Why can?t they get it right the first bloody time?

[Brendan]

O2 can?t connect my broadband.

BT can?t give me the kind of bill I asked for even though that is what was advertised when I signed up.

John Lewis can?t delivery my televisions on the specific date that I had paid extra for it to be delivered on.

Amazon can?t deliver the picture my wife bought.

Lloyds seem unable to set up a direct debit even though every month I call them, they say ?ok sir that is all set up for you.? But come the end of the month is it? Is it fuck!

Natwest can?t get their heads around the fact that my wife?s surname is now the same as mine and have freaked out and frozen our account because notifying them of a change of name is apparently akin to attempted fraud.

Southwark council can?t send me the proper council tax bill. In fact finding someone to speak to there who can string a sentence together is impossible.

T-mobile can?t take the extra text allowance that I no longer need off my phone without me having to call them 5 times.

Vauxhall can?t read the service history before servicing my car and need me to go through it with them like they are 3 years old. ?No that got done 6 months ago, see it is written there, in your handwriting I think, it doesn?t need a new one.? and ?No that only needs to be done every 10 000 miles.? etc etc. Bloody crooks!

What the fuck is wrong with these fucking services? What am I giving them my money for? If they are unable to do something why don?t they just say so instead of promising and not delivering?

At first it may be difficult for the staff to grasp but I?m sure with a little training their communication skills can be improved from scrawling their names on the wall in their own shit to being able to say ?Sorry sir but we are completely bloody useless and can?t do what you ask. Perhaps you should try somewhere else.?

AAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Something bothering you Brendan. Why don't you tell us - a problem shared ...

[LostThePlot]

Sadly Brendan, our big companies are purely driven by profit. So long as they can squeeze more profit out the customer service comes second. I worked for BT for 18 years, and during some of that time I worked in customer services for the payphone team in Croydon, and was proud of the job I did, and I was personally responsible for handling a customer's complaint through to it finally being resolved.

We had to give our names in full, our direct phone numbers and the office address, in case anyone wanted to visit to discuss a problem. Then one day we wer told we had to answer our calls within the first three rings, which we normally did anyway, and that we could take no more than 5 days to resolve a problem. (Which ranged from someone losing their money in the phone, through to someone wanting a phonebox installed or removed - Which can't be done in 5 days!) Suddenly our priority was hitting call handling figures, which obviously meant you had to compromise somewhere, and that was in the quality of the service you had to deliver.

When i left that department I was dealing with all the complaints received from East Anglia to South Wales, and everywhere to the south. (Including London!) and had 80 complaints ongoing at any one time, this was due to them shutting down the cust service office, in Plymouth.

Sadly, the pressures in the environment are not condusive to the people providing a good service, which means we suffer. Sadly though, very few managers in these industries have the common sense to realise that if you do a job right the first time, it's the cheapest way to do a job, rather than repeat calls from the customer, and repeat visits, whcih just see costs spiral. It creates its own problems.

I'm glad I left when i did in 2005

Eric

[Brendan]

Peckhamgatecrasher Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Something bothering you Brendan. Why don't you

> tell us - a problem shared ...

Bothering me? No not at all.

Well the strap for this minigun that I have over my shoulder is a bit uncomfortable

[Brendan]

Funnily enough I have actually worked in support before, for a software product. But it was a small company and I had helped develop the thing so when people had a problem I took the radical approach of solving it for them.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

More importantly, does the strap match your shoes? PS, Uzis are so last year darling.

[Brendan]

It does in fact. It is a lovely black leather. Uzis? Pah. You can?t do any significant structural damage with an Uzi.

[david_carnell]

Brendan, if I hadn't met you I'd be imagining you like this:

Which is pretty cool, I think. Nip down to Target Arms, they'll sort you out. Just give the guy behind the desk the secret handshake....extend your left arm fully at a 90 degree angle to your body with palm facing down. Works every time!

[KalamityKel]

D_C r u working on commission for them or something? :p

[Brendan]

You would be imagining me as a white square with a red cross in it followed by a URL.

A bit surreal DC but then it is Friday and I suppose I brought the octopus.

[david_carnell]

Server malfunction Brendan mate. Try copy and paste on the url. Weirdly, working fine on mine.

Heads up: Jesse Ventura in Predator complete with mini-gun designed for helicopter gunship and camo fatigues. Just the thing for LL on a sunny Friday.

[????]

As someone else said they're driven by profit and volume of business (especially the types of mass market commodity industries you mention) at the same time they all bang on about their customer service so rasiing our expectations. The reality is that as individuals you, me, most people aren't profitable enough to be serviced decently so they try and do it as cheap as possible to threshold standards so as to hopefully not piss off too many people too much.

ways round this? Consumer empowerment all join together? Or become rich enough to pay to get proper service in these areas

[Sue]

Peckhamgatecrasher Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Something bothering you Brendan. Why don't you

> tell us - a problem shared ...

xxxxxxxxx

:)):)):))

[SeanMacGabhann]

methinks ???? has it mostly right but I would draw a different conclusion - consumer power will only get people so far. Unless people pay the real price for what they are actually using then this situation will always be with us

And yes I know people will immediately man the barricades and say we all pay a fortune already etc etc but the truth is we often don't pay anywhere near enough for what we actually buy - the reason we spend so much money is that we consume too much

All those layers of inefficiency that have been stripped out of organisations have left most companies with effectively 2 tiers - the poor mopes who have to deal with all of our gripes on a daily basis and the senior management raking it in. Where once upon a time the mopes could have escalated issues to layers of middle management who could then raise it with senior management we know have, at best, team leaders who stand zero chance of ever communicating anything to seniors - because they just wouldn't be listened to

The world was never perfect mind you.

But to take an example of an imperfect company that seems to do better than most in the modern business world - first direct seem to win the hearts and minds of many a customer - but then again they come top of complaints about cost and weathered a media hailstorm last year when they introduced monthly charges. Is there a link between what we pay and what we get... gee I dunno

[Brendan]

I would just like to know if I am every going to be able to buy something new, sign up to a new service, open a new account, or anything without it NOT FUCKING WORKING PROPERLY and me being given the run-around.

Just once would be nice.

Ps. This is what I call a Falling Down Moment.

[????]

Chill Brendan it's Friday...cold beer...make sure it's cold and served with a smile and life will seem a lot better very soon for under a fiver

[Brendan]

Wise words Quids. Wise words.

But if I get to the bar and the barman says, ?If you are here to order beer or wine please press one. If you would like to hear about our specially selected range of cocktails please press two. If you just need someone to talk to please press three. If you are thinking of leaving the bar please press four. To repeat these options please press star. For everything else just wait there and we will ignore you until you give up and leave.?

I?ll go spare I tell you!

[SteveT]

It sound's to me brendan that you should have a three cold can minimum

and then resume posting, I'm sure you will win friends and influence us the more;-)