[Misc] Customer service

[kevo]

Anyone else experience of truly terrible customer service recently? I know companies are all trying to undercut each other and try to get everyone to do everything online without actually speaking to anyone, but f**k me some of these places deserve to go out of businesses. Spent a large part of today so far trying to sort out two things, one of which was an item not received.

Ordered something from The Range three weeks ago - hasn't arrived. Their email says if you haven't received it within five working days, contact us here. The 'here' link just takes you to their homepage. I click on my account - it says item has been dispatched, to track your order click here. The link just goes to a blank page. I go to the actual orders page, put in the tracking number as requested - it just takes me back to the other page. This time it says status is 'collected' (it was supposed to be delivered, not collected - I haven't collected anything). Rang their helpline - after 20 mins on hold and giving all my details etc they were unable to track my delivery either. Absolutely hopeless. Where's the product I paid for, you *****s?

 

[Horses Arse]

Anyone else experience of truly terrible customer service recently? I know companies are all trying to undercut each other and try to get everyone to do everything online without actually speaking to anyone, but f**k me some of these places deserve to go out of businesses. Spent a large part of today so far trying to sort out two things, one of which was an item not received.

Ordered something from The Range three weeks ago - hasn't arrived. Their email says if you haven't received it within five working days, contact us here. The 'here' link just takes you to their homepage. I click on my account - it says item has been dispatched, to track your order click here. The link just goes to a blank page. I go to the actual orders page, put in the tracking number as requested - it just takes me back to the other page. This time it says status is 'collected' (it was supposed to be delivered, not collected - I haven't collected anything). Rang their helpline - after 15 mins on hold and giving all my details etc they were unable to track my delivery either. Absolutely hopeless. Where's the product I paid for, you *****s?

It's everywhere. No phone numbers provided these days, just typical Q&A, nearly impossible to get to a number you can speak to people on.

I had an issue with ID Mobile, couldn't log onto account so eventually had to use the chatbot.. Hopeless, kept stating it didn't understand the question. So I typed 'f*** off', which it recognised and asked me to be polite. I kept typing f*** off to every response and it eventually said 'would I like to chat with a customer service agent. They were hopeless too but being abusing with chatbots seems to work eventually to some extent.

 

[kevo]

It's everywhere. No phone numbers provided these days, just typical Q&A, nearly impossible to get to a number you can speak to people on.

I had an issue with ID Mobile, couldn't log onto account so eventually had to use the chatbot.. Hopeless, kept stating it didn't understand the question. So I typed 'f*** off', which it recognised and asked me to be polite. I kept typing f*** off to every response and it eventually said 'would I like to chat with a customer service agent. They were hopeless too but being abusing with chatbots seems to work eventually to some extent.

I might try that!

 

[Washie]

I might try that!

Literally just type speak to agent, most chat bots put you through

 

[HeaviestTed]

Vueling (low cost airline) - the only way to speak to someone is pretend to want to book a flight, every single after sales option results in “check website”

 

[Nitram]

Dealing with State Pensions National Insurance contributions.
Clusterfuck. They ‘lost’ a payment I made 2 years ago.
I’ve spent the best part of twenty hours on a phone to try and resolve it. Half the time I got cut off or sent an email for a link that took me back to square one. Often put through to the wrong departments and then cut off.
Written correspondence ignored. No direct email to contact the department.

Eventually found a HMRC complaint email and got it resolved that way. Told it was waiting to be allocated, two year wait by this time, eventually allocated and updated.
I did receive a verbal apology by phone.

 

[southstandandy]

I currently have a similar experience trying to get money back on a concert I couldn't attend in London due to Covid a month back.

As the tickets were fairly expensive I took the option of the offered insurance covering many things including Covid. Lo and behold when the gig week came round I got Covid so put in a claim to XCover.com. Filled in the on-line form sent the photo of the positive test, passport page, and ticket as requested.

4 weeks later they are still pissing about with my claim. Can't find a number for them so have to use their on-line portal which is pretty shit. Blimey, it's only a £60 gig ticket, not like I'm claiming for a £3k holiday.

Makes you wonder why we pay for insurance, or are these policies just scams for suckers like me?

 

[juliant]

Lebara mobile. Ported 2 weeks ago and still no voicemail . 7 web chats and 8 calls and i have finally got past the scripts and got to a person who may just know what to do

Shocking service

 

[beorhthelm]

having a battle with online site over a return, brick wall not understanding the basic principle of returns/refunds are different for selling online.

i think a lot of the problem is companies not moving online so dont have anyone who knows how to deal with people. notable exceptions, because they've always handled thing online, Amazon and Argos who just deal with refunds and returns without fuss.

 

[Eeyore]

Spent months trying to sort a large bill issue. They said they would contact me very time. Even laughed when I said we would be exchanging Christmas cards at this rate.

One day I get a call offering to dramatically reduce the bill in exchange for a deal. Basically the bloke wants to pocket money in a private arrangement. He obviously gets jittery at my questioning and next I know he has completely wiped the bill.

I ring the company and report the fraud attempt. They still don't get back to me. So the bill was never paid.

 

[Half Time Pies]

So many experiences recently, in fact it's unusual these days for customer service to be good!

One recent example that particularly springs to mind is with Virgin Media, every time I called them they tried to put me on a new contract, it didn't matter what it was about (technical issues, changing my TV package etc) the solution was always signing up to a new 'improved' and longer term contract. Even someone in their technical support team tried to sell me an improved deal!

I explained that I wasn't going to sign up to anything until I was happy with the service and tried to leave but they claimed that I couldn't as I was still under contract. After several months of various calls and emails trying to resolve the issues I had and resisting constant attempts from them to put me on a new extended contract, it came to light that they had made a mistake and my contract had actually expired some time ago!

I am very happy to be moving away from them later on this month!

 

[BevBHA]

Called my business insurance company ‘Simply Business’ in April telling them to turn off auto renew (due in May) as was changing provider.

It auto renewed and no log on their system of my call. So I was charged £40 for late payment (as they told me to cancel my direct debit) plus my monthly payment. Called up, having already paid the late payment fee reluctantly to prevent possible CCJ etc, they apologised and said they would call back in 3 days as they had to wait for that payment to clear.

No call.

I called back, “we are really sorry sir it’s not cleared I will hand to accounts who will contact in the next week to process your cancellation. Don’t worry, you won’t pay future payments as it has been noted you’ve cancelled as of this date.” Fine, happy with that.

No call in the next 7 working days.

It was then June, and they charged my monthly payment again.

Again no log of my previous call on their system when I called to complain!

Then received an email, ‘we can see you’ve asked to cancel, that’s an additional £45 for the ‘service’ you’ve already received plus a £15 admin fee.

Called again yesterday and finally got through to a genuine normal human who even admitted it had been a shitshow from them and it’s finally cancelled

 

[swindonseagull]

Intelligent Finance are closing all current accounts on August 1st.....so as soon as I got the letter I tranferred my funds to my other bank stopped all DD's and closed the account...

however Intelligent finance did not close the account as instructed and on July 1st paid my season tickets from a closed account then told me via text I was overdrawn.

45 mins on the phone I got through to an overseas call centre who put me on hold while they 'investigated' 20 mins passed and the phone went dead......did they call me back? did they bollocks.....so had to start the call over again...

Eventually I was told it was all my fault the account was not closed as I requested....and I would have to pay unauthorised over draft charges......after getting very angry and being informed the call was recorded ( I also asked them to dig out the call when I closed the account but it was not possible)

eventually the OD charges were dropped but I had to repay the direct debit money..

Luckily The Albion finance company were on the ball and did not take payment for the ST's twice and sorted it in a few mins....Thanks Albion finance dept.

 

[Binney on acid]

Complete and utter nightmare with BA, who cancelled our early morning flight to Amsterdam late the previous evening. Had to rebook for a late PM flight same day = losing a day of our holiday. Whilst on the tarmac, waiting to taxi on the runway - the evening flight that was already 90 minutes late, I emailed customer complaints. They paid for an extra night’s hotel accommodation in Amsterdam, rescheduled our return airport transfer, and agreed to reimburse the airport transfer that should have happened that morning. We were lucky that the flight was stuck on the runway, otherwise an exchange of emails would never have taken place. They may be a faceless organisation on the ground, but responded to and resolved my complaint almost Immediately. Stunned by their level of efficiency. Most unexpected !

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

It's everywhere. No phone numbers provided these days, just typical Q&A, nearly impossible to get to a number you can speak to people on.

I had an issue with ID Mobile, couldn't log onto account so eventually had to use the chatbot.. Hopeless, kept stating it didn't understand the question. So I typed 'f*** off', which it recognised and asked me to be polite. I kept typing f*** off to every response and it eventually said 'would I like to chat with a customer service agent. They were hopeless too but being abusing with chatbots seems to work eventually to some extent.

Ha.

I still remain unconvinced that AI is poised to depose humanity

 

[bluenitsuj]

I find a lot of trades people could do with a basic lesson in customer service. A lot of them cannot be bothered to reply.

 

[BevBHA]

I find a lot of trades people could do with a basic lesson in customer service. A lot of them cannot be bothered to reply.

It always amazes me how few trades people, even ones who turn over serious money sometimes do not employ admin staff! They try to do it all themselves and their service suffers for it imo

 

[Wrong-Direction]

I've had 3 toilets seats arrived damaged on my current bathroom job, just sent a shitty email saying how difficult is it for someone in the office to check the forth one before sending FFS!

 

[ozzygull]

No matter what time you ring, getting a message "We are experiencing a high number of calls" Pisses me off.

Readers reply: why are companies always experiencing higher-than-normal call volumes?

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts

www.theguardian.com

 

[Westdene Seagull]

While is doesn't cover every organisation, this is a useful website for complaining to the top - https://ceoemail.com/