How important is customer service?

I talk to people on the phone a lot at the job that I'm at- and no matter what the situation, I try to be really nice to people, and never lie. Simply because, they spend money on our products, and we appreciate their business!

The company I work at is a small company, and although it is not a start-up, it has a start-up like environment. Although I want the company to grow and be super successful, I can't imagine it retaining it's culture- playing basketball at 4pm everyday, going to a company lunch every month, and having a company meeting around the table in the owners office, or the kitchen table.

I tend to go off on tangents when I write, so having just glanced over the title of this post, I’ll revert back to customer service. I know we all have our horrible phone and customer/tech support stories, but I have to share mine - this has to be the most horrible experience I've had - period! I recently had to order an AC adapter from HP for my laptop. Seemed like a simple enough product and I thought I would just call in, and ask them to send me a new AC adapter.

After being on hold for at least 30 minutes, I finally got a hold of someone- and I told him I needed a new AC adapter as the one I had was fraying and the insulation wore off and the laptop was not getting any "juice". Apparently, for just that, I had to be transferred to a senior technician, to see if he could miraculously remedy the problem on the phone.

I explained the problem to, once again, someone in India with an "American" name who spoke decent english, but had zero people skills, and could not understand the problem at hand. Now, I am Indian myself, and if I could not make sense to this person, how is the rest of world getting through to him, and all the other "Jack's" that companies are employing. Anyways, they put in my request for an AC adapter, and was told that I would receive it in 2-5 business days.