Fingal County Council and Emails

CorsendonkX

Is it just me or does anyone else find them a nightmare to deal with by email? I mailed a few depts in the last couple of months and they either ignore my mails until my mail becomes almost a chain letter with regular re-sending then they may acknowledge the mail or holy of holy's send me a reply or they want me to call them so they don't have to put anything in writing. I can't say I have had such poor customer service from any other organisation I dealt with. Anyone else have a similar experience with FCC?

The Hill Billy

Is it one particular department that you have been emailing?

CorsendonkX

CorsendonkX wrote: »

Is it just me or does anyone else find them a nightmare to deal with by email? I mailed a few depts in the last couple of months and they either ignore my mails until my mail becomes almost a chain letter with regular re-sending then they may acknowledge the mail or holy of holy's send me a reply or they want me to call them so they don't have to put anything in writing. I can't say I have had such poor customer service from any other organisation I dealt with. Anyone else have a similar experience with FCC?

The Hill Billy wrote: »

Is it one particular department that you have been emailing?

Nope.

Eoineo

It depends on the nature of the query and the department I've found.
I believe some staff are on term-time at the moment and so response times are down over the summer.

expectationlost

yes they want you to ring them, i refuse to ring politicans/administrations because i want thing in writing too.

SpatialPlanner

CorsendonkX wrote: »

Is it just me or does anyone else find them a nightmare to deal with by email? I mailed a few depts in the last couple of months and they either ignore my mails until my mail becomes almost a chain letter with regular re-sending then they may acknowledge the mail or holy of holy's send me a reply or they want me to call them so they don't have to put anything in writing. I can't say I have had such poor customer service from any other organisation I dealt with. Anyone else have a similar experience with FCC?

Not sure if you know about the Fingal Citizen Charter

http://www.fingalcoco.ie/Publications/Council/Citizen%20Charter.pdf

If you aren't happy with the service you are getting from Fingal County Council, this would be a good way to highlight the issue (page 7). Why not? That's what it's there for.

CorsendonkX

SpatialPlanner wrote: »

Not sure if you know about the Fingal Citizen Charter

http://www.fingalcoco.ie/Publications/Council/Citizen%20Charter.pdf

If you aren't happy with the service you are getting from Fingal County Council, this would be a good way to highlight the issue (page 7). Why not? That's what it's there for.

Thanks for that. Do you know if the rules that apply to a letter apply to an email? They mention letters and phone calls but I can't see a reference to emails.

We will give contact names in all communications. We will acknowledge all letters in need of a reply within three working days of receipt. We will issue full replies within 15 working days. If more time is required we will explain the
reasons for the delay in writing. (For example, there may be certain occasions where time limits are set by statute and are outside our control i.e. Planning Applications, Freedom of Information etc.) We will answer your phone calls within 20 seconds of the first ring and you will be told both the names of the department and the person answering. We will report on our compliance with these targets in our Annual Report

SpatialPlanner

CorsendonkX wrote: »

Thanks for that. Do you know if the rules that apply to a letter apply to an email? They mention letters and phone calls but I can't see a reference to emails.

I'd say it's safe to assume that it covers electronic correspondance as well. Considering the charter was probably adopted as a policy prior to email becoming the main written format to replace the old fashioned snail mail. Give it a go anyway. I'd be shocked if they didn't accept email as a formally adopted mode of communication. After all, you can make a planning submission through the council website now.

Carawaystick

SpatialPlanner wrote: »

I'd say it's safe to assume that it covers electronic correspondance as well. Considering the charter was probably adopted as a policy prior to email becoming the main written format to replace the old fashioned snail mail. Give it a go anyway. I'd be shocked if they didn't accept email as a formally adopted mode of communication. After all, you can make a planning submission through the council website now.

I'd say its safe to assume that it doesn't cover email
Or else the policy would mention email

I've found them to ignore email to the pint of unlawful behaviour regarding access to information on the environment requests, but so do lots of state bodies

expectationlost

since the new website can't find the citizen charter, but i found it via the link above plus the internet archive, so here it is incase anyone is looking for it https://web.archive.org/web/20120425094916/http://www.fingalcoco.ie/Publications/Council/Citizen%20Charter.pdf

i've email them to ask them to put it up on their website

SpatialPlanner

Carawaystick wrote: »

I'd say its safe to assume that it doesn't cover email
Or else the policy would mention email

I've found them to ignore email to the pint of unlawful behaviour regarding access to information on the environment requests, but so do lots of state bodies

Just a brief update. I recently made a formal complaint regarding planning enforcement and following my initial phone call, all of the correspondence with the inspectorate was carried out via email. That included the submission of the formal complaint form so they are accepting email as a formal mode of communication.