Sick Of Bad Customer Service

tallaghtfornia

I have just had enough of bad customer service across this country; I thought I would share 2 experiences with you I had yesterday.

1/ Contacted my cable provider yesterday and asked if I could get a call back about moving onto a different package after waiting 20 minutes to get through the lady did go through some of the packages, but I told her that I was only on my break and asked if I could get a call back later and was told ‘The phones are hopping all day and there is no way someone could call you back this week’

2/ Went into my local shop yesterday and qued for 10 minutes while there was a massive que in the shop while the shop assistant took her time serving customers and chatted to her friends as they came to be served, I ended up losing my patience and leaving the goods back.

The reason for me highlighting this is this is only two incidents that I have experienced I have had many more that I have experienced over the last year that I could just not believe.

Has anyone else had experience like this ? or is just me being a ‘moan’.

snubbleste

Ah, diddums.
Did you find your patients again?

Frank Black

Punish bad customer service by taking your business elsewhere.
Reward good customer service by recommending company/business to your friends and colleagues.

Dravokivich

Your issue with point 1, is due to most call centres performance and stats being based on incoming volume, and generally not setup, or at times discouraged by management from handling outgoing volume. In my experience, callbacks are the hardest part of it to do, as the person you are trying to call back, is frequently unavailable.

Grumpypants

So you encountered two people who were nice pleasant and honest. What a shocking ordeal.

hfallada

Well I imagine two people dealing you were earning €8,65 and therefore serving you wasn't going to be the high point of their day. I earn €8,65(in a part time job) and tbh I don't know why I go to work most mornings. It's absolutely horrible the way customers think they can treat you. You do the same thing every single day. It's ground hog day but for several years.

And having worked retail for a week in word experience in 4 th year. I decided I had to go to college to ensure I got a well paid job that wasn't soul destroying.

krudler

So you rang a call centre when you only had a short time to speak the week before Christmas, and that's their fault? ring when you're not on a break, crazy idea. Or contact them online, or hey, do some research yourself, can't imagine there's a provider who doesn't have all this info on their website.

As for taking time serving customers, surely that is good customer service? instead of barreling through them without saying a word, whatever about chatting to other people, that isn't on, but just because you don't get served quickly at the expense of everyone else queuing doesn't mean bad customer service.

DeanAustin

Dravokivich wrote: »

Your issue with point 1, is due to most call centres performance and stats being based on incoming volume, and generally not setup, or at times discouraged by management from handling outgoing volume. In my experience, callbacks are the hardest part of it to do, as the person you are trying to call back, is frequently unavailable.

While you are right, it's still awful customer service.

krudler

DeanAustin wrote: »

While you are right, it's still awful customer service.

Not necessarily, if I had to get someone to ring every crank back over the most trivial things the supervisors would never get away from their phones, until you've worked in that environment and see how ridiculous people can be with their demands it's easy to say that. I had a guy demand a callback from the company CEO one time because he didn't like our hold music.

Skybox

krudler wrote: »

So you rang a call centre when you only had a short time to speak the week before Christmas, and that's their fault? ring when you're not on a break, crazy idea. Or contact them online, or hey, do some research yourself, can't imagine there's a provider who doesn't have all this info on their website.

As for taking time serving customers, surely that is good customer service? instead of barreling through them without saying a word, whatever about chatting to other people, that isn't on, but just because you don't get served quickly at the expense of everyone else queuing doesn't mean bad customer service.

Agree completely. To be fair, there aren't too many cable providers. You could have spent the 20 minutes researching the packages and you would have had a fair idea what you want.

Dravokivich

DeanAustin wrote: »

While you are right, it's still awful customer service.

Not entirely. You'd be surprised how much of it is down to awful customers. I work in a global environment that supports other companies and it's so bad, we've a process whereby we close out support calls, for being unable to contact a user, it's that bad.

You get poor customer service no matter where you go - just a fact of it really.

mitosis

Dravokivich wrote: »

Not entirely. You'd be surprised how much of it is down to awful customers. I work in a global environment that supports other companies and it's so bad, we've a process whereby we close out support calls, for being unable to contact a user, it's that bad.

Did someone give you a big bag of commas for Christmas?

DeanAustin

krudler wrote: »

Not necessarily, if I had to get someone to ring every crank back over the most trivial things the supervisors would never get away from their phones, until you've worked in that environment and see how ridiculous people can be with their demands it's easy to say that. I had a guy demand a callback from the company CEO one time because he didn't like our hold music.

I've worked in several call centres and don't disagree with some of what you're saying but the OP seems to have made a legitimate request for a callback and was refused/obstructed.

There are cranks out there but if you refuse to call all your customers back at their convenience as a policy because there are a few cranks out there, you'll end up with very few customers. From my experience, the vast majority of people looking for callbacks had genuine complaints and weren't serial complainers.

It was bad customer service.

Dravokivich

mitosis wrote: »

Did someone give you a big bag of commas for Christmas?

No, it's how you continue a sentence, with a turn in it. You don't like it, tough luck.

krudler

What I don't get is people's insistence on ringing call centres when the majority of companies now have a twitter or facebook page, or direct email, or online live chat or something. Why put yourself through the bother of sitting on hold when you can do it online? If people used their own initiative more and even just googled stuff you'd get the answer in seconds unless it's some account specific query.

You'd be actually stunned at the things people ring companies for, looking for the numbers for other companies (how'd you get our number? just apply that method to them!), asking questions that are completely unrelated to what you support (Yes we provide your broadband, no it's nothing to do with us that you forgot your gmail password, or that you can't play something on windows media player).

chopper6

That's the Private Sector for ya!

Creamy Goodness

Deleted User wrote: »

You get poor customer service no matter where you go - just a fact of it really.

Not really true, I can't remember the last time I've gotten bad customer service. Then again I do all my interactions with companies online and generally contact when it's convenient to me and not get my panties in a hoop in doing so.

ToxicPaddy

As much as I feel your pain OP the majority of the issues usually come down to the company itself. I worked in customer service and the service industry for a number of years and never again.

They rarely treat their staff well, paying them minimum wage and pretty much don't really care if they stay or go, so it's difficult for the staff to stay motivated, especially if staff are being screamed at everyday by customers because of a companies bad products or faulty goods which those same stuff have no control over.

Then when things get bad for the company due to their poor service or products they let these same staff go first.

anncoates

tallaghtfornia wrote: »

1/ Contacted my cable provider yesterday and asked if I could get a call back about moving onto a different package after waiting 20 minutes to get through the lady did go through some of the packages, but I told her that I was only on my break and asked if I could get a call back later and was told ‘The phones are hopping all day and there is no way someone could call you back this week’

How is that her fault? Sounds like under-staffing.

chopper6

ToxicPaddy wrote: »

As much as I feel your pain OP the majority of the issues usually come down to the company itself. I worked in customer service and the service industry for a number of years and never again.

They rarely treat their staff well, paying them minimum wage and pretty much don't really care if they stay or go, so it's difficult for the staff to stay motivated, especially if staff are being screamed at everyday by customers because of a companies bad products or faulty goods which those same stuff have no control over.

Then when things get bad for the company due to their poor service or products they let these same staff go first.

They are getting paid they should be doing the job properly...everybody gotta start somewhere and if minimum wage is all you can get then you have to make the best of it.

120_Minutes

krudler wrote: »

If people used their own initiative more and even just googled stuff you'd get the answer in seconds unless it's some account specific query.

Because if they did, many people, including myself, would be out of a Job.

They may infuriate the **** out of me, but i'm glad there are still morons about.

Morons? I meant lazy.


Lazy? I meant entitled.


Entitled? sorry I meant all three.

conor2469

anncoates wrote: »

How is that her fault? Sounds like under-staffing.

Exactly, both these experiences were as a result of under staffing. If there is a queue in the shop then there should be another till open. If there isn't someone to operate a second till, the blame doesn't fall on the person operating the first and only till. Unless that person is also responsible for management/rostering.

gugleguy

OP with regard to point
2. In future don'nt patronize that shop no matter how local. That's how many, well at least one seaside towns' shops treat holidaymakers and tourists, compared to the locals. I am not going to name the town or say whether it is on the Atlantic coast or Irish sea. I don't like this aspect of Irishness either but I suppose I just eat sh't. Mind you the same places are always complaining about lack of business.

DeanAustin

conor2469 wrote: »

Exactly, both these experiences were as a result of under staffing. If there is a queue in the shop then there should be another till open. If there isn't someone to operate a second till, the blame doesn't fall on the person operating the first and only till. Unless that person is also responsible for management/rostering.

Whether it's understaffing or not, the company is offering bad customer service. The company is as responsible as the agent for ensuring good customer service.

In the second instance the OP says the girl was chatting away to her friends while people queued. That's poor from her.

I don't buy this "minimum wage so I don't care". I remember earning £11,000 a year in my first CS job just over a decade ago. Piss poor money but everyone has to start somewhere and you won't get any further up the ladder by moaning at the bottom of it.

The Backwards Man

You won't get much support here OP, I'm afraid.
We're all fapping around on boards when we should be working.

tallaghtfornia

gugleguy wrote: »

OP with regard to point
2. In future don'nt patronize that shop no matter how local. That's how many, well at least one seaside towns' shops treat holidaymakers and tourists, compared to the locals. I am not going to name the town or say whether it is on the Atlantic coast or Irish sea. I don't like this aspect of Irishness either but I suppose I just eat sh't. Mind you the same places are always complaining about lack of business.

Thanks Gugleguy, will take your advise on this just p****d off with bad service in general , as for the CC I have no choice but to deal with them.

Corvo

I never understood the moaning about customer service. Just go elsewhere.

tallaghtfornia

Corvo wrote: »

I never understood the moaning about customer service. Just go elsewhere.

Sometimes its hard when you have no choice but to use a particular company.

spiralism

OP, if both companies were clearly too tight to bother properly staffing for this time of year then i don't know do they deserve the business. Don't blame the staff though, its hard for them to do two people's work and get undeserved **** for it that higher ups deserve.

Femme_Fatale

It's fair enough for people who aren't familiar with inbound contact centres to think they should get a callback just because they ask for it, but it's not so straightforward. You need someone to be available in the first place to do so; telephone agents aren't available if it's busy, because their sole function is to take calls, not make them. Managers need to ensure service levels are being met. They have more scope than an advisor to make a callback for sure, but not at the drop of a hat, and there are other people to be called back too; some customers seem to think they are the only one.
You can get a callback from an inbound call centre, but just be patient.

NuckingFacker

10 minutes waiting....than "call me back" and a "no". All in the busiest week for businesses of the entire year. Are you ok OP? That must have been traumatic. I feel you're pain.

Aidric

Deleted User wrote: »

You get poor customer service no matter where you go - just a fact of it really.

False sweeping statement. Plenty of companies providing quality customer service.

NuckingFacker

I was in a company in Baldonnel today and the customer care was really, really good. cue tumbleweed..

dundalkfc10

You could have checked all the packages available for whichever provider you are with in the time it took to write your post

UCDVet

There is a restaurant in Dublin that opens at Noon according to their store and website. Most days they are between 15 and 45 minutes late. Drives me crazy as they have good food for a good price - but I have a set time for lunch (have to get back to work on time).

It's not just me either; today at 12:30 they had a queue of people at the door.

In fairness they seem to do plenty of business and other people seem happy to wait. I do my part by going somewhere else when they aren't open.

Hownowcow

I find that there's always good and bad customer service. If I get bad service I try not to deal with that business again. That said I understand that customer service is a difficult job so I try not to judge on first impressions and tend to give a lot of places a second chance. If I get good customer service I try to bring my business there again. Just yesterday I used a business for the first time and got such good service that I will definitely be going back.

I find that it is often the staff of the business that makes it, and in a lot of cases I feel that they don't get the recognition they deserve. At the moment I'm sorting out some Christmas gifts for staff of business I frequent regularly. It's not much, small stuff like sweets for the staff of a coffee shop or chocolate for a girl in a convenience shop, excellent people. It's a way of saying thanks for making my life that tiny bit easier.

CrazyRabbit

Dear tallaghtfornia,

Thank you for reporting this issue to us. I assure you that every effort will be made to correct this issue for you in a timely manner. A member of our customer care team will contact you this week between the hours of 4am and 6am.

Sincerely,
Rajesh.

biko

The difference between a happy customer and an unhappy customer is that the happy customer rarely starts a thread on boards.

gugleguy

"Your call is really important to us":pac::pac:

DeanAustin

Femme_Fatale wrote: »

It's fair enough for people who aren't familiar with inbound contact centres to think they should get a callback just because they ask for it, but it's not so straightforward. You need someone to be available in the first place to do so; telephone agents aren't available if it's busy, because their sole function is to take calls, not make them. Managers need to ensure service levels are being met. They have more scope than an advisor to make a callback for sure, but not at the drop of a hat, and there are other people to be called back too; some customers seem to think they are the only one.
You can get a callback from an inbound call centre, but just be patient.

You're missing the point and looking at it the wrong way around. Any company with a genuine customer service focus should be tailoring that service around their customer (as long as the customer's request is reasonable).

They shouldn't be just offering a one size fits all "We'll get to you when we can" system that suits the company but not the customer. That's a fast track to losing customers or having them seriously p!ssed off if you have a monopoly. I'm sure the OP was criticising the company rather than the agent (albeit the agent should have shown a bit more savvy or tact) but, either way, "we'll call you back later in the week" is terrible customer service.

If a manager's focus is solely on "service levels" (which I'm sure is the call answer rate), then they are doing nothing to ensure quality of service and are just cultivating a "get em off the phone quickly" culture which runs against everything customer service should stand for.

It's a cliche but if you don't have customers, you don't have a business. Therefore, you should do whatever is reasonably possible to keep them happy.

osarusan

Bought one of these today. Staff dropped it on the counter from a height of about 2 centimetres, apologised profusely, got me a different one, and gave me a free slice of cake for the 8 second delay.

Japan has good customer service.*

*unless you order something not on the menu

Specialun

What kind of cables did you buy

krudler

DeanAustin wrote: »

You're missing the point and looking at it the wrong way around. Any company with a genuine customer service focus should be tailoring that service around their customer (as long as the customer's request is reasonable).

They shouldn't be just offering a one size fits all "We'll get to you when we can" system that suits the company but not the customer. That's a fast track to losing customers or having them seriously p!ssed off if you have a monopoly. I'm sure the OP was criticising the company rather than the agent (albeit the agent should have shown a bit more savvy or tact) but, either way, "we'll call you back later in the week" is terrible customer service.

If a manager's focus is solely on "service levels" (which I'm sure is the call answer rate), then they are doing nothing to ensure quality of service and are just cultivating a "get em off the phone quickly" culture which runs against everything customer service should stand for.

It's a cliche but if you don't have customers, you don't have a business. Therefore, you should do whatever is reasonably possible to keep them happy.

Good customer service is all relative though, the majority of people are happy to get through to an agent and have their query dealt with efficiently, which most calls are where i work. Then you have the people who want everyone to bend over backwards for them and their minor issues and think anything less than the red carpet treatment is poor service.

DeanAustin

krudler wrote: »

Good customer service is all relative though, the majority of people are happy to get through to an agent and have their query dealt with efficiently, which most calls are where i work. Then you have the people who want everyone to bend over backwards for them and their minor issues and think anything less than the red carpet treatment is poor service.

Relative to what?

I agree most people are happy to have their query dealt with efficiently by an agent. I've had great service from companies like Liberty and Bank of Ireland lately. Rang them, requested something and they did it efficiently and professionally.

However, the OP made a reasonable request for a callback. That's not looking for red carpet treatment. Granted, my experience in call centres is that you will get some arrogant people who just want to talk to a manager but the majority looking for callbacks want their problem properly dealt with having failed at the first point of contact. They aren't looking for red carpet treatment at all.

In the case of reasonable requests, to deny or delay the customer their right to have the problem sorted is bad customer service.