"Customer Service" in this country is absolutely dreadful

[trousers]

I've lost count of the number of times I speak to person 'x' in a company's customer service department only to be told by person 'y' (when I phone up later to follow up the initial contact) that either:

 

(a) we can't do that - person 'x' was wrong to say we could

 

or

 

(b) sorry, we've no record of what your conversation with person 'x' on the system

 

Or.....I speak to person 'x' who says department 'z' will phone you back shortly....and (surprise surprise) they don't, so you phone up person 'y' to say you spoke to person 'x' (who said that department 'z' will phone back) to which person 'y' says: "oh sorry about that sir, I'll get them to call you tomorrow"

 

CUSTOMER SERVICE IN 'GREAT' BRITAIN TODAY IS NON ****ING EXISTENT.

 

FFS

 

(and today's examples were all Bristish / UK based so can't blame our offshore friends on this occasion)

[Deppo]

What makes you think customer services are better overseas? I don't think you need to specify Great Britain in your complaint. Customer services are just ****, full stop.

[SO16_Saint]

I am in a Customer Service role. I absolutely hate 2 things:

 

Poor customer service, and

pushy sales people

 

which is why I do not do either to anyone else.

 

It's amazing how so many people in my company refuse to take calls / make return calls to clients - FFS speak to the clients!

 

who were the companies, out of interest?

[dune]

Ringing a call centre and being put through to an operator in Bombay or Delhi never fails to annoy me. I can never understand what they are saying and they never have the authorty or knowledge to deal with a problem. I always end up asking to speak to supervisor and I demand the telephone number to speak to a British operator. It's no co-icidence that many insurers now see the selling potential of advertising the fact they use UK call centres - clearly they understand that there is a large swathe of people in the UK that are just like me.

[Deppo]

I am in a Customer Service role. I absolutely hate 2 things:

 

Poor customer service, and

pushy sales people

 

which is why I do not do either to anyone else.

 

It's amazing how so many people in my company refuse to take calls / make return calls to clients - FFS speak to the clients!

 

who were the companies, out of interest?

 

Another lie told by a customer services operative.

[Deppo]

Ringing a call centre and being put through to an operator in Bombay or Delhi never fails to annoy me. I can never understand what they are saying and they never have the authorty or knowledge to deal with a problem. I always end up asking to speak to supervisor and I demand the telephone number to speak to a British operator. It's no co-icidence that many insurers now see the selling potential of advertising the fact they use UK call centres - clearly they understand that there is a large swathe of people in the UK that are just like me.

 

Isn't this just an upshot of the capitalist ideology that you hold so dear?

[SO16_Saint]

Another lie told by a customer services operative.

 

erm, ok

[Deppo]

erm, ok

 

Oh come on! You people can't help but lie. It's habit for you.

[SO16_Saint]

Oh come on! You people can't help but lie. It's habit for you.

 

ha.

 

that's true i guess.

 

i probably should've said I try not to do that to others.

 

I DO make sure that I make call backs, regardless of update or not, before I go everyday - if that helps

[Hatch]

I had a result with Kwikfit this week.

Got the hump with their service, sent an email to their customer service dept. took about 3 minutes.

Didn't speak to anyone at the time.

 

Got a call from their Area manager offering a full refund.

[Deppo]

You can't get better than a KwikFitt Area Manager. They're the boys to trust.

[EastleighSoulBoy]

My Dell story, no not footy related.

 

Just prior to Christmas my Daughter's netbook came up with the BSOD. I got into the onboard diagnostics and ran them. Googled the error code which indicated either an O.S. or H.D. problem. Noted it all down and rang Dell Support. Recanted my story, twice, to the geek who then took me through exactly what I had just done. He opted to arrange collection for repair but "You are out of warranty sir" "No, I'm not, we have 15 months warranty which ends in 19 days time, it says so on the web page when I enter my service tag number" "Aah! that is only 15 months for the dealer just in case he doesn't clear stocks quickly" "Don't give me that, it says nothing of the sort and, for your information and just in case you remove it, I have a screen shot which is date and time stamped" "Oh! my mistake sir, we are happy to honour your warranty" Thinks, too effing right!

 

Between Christmas and New Year the machine returns. I load the Security and Firefox. Attach an external drive and start to reload all the data. After ten minutes it hangs and I get an error message " Running low on hard disk space". So I check, the HD has been wrongly formatted and I can only see 14.65Gb, although the bios tells me it's a 160Gb SATA1, not only that but I'm now being prompted to search for the webcam drivers (which were on the PC at purchase).

 

Back on the blower and the geek has to connect to me, so I have to disable my security while he does it. "We'll have to collect it sir, but your warranty is out of date" "No! it isn't, it runs out on Jan 9th" "Aah yes! Do you have the discs for the O.S." "No, this netbook has no optical drive and the system ships without discs, but you have all the details on screen in front of you so you should be able to see that" "Oh sir, sorry sir, we'll collect the machine and repair it for you" "I wish to speak to your line manager" So the head bossgeek comes on and is all apologetic, don't worry we'll sort this out for you. Off the PC went.

 

It arrived back on Jan 7th and on immediate boot it worked fine, no driver issues etc. Loaded all her data easily. Saturday evening, about ten she shows me the BSOD. They are not open on Sunday so on Monday 10th, warranty now gone but their work still covered, I call again.

 

Blah, blah, blah ad infinitum. Sorry, we'll pick it up to repair it.

 

Today, Jan 19th it arrived. I now refer those who have stayed thus far, back to paragraph two. Small HD, no webcam drivers. They are going to pick it up again and this time the head honchogeek is going to PERSONALLY supervise the repair to my satisfaction.

 

In February I'll be looking for two laptops.

 

Will I buy Dell?

 

Will I hell

 

Dell seem to have nobody, but nobody, to talk to about this. It's all by e-mail and the mails don't get answered.

 

It this machine fails again I'm afraid it's time for a legal move.

[Deppo]

If you'd have sent it to India, they would have fixed it first time.

[Smirking_Saint]

Generally speaking most call center workers in this country will only be in a job for an average of 6 months, i think this is where the customer services problems come from. They will therefore probably not care as much as someone that is committed to being in a job for the long term, add this to the fact that some people couldn't give a sh*t and would happily dump a phone call as quick as possible.

 

I am a manager/engineer in a major UK company, and as such as 1 or 2 managers in the office will happily get rid of customers that are not after them specifically most of us will try to answer any questions as much as possible. I helped out one lady today attempting to get a number for the debt collectors, i could have just said sorry love you have the wrong number.

 

Its much more annoying that some of the customers seem to get the hump if i am not available to talk to the first time of phoning and don't seem to realise that i am not superglued to my desk.

 

What company are we talking about Trousers ? Go on, name and shame.

[Smirking_Saint]

Ringing a call centre and being put through to an operator in Bombay or Delhi never fails to annoy me. I can never understand what they are saying and they never have the authorty or knowledge to deal with a problem. I always end up asking to speak to supervisor and I demand the telephone number to speak to a British operator. It's no co-icidence that many insurers now see the selling potential of advertising the fact they use UK call centres - clearly they understand that there is a large swathe of people in the UK that are just like me.

 

This is true, unfortunately you will now be barracked by the PC brigade.

[Toomer]

What winds me up is when you into a shop and take the item that you wish to buy to the till and you get two daft bints behind the counter talking about this and that and you are being ignored.

[bridge too far]

n

What winds me up is when you into a shop and take the item that you wish to buy to the till and you get two daft bints behind the counter talking about this and that and you are being ignored.

 

You guys might be interested in this programme, on at 9pm tonight. All about poor customer service offered by the major players on the High Street

 

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/mary-portas-secret-shopper?ppc_secretshopper_google_Mary_portas

 

Tells you how to complain, too.

[Turkish]

Ringing a call centre and being put through to an operator in Bombay or Delhi never fails to annoy me. I can never understand what they are saying and they never have the authorty or knowledge to deal with a problem. I always end up asking to speak to supervisor and I demand the telephone number to speak to a British operator. It's no co-icidence that many insurers now see the selling potential of advertising the fact they use UK call centres - clearly they understand that there is a large swathe of people in the UK that are just like me.

 

Agreed, to be fair a guy at the BT call centre in Indian was very very good, knowledgable and helpful when i had problems with my broadband but every other experience with these call centres has been awful. The other day i had someone call me up on my home phone, it was an Indian guy trying to sell me something and calling me up "about my computer" i couldn't understand a word he said, he had to say 4 times "i am calling about your computer" before i realised what he was saying and i didn't have a clue what he was selling, when i said i wasn't interested he got all arsey saying "do you think i am calling you to waste my time" brillaint sales technique! how the f*ck do they expect to sell anything like that?

[Jonnyboy]

Just to be clear there are equally as many turdfaces as customers too and anyone who works in a shop or call centre or other customer service role will have experienced this. Add to that the incompetent mangement that results in many workers feeling miserable, under motivated and resulting in their potential obnoxious behaviour. Usually extreme capitalistic companys that only care about a quick profit. Eventually the customers cotton on and the business goes down all hands on deck.

[Deppo]

I am a manager/engineer in a major UK company.

 

Oh come on! Do you expect us to believe that? More lies from the customer service brigade.

[Deppo]

Agreed, to be fair a guy at the BT call centre in Indian was very very good, knowledgable and helpful when i had problems with my broadband but every other experience with these call centres has been awful. The other day i had someone call me up on my home phone, it was an Indian guy trying to sell me something and calling me up "about my computer" i couldn't understand a word he said, he had to say 4 times "i am calling about your computer" before i realised what he was saying and i didn't have a clue what he was selling, when i said i wasn't interested he got all arsey saying "do you think i am calling you to waste my time" brillaint sales technique! how the f*ck do they expect to sell anything like that?

 

But you'd already told him you weren't interested, so he obviously wasn't going to sell to you anyway.

[S-Clarke]

Just to be clear there are equally as many turdfaces as customers too and anyone who works in a shop or call centre or other customer service role will have experienced this. Add to that the incompetent mangement that results in many workers feeling miserable, under motivated and resulting in their potential obnoxious behaviour. Usually extreme capitalistic companys that only care about a quick profit. Eventually the customers cotton on and the business goes down all hands on deck.

 

Wow - you must work in my office! Totally agree with all that.

[Turkish]

But you'd already told him you weren't interested, so he obviously wasn't going to sell to you anyway.

 

As i have been taught many times, never accept the first no, apparantly 70% of sales are made after overcoming the fifth objection.

[dune]

As i have been taught many times, never accept the first no, apparantly 70% of sales are made after overcoming the fifth objection.

 

I have never bought anything from a cold caller, and I never will. Only this evening I picked up the phone and was instantly given a recorded message saying i'd won an all inclusive cruise and to press 9 to claim it. I let the message repeat in the hope that it'd add to their phone bill and the line then automatically went dead. I'm suspicious that if i pressed 9 the call would be charged to me - can anyone say whether this might have happened?

[Deppo]

As i have been taught many times, never accept the first no, apparantly 70% of sales are made after overcoming the fifth objection.

 

Maybe they just target certain types of people. Hence the phone call you recieved.

[Deppo]

I have never bought anything from a cold caller, and I never will. Only this evening I picked up the phone and was instantly given a recorded message saying i'd won an all inclusive cruise and to press 9 to claim it. I let the message repeat in the hope that it'd add to their phone bill and the line then automatically went dead. I'm suspicious that if i pressed 9 the call would be charged to me - can anyone say whether this might have happened?

 

I would have thought you liked cruising.

[Turkish]

I have never bought anything from a cold caller, and I never will. Only this evening I picked up the phone and was instantly given a recorded message saying i'd won an all inclusive cruise and to press 9 to claim it. I let the message repeat in the hope that it'd add to their phone bill and the line then automatically went dead. I'm suspicious that if i pressed 9 the call would be charged to me - can anyone say whether this might have happened?

 

You probably did win it, all they need was your bank details to transfer the additional £5k spending money you would have won.

[Turkish]

Maybe they just target certain types of people. Hence the phone call you recieved.

 

well maybe they should start targeting idiots who would buy a lump of dog sh*t if someone told them they needed it.

[Sheaf Saint]

Ringing a call centre and being put through to an operator in Bombay or Delhi never fails to annoy me. I can never understand what they are saying and they never have the authorty or knowledge to deal with a problem. I always end up asking to speak to supervisor and I demand the telephone number to speak to a British operator. It's no co-icidence that many insurers now see the selling potential of advertising the fact they use UK call centres - clearly they understand that there is a large swathe of people in the UK that are just like me.

 

This is very true dune, a lot of companies are using the UK-based call centre in their advertising these days. I know from first hand experience how annoyed people can get with off-shore call centres. I work for an ISP and we had a call centre in Durban, and we used to get loads of complaints from customers that the service they offered was awful. Best thing we ever did was close it down and move everything back to Sheffield (obviously not for the staff of the Durban office though).

 

The amount of shoddy ticket responses and generally p1ss-poor information being given out by these people was shocking and it was always left to us in the UK to mop up their mess most of the time. I'm so glad we have closed it now - it's made my job so much easier when dealing with customers.

[dune]

well maybe they should start targeting idiots who would buy a lump of dog sh*t if someone told them they needed it.

 

That makes me think of extended warranty insurance on electrical items. I never ever purchase it because it's a rip off BUT when making a substantial purchase e.g a large TV I often get a discount by enquiring about cover during their sales pitch. Once at the till I then politely decline.

 

Up until the other week I believed the stories about Plasma TV's needing to be re-gassed so never bought one, but in fact it's just a lie peddled by salesmen to get people to take out an extended warranty. All Plasmas are sealed unites and they cannot be regassed. They last just as long as any other TV.

[Sheaf Saint]

Just to be clear there are equally as many turdfaces as customers too and anyone who works in a shop or call centre or other customer service role will have experienced this. Add to that the incompetent mangement that results in many workers feeling miserable, under motivated and resulting in their potential obnoxious behaviour. Usually extreme capitalistic companys that only care about a quick profit. Eventually the customers cotton on and the business goes down all hands on deck.

 

You've got a very valid point here. The main problem, I believe, is that most companies who are large enough to need a call centre in the first place are often large multinational companies, and this generally means that they will have strict targets that need to be met. When I worked for British Gas many years ago, all they actually cared about was how many calls I was taking in an hour and actually providing a decent service to the customer came a very poor second in their list of priorities. The pressure of hitting these targets can make life really stressful.

 

Management is also a key point. Most call centre staff will have their quality and targets strictly monitored by someone with whom they have little or no daily interaction, and this can be pretty demoralising because it feels like you are being micro-managed by somebody who doesn't appreciate the actual effort you put in and is only scoring you based on some figures on a computer screen.

 

For these and plenty of other reasons (bad working conditions, short breaks, dealing with angry customers) staff turnover is pretty high in these kind of jobs. It seems like every week I will walk past the training rooms and there will be a full intake of new staff. I know we are expanding a lot at the moment, but even so there must be a fair few people leaving every week as well.

[dune]

This is very true dune, a lot of companies are using the UK-based call centre in their advertising these days. I know from first hand experience how annoyed people can get with off-shore call centres. I work for an ISP and we had a call centre in Durban, and we used to get loads of complaints from customers that the service they offered was awful. Best thing we ever did was close it down and move everything back to Sheffield (obviously not for the staff of the Durban office though).

 

The amount of shoddy ticket responses and generally p1ss-poor information being given out by these people was shocking and it was always left to us in the UK to mop up their mess most of the time. I'm so glad we have closed it now - it's made my job so much easier when dealing with customers.

 

And you then retain customers. This is capitalism at work. Many organisations are now finding that it's a false economy to use overseas call centres.

[buctootim]

That makes me think of extended warranty insurance on electrical items. I never ever purchase it because it's a rip off BUT when making a substantial purchase e.g a large TV I often get a discount by enquiring about cover during their sales pitch. Once at the till I then politely decline.

 

Thats quite smart actually. Good plan.

[Sheaf Saint]

And you then retain customers. This is capitalism at work. Many organisations are now finding that it's a false economy to use overseas call centres.

 

Yep. All except BT who seem to be moving their entire operation to India, which is really annoying for those of us that have to deal with them on a daily basis. The training their staff get in these places is shockingly bad and we always end up having to tell them how to do their own jobs and demand to speak to their supervisors when they can't offer a decent solution (which is more often than not).

 

Up until last week, there was one department left that we dealt with (responsible for porting numbers across from other service providers) who were UK-based and actually knew what they were talking about. We could phone them up with a problem, they would get on to the previous provider and it would all be sorted out really quickly - no hassle at all. Now they've moved it offshore and not one of the agents there actually knows what they are doing, so we end up having to tell them exactly what they need to do and they have to put us on hold for 10-15 minutes while they clarify it with their supervisors.

[dune]

Yep. All except BT who seem to be moving their entire operation to India, which is really annoying for those of us that have to deal with them on a daily basis. The training their staff get in these places is shockingly bad and we always end up having to tell them how to do their own jobs and demand to speak to their supervisors when they can't offer a decent solution (which is more often than not).

 

Up until last week, there was one department left that we dealt with (responsible for porting numbers across from other service providers) who were UK-based and actually knew what they were talking about. We could phone them up with a problem, they would get on to the previous provider and it would all be sorted out really quickly - no hassle at all. Now they've moved it offshore and not one of the agents there actually knows what they are doing, so we end up having to tell them exactly what they need to do and they have to put us on hold for 10-15 minutes while they clarify it with their supervisors.

 

I'm with BT Broadband which is more expensive than most ISP's but I find the service to be reliable. If I have a problem (which is very rare - must be about a year or more since I had cause to ring them) I alway press for the option to join BT Broadband because you never get put through to an Indian when they're after your money .... I wonder why. I then ask to speak to a British person or to be put through to the cancellations department. It's amazing how they find a British operator very easily. That said on one occasion I got put through to an Irish Asian - not sure of this was with BT though.

Edited 19 January, 2011 by dune

[Verbal]

I'm with BT Broadband which is more expensive than most ISP's but I find the service to be reliable. If I have a problem (which is very rare - must be about a year or more since I had cause to ring them) I alway press for the option to join BT Broadband because you never get put through to an Indian when they're after your money .... I wonder why. I then ask to speak to a British person or to be put through to the cancellations department. It's amazing how they find a British operator very easily. That said on one occasion I got put through to an Irish Asian - not sure of this was with BT though.

 

Have another go. Maybe it'll make sense next time.

[trousers]

I am in a Customer Service role. I absolutely hate 2 things:

 

Poor customer service, and

pushy sales people

 

which is why I do not do either to anyone else.

 

It's amazing how so many people in my company refuse to take calls / make return calls to clients - FFS speak to the clients!

 

who were the companies, out of interest?

 

A heady combination of Dyno-rod / LloydsTSB (Insurance) / Royal & Sun Alliance / UK Drainage Network

[Verbal]

A heady combination of Dyno-rod / LloydsTSB / Royal & Sun Alliance / UK Drainage Network

 

Ooh, you got two out four of my least favourites. Have you worked out the silly Lloyds card reader for business accounts yet? Or tried to get the bank to explain it?

[Johnny Bognor]

Ooh, you got two out four of my least favourites. Have you worked out the silly Lloyds card reader for business accounts yet? Or tried to get the bank to explain it?

 

The card reader is a brilliant idea and is not difficult to operate.

 

Stick your card in along with your pin, select identify (to access online banking) or authorise (when you make a payment) then key in the code on the website into the reader and return the code from the reader back to the website. Coudn't be easier and provides an excellent extra layer of protection.

 

Surely someone with your intellect could work this out?

Edited 20 January, 2011 by Johnny Bognor

[mickn]

Ringing a call centre and being put through to an operator in Bombay or Delhi never fails to annoy me. I can never understand what they are saying and they never have the authorty or knowledge to deal with a problem. I always end up asking to speak to supervisor and I demand the telephone number to speak to a British operator. It's no co-icidence that many insurers now see the selling potential of advertising the fact they use UK call centres - clearly they understand that there is a large swathe of people in the UK that are just like me.

 

If that's true I'm off

[buctootim]

All too often it's the basic rule though of the more you've spent, the better service you'll get. Although small businesses with any common sense tend to be good at it.

 

This. Too often customers just look at the lowest headline price without considering what kind of backup they would get if something goes wrong. As a result companies end up being forced into a race to the bottom. Ryanair is a classic example - if you are an able bodied adult and the flight is problem free, its great. Get a cancellation, snow, delay or need help with babies, aunty in a whellchair or a missing bag - you are on your own.

[Wurzel]

The card reader is a brilliant idea and is not difficult to operate.

 

Stick your card in along with your pin, select identify (to access online banking) or authorise (when you make a payment) then key in the code on the website into the reader and return the code from the reader back to the website. Coudn't be easier and provides an excellent extra layer of protection.

 

Surely someone with your intellect could work this out?

 

Yep, piece of ****, provided you read what's on the screen I'm intrigued as to how it works though, how does a website know what random number the unconnected reader has selected?

[stevegrant]

Yep, piece of ****, provided you read what's on the screen I'm intrigued as to how it works though, how does a website know what random number the unconnected reader has selected?

I suspect the number isn't very random at all, but is based on an algorithm which combines the date and time of the request, the card number and the account number. That data can easily be stored on the chip on the card, so it probably only needs to store two or three years' worth of codes for that card.

[Thedelldays]

Virgin media have call centres in India.. It is a complete nightmare at times when you go off Te script they have...

[EastleighSoulBoy]

Virgin media have call centres in India.. It is a complete nightmare at times when you go off Te script they have...

 

Talk of reading from an idiot sheet!

 

Back to Dell. They called me this morning and advised that the laptop "will be collected on the 21st January betwwen 8 am and 6 pm, can you confirm the address we are to collect from" "Yes, 23 ..." "NO NO NO sir! It will be collected on the 21st" " Yes, I know, I'm listening to you, are you listening to me and yourself?" "Why?" " Because you asked me to confirm my address, not when it will be picked up and, anyway, the 23rd is a Sunday" "Oh.....sorry sir I thought you had made a mistake" "The only mistake I made ws buying from Dell"

[Smirking_Saint]

TBF when my Dell laptop packed up i made one quick phone call, they sent a courier round to pick it up and then about a week and a bit later it turned up.

 

I understand the whole, we will be delivering between 8am - 6pm as it is sometimes hard to pinpoint when and were your staff are and what may happen in a day, especially if they have to deal with more than one customer.

 

What really f*cks me off is when they say they will be there between, for example, 10am - 12pm and turn up at 9am or a time completely out of the time frame THEY specified and you miss them.

[Toomer]

TBF when my Dell laptop packed up i made one quick phone call, they sent a courier round to pick it up and then about a week and a bit later it turned up.

 

I understand the whole, we will be delivering between 8am - 6pm as it is sometimes hard to pinpoint when and were your staff are and what may happen in a day, especially if they have to deal with more than one customer.

 

What really f*cks me off is when they say they will be there between, for example, 10am - 12pm and turn up at 9am or a time completely out of the time frame THEY specified and you miss them.

 

Or Parcelfarce when they stick a sorry you were out when we called card through your letter box, happened to me just prior to Christmas, as he walked back down the path I opened the front door and shouted the bell works if you press the button, listen, ding dong, thats what it sounds loke if you press it.

Edited 20 January, 2011 by Toomer

[Saint Keith]

Generally speaking most call center workers in this country will only be in a job for an average of 6 months,.

 

actually thats ********. average tenure across the industry is 21 months.

[Smirking_Saint]

actually thats ********. average tenure across the industry is 21 months.

 

Fair enough

 

It was just what i BELIEVED to be the case i apologise if i made it sound like fact.

 

I still think that in most cases call center workers see it as just a stop gap. But then i know that my companies emergency call center workers are paid very well indeed.

[Saint Keith]

Fair enough

 

It was just what i BELIEVED to be the case i apologise if i made it sound like fact.

 

I still think that in most cases call center workers see it as just a stop gap. But then i know that my companies emergency call center workers are paid very well indeed.

 

as with most things, it varies considerably across the industry, some are very good, world class operations, others are indeed truly awful.