UPC Customer Service: why the stupidity?

Dionysus

Around 10pm last night I rang 1908 to talk to somebody in UPC. Eight minutes into all the messages the geniuses in UPC come out with the classic: "our customer service is now closed".

Really, really retarded or what. Did it ever ever ever occur to anybody in Customer Service management to put that rather germane fact at the START of the eight minutes of messages? Hello?

Back in 2006 I had been inveigled into using NTL/UPC for the (unparalleled) broadband speed. They were doing precisely the same idiocy in this regard. Now I'm back with them, and the terrible memories of a customer service stupidity (at management level) which frequently surpassed the horrendous Eircom -*shudder* - is stifling my sanity.

/rant over.

justsomebloke

did you check what time the help desk closed at before hand? the lines probably only stayed open as there were still open calls being answered. I wouldn't see any problem with this

wicklowwonder

I agree there customer service is crazy.

My wifi is causing all sorts of hassle, keeps dropping out, UPC fix it over the phone only for it to happen again a few weeks later. This has gone on for the past 6 months every few weeks. About 1 month ago they arranged for an engineer to come out, I left a Saturday morning free as they only work 9-5 Mon-Fri (crazy stuff!!) and a Saturday, got a call late that Friday telling me my problem has been resolved from their base and no need for a engineer. Promised it would not occur again. Monday this week the same things starts up again. Wifi dropping out constantly.

Rang up and low and behold an engineer is required to come out. Again we all work and I really don't want to lose some annual leave time to wait at home Mon-Fri for them and I have plans next two Saturdays. Basically told that's your hard luck, we can come Saturday to fix it, if you not there not our fault you will still be billed for the service even though it doesn't work. WTF like? Are we meant to drop everything just for a UPC engineer. Surely they should work 11-7 even so they can catch people after work.

CRAZY STUFF and guy at the end of the phone was no help at all. He could only guarantee the engineer would call between 9 and 1 couldn't ask him to call at 9 his first call of the day which we could make suit us.

Dionysus

Joe the Santa wrote: »

did you check what time the help desk closed at before hand? the lines probably only stayed open as there were still open calls being answered. I wouldn't see any problem with this

The point of the call was to see if it was open and, if so, ask them for assistance. Usually when I'd ring some place the very first message you'd hear if they were closed is "our customer service department is now closed...". Then I would take note of the opening hours, hang up and ring back when they are opened. Simple! Doing this with UPC led to a good 8 minutes of messages before they informed me of this most basic and most important of information. What a waste of my time! Thank you UPC - not.

Dionysus

In the past hour, I rang 01 8845960 to confirm the delivery of my HDMI box. I waited for just over 43 minutes - how much did that cost me? - and then I left a message asking them to ring me about arrangements for said delivery. I'm not hopeful.

There has to be smarter, consumer friendly ways of running this business?

To be honest, I think it all comes down to competition: UPC has no competition - it has, in fact, a monopoly - and therefore no incentive to treat its customers with respect. The sorry truth.

Tarquin1970

Dionysus wrote: »

In the past hour, I rang 01 8845960 to confirm the delivery of my HDMI box. I waited for just over 43 minutes - how much did that cost me? - and then I left a message asking them to ring me about arrangements for said delivery. I'm not hopeful.

There has to be smarter, consumer friendly ways of running this business?

To be honest, I think it all comes down to competition: UPC has no competition - it has, in fact, a monopoly - and therefore no incentive to treat its customers with respect. The sorry truth.

I wouldn't be hopeful at all to be honest, the number you quote above is a Decor Centre in Clonskeagh.
http://m.goldenpages.ie/detail/db5ba122cab84bbcb852564c72600173

acquiescefc

hi UPC if youre reading this thread pleas change your automated messages. 3 minutes to find out youre office is shut.

youre a joke, you dont know what CSAT is.

and youre billing department can tell me what pro rata means but can you actually put it on the bill correctly. no. getting charged overlapped months for telephone at two different rates..now thats impressive.

rant over

Tarquin1970

acquiescefc wrote: »

youre a joke, you dont know what CSAT is.


rant over

I'm a boards user and I don't know what a CSAT is.

bk

MOD: acquiescefc please don't use abusive language, remember kids could be reading this forum. Your point can be put across without the language. I've edited your post accordingly.

Dionysus

Tarquin1970 wrote: »

I wouldn't be hopeful at all to be honest, the number you quote above is a Decor Centre in Clonskeagh.
http://m.goldenpages.ie/detail/db5ba122cab84bbcb852564c72600173

The plot thickens. Anyway they rang me back from that number first thing Monday morning and it belongs to Cyclone Couriers (even though there's no record of it on the Cyclone website).

They really need to change that answering machine message.

snappieT

Tarquin1970 wrote: »

I'm a boards user and I don't know what a CSAT is.

My money's on Customer SATisfaction.

inforfun

snappieT wrote: »

My money's on Customer SATisfaction.

We have a winner!

coylemj

They have a facility whereby you can register your phone number with them so that when you ring, their phone system will recognise your number and associate it with your account, so far so good.

So I ring them and the automated response says 'Hi, according to our records that phone number is associated with account number nnnnn, if this is correct please press '1'. I press '1', then a couple more buttons to get to the correct person depending on the reason for the call and as soon as I hear a real person, what do you think is the first thing they say to me?

Can I have your account number please?

:eek:

andre2010

UPC are notorious for their customer services. Most of them are students who work part time and couldnt care less about customer problems, all they care about are KPIs and stats. They have to answer a certain amount of calls a day, they arent supposed to exceed 3 minutes on each call and they have to have a certain amount of talk time each day. I know a few people working there, its the same with Eircom, who currently use Capita for their customer services needs.

So basicially UPC are more concerned about answering a certain amount of calls, regardless of quality or a resolution, the better the stats, the more likely they will win customer services centre of the year, thats how they get judged, not by actual customer satisfaction.

They are terrible, couldnt care less, have unbelievably stupid people working there who no nothing on their products and lie to you to get you off the phone before it exceeds the 3 minutes they are allowed in their KPIs

bk

You are right andre2010, but in their defense, customer support have vastly improved since UPC took over.

Back in the NTL/Chorus days you could be waiting an hour for the call to be answered. At least UPC seem to answer straight away.

However you are right, they still have a far way to go. They seem to be making the same mistake that I see many customer support departments make, their stats and goals driving the wrong sort of behavior. Too focused on number of calls dealt with, which leads to support just trying to get people to hang up as quickly as possible, rather then solving their problem.

The latest thinking in CS coming out of the US, is to instead focus on solving the customers problem, because happy customers are customers not leaving.
They instead have a customer only deal with the first person they contact, not be transferred from department to department, with the first CS person having greater training and access to a much greater variety of tools and ultimately being responsible for resolving the customers issues.

burkeie42

Their customer service is shocking, sorry to say.But one person tells you one thing and then next time you ring the same person tells you something different.When this happens always ask for your previous call to be checked.I just had this done, they indicated that yes indeed they had given me incorrect information but tough, not their issue.I would never recommend this company ever

DOC09UNAM

andre2010 wrote: »

UPC are notorious for their customer services. Most of them are students who work part time and couldnt care less about customer problems, all they care about are KPIs and stats. They have to answer a certain amount of calls a day, they arent supposed to exceed 3 minutes on each call and they have to have a certain amount of talk time each day. I know a few people working there, its the same with Eircom, who currently use Capita for their customer services needs.

So basicially UPC are more concerned about answering a certain amount of calls, regardless of quality or a resolution, the better the stats, the more likely they will win customer services centre of the year, thats how they get judged, not by actual customer satisfaction.

They are terrible, couldnt care less, have unbelievably stupid people working there who no nothing on their products and lie to you to get you off the phone before it exceeds the 3 minutes they are allowed in their KPIs

Almost all of this is incorrect.

Also, you're not asked for your account number if you've entered it or rang off a phone with an acc number registered to it, you are asked for your name, address and telephone number, for legal reasons no less.

paulm17781

DOC09UNAM wrote: »

Also, you're not asked for your account number if you've entered it or rang off a phone with an acc number registered to it, you are asked for your name, address and telephone number, for legal reasons no less.

Yes you are. I go through the same tedious process with them whenever I call.

DOC09UNAM

paulm17781 wrote: »

DOC09UNAM wrote: »

Also, you're not asked for your account number if you've entered it or rang off a phone with an acc number registered to it, you are asked for your name, address and telephone number, for legal reasons no less.

Yes you are. I go through the same tedious process with them whenever I call.

I highly doubt it, maybe you're mistaken

0ph0rce0

DOC09UNAM wrote: »

I highly doubt it, maybe you're mistaken

YUP my account number is saved and its the first thing im asked everytime :rolleyes:

coldcake

Have to agree, the machine voice says or records indicate you've called from this number before and then reads out your account no.

So you think you don't have to go off and find a bill with the account no. as they have it already.

BUT always the same they don't have the details when you get a person.
I've complained about this many times but it's always the same.

this really gets up my nose.
Sort it out UPC

paulm17781

DOC09UNAM wrote: »

I highly doubt it, maybe you're mistaken

No, I'm not. Everytime I call, same thing as the other posters who says it happens them.