Remember the good old days when it took months to get a phone installed (kids, ask your grandparents), banks would only give you one cheque book etc etc.
A lot of businesses are a lot better, some are still terrible.
Remember the good old days when it took months to get a phone installed (kids, ask your grandparents), banks would only give you one cheque book etc etc.
A lot of businesses are a lot better, some are still terrible.
What's a cheque book, granddad?
Someone call? It's full of cheques you know those paper things, a negotiable instrument a bit like a Bill of Exchange which contains an unconditional order, drawn on a banker, directing to pay a certain sum of money to the person whose name is specified on the instrument. Hope this helps
Nobody cares anymore, in my experiance Halfords are hard to beat as giving worst customer service, they completely f**ked up my sons car at one of their service centres and couldn't give a shit.
Only way they came to table was when he got a solicitors letter sent to them.
Absolute cu**s particularly their directors who didn't even answer correspondence hope the company goes bust, they deserve it.
I generally argue my virgin package down by threatening to leave for Sky when it starts to get high, as it always creeps up due to thi sand that. It has always worked up to now and they end up putting me on what they call a loyal customer plan. I said to the salesperson last time, 'shouldn't the people who don't threaten to leave and pay more than me for the same thing be called loyal customers?'. They wont even give them that! Paying the same company different amounts for the same thing is another sad reflection of the world today in my grumpy old opinion.
Benson Beds, do not touch them. Bought a bed in there about 6 weeks ago after being assured by the saleswoman it was real wood and not MDF. Found out on internet she was wrong and it was MDF, cancelled the bed because I believed we had been wrongly informed when we purchased. They said it would cost 20% of the total cost to cancel, which was about £100. I emailed their head office in disgust a month ago, no answer, emailed again two weeks ago, still no answer, do not expect one now. I know I can try the small claims court, but why should I?
Ross, how did you pay for the bed? If credit card, just get your credit card company to refund you in full.
after cancelling CAFC player, rejoined so that I could listen to games on my holiday - waste of time as was yesterday - service terrible- several minutes behind and kept stopping!!! Is it me or is everything now completely sh*t?
How did you know it was several minutes behind though?
I work in the service management industry. It is shocking how few companies even get the basics. Treat customers as you'd want to be treated if you were the customer. Do your best to get things right, but accept things do go wrong sometimes and actively own putting it right for your customer. Do what you say you're going to do.
The companies who can deliver great service are the ones you stick with. It really makes no business sense at all to piss your customers off, yet I guess because this is Britain and we all put up with it they just carry on the same. If you can get a customer delighted with your service, they tell people - it's free advertising and the most powerful of influencers for your company.
I punish companies who give me poor service. I haven't stepped foot in Tesco, when I've had the choice, for over 15 years because they cocked up a delivery and made me do all the work to put it right. Autostyle car mats sent me some great mats with the wrong fitting. Told me they'd replace the fittings, still waiting - they will wait forever before I'll use them again, and I'll happily tell anyone who wants to listen to avoid them like the plague. Moben kitchens, now defunct. Vodafone won't get my future business after telling me one thing and doing another over and over again.
If you want good customer service, by the way, First Direct is king. By a long chalk. John Lewis and (annoyingly) Amazon are also up there.
Special mention to Dinneck's garage in Ashford, who today phoned me to say they couldn't get my part for 2 weeks as it was dealer only. Suggested they'd make one themselves, did so, and saved me about £300 into the bargain. I shall return.
I work in the service management industry. It is shocking how few companies even get the basics. Treat customers as you'd want to be treated if you were the customer. Do your best to get things right, but accept things do go wrong sometimes and actively own putting it right for your customer. Do what you say you're going to do.
The companies who can deliver great service are the ones you stick with. It really makes no business sense at all to piss your customers off, yet I guess because this is Britain and we all put up with it they just carry on the same. If you can get a customer delighted with your service, they tell people - it's free advertising and the most powerful of influencers for your company.
I punish companies who give me poor service. I haven't stepped foot in Tesco, when I've had the choice, for over 15 years because they cocked up a delivery and made me do all the work to put it right. Autostyle car mats sent me some great mats with the wrong fitting. Told me they'd replace the fittings, still waiting - they will wait forever before I'll use them again, and I'll happily tell anyone who wants to listen to avoid them like the plague. Moben kitchens, now defunct. Vodafone won't get my future business after telling me one thing and doing another over and over again.
If you want good customer service, by the way, First Direct is king. By a long chalk. John Lewis and (annoyingly) Amazon are also up there.
Special mention to Dinneck's garage in Ashford, who today phoned me to say they couldn't get my part for 2 weeks as it was dealer only. Suggested they'd make one themselves, did so, and saved me about £300 into the bargain. I shall return.
Been there and got the T-shirt with that bunch. Never used them again. A classic example of a company that have got too big IMO, and forgot what and who they are there for.
Tried most of the others for deliveries, and I have to say I can't fault Ocado.
They keep you informed in the last 48 hours, what's missing on your order (Only had 2 occurrences to date), who the driver is, the van colour and registration.
Driver let's you know if he's running late, and calls you if he can make it earlier. They are polite and happy to put the shopping wherever you choose.
...I punish companies who give me poor service...they will wait forever before I'll use them again, and I'll happily tell anyone who wants to listen to avoid them like the plague. ....
Mrs Stig takes a similar hardline approach to poor service providers and keeps a list of shops she won't use. The trouble is that there are so many bad ones it starts making life awkward trying to find a company that isn't in the bad books.
Use Facebook and Twitter as they actually don't like it. The lousiest company of all is WH Smith. Always trying to sell you a bar of out of date Galaxy and then refusing to let you have a bag for free as they are 'giving the profits to charity '. This of course means they keep the cost of the bag ( that in the past has been an overhead) and then add some profit ( which you obviously contribute ) which they decide you will give to charity. Staff are always crap as well.
Use Facebook and Twitter as they actually don't like it. The lousiest company of all is WH Smith. Always trying to sell you a bar of out of date Galaxy and then refusing to let you have a bag for free as they are 'giving the profits to charity '. This of course means they keep the cost of the bag ( that in the past has been an overhead) and then add some profit ( which you obviously contribute ) which they decide you will give to charity. Staff are always crap as well.
WH Smug as my friend Richard Ingrams has been calling them for years.
Benson Beds, do not touch them. Bought a bed in there about 6 weeks ago after being assured by the saleswoman it was real wood and not MDF. Found out on internet she was wrong and it was MDF, cancelled the bed because I believed we had been wrongly informed when we purchased. They said it would cost 20% of the total cost to cancel, which was about £100. I emailed their head office in disgust a month ago, no answer, emailed again two weeks ago, still no answer, do not expect one now. I know I can try the small claims court, but why should I?
Ross, how did you pay for the bed? If credit card, just get your credit card company to refund you in full.
Thank you, forgot about that, have been onto credit card company and explained, waiting for them to ring me back. CL not just about football
In my experience, the more you research what you spend your money on and what tou are actually getting for it, the less likely you are to be disappointed.That's not an excuse for businesses failing to respond properly to dissatisfied Customers, but increasingly nowadays with relentless comparison on price, businesses gain competitive adavantage though selling cheap and having business models that allow them to avoid dealing with irate Customers safe on the knowledge that their market is big enough to sustain losses. A useful tip is to see if you can find a phone number or an address on their website and not just an email link.
Benson Beds, do not touch them. Bought a bed in there about 6 weeks ago after being assured by the saleswoman it was real wood and not MDF. Found out on internet she was wrong and it was MDF, cancelled the bed because I believed we had been wrongly informed when we purchased. They said it would cost 20% of the total cost to cancel, which was about £100. I emailed their head office in disgust a month ago, no answer, emailed again two weeks ago, still no answer, do not expect one now. I know I can try the small claims court, but why should I?
Dreams beds no better had 2x 20 mile round trips to fix a frame not square because they couldn't give me correct measurements. 2 weeks without a bed. No offer of compensation.
In my experience, the more you research what you spend your money on and what tou are actually getting for it, the less likely you are to be disappointed.That's not an excuse for businesses failing to respond properly to dissatisfied Customers, but increasingly nowadays with relentless comparison on price, businesses gain competitive adavantage though selling cheap and having business models that allow them to avoid dealing with irate Customers safe on the knowledge that their market is big enough to sustain losses. A useful tip is to see if you can find a phone number or an address on their website and not just an email link.
There seems to be a growing trend now for companies not to even publish email addresses. Any contact has to be through some sort of web form. The customer hasn't got a clue who (if indeed anyone) they are contacting.
As a grumpy old git I often rue the changes in society. One big hate of the world today is how everybody wants your money but also want to do as little as possible for it. Just come back from holiday and park and ride company damaged my car, mother (who is in a wheelchair) phoned today to say carers she relies on and pays for hadn't arrived, after cancelling CAFC player, rejoined so that I could listen to games on my holiday - waste of time as was yesterday - service terrible- several minutes behind and kept stopping!!! Is it me or is everything now completely sh*t?
It's not you. The ethos of increasing numbers of businesses these days is to extract as much money has possible for as little service as possible from customers they contemptuously regard as 'mug punters.'
I think all the Bertie Bigbollocks management consultant types who encourage this practice refer to the resulting dissatisfaction as 'customer churn' and regard it as an acceptable cost / risk.
The Chairman does it his way and you have to understand that or similar.
The only way to fight back in my experience is publicise (without being libellous or slanderous) these examples of extortion for no service and shame organisations into actually carrying out the service they have taken your money for.
I find the so called accountable Public Sector is worse than the Private Sector in general myself and loves to avoid responsibility with bureaucratic wild goose chases which lead you back to where you started!
'Complaints Policies' are an obfuscation tactic masquerading as customer service. Ignore them and go to the top.
Unsurprisingly I disagree Len and it's interesting that all of that the list of miscreants so far are from the bigger companies not the public sector (although I am sure there remain plenty of examples too, that's not what I'm saying).
The public sector is often labelled unaccountable. I've thought about this in the past and who I am accountable to. It's a pretty long list including:
The residents themselves or member of the public or the business primarly concerned with the issue of course Their family, solicitor or other representative Local community and pressure groups
My line manager My head of service My service director The Chief Executive
The authorities internal complaints monitoring officer Those officers dealing with FOI/DPA requests received The Ombudsman
Councillors Local MP's The local MEP
My professional institute Colleagues within the same authority Colleagues outside the authority who could be based anywhere in the UK
Numerous central government agencies At least one european government agency The police
Social media The local media The national media...
...I doubt someone working in the private sector would have a similarly lengthy list tbh and if I broke it down further I could be here all night. But the point is any of the above can, do and have asked for further clarification, explanation or justification as to why I took (or didn't take) a certain decision or course of action in response to the issue being dealt with. I've seen this in action every working day for getting on for nearly 30 years now and IMO customer service has improved massively within local government during that time. I'm sure it's not perfect by any stretch and no doubt some officers and some services still have a long way to go but when I think about the levels of customer service me and my colleagues provide in what are increasingly difficult and often confrontational circumstances and under that much scrutiny I think we do a pretty bloody good job tbf.
after cancelling CAFC player, rejoined so that I could listen to games on my holiday - waste of time as was yesterday - service terrible- several minutes behind and kept stopping!!! Is it me or is everything now completely sh*t?
How did you know it was several minutes behind though?
Hearing the goals on player several minutes after soccer saturday reported them generally gives it away.
I work in a high end retail store up town in the customer service department, can honestly say the customer service i see my colleges offering day in day out to some of the rudest and most obnoxious customers known to man is always second to none.
I am the exception though as I am spend my whole day sat on charlton life and bark at a customer if they interrupt me mid-post.
I work in a high end retail store up town in the customer service department, can honestly say the customer service i see my colleges offering day in day out to some of the rudest and most obnoxious customers known to man is always second to none.
I am the exception though as I am spend my whole day sat on charlton life and bark at a customer if they interrupt me mid-post.
I think more effort goes into customer service than it used to. However, that does not necessarily mean the custom experience is better. Many companies now set targets for customer satisfaction which has, in my opinion, the effect of people doing just enough. Therefore, outstanding service is more of rarity but being greeted as you enter a restaurant chain or whatever and providing a decent standard is more common.
I agree with Len that certain organisations are great at sales and collecting money and that's about it. BT, for me,fit into this category. You are dealt with promptly and efficient if you want to spend money. Then, it comes to getting the work done, it's hard going.
On more than one occasion, I have had staff try to help me to complete satisfaction questionnaires. One was Starbucks in Kuala Lumpur where I had to wrestle my phone back from the waiter who wanted to make sure he scored 10 out of 10. The other was a UK car dealer who told me to give 10 out of 10 for everything as any 9s would dent his bonus. No pressure then.
Comments
Only way they came to table was when he got a solicitors letter sent to them.
Absolute cu**s particularly their directors who didn't even answer correspondence hope the company goes bust, they deserve it.
buysteal their aerosol paint for their graffiti 'art'The companies who can deliver great service are the ones you stick with. It really makes no business sense at all to piss your customers off, yet I guess because this is Britain and we all put up with it they just carry on the same. If you can get a customer delighted with your service, they tell people - it's free advertising and the most powerful of influencers for your company.
I punish companies who give me poor service. I haven't stepped foot in Tesco, when I've had the choice, for over 15 years because they cocked up a delivery and made me do all the work to put it right. Autostyle car mats sent me some great mats with the wrong fitting. Told me they'd replace the fittings, still waiting - they will wait forever before I'll use them again, and I'll happily tell anyone who wants to listen to avoid them like the plague. Moben kitchens, now defunct. Vodafone won't get my future business after telling me one thing and doing another over and over again.
If you want good customer service, by the way, First Direct is king. By a long chalk. John Lewis and (annoyingly) Amazon are also up there.
Special mention to Dinneck's garage in Ashford, who today phoned me to say they couldn't get my part for 2 weeks as it was dealer only. Suggested they'd make one themselves, did so, and saved me about £300 into the bargain. I shall return.
Currently having battles with Vodafone and Npower about incorrect bills, but taking months to get anywhere.
They just make it as hard as possible for you.
Tried most of the others for deliveries, and I have to say I can't fault Ocado.
They keep you informed in the last 48 hours, what's missing on your order (Only had 2 occurrences to date), who the driver is, the van colour and registration.
Driver let's you know if he's running late, and calls you if he can make it earlier. They are polite and happy to put the shopping wherever you choose.
Obviously had some good customer focus training.
Staff are always crap as well.
They have cancelled some lift passes for disabled fans in the West Stand as they don't want them walking thru the new lounge.
They don't tell us this when they take our money was the last line.
The public sector is often labelled unaccountable. I've thought about this in the past and who I am accountable to. It's a pretty long list including:
The residents themselves or member of the public or the business primarly concerned with the issue of course
Their family, solicitor or other representative
Local community and pressure groups
My line manager
My head of service
My service director
The Chief Executive
The authorities internal complaints monitoring officer
Those officers dealing with FOI/DPA requests received
The Ombudsman
Councillors
Local MP's
The local MEP
My professional institute
Colleagues within the same authority
Colleagues outside the authority who could be based anywhere in the UK
Numerous central government agencies
At least one european government agency
The police
Social media
The local media
The national media...
...I doubt someone working in the private sector would have a similarly lengthy list tbh and if I broke it down further I could be here all night. But the point is any of the above can, do and have asked for further clarification, explanation or justification as to why I took (or didn't take) a certain decision or course of action in response to the issue being dealt with. I've seen this in action every working day for getting on for nearly 30 years now and IMO customer service has improved massively within local government during that time. I'm sure it's not perfect by any stretch and no doubt some officers and some services still have a long way to go but when I think about the levels of customer service me and my colleagues provide in what are increasingly difficult and often confrontational circumstances and under that much scrutiny I think we do a pretty bloody good job tbf.
I am the exception though as I am spend my whole day sat on charlton life and bark at a customer if they interrupt me mid-post.
I agree with Len that certain organisations are great at sales and collecting money and that's about it. BT, for me,fit into this category. You are dealt with promptly and efficient if you want to spend money. Then, it comes to getting the work done, it's hard going.
On more than one occasion, I have had staff try to help me to complete satisfaction questionnaires. One was Starbucks in Kuala Lumpur where I had to wrestle my phone back from the waiter who wanted to make sure he scored 10 out of 10. The other was a UK car dealer who told me to give 10 out of 10 for everything as any 9s would dent his bonus. No pressure then.