Hi folks
I'm working on a project at the moment that is looking into current consumer complaints.
Everything and anything from faulty breast implants to rubbish package holidays (and everything inbetween!)
I need to come up with some current issues so thought i'd put it to the good people of CL.
Any consumer gripes you have/have had, particularly post Christmas, would be much appreciated.
Thanks
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Comments
But when the price drops the prices don't go down straight away as they take time to funnel through to the consumer.
Paul.
We pay NPower for our electricity but they have nothing to do with the power supply and their customer services switch off at 5pm. Without power our broadband connection was out so getting information on line wasn't an option. Using candle light I dug out some correspondence from Npower, but no information re emergencies or who supplied the electricity.
It took me one hour phoning directory enquiries and random companies with electricity or power in their name before I landed on an emergency number of another supply company who gave me the number I needed. When I got through my post code didn't come up on the computer and wasn't dealt with for 30 minutes. A failure report was manually put through to the engineers and 4 hours later power was returned.
There are 11 different power companies distributing electricity and no obvious way of knowing who supplies your particular area or how to contact them in an emergency. I had seen Scottish and Southern Electricity vans in the area so asked for their number. I was put through to a Scottish number but as I wasn't in Scotland I didn't get past the automated call centre. Turned out SSE have a different number for the southern England service and I needed to contact UK Power. I've never heard of UK Power Networks.
Using the inernet you can access the National Grid site and it just tells you to contact your local supplier and shows a vague area map. However in a power cut your computer is useless.The companies have to do better than this for emergencies. Bring back the old Electricity Board.
Take your pick: Insurance companies that seem to have a vested interest in
inflating claims and then blaming everyone else, but make no money, even though they seem to almost single handed keep TV revenue afloat (see the I only went out for a light bulb thread?)
Garage charges: where would you like me to start, and I was on here defending a couple?
The scandal of Care Homes and there charges, for the elderly : see last night news.
The price of fuel.
Trying to work out the cost of energy, so that you know what is the best tarriff.
Trying to work out the cheapest way to book a train journey to Manchester, and given the right advice and price.
Credit card 'administration fees' DVLA please note?
Holiday fuel surcharges
Marketing companies selling on there customers details to people that rip the old and vunerable of
Of course the goverment are going to attend to all these things as a matter of priority, as they did with bankers bonuses.
When you have finished with that above, I am sure there are a few hundred other issues to attend to.
I appreciate your offer, but let's not kid ourselves the UK is fast becoming the 'land of the spiv'.......
I'll inbox you mog.
Keep em coming guys and gals
Thanks again
Item 1 :2 months later after being fobbed off/ lied to by Call Centre, found that item was never in stock and after all this time, numerous phone calls ( Yes ! Call Centres are my bete noir !!) they have now stated a credit will be in my account in 7-10 working days....Thanks !! This was IPC magazines...No compensation of course .
Item 2 : 4 weeks after online confirmation and delivery due in 4-7 working days, nada. Online order contact no not answered /email ignored. Contacted nearest store ( Tottenham Ct Rd) as thought company probably gone bust . They traced my order & lo & behold, it should have been dealt with by their store !! But something in the communication lines went wrong and yes, got got it...itms no longer in stock. Counting down to when the 10 days' refund arrives - nothing so far. This was Lombok. Company policy not to offer any compensation .
Losing the plot with online orders .....
We hear about a lot of retailers under threat. Good. They won't train their staff who are consequently only fit to swipe bar codes. And the Supermarkets have decided that they can't be bothered helping us pay for stuff and so we must all do it ourselves.
Sky - the only way get a billing error fixed was to cancel the service, so that they came back to me asking me to re-consider (this is after about 20 phone calls)
BT - recently tried to move home and switch from residential to business lines at the same time. Nothing could be scheduled as the 'moving home' team and 'res to biz' team do not talk to each other. Again, 20 phone calls to find someone who was actually motivated enough to make it happen
Gravesham Council - following the death of my mother, I have been unable to reclaim money owed to my mother despite filling in the same form 3 times (they conveniently lost the first two) and being accused of 'making up my story as I go along'. I ask them to put this in writing - they refused.
General - staff at companies who refuse to give their name so that you can get back to the same person. THis means starting again each time you contact the 'customer relations team' - what customer relations?
General - companies do not show a contact telephone number on their website (or make it almost impossible to find) - they simply do not want to talk to their customers.
Agree but more on theatre and gig tickets. Ridiculous when I am booking tickets on Ticketmaster on line and I have to pay a booking fee even if I print out my own tickets.
Best customer service- amazon
Also agree about budget airlines their web sites are ridiculously misleading, you have to tey and figure out what you need to pay for and what you don't, deselect everything instead of selecting what you want.....oh please stop me now I bloody hate them
The absolute worst consumer experience there is has to be mobile phone shops. Staffed entirely by 17 year old yoot with attitude problems, designed to confuse the shit out of anyone going in there, riding roughshod over consumer law. I feel ill every time I have to go into one.
Supermarkets (and other high street shops)annoy me with their widespread and constant three-for-two, two-for-£x offers - they put a big mark up on the base price so you feel compelled to buy more than you wanted. They do it with juice all the time for example, especially Tropicana. This is mundane but an example, I was in Marks today getting something and thought I'd pick up some soup whilst there - £2.65 each or £3 for two - I didn't want two and refused to pay the mark up so I have gone soupless! The prices should be around £1.50. (Boots are possibly the worst for this practice).
It has been well over 30 years since we were last involved in buying and selling property and at the start I had high hopes that the standard of these 'professions' had improved since our last sortie into the housing market. I should have known better. Delay after delay after delay: things that could be sorted out with a simple 'phone call turn into a barrage of expensive letter writing and............I'm sorry-I'm getting wound up again so I'll leave it at that so's not to bore you. Suffice to say we didn't expect to still be in Chateau March for this Christmas and I wouldn't be surprised if we were still here for the next one thanks to the bumbling inefficiencies off these people! Going for a lie down now.