Customer Service is not Dead

[david63]

It is so refreshing to find good customer service these days - in fact it is almost a miracle.

Just over 12 months ago I bought a new petrol lawn mower (note just over 12 moths meaning out of guarantee) and on the last couple of times of using it there has been a strong smell of petrol which I put down to having over filled it. Also it has been running out of petrol a lot quicker than normal - but I put that down to my age in not being able to remember when I filled it up!

Anyway when I was mowing the lawns yesterday I noticed that petrol was dripping out of the tank so having found the instruction book (a minor miracle for me as I normally cannot remember where I put them) I phoned their helpline and spoke to very helpful chappie called Cameron who diagnosed the fault as a split petrol tank (actually I had already worked that out) and insisted on sending me a new one free of charge in the post tonight.

Not only that if I have any problems fitting it then all I need to do is give him another call and he will "talk me through it"

[Frank Manning]

I find that it is the long established family firms which often have good customer service, that and German ones.

By coincidence I have been subjected to a bit of the well known "female reminder syndrome" (nagging), about the new soft close toilet seat in our guest toilet. According to my good lady the buttons should be out and the seat should not move. Worn down I looked on line, found the customer service site (Sussex), and enquired. Two email exchanges later and I received have a complex set of instructions plus some advice and have now fixed it myself. Customer service is not dead, but perhaps is in recovery.

[oldbluefox]

Contrary to what we may think I think there is plenty of good customer service, it's just that we tend to remember the poor.

We bought a Vax vacuum cleaner and had problems in emptying it. The instructions were ambiguous and after much pushing, pulling and twisting and fearful I may force something and break it I decided to give Customer Services a call. I got pretty well straight through without having to go around the houses and my query was answered.

Within 12 months the hose had split so I contacted them again. Again I got through and without question they sent me out a new hose which arrived the next day.

Well done Vax and thank you.

[Dark Knight]

Dyson, have superb customer service, as do the local car dealership and local shops
and, I am prepared to get flamed, I find overseas customer service dire especially BT and other call centres abroad

[david63]

You won't get flamed by me DK as I agree with (about overseas call centres)

[Wina G]

We bought a couple of expanding Tripp Superlight suitcases in March 2009 & over time 3 of the 6 leather zip pulls have broken so I've been looking on the internet to find replacements to no avail, I decided to email Tripp to see if they did them & explained when the cases were bought (scanned & attached the receipt) & that we'd bought them from a Tripp Outlet (Cheshire Oakes).

The reply I got was that they didn't stock replacement parts so I needed to return them to the store to be inspected as they had a 5 year guarantee, I then explained that Cheshire Oakes is over an hour away & didn't want a wasted journey if we were going to be told that the zip pulls breaking would come under "wear & tear" & therefore wasn't covered under the guarantee

I was most surprised to be told that they were covered under the manufacturing guarantee & would we be able to go to our "local" Debenhams store (20 mins away) where she would arrange replacements with the manager of the Luggage Dept, we travelled there last night & had no problem exchanging the cases ... what fantastic customer service

[Boris+]

That's great Wina - and certainly a standard of service you deserve.

Well done.

Em

[Frank Manning]

Dyson, have superb customer service, as do the local car dealership and local shops
and, I am prepared to get flamed, I find overseas customer service dire especially BT and other call centres abroad

Nor by me DK, because my recent experience with BT was dire. Once I got through to a human being it wasn't so bad, but just getting to talk to someone seemed to be expecting too much. They seem to expect us all to be computer geeks.

[JenniC]

Dyson, have superb customer service, as do the local car dealership and local shops
and, I am prepared to get flamed, I find overseas customer service dire especially BT and other call centres abroad

Not moaning are you DK Seriously don't get me started on Barclaycard

[haveabeer]

World worst customer service for are
BT
Santender
Virgin
O2
Sure there are many more
Had to call a company today about a Gbook my grand daughter had for Xmas not charging i called customer services and a human spoke no options no music i was so taken aback i could not speak felt sure i had rant the wrong number with 2 mins the man told me what was wrong and how they would put it right great service

[Silver_Shiney]

You won't get flamed by me DK as I agree with (about overseas call centres)

I'd flame him - they're not good enough to be called "dire"

[The Tinker]

I have recently changed to BT from Virgin and have had no problems with them at all. They had to reinstall the telephone line when we moved in as a tractor had disconnected it. They turned up on the correct day, with the correct equipment etc. Phone line and internet all installed and have worked fine.
When I had to renew after a year - a very nice man managed to give me an excellent deal and pressed the right button for BT Sport for OH.
After dealing with Virgin for years - I can honestly say their Customer Service has been fine.

[Kendhni]

Generally speaking, customer service has never been better. The big problem is that on many occasions peoples expectations are unrealistic and when they don't get their way they throw their toys out of the pram and run off to the internet to rant, rave and cry like a baby. Some people consider that not getting what they want is poor customer service ... that is not necessarily the case, it can be good customer service, but the person is just asking for something they are never going to get.

We often get to hear of (so called) bad customer service and generally only get to hear of (so called) good customer service when the representative goes beyond what the customer could realistically expect (and it is good to hear of such instances) ... however 99% of the time we do not get to hear about perfectly acceptable/good customer service.

[haveabeer]

A good customer service dept should be able to lower your expectations and bring the complaint into line with company policy but satisfy your issues
A lot of the time people get wound up with companies that charge premium phone rates, overseas call centres, to many options, and being put on hold and being transferred

[Kendhni]

haveabeer, I have no problem with premium phone rates for customer support .. it is better than the old pricing model that meant the cost of customer service was built into the original purchase price (whether or not you used it) ... I like the base product being as cheap as possible and letting those that need it pay for additional support as-and-when.

Being put on hold can be annoying but we have to accept that sometimes the rep needs to check things out or consult with someone else which may take a while ... also most calls need transferred because people do not listen to the choices on the phone and start 'mashing' their phone buttons until they get to speak to someone .. all that does is increase the wait time for others and mean they have to be put on hold. However it is also valid if it is found there is someone who may be better at resolving my issue than the rep I originally got put through to.

I have worked in a call centre (IT side) and you look at them differently when you see both sides of the story.

[haveabeer]

The majority of C/S depts do a grand job my beef is with the few usually large companies that don't offer a good experience

[Kendhni]

Several years back I was n-th line support for a major utility company. if the call centre could not handle it, then it went to second line support, if they could not handle it, it went to third line support and somewhere at the tail end of this it was a case of if nobody else could figure it out (or the MD knew the person) then pass it to Ken (or another of my colleagues) ... we had to figure out what was happening, which usually involved running queries directly against the database.

We also could recommend the reward of a goodwill gesture. In my case it was quite simply determined by how the customer had treated the call centre staff. This was determined by reviewing the detailed notes that the call centre staff added to the customers account. If the customer was reasonable with the call centre staff then I could trigger a goodwill gesture; if there was any hint of them being bolchy with the call centre staff then I simply triggered the appropriate letter. I am sure some considered that to be 'bad' customer service.

[Stephen]

BT should be renamed 'The Magic Roundabout', because going round in circles is all you keep doing when trying to get through to someone.

And if you are lucky enough to get through to someone from planet earth you then need to dig out your global translation book!

[david63]

Although BT do have some call centres in the UK and if you can get through to one of those then they are usually quite good at sorting out your problem/question

[Frank Manning]

A very good friend we met on Aurora is a BT Manager. I will show him your comments, especially the one saying there are UK call centres, then I will squeeze these secret numbers out of him!

[david63]

What always annoys me about BT whose business is communications is trying to find out a number to call when you have a query

[Frank Manning]

Exactly! They are infuriatingly obscure.

[royalprincess]

The best customer service is Amazon for sure.

However if there has been a slip up (not often) but due to the couriers messing up they are more than happy to sort it out particularly once when I got through to their American customer services - now that was service indeed.

[david63]

It is so refreshing to find good customer service these days - in fact it is almost a miracle.

Just over 12 months ago I bought a new petrol lawn mower (note just over 12 moths meaning out of guarantee) and on the last couple of times of using it there has been a strong smell of petrol which I put down to having over filled it. Also it has been running out of petrol a lot quicker than normal - but I put that down to my age in not being able to remember when I filled it up!

Anyway when I was mowing the lawns yesterday I noticed that petrol was dripping out of the tank so having found the instruction book (a minor miracle for me as I normally cannot remember where I put them) I phoned their helpline and spoke to very helpful chappie called Cameron who diagnosed the fault as a split petrol tank (actually I had already worked that out) and insisted on sending me a new one free of charge in the post tonight.

Not only that if I have any problems fitting it then all I need to do is give him another call and he will "talk me through it"

And the spare part arrived today

[Frank Manning]

Guess what? My BT email keeps asking me for my password and then rejecting it.

I hate BT with a vengeance at present!