Customer Service (issues in general)

[mavo]

Customer Service is it real?

Having just experienced probably the worst customer service I have ever had from the retail sector. I wonder what most people employed in Customer Services think that their job is?
I expected an online order delivery at the latest today, having ordered before 9.30 Monday morning and being told that the delivery was 3 to 5 working days and orders placed before 11.00 am were classed as the day of order being one of the 5 days.
On phoning up Customer Services today I was told that delivery would be next Wednesday at the earliest. I said ."that is not good enough as i want and need my goods today as promised" They replied that there was nothing they could do about it. I replied "you mean that there is nothing that you are prepared to do about it"..." Is this a sample of your customer services" "I do not care if somebody has to find one in a store somewhere put it in their car and deliver it to me" "It is your mess, you created it and it is up to you to sort it" Their reply was along the lines of ..We are not allowed to do that and you will have to wait until Wednesday.
I suggested that they rang round and found a store with the item in stock. This they did and reserved the item for me in a local town. I have since picked the item up. My point is. What on earth has gone wrong with Customer Services when the customer has to provide the solution to problems that the selling company creates and they just cannot be bothered or are not allowed to put Customer Service in practice and come up with workable solutions to their own companies problems. It is Customer Services and the words "we cannot", "we are not allowed to," "it is against our policies etc." should never be allowed to be uttered from the mouths of employees in Customer Services. It is about going the extra mile.

Blocking consumers from making contact with the people who are capable of addressing the problems within Customer Services will never ever improve the situation either .

[KEITH HURST]

An example of common sense being replaced by nonsense

[Lawnmower75]

We had a problem this week with Virgin Media we have two phone lines one packed up so I phoned on the one that was working and got there robot service first question is the phone you are phoning from on this account answer yes if you have problem with your phone line press one did this got another robot saying do you want to book an engineer answer yes next an engineer can come tomorrow engineer came next day checked our working line and said it was okay I said it is not that line you have come about we have two lines engineer says on my list it says working number not the one that's not working and we would have to book another appointment I said if the phone I was phoning on was not working I would not be phoning on it my wife then said to him you are not leaving this house till you fix this phone he protested but fixed it in ten minutes I do miss talking to a human being. While on about robots I have seen that the amazon talking thing has started doing whistling at people on its own accord at any time of day or night

[KEITH HURST]

you can always trust a woman to take direct action

[mavo]

It is as Keith says. It just needs a bit of common sense in most cases. You then only need to overcome the jobsworths who seem to use company policy as a reason not to fulfil their roles effectively.
You may yet get the police round if your wife has been reported to them for kidnap.

[KEITH HURST]

There are not many men who would tell the police that they had been kidnapped by a woman with a phone in her hand

[mavo]

Further to my original post on this matter.
I was informed by customer services ( and I use the term loosely) that my online order had been cancelled and that the cost of the order would be returned into my account within the next five days.. Mind you I was told the delivery would be in five days too, so I am not holding my breath on that one.

Anyway I digress.
This evening just before 9.00 pm I received an email telling me that the (cancelled) delivery would be taking place within 48 hours of tomorrow. Having already explained to them that I will be flying out of the country early tomorrow morning I would be unable to receive their package hence the reason for it to be with me for last Friday.

Now packages come in all shapes and sizes but usually they have very sharp corners and so any suggestion of a file followed by possibly wet and dry emery paper was not really going to facilitate a smooth entry into where I am intending telling them to put it. I do understand (from reading books) that there are gels available in such situations but a 6 foot by 4 foot wooden blind, I feel will be well beyond the capacity of the orifice suggested.

If this offends anybody I hope it is the customer services of the retailer in question and not any of our members or guests.

[Charlie1]

Heres a plus for customer services - so a shout out to Nationwide. I had two debits from my account regarding purchases in the USA. They were sizeable enough to make me go weak at the knees. I contacted Nationwide and a nice lady took all the details and told me I would be contacted in 24 hours. Twenty four hours I was contacted to be told that a department would investigate this and get back to me within 10 days. If it was found that funds were taken without my consent they would deal with it but refund me after the 10 day investigation. Nine days later my funds were returned ;-)

[mavo]

Not all customer services are bad or go bad but once they do they can be spectacular.
I have a brother in law in America who ordered a set of ladders online. He now has 3 sets of ladders, 4 x 5 gallon water butts and a $600 boiler that nobody seems to want to take back even though he is charging them $30 per week for storage.
The ladders, with the paint tray as ordered, were the last items to arrive (3 months late)

[mavo]

Update.
I have now taken delivery, or I should say that in my absence my neighbour has taken delivery, of the cancelled order for which I am promised a refund into my bank account. Not only that. I have now had an "How did we do" email sent to me. Any suggestions?