<p>I called stony again today and after listening to about 4 minutes of recording and navigating through the many selections, I get another rude staff member on the phone. Everytime I call stony brook it seems so impersonal because the administration is always aloof and unsympathetic. This time i called billing and the guy answered with a "yes" and after I said "thank you," just hung up the phone.</p>
<p>I was wondering if anyone has had similar experiences with other suny's. I think they should put some effort in motivating the staff to say the least. We are dealing with people's education here and if students are considering your school, it would be nice if people there actually appeared to care and acknowledged how important support is for new students. In my application process, I called a lot of schools--some four to five times the size of stony brook, like UT, OSU, and UF--and never had to listen to any recordings, especially when contacting a critical department like billing or registrar, and the staff was always enthusiastic and encouraging.</p>
<p>chris, is the school doing anything to address this?</p>
<p>I hate to say it, but that's a really, really vague comment. Customer service is not only an issue at SUNY campuses. (Exhibit A: the shouting match I got into with a particular slipcover company the other day.) I can guarantee you, with complete confidence, that administration is not "always aloof and unsympathetic." Might you be getting the wrong person on the phone? Probably. Just about every day, I have people thanking me on the phone for being kind and helpful; and I'm not alone. Yes, we're bureaucratic, and yes, there are probably staff members who could be a little less brusque at times; heck, even I can be short with people who are giving me an attitude; I hung up on a woman two weeks ago who was not listening to a word I was saying.</p>
<p>I can't speak to other schools across the country, because I don't know what their staffing issues or work setups are like.</p>
<p>Chris</p>
<p>(For what it's worth, we are working, institutionally, on the First Year Experience. We have a year-plus-long campus-wide committee set up to address these kinds of issues.)</p>
<p>OK, thanks for the response, I guess it is partly because the school is in long island/new york in the first place--not the place to expect some southern hospitality.</p>
<p>I think the fact that Chris is answering your questions personally 24/7 definitely negates the impression that the SB admissions office is rude!</p>