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Hello,
Today another story of poor customer service - from the financial sector for a change.
I wrote to my lovely credit card (cc) company a “secure message” asking to raise my limit. Purely to be on the safe side for our house expenses coming up (not that I can put the whole house on the cc 
).
So, I got a nice message back within a few hours saying that it is not a problem and the limit was granted.
However, today a company called me up saying my cc is not working. Embarrassing! I spoke to my cc company and they said that I the limit was not raised and that I cannot get a higher limit. I said “fair enough” as I do not necessarily need the limit, however I asked how they dared to tell me they raised the limit but did not.
“I should write a complaint online about the limit” they said. So I did, mentioning the above and explicitly saying “I do not care about the limit but mainly about you telling me that the limit was raised”. Haha, got a message back saying that for an appeal about the limit I would have to……
Often I wonder about customer service. And why people are too stupid to understand me and my emails. Sometimes I wonder if it is me?! Then I show people my emails and they reassure me that it is not me - it is them!
I now replied, again via secure message, that I don’t care about the limit. I care about their service. 18 months ago their charged me for being 150 GBP over the limit for 24 hours and it took 10 emails to sort it and get my money back. Ridiculous.
Alright, I keep you posted.
Volker
I am not sure if this entry really reflects cb consulting or if I am just having another one of my moments….
What happened this month?
Yes,
- the tour company reimbursed me two tours and called me to apologize! Happy days.
- my mobile phone company, although I told them to just take the money from my account for my new phone, decided to tell me off for not paying and I was not happy as you can imagine…still ongoing and to be honest…I am more than happy to escalate that too!
- the text message alert company does not respond and the ones where I signed up to do not take on any responsibility, e.g. I signed up with A which subcontracts to B. But A is not having any of the problems and tells me to talk to B - why cannot A just sort it for me, I never wanted to do business with B.
- someone made a copy of our debit card - not happy
- someone broke into our garage and stole a bike - we need a new garage door (3 months old) and a new bike.
Was that all? I think so, at least what I want you to tell about. Still waiting for 2 orders I placed online, one 1 month and one 1 week ago. Slow turn around these days - not that I had time to read a book at the moment but still. Where is the service!
On a positive note my new job is going well, I really like it.
So overall, things are positive, aren’t they?
It probably comes back to look at the bright side of things and not to bother. And, to be honest, I do not. It is more the hassle that annoys me and to sort things out. I said to my wife about 2 years ago that I am looking forward to the day when there is nothing to be sorted out. But, at the moment I do not think that will ever happen.
Have a great Thursday night - btw, I never noticed where the week went.
PS: Rabjor, if you read that. I have not forgotten, I will be in touch!
One down, one to go ,-)
I wrote about that holiday city tour company. Supposedly, after leaving a voicemail in their US office, their Paris office and writing another email, only then the person in charge was informed. Who then, of course, reimbursed me the tour and a 2nd one as well…..almost as if he got scared.
Why do we need to take drastic measures to ensure good customer service?
Dear Readers, it is getting quieter around here. My apologies for that.
I just have been busy.
Regarding customer service there are more examples to add:
1) There is this horoscope service I accidentally signed up to on facebook with the result of me now getting text alerts. However, you have to tell them about 1,000,000 times to stop it and then they will…hopefully anyway.
2) There is a company we booked our discovery tours in Thailand with and they first had confirmed a tour, then did not pick us up. After accepting a different tour, that tour then was delayed and the taxi driver of the company would not get us back to the hotel as he got lost. However, me complaining to them just resulted after 6 weeks in an apology and after over 2 months in me not qualifying for refund. I finally got a phone number and a name in an office but the person does not answer the phone…..
Why are people and companies not nicer? I heard from several people that a big mobile network does give clients free stuff if they stay with them - why can’t my company be like that…I am now bound until August 2009 - will we still have mobiles then?
Anyhow, just thought I sum up my week - have been busy with work.
cb consulting offers trainings in customer service. Why?
Quite frankly because ever since I started working, I noticed that there is a need for customer service and customer care. What I have sold I have sold in good confidence and wanted to make sure my client is happy. Sustainable business - if the client is not happy, why should I ask for money for the product I offer?
A nice or not so nice story is with my mobile phone provider. Without mentioning the name, I would like to use this as an example.
I went to the high street shop and the person there was just not knowledgeable about the phones at all. However, knowing a bit myself I was happy and go ahead with an upgrade. But she could not offer me the online deal, I would have to phone their team or order online, she said.
So I did, called them asked for an upgrade with more minutes and they said they would not be able to do it. Then I go to a different provider, I said. Wait, I put you through to our special deals department - who then, surprise, could offer me what I wanted but I had to pay a small amount for the new phone.
Why did I have to escalate things to get what I wanted?
They sent me the new phone and forgot to put on the delivery address the flat I am living in. Ergo the delivery person did not bother and did not deliver. As they cannot leave a note somewhere I only found out by checking online myself. After I called them I arranged delivery to my work address the next day which did not happen. I found out checking online again, called them and they said that the delivery man made a mistake but it would be delivered the next day before 12.
Guess, 12 pm the parcel was not there. So I called them and they said the parcel was lost. Why had no one called me? Oh someone would once they found the parcel. Ok, I called my provider asked for a new delivery and they should order the other one back from the delivery company - no problem, however, in the meantime they found my parcel! Hurray I said, what is going to happen?
Oh, they said, someone will call you before 3 pm and arrange delivery to your flat or a neighbours flat before 6 pm today. We are sorry. Ok, I said, can live with that.
10 minutes later I had my phone, delivered to my work address, no word since from neither the parcel delivery company nor the phone company. So, what to do?
Good customer service: give the client a courtesy call, ask if it all worked out, apologize and do not charge for the delivery cost. Make the client feel good and give them an additional 100 minutes to use for free?
Bad customer service: do not do anything, as the phone got delivered.
As I have not heard anything that is what I did:
a) I wrote an online review about the parcel service which showed I am not the only one being annoyed with them. Not sure if it helps but helps me to get it off my chest.
b) I wrote an email to my mobile phone provider, mentioning that I would not pay for the phone until they invoice me - sorry I forgot to mention that when I ordered the phone they said I should call them to pay for it? Why would I have to do that….
to be - hopefully not - continued.
Whilst I have this rant, I do not know why we put up with the following:
- the check-out person sneezing on my bread?
- the watch seller not making sure the watch works and I have to go back the next day?
Just a thought. Why are more and more companies so arrogant that they do not care anymore?
Maybe on a positive note. I ordered something online the other day and they promised next day delivery. However, with New Year it would be a day late. So they emailed me, apologizing that they had been closed for a few days and dispatch it first class today. It arrived the next day.
Not sure if they meant it or if they really care but I was happy. And happy customers buy again, non happy ones do not.
Have a stress-free weekend and thank you for listening to my rant.
ballueder
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