If you’re ‘lucky’ enough to live in the 11 Western states [mis]served by Qwest, you’ve probably been watching an extraordinary Qwest TV ad campaign called “Spirit of Service.” One ad in particular tells the story of a plain Jane working girl who returns home dead tired from work. She rushes to the kitchen table to look over the mail and excitedly leafs through the letters. When she comes to one in particular, she leaps for joy! What piece of mail could possibly do this to such a person? Her Qwest bill of course! It seems that this woman lives for her Qwest bill and receiving it every month brings her tremendous joy.
“You’re screwed!” (credit: USWestRetiree.org)
I don’t know what universe this character lives in, but it’s certainly not anywhere near mine (thank God). I don’t give 2 *^!ts when I receive my Qwest bill nor do I think 98% of their customers do either.
I didn’t dream this ad. Some Qwest marketing executive and some idiot ad copywriter thought that it would be eminently reasonable and believable to depict such a scenario. I always thought that in order for an ad to be effective it had to correspond in some way with reality as the viewer knew it. Well, I’m sorry to say that Qwest marketers and their ad lackeys have completely taken leave of their senses. They actually believe their customers love them and live only to receive dunning notices from them.
This takes the award for lamest & most hypocritical ad of the year. In fact, Qwest’s record of service is so poor and so many of its customers think so poorly of it that this pathetic ad is Qwest’s attempt to say: “But our customers really do love us…really they do!” NOT.
If your feelings about Qwest mirror my own, I recommend you check out a new anti-Qwest website I’ve just discovered, Tsewq.com. I’ve also written a post about my own personal misadventures in the Twilight Zone with Qwest customer service: Why I Hate Qwest and be sure while you’re visiting to read the insulting comment that some Qwest customer service rep (calling himself “Heo”) left at this post. I tell you, nothing melts the heart of customers more than to hear a company employee berate and insult them publicly!
