The ongoing degradation of customer service

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Orange Cola
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The ongoing degradation of customer service

Post by Orange Cola »

Maybe it's just me, I don't know, but over the past few years it seems customer service is starting to hit an all time new low. I am struggling to think of the last time I had what I'd consider a normal level of service for something even trivial such as getting a food order correct*.

There's at least one drink in a round, one food order between friends which is wrong and needs to be sent back, a ticket that's not turned up in the post despite inputting the correct quantity, a delivery that's not right and requires returning, when putting a decent sized job out a builder/group of people (builders, tradespeople, whoever) who all seem to fail at a simple phone call - there's usually at least one who gets back to you! - a simple purchase from a shop. And it results in the same negative response of "can't possibly be us, we only go off the order" even when you have written confirmation from them (website, quote, whatever) that you've checked and confirmed you aren't going bat shit crazy. Then comes the "well we'll completely fail at fixing this and we'll make you, the customer feel bad about it" part.

It seems I can't get furniture delivered on a pre-booked day, parcels delivered when they say they will because they 'got lost' for a fortnight/claim for missing item which takes ages to resolve, internet orders correct, a car dealer** to carry out a simple task such as a service, a builder to actually come and start the work they say they will despite them quoting and having got the materials in to do the job (they even turned up outside the house in their van and sat there one day before driving off) despite the promise of unlimited bacon butties and cups of tea plus paying in cash***

:(

*My local seems competent at getting food and drink orders correct, they're superb in there really, but this appears to be impossible for other folk.

**Already expecting bad, incompetent levels of service but needs must for a warranty, but this is a new low

***Never expected much but to actually turn up and then not start is a new one to me
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Mito Man
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Re: The ongoing degradation of customer service

Post by Mito Man »

I think it’s always been shite. It took me me years to find a good independent. There used to be a few particular takeaways which always messed up orders but I no longer bother with them so it’s not a problem. I have noticed an increase in the frequency of mistakes for items ordered online, can only assume it’s because they’re under more pressure as more people buy online.

One thing that does annoy me particularly with furniture companies is that more of them seem to be using an in-house delivery service. So they will only cover say the South East on a Wednesday and if you’re never available on that day then tough shit...
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Gavin
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Re: The ongoing degradation of customer service

Post by Gavin »

I have missed out on deals as software partners have simply not sent me quotations. We have probably one supplier who I would be 100% confident that they will deliver exactly what we want swiftly and sadly they do our bespoke lanyards which is great but I would prefer it was he one dealing with software projects worth tens of thousands, rather than a few hundred quids worth of lanyards!
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dinny_g
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Re: The ongoing degradation of customer service

Post by dinny_g »

Agreed!!!

I’ve been trying to get a refund back from British Gas having overpaid due to their error on their part (long story)
since December 2nd and I’m still “21 Days” from a resolution
JLv3.0 wrote: Thu Jun 21, 2018 4:26 pm I say this rarely Dave, but listen to Dinny because he's right.
Rich B wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 1:57 pm but Dinny was right…
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Mito Man
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Re: The ongoing degradation of customer service

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Refunds piss me off. Why can you take my money instantly but it takes me ‘x’ days to get it back? Cunts.
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Orange Cola
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Re: The ongoing degradation of customer service

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Mito Man wrote: Sun Feb 09, 2020 7:16 pm Refunds piss me off. Why can you take my money instantly but it takes me ‘x’ days to get it back? Cunts.
Exactly this. I wanted some parts for the Mustang so got recommendations from the owners club, ordered from the states and clicked the option for shipping and all duties and taxes paid. Items turned up and the delivery guy advised there were no taxes paid and showed me the internal UPS invoice from the shop with a lower amount with ‘taxes to be paid on delivery’ selected. It took over three months to resolve with the original shop who kept asking me to email different addresses of various managers with a screen shot of my invoice and attachments of the UPS receipt for a fecking £120 parcel :roll: and they’re supposed to be the decent ones!
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Orange Cola
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Re: The ongoing degradation of customer service

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Gavin wrote: Sun Feb 09, 2020 6:33 pm I have missed out on deals as software partners have simply not sent me quotations. We have probably one supplier who I would be 100% confident that they will deliver exactly what we want swiftly and sadly they do our bespoke lanyards which is great but I would prefer it was he one dealing with software projects worth tens of thousands, rather than a few hundred quids worth of lanyards!
We recently spent 21 million quid with a supplier, on one specific item, the rest of the business is spending hundreds of millions a year with the same supplier. We recently got a bill through for them fixing one of their own fuck ups so we told them to stop being ridiculous. Their retort was to submit another bill for 13k because they’d asked us to do some admin alignment to help them out and it ‘needed re-processing’ on their side. That’s 13k for us to change a check box on a document and for one of their guys to read it for a few minutes and go ‘yep, that’s ok, that helps us internally to deliver what we are contracted for’ so they didn’t have to do it themselves :twisted:
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dinny_g
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Re: The ongoing degradation of customer service

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I tried that - refund the full Credit Balance TODAY and bill some back if it’s too much.

Buy no... “We can’t do that”

The two months is down to a process being needed, confirmed but not actually done. Then another delay because, despite insisting all comms are to be by mobile, they sent a letter to the property - which is empty. When I complained about this, they confirmed they didn’t have my number. :roll:

The problem was caused by one of their agents miss keying a meter reading into the system causing the direct debit to increase mahoosively.

Now because the actual reading is lower than the miskeyed one from 12 months ago, the refunds a problem.
JLv3.0 wrote: Thu Jun 21, 2018 4:26 pm I say this rarely Dave, but listen to Dinny because he's right.
Rich B wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 1:57 pm but Dinny was right…
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Mito Man
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Re: The ongoing degradation of customer service

Post by Mito Man »

Small one today but a perfect example of why the high street is dying...

Needed a 16 port gigabit switch, looked online and Curry’s have them but their website doesn’t show stock. I’m a 5 min walk from one anyway so go in and see. Chap tells me that I can only order them in online to collect through their website, somehow he can’t do it or I can order it online and pay a silly amount to have it posted to me.
Look through their website and it’s a bit of a faff, look on amazon and it’s cheaper and with a single click it’s coming to me tomorrow morning.

Then I go to Halfords to buy their £99 torque wrench and a £10 Meguiars bucket. They don’t have the wrench so I just take the bucket but they’re understaffed and the cashier is having a 10 minute chat over the phone about car batteries so fuck that I order the bucket on Amazon for £9 and might order a Teng wrench instead.

Useless the lot of ‘em.
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NotoriousREV
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Re: The ongoing degradation of customer service

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I arranged for DHL to collect a parcel (someone else was paying). The website asked me to choose a 2 hour window so I chose 9:30-11:30 as I had to do the school run and I was taking MrsREV out for a spa day and cream tea and we had to leave at 11:30. At 11:10 I get a voicemail telling me that the guy will be late and he won’t get to me until 12:00. So I call customer services and have a whinge but there’s nothing they can do other than rearrange so I asked them to come between 3 and 5. According to the CCTV they came at 2:45. FFS.
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Mito Man
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Re: The ongoing degradation of customer service

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At least they came :lol:
I had a delivery scheduled to my parents house about 10 days ago, it never came and TNT called twice to say they tried to delivery but I wasn’t available. I told them to stop lying as the CCTV and Ring camera would have picked them up :roll:
It’s now being investigated :roll:

Ordered a trailer from Sweden on Tuesday and had a call today to say if I want it delivered tomorrow, seeing as there’s a storm on the way and it requires assembly I asked for next week but that’s some quick service from DB Schenker so I’ll have to remember them for next time.
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dinny_g
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Re: The ongoing degradation of customer service

Post by dinny_g »

Update - refund has been calculated and approved.

However, the bank transfer / direct credit needs a different approver so again, I wait... :lol:
JLv3.0 wrote: Thu Jun 21, 2018 4:26 pm I say this rarely Dave, but listen to Dinny because he's right.
Rich B wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 1:57 pm but Dinny was right…
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Richard
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Re: The ongoing degradation of customer service

Post by Richard »

Orange Cola wrote: Sun Feb 09, 2020 7:33 pm
Mito Man wrote: Sun Feb 09, 2020 7:16 pm Refunds piss me off. Why can you take my money instantly but it takes me ‘x’ days to get it back? Cunts.
Exactly this. I wanted some parts for the Mustang so got recommendations from the owners club, ordered from the states and clicked the option for shipping and all duties and taxes paid. Items turned up and the delivery guy advised there were no taxes paid and showed me the internal UPS invoice from the shop with a lower amount with ‘taxes to be paid on delivery’ selected. It took over three months to resolve with the original shop who kept asking me to email different addresses of various managers with a screen shot of my invoice and attachments of the UPS receipt for a fecking £120 parcel :roll: and they’re supposed to be the decent ones!
Ask the company once, then if that fails get the money back from the credit card company
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dinny_g
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Re: The ongoing degradation of customer service

Post by dinny_g »

Richard wrote: Sat Feb 15, 2020 8:34 am
Ask the company once, then if that fails get the money back from the credit card company
This
JLv3.0 wrote: Thu Jun 21, 2018 4:26 pm I say this rarely Dave, but listen to Dinny because he's right.
Rich B wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 1:57 pm but Dinny was right…
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NotoriousREV
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Re: The ongoing degradation of customer service

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NotoriousREV wrote: Fri Feb 14, 2020 3:41 pm I arranged for DHL to collect a parcel (someone else was paying). The website asked me to choose a 2 hour window so I chose 9:30-11:30 as I had to do the school run and I was taking MrsREV out for a spa day and cream tea and we had to leave at 11:30. At 11:10 I get a voicemail telling me that the guy will be late and he won’t get to me until 12:00. So I call customer services and have a whinge but there’s nothing they can do other than rearrange so I asked them to come between 3 and 5. According to the CCTV they came at 2:45. FFS.
Here we are a week later, and this week my “09:30 - 12:00” collection will be at 2pm 🙄
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dinny_g
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Re: The ongoing degradation of customer service

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dinny_g wrote: Fri Feb 14, 2020 5:56 pm Update - refund has been calculated and approved.

However, the bank transfer / direct credit needs a different approver so again, I wait... :lol:
Different approval cycle failed (for undefined reasons) but the requester was on holidays so nothing has happened in the past 2 weeks.

Request for approval has been re-sent so I have to continue to wait.

Nearly 3 months now to process a refund...
JLv3.0 wrote: Thu Jun 21, 2018 4:26 pm I say this rarely Dave, but listen to Dinny because he's right.
Rich B wrote: Thu Jun 02, 2022 1:57 pm but Dinny was right…
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