Customer service in the UK seems to be a non event. I do wonder sometimes if companies give a damn about us and could not care less if we just went away and did not bother them. In the last ten days I have had the following experiences:
BT - yes wonderful BT who won the Wooden Spoon award for the worst customer service in the Money Mail three years running They do not seem to be in a hurry to shed this title.
The Ashes is on BT Sport not Sky so very cross at this so decided to splurge and get BT Sports. So did it online. Then realised after checking the dates and the times that I would hardly be able to watch it as it is mainly in the middle of the night and over the next few weeks will be away a lot. So cancelled. I was immediately hit with a bill of £191. I telephoned and got through to somebody who just kept
repeating 'it's the contract you see' over and over again. I then asked to be transferred to a manager who was equally gormless. I went online and found that if you enter into a contract online you have a fourteen day cooling off period. So back I went and this time spoke to a lady who said No Worries you are well within the cooling off period but I will transfer you to the relevant department. So I ended up with the Gormless One again. Decided to email, spent ten minutes drilling down through the website until I found the customer services address, boy do they make it hard to contact them, and fired off an email quoting the legislation and pointing out that some of their staff were aware of this and some weren't. Next day to my utter astonishment received a phone call from a Customer Relation Supervisor apologising, telling me that I was quite right (well I knew that) and I would not be charged. End of story?
No, A week after this conversation in which I threatened them with awful things if they went near my bank account I discovered they had deducted the full amount by the direct debit I had originally set up. I then get emails telling me they are going to refund me. No sign of the money yet
Fired off an absolute stinker. I await further developments.
Legal & General - Home insurance. In the New Year I am away for three months and, on checking my contents insurance, found that I was only covered for absence of thirty days. So I call.
After a fifteen minute wait I spoke to a Person. Told her my problem.
She: Oh we can't deal with that
Me:Why not?
She: Well we just don't. We only cover 60 days.
Me: OK well can I take out extra cover?
She: oh no you can't do that. You will have to go elsewhere
Me: What you mean another company?
She: yes cos we can't do it. Oh and if you go to another company you will have to cancel with us because you are not allowed to have two insurances running at the same time
Me: so let me get this straight. You cannot give me cover, I have to go and find it from somewhere else and then come back to you and cancel my insurance cover with you
She: yes that is right
Me: do you have a direct number you can give me to call?
She: oh no we don't do that you will just call the main number
Me: but it took me fifteen minutes to get through
She: well I can't help that
I put the phone down.
So I get cover and once more go through a website to find a contact email and send off a stinker. I receive a generic reply telling me they are 'sorry I was disappointed with their service and a refund is on the way'.
Post Office - Colchester. Had a large parcel to go to Surrey, a parcel to go to Australia, a recorded delivery with travel documentation to the cruise line I am using and I needed some stamps. So quite a lot to do. I use a local sub post office as often as I can after being told Use it or Lose it. Lady behind counter took the big parcel, dealt with it, then turned to the Oz one. Told me it was going to cost a lot as it was over 2 kilos. OK I said. She then said you have to fill in this form so I did. That is no good she said if you put Christmas Presents on it all they will do is open it. So I scribbled a few items and gave it back. Is your sender address on the parcel? Yes it is. Where? On the bottom. Oh well I can't see it please make it clearer so I rewrote it. She then stamped it, stuck it and signed and grumbled and put all the relevant stickers on it and threw it into the sack. I then presented my recorded delivery envelope. What's in it? Why do I have to tell you I ask. You just have to it is the rules. So gritting my teeth I told her travel documentation. So we dealt with that. Then I said I wanted some stamps. At this stage she let out a sigh, a groan and did an eye roll at which point I totally lost my temper and told her precisely what I thought of her and I was terribly sorry to be such an irritating customer wanting to post things and buy stamps and got very sarky. I wanted a book of six second class stamps. They only do twelve she told me triumphantly. OK then give me twelve I bellowed at her. So she shoved them under the counter and added everything up that I owed. Then my card would not go through for some reason. More sighs and shrugs of shoulder. I put the card through again and this time it worked. Before I left I turned round to the queue behind me and apologised for keeping them waiting. Cries of no worries darling and smiles all round. So I then took my receipt and told this wretched woman that she needed to get her act together. Stomped off.
Home Base, Colchester. I need to get some paint as I am having decorating done while I am away. Find one tin ok, second one was one mixed by the Dulux mixer. So I ring the bell saying Ring here for Service. After three attempts and no response I trek down to the other end of the huge shop and speak to somebody at the counter who gets on the microphone and asks 'Gary' to go to Dulux counter. So I trek back and wait and wait and wait. Then I go back to the counter and Gary is called again. So once more I sit and wait and wait and wait and then see somebody in a yellow jacket with Home Base on it walking towards me. I wave at him. Oh just a minute he says and veers off to the right. He does not come back. I am boiling by this time, grab any old tin of paint from the shelf (I am now going to have a Raspberry Ripple bathroom it seems) and stomp back up to the counter and there I see Gary lurking in the background and looking shifty. Let rip. Oh I did not see you was the reply. I pointed out that I was a large blonde lady 5'9' in her flat feet and wearing a shocking pink coat so I was pretty hard to miss. Grabbed the paint and thundered out after telling them that next time I would go to B&Q.
I mean, just what did they think they were doing?
On the plus side, the company I used for my insurance were incredibly helpful and nice; both my credit card companies who I rang to inform them of my travels so they would not block my cards, were lovely and chatted to me about my cruise and wished me a great time. The Amazon drivers who have delivered in the cold and the snow are all great and cheerful, floor tiles I had delivered yesterday arrived with a cheery chappie and my postman is always smiling. It can be done
And in case you think I am a bolshy cow, I wish to make it quite clear, that after years of dealing with the public myself, I fully understand how irritating and difficult people can be so I always, always make an effort to make eye contact, smile, be polite and patient with whoever is behind the counter. Nearly all the time the response is great and no worries but last week I just seemed to get one miserable git after another who was totally disinterested and unhelpful.
Well I hope they all have a lovely Christmas ....
