Biden Official: Lousy Customer Service ‘Designed For You to Give Up’

Wading through unnecessary paperwork is no one’s idea of a good time. Same goes for being forced to hear a dreaded loop of Muzak while waiting on hold for what feels like eternity.

In the hopes of removing some of the suffering from the pain of customer service interactions, the Biden administration announced a new bundle of government-wide actions today nicknamed “Time Is Money.” The administration says the hassles that Americans face are often designed to deter people from activities that could hurt a company’s bottom line, such as refunds or subscription cancellations.

“This work came from scores of conversations with people — consumer advocates and others — about practices that are really designed to get people crazy and, honestly, they’re really designed for you to give up.” says Neera Tanden, director of the Domestic Policy Council of the United States.

During his presidency, Biden has addressed a bevy of corporate-instituted annoyances that everyday Americans face, including things like junk fees. These new actions also provide a glimpse into what areas of consumer protection Vice President Kamala Harris is likely to emphasize on the campaign trail.

The consumer pain points that the administration is targeting include things most people have encountered such as chatbots, doom loop phone menus, fake reviews and enigmatic subscription cancellation practices.

But first, a caveat: When the White House announces any “actions,” it can take a long time to actually happen. Certain actions might require movement through regulatory processes, other agencies or Congress. Businesses may have perfected red tape, but the government invented it.

The pipeline from consumer-to-human representative is often littered with unhelpful robotic menus that don’t recognize when you’re helplessly yelling “customer service” into the receiver.

“I myself have had experiences where you call and the thing you need is not in the recommended options,” says Tanden. “And then you hit a button that sounds like it’s close — like it could get you access to a human — but it’s not close. And they keep just giving you the same list over and over again. What that’s fundamentally doing is wasting your time in order to make it difficult to realize the choice that you want.”

To combat this frustrating experience, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is expected to create a rule that would require companies it oversees — such as banks and lenders — to streamline connecting consumers with human customer service agents.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is considering requiring the same of phone, broadband and cable companies. The Health and Human Services department and Department of Labor are also expected to call on health plan providers to improve this path.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) proposed a rule that would require companies to make a subscription or membership cancellation as easy as it was to sign up.

The “click to cancel” proposal was first made in March 2023 and is still in the “rulemaking” process, which Tanden says should be completed sometime in the fall. This action doesn’t require congressional approval.

The FTC has also proposed a rule that would ban marketers from deceptive review practices, including suppressing honest negative reviews and propping up fake positive reviews. This rule was proposed in June 2023 and is in the rulemaking process.

The CFPB is expected to issue rules or guidance against using automated chatbots or artificial intelligence voice recordings as customer service in scenarios when people are led to believe they’re communicating with a person.

The HHS and the DOL are both calling on health insurance companies “to take concrete actions to save people time and money when interacting with their health coverage,” according to a White House press statement. That proposal is as opaque as the next promise that these departments will identify additional ways to improve how the health care system interacts with people.

Tanden says one practice the Office of Personnel Management wants to address is making it easier to submit paperwork online rather than through mail or fax. “Some people don’t really have access to a fax machine,” says Tanden. “These practices really do seem designed to make it difficult to get prior authorization or claim a particular benefit.”

The Office of Personnel Management is also planning to require all federal and postal service health benefit plans to simplify submitting out-of-network claims online, finding information on appealing claim denials and help people figure out which providers are in-network.

The Department of Transportation now requires airlines to pay customers back the airfare when a flight is canceled or changed significantly for any reason. A passenger would be entitled to a refund if they do not rebook a flight. All refunds must be automatic. This rule was announced in April and will be implemented soon, according to Tanden.

The Department of Education is expected to issue guidance to schools to make it simpler and less time-intensive for parents and schools to do things like communicating with teachers and completing required forms and permission slips. It’s unclear what this guidance would look like, but the White House says it would “include new resources for schools to address time-wasting technology and offer more streamlined processes for engaging and communicating with parents.”

Tanden says the administration is hoping to do more to ensure consumer choices “drive the market” and prevent companies from gaming the system at the expense of consumers.
The White House is soliciting suggestions from Americans for how they’d like consumer service to better serve them including things like how refunds are delivered; dealing with human agents instead of robots; canceling subscriptions more easily; and how technological features can actually make their lives easier. You can submit your suggestions here.

 (Photo by Jessica McGowan/Getty Images News via Getty Images)