E-MOBILE ABYSMAL CUSTOMER CARE (Lost Customer)

corcaigh1

Well having been a past customer of E-Mobile about 2 or 3 years ago I had problems with there service and left to go with Three mobile but I decided to return to E-Mobile about 6 months ago and give them another try because I fancied there thirty 20 offer.

Anyway E-Mobile have a 1743 number that I call once a month which has an automated answering service with my visa card details saved. I just enter a 4 digit passcode and top up €20 once a month for the Thirty 20 plan, nice and simple and no issues with E-Mobile since re-joining

Yesterday I rang this 1743 number to top up and instead of the automated answering service I was put through to a customer care representative. I queried with the rep why this was happening and she expalined the need to verify my details. Fair enough, I gave her my details and visa card number etc and she went ahead and topped me up for my Thirty 20 plan.
Job done I hung up and got a text 3 mins later to say ive been topped up by €30..EH WHAT?? Straight away I rang back and spoke to a rep who put me through to a speciality team. A rep informed me that it was a mistake and I would be re-imbursed €30 onto my visa card which will take 3-5 days. I queried that I was only owed €10 but he said that €30 will be returned. Fair enough..happy out.

Today I was doing some routine transfers on my online banking website and noticed that in fact E-Mobile debited my visa card €30 and €20 so in fact took FIFTY EURO off me for a €20 top up for a plan that I have been on since joining so they were well aware of what amount was to be debited.

Well I was lived and rang customer care and had to explain this situation to two different reps untill finally been transfered to the speciality team, explained the situation again to a rep and tried to negotiate a return of the €30 through an E-Mobile Outlet because I was in need of the funds this week. He insisted it would be returned to my visa debit card which will take 3-5 days so leaves me out of pocket this week. Received no apology for there mistaske or perhaps a gesture of goodwill by offering free credit etc. Some cheek so Lets just say my choice of language on the phone wasnt of the civil sort.

Im livid over the abysmal customer care and as soon as my monthly offer is finished ill take my money elsewhere besides E-Mobile/Meteor. Good riddance.

_Kaiser_

corcaigh1 wrote: »

Well having been a past customer of E-Mobile about 3 years ago I had problems with there service and left to go with Three mobile but I decided to return to E-Mobile about 6 months ago and give them another try because I fancied there thirty 20 offer.

Anyway E-Mobile have a 1743 number that I call once a month which has an automated answering service with my visa card details saved. I just enter a 4 digit passcode and top up €20 once a month for the Thirty 20 plan, nice and simple and no issues with E-Mobile since re-joining

Yesterday I rang this 1743 number to top up and instead of the automated answering service I was put through to a customer care representative. I queried with the rep why this was happening and she expalined the need to verify my details. Fair enough, I gave her my details and visa card number etc and she went ahead and topped me up for my Thirty 20 plan.
Job done I hung up and got a text 3 mins later to say ive been topped up by €30..EH WHAT?? Straight away I rang back and spoke to a rep who put me through to a speciality team. A rep informed me that it was a mistake and I would be re-imbursed €30 onto my visa card which will take 3-5 days. I queried that I was only owed €10 but he said that €30 will be returned. Fair enough..happy out.

Today I was doing some routine transfers on my online banking website and noticed that in fact E-Mobile debited my visa card €30 and €20 so in fact took FIFTY EURO off me for a €20 top up for a plan that I have been on since joining so they were well aware of what amount was to be debited.

Well I was lived and rang customer care and had to explain this situation to two different reps untill finally been transfered to the speciality team, explained the situation again to a rep and tried to negotiate a return of the €30 through an E-Mobile Outlet because I was in need of the funds this week. He insisted it would be returned to my visa debit card which will take 3-5 days so leaves me out of pocket this week. Received no apology for there mistaske or perhaps a gesture of goodwill by offering free credit etc. Some cheek so Lets just say my choice of language on the phone wasnt of the civil sort.

Im livid over the abysmal customer care and as soon as my monthly offer is finished ill take my money elsewhere besides E-Mobile/Meteor. Good riddance.

In my personal experience, while eMobile/Meteor are far from perfect, compared to 3's "robots"/script readers I'd much rather deal with them.

What you need to do is call back and request a supervisor. Now, they won't want to give you one there and then (they'll instead promise a call back), if you're firm (don't start ranting - that'll just get you cut off) they will normally relent and put you through.

Then you explain the story and tell them what you want done (don't ask - tell.. but bear in mind that where credit card's are concerned their hands are somewhat tied by the rules of those companies). Make sure you get names of everyone you speak to as well. Hopefully this will get you sorted.


As a more general comment...

The problem we have in this country is we don't complain in the right way.
There's no point losing the plot with an agent on the phone who 9 times out of 10 simply doesn't HAVE the authority to do whatever is needed when something goes wrong.

As a general rule (as someone who has had SERIOUS problems with Meteor/eMobile in the past), if the issue you're having is GENUINELY not your fault, you need to...


- Allow at least 30 mins to get the issue dealt with between being put on hold/transfered etc. Don't expect it to be instantly resolved if it's messy


- Be prepared to have to repeat the story 2/3 times. Remember these people will be coming to the issue "fresh" and (initially anyway) will need to be caught up. It's also better to hear the story from you rather than what they may have been relayed by the first person anyway


- Stay polite! It's ok to be frustrated, but if you lose the head you'll get nowhere. Me I tend to get very precise and formal and my tone becomes very no-nonsense in these cases


- Once you start hearing things you don't want to hear, it's usually because the person doesn't have the authority to offer anything different. In those cases there's no point frustrating either of you more - escalate to the next level

Expect resistance to this depending on company policy. Now I've worked in the Callcentre industry for years myself so I know how they work but I find sympathising with the agent helps - "look, I understand that you don't have the ability to resolve this and I appreciate your help however rather than arguing back and forth, I need you to get a supervisor for me. That's why they're there".

If you get resistance say "ok, what you need to do is go to your supervisor, explain that you have a very frustrated customer who you've explained the situation to, but is demanding to speak to someone higher up". I find this very effective. Also don't accept "there's no supervisor available". There is ALWAYS at least one around in a busy callcentre - they just may not want to take the escalation.

Often they may send the agent back to repeat the same line you've heard - the answer then is "ok, you need to go back to the supervisor and tell them you've told me again but I'm still demanding they take over the call. It's not your job to listen to me, that's what they're paid for and they shouldn't be putting you in that position"


- Once you get the supervisor, explain the situation again and what you want done. They may promise a callback to allow them time to research the issue/engage with other departments which is fine - the first time! In that case, get their name, and agree a definite time for them to call you (eg: 2-4pm that afternoon).

If that call doesn't happen, make sure you're available to ring back at 4:05 and then you add "commitments not being honoured/you have things to do as well" to the list of issues.


- Keep escalating until you get satisfaction but be prepared to put in the work too.

In my situation I went through every dept in there, managers, senior managers, Comreg and eircom corporate but in the end we came to an acceptable solution and now any time I have an issue I call in (actually I just ring one of the senior management directly) and I have very little trouble getting things sorted.


In my experience, the reason Customer Service in this country is so poor a lot of the time is because we don't do this and we aren't prepared to put in the work ourselves to demand better. Once you DO though, you'll find these companies are completely unprepared for it and you will get all sorts of concessions from them that previously were "not possible"

I've gotten hundreds in credit on my mobile accounts, refunds from Bord Gais, UPC, Sky etc over the years purely because I refuse to be fobbed off or accept poor service when they have dropped the ball.

If we all took the same attitude then these companies would be forced to up their game and ultimately lead to a better service for all.

corcaigh1

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

In my personal experience, while eMobile/Meteor are far from perfect, compared to 3's "robots"/script readers I'd much rather deal with them.

What you need to do is call back and request a supervisor. Now, they won't want to give you one there and then (they'll instead promise a call back), if you're firm (don't start ranting - that'll just get you cut off) they will normally relent and put you through.

Then you explain the story and tell them what you want done (don't ask - tell.. but bear in mind that where credit card's are concerned their hands are somewhat tied by the rules of those companies). Make sure you get names of everyone you speak to as well. Hopefully this will get you sorted.


As a more general comment...

The problem we have in this country is we don't complain in the right way.
There's no point losing the plot with an agent on the phone who 9 times out of 10 simply doesn't HAVE the authority to do whatever is needed when something goes wrong.

As a general rule (as someone who has had SERIOUS problems with Meteor/eMobile in the past), if the issue you're having is GENUINELY not your fault, you need to...


- Allow at least 30 mins to get the issue dealt with between being put on hold/transfered etc. Don't expect it to be instantly resolved if it's messy


- Be prepared to have to repeat the story 2/3 times. Remember these people will be coming to the issue "fresh" and (initially anyway) will need to be caught up. It's also better to hear the story from you rather than what they may have been relayed by the first person anyway


- Stay polite! It's ok to be frustrated, but if you lose the head you'll get nowhere. Me I tend to get very precise and formal and my tone becomes very no-nonsense in these cases


- Once you start hearing things you don't want to hear, it's usually because the person doesn't have the authority to offer anything different. In those cases there's no point frustrating either of you more - escalate to the next level

Expect resistance to this depending on company policy. Now I've worked in the Callcentre industry for years myself so I know how they work but I find sympathising with the agent helps - "look, I understand that you don't have the ability to resolve this and I appreciate your help however rather than arguing back and forth, I need you to get a supervisor for me. That's why they're there".

If you get resistance say "ok, what you need to do is go to your supervisor, explain that you have a very frustrated customer who you've explained the situation to, but is demanding to speak to someone higher up". I find this very effective. Also don't accept "there's no supervisor available". There is ALWAYS at least one around in a busy callcentre - they just may not want to take the escalation.

Often they may send the agent back to repeat the same line you've heard - the answer then is "ok, you need to go back to the supervisor and tell them you've told me again but I'm still demanding they take over the call. It's not your job to listen to me, that's what they're paid for and they shouldn't be putting you in that position"


- Once you get the supervisor, explain the situation again and what you want done. They may promise a callback to allow them time to research the issue/engage with other departments which is fine - the first time! In that case, get their name, and agree a definite time for them to call you (eg: 2-4pm that afternoon).

If that call doesn't happen, make sure you're available to ring back at 4:05 and then you add "commitments not being honoured/you have things to do as well" to the list of issues.


- Keep escalating until you get satisfaction but be prepared to put in the work too.

In my situation I went through every dept in there, managers, senior managers, Comreg and eircom corporate but in the end we came to an acceptable solution and now any time I have an issue I call in (actually I just ring one of the senior management directly) and I have very little trouble getting things sorted.


In my experience, the reason Customer Service in this country is so poor a lot of the time is because we don't do this and we aren't prepared to put in the work ourselves to demand better. Once you DO though, you'll find these companies are completely unprepared for it and you will get all sorts of concessions from them that previously were "not possible"

I've gotten hundreds in credit on my mobile accounts, refunds from Bord Gais, UPC, Sky etc over the years purely because I refuse to be fobbed off or accept poor service when they have dropped the ball.

If we all took the same attitude then these companies would be forced to up their game and ultimately lead to a better service for all.

Wow! thats some very solid advice. Ive gotta admit that resorting to losing the plot wasnt warranted but I thought that all my options had been exhausted so felt frustrated at getting nowhere but if I had of known what is suggested here here it most likely would have been a better outcome. l will definitley take this advice on board for future reference. Thanks Kaiser2000.

antodeco

eMobile werent around 3 years ago??

corcaigh1

antodeco wrote: »

eMobile werent around 3 years ago??

I joined them when they first came out. Whenever that was cant remember was it 2 or 3 years ago...:)

antodeco

corcaigh1 wrote: »

I joined them when they first came out. Whenever that was cant remember was it 2 or 3 years ago...:)

Ah ok. End September 2010! Exactly 2 years ago of this time!