure patients have access to the medications they need.”

Carol Murdock, a former healthcare executive in Nashville, said she spent an entire day trying to reach a human to resolve a fraudulent $629 charge on her AT&T bill for a phone line she doesn’t own. “I think this is their entire goal. Exasperate consumers until they give up. It is maddening,” she said. The bill is still outstanding, she added. AT&T did not reply to requests for comment.

One California tech employee told the Guardian she spent days trying to get a Rebel baby stroller rerouted to a new city via FedEx after it didn’t show up when promised. Multiple phone calls, emails, contradictory information from two companies and additional charges later, she resorted to asking a friend to bring it on a flight.

“What stands out is not a single mistake, but the amount of time required to navigate a fragmented customer-service system,” she wrote. Rebel told the Guardian it was “continuously looking for ways to ensure our customers receive clear, timely support when these situations arise”.