The angry thread

[Nick]

Phone them up and before they would speak to me wanted to know things like how many direct debits I had, what was the current balance etc.

This drives me insane. One bank is always doing it.
"What's your credit limit?"
"More than I need."
"How much was the last payment you made?"
"No idea - my wife made it."
"What  was the last last purchase you made?
"Er. Petrol. Wait a minute, it was a meal. Oh no, it wasn't.. No idea."

The worst was in a hotel in India, when they refused to let me pay for a perfectly routine two night stay in an extremely reputable hotel. Less than a week after I rang the bank to tell them we were going to India the next weekend... Jeesh...

The desk clerk could see me getting wound up, must have decided I was genuine, and, in the middle of the call, quietly took the card out of my hand and instead of putting through the Chip & PIN machine again, keyed it in to his terminal as "customer not present". It went through without a hitch while the idiot from my bank was telling me that he couldn't possibly talk to me unless I could tell him information that I could only get from a looking at a statement that was back in the UK... Stunned silence. Priceless...

Strangely, the card was never refused again in the whole of the trip...

[Jerry Howlett]

My Mother at 90+ came to that strange continent that is Europe and Italy...  Last year, she wanted to treat us all to a meal but when she tried to pay with her NAT WEST Maestro card it was blocked. My Sister called them and their response was we can only talk to the card holder on "our contact number for her". That number is my Mothers home number in the UK and strangely at 90+ my Mum doesn't want to have a mobile phone!!!   Oh in that case we can't help you.... Love em!!

[daveg]

Customer service is failing in many areas so I do understand and sympathise..

Poorly trained, if trained at all, staff are given a script and 'rules' that must be adhered to.

We are currently suffering from a second major failure of our landline with no voice and intermittent BB. Plusnet tell us that Openretch have been out to the exchange twice and yet have to fix the problem.

Last year it took 2 weeks and 4 engineers before someone realised a switch was in the wrong position. OR said they couldn't to the flocking as it was a BT job despite the OR guy knowing what to do.

It's been a fair while since I've been so angry.   

Dave G

[Newportnobby]

I know I shouldn't laugh, Dave, but 'Openretch' did make I giggle

[Mito]

I've heard that Pratology is a pre-requisite qualification for help-line employees.

[RailGooner]

Don't blame the employees. Blame the employers who employ too few staff, provide inadequate training, and create a working environment that fosters unmotivated, disinterested employees.

[Sprintex]

Don't blame the employees. Blame the employers who employ too few staff, provide inadequate training, and create a working environment that fosters unmotivated, disinterested employees.

Well said


Paul

[daffy]

Modern Customer Service by phone all too often begins with a lengthy introductory recorded message that tells you all you don't really want to know about everything except the problem you have; it continues with "Please choose from the following options...." but not one of the seemingly endless choices appears to cover the particular problem you have; you press '0' when instructed to hear all the options again in case you missed something (your attention wandered the first time due to the flat monotone of the disembodied voice) only to find you were right the first time; so you choose "Please continue to hold if you would like to talk to a Customer Service Advisor"; twenty seven minutes later (after 17 false starts as you are repeatedly told to "Please continue to hold. One of our Customer Service Advisors will be with you soon. Your call is important to us.") a voice says "Hello" - you utter a rejoinder only to find the voice continues regardless "Due to high call volumes we are unable to connect you to one of our Customer Service Advisors at this time. If your call is of an urgent nature please call 0870 1111 2795." The line then goes dead or you are left listening to Johnny One Note's greatest hit. You call 0870 1111 2695 and a real voice answers immediately! Unfortunately in your frustration you dialled the wrong number so apologetically tell the cheerful voice that you don't actually want to place an order for a takeaway.

Against your better judgement, you redial the original 'Customer Service Helpline'.

Three hours later your thoughts turn to murder or ritual suicide.

One day, all Customer Service will be like this. Or has that day come already?

[dannyboy]

  so true!

[Jimbo]

Don't blame the employees. Blame the employers who employ too few staff, provide inadequate training, and create a working environment that fosters unmotivated, disinterested employees.

Here! Here!

Everything is so 'Tick in the box' these days! If your query/problem doesn't correspond with any of their 'boxes' you've had it! 

I know it's the angry thread.....but we had a cold call quite a while back..."Hello Mr ****, how are you today?"......"I'm okay thank you, are you selling anything?"....."No not at all blah blah blah...."......."Oh, so you called just to see how I am then!?!?"...........Silence.........click!......dial tone.......

[RailGooner]

Modern Customer Service by phone all too often begins with a lengthy introductory recorded message that tells you all you don't really want to know about everything except the problem you have; it continues with "Please choose from the following options...." but not one of the seemingly endless choices appears to cover the particular problem you have; you press '0' when instructed to hear all the options again in case you missed something (your attention wandered the first time due to the flat monotone of the disembodied voice) only to find you were right the first time; so you choose "Please continue to hold if you would like to talk to a Customer Service Advisor"; twenty seven minutes later (after 17 false starts as you are repeatedly told to "Please continue to hold. One of our Customer Service Advisors will be with you soon. Your call is important to us.") a voice says "Hello" - you utter a rejoinder only to find the voice continues regardless "Due to high call volumes we are unable to connect you to one of our Customer Service Advisors at this time. If your call is of an urgent nature please call 0870 1111 2795." The line then goes dead or you are left listening to Johnny One Note's greatest hit. You call 0870 1111 2695 and a real voice answers immediately! Unfortunately in your frustration you dialled the wrong number so apologetically tell the cheerful voice that you don't actually want to place an order for a takeaway.

Against your better judgement, you redial the original 'Customer Service Helpline'.

Three hours later your thoughts turn to murder or ritual suicide.

One day, all Customer Service will be like this. Or has that day come already?

And those Automated Call Handling Systems serve to mask the fact that there are only three folk operating as Customer Service Advisors.

The first of those Advisors is training the second. The third is the -wit of a manager, who is so ineffective as a manager that he's rostered on too few folk (again) and so has to man a phone himself.

The first two Advisors are understandably stressed and disheartened - they were originally rostered off today, but as they knocked off yesterday found that the roster had changed, again. But they are professionals and humans, so they try to suppress all that.

Meanwhile I, as the caller, am getting increasingly frustrated by the one-way conversation with the infernal Automated Call Handling System.

Don't worry, I'm not going to insist that every Customer Service Advisor is an . But thankfully the Advisor is IMHO the exception.

But those so-called managers. Don't start me. Especially those Carillion so-called managers.

[Steamie+]

IMO it's the way it is nowadays, i think even when you get through they don't have the knowledge to the question you want answering so you are put on hold while they have a chat amongst themselves about anything it seems  , (are we out tonight, did you get that from the shop) they they come back to you with i am sorry i can't help you with that at this moment but i can give you a number that may be able to help you with it... oh heck here we go again.   

[daveg]

Cheers, Mick! 

Saturday morning and we still don't have a working phone but at least the internet is currently working.

Our main worry is that we have elderly relatives who are some distance away and call us regularly. OK we can call them on the almost as flakey mobile but if they need us, or just want a chat, they pay through the nose if they call mobiles.

Another interesting point came up on our second call to Plusnet. Given 2 choices at the start of the call by the automated system; 1, Accounts or 2, Something not working.

Opted for Option 2 and waited 27 minutes to get through. I asked for a progress report on the 'repair' to be told "You need to speak with Tech Support. When I groaned and asked did that mean another wait, "Oh no. They're not as busy as we are." Why isn't there an option to go straight to Tech Support?  A chat with Hanna in TP, who was charming, got us no where.

Aaaaargh!

Dave G

[Newportnobby]

Everyone seems to have forgotten the interruption of the dire musak every 10 seconds with "Thank you for your patience. Your call is important to us"

Well - if it's that  important then employ more people!!!

Oh, and never, ever, try and call such numbers between 12 noon and 2p.m. 'cos they've all got their feet up having lunch.

[austinbob]

Agreed. And why is that the musak is always distorted to inflict maximum discomfort while you're waiting?