We recently returned home from a two-week trip to find that, once again, our LA Times subscription had failed to restart from the vacation hold I set before we left. Because the message on the Times’ toll-free line urges you to handle your account online, I went to its Web site to report the missing papers.

But the site wouldn’t let me. Because I was trying reporting the missing papers after the Times’ “cut off” time for providing replacements, the online system wouldn’t even accept my complaint.

I didn’t necessarily need to get a paper that day–I could read it online. So by refusing to allow me to submit my problem, the Times managed to do three things: waste my time, tick me off, and remind me that I’m getting less and less attached to its product (at least in its paper version). In these days of shrinking circulation and upheaval, that’s probably not the message the Times wants to give its remaining loyal subscribers.

I’m guilty, too. It was only in the last few weeks that I added a search function to my own Web site. Folks who didn’t know how to make a site-specific Google search (using site:sitename.com, plus a space and the topic word, thus: site:asklizweston.com credit scores) often couldn’t find what they were looking for. Now (hopefully), it’s easier.

So, how are you irritating your customers (or your vendors, or your bosses)? What complaints have you heard more than once that have yet to be fixed…and more importantly, what can you do today to start to fix them?

TAGS: Customer service, fixing mistakes, loyalty