Do phones in your area work both ways?

Muckit

It seems to be common practice around here, only in agricultural circles mind, that phone calls are only made by the customer ie the farmer.

An example. You want a part for a machine or you need to get it serviced. You ring up or call in and that's grand.
'When will it be ready (or when will the part b in?' you enquire.

'Give us a few days,' comes the reply.

So you go home and anxiously wait 'a few days'.

You ring back up and it'll be 'oh that came in yesterday' or 'it'll be tomorrow. '


Would it not make more sense, be more efficient for everyone and indeed courteous to the customer, for the business to be the one to give a quick ring or a text?

We're in an era of cheap unlimited mobile phone call bundles. It can't be much of a monetary saving for the business, or could it?

Either way, I'm ringing you initially. Then I'm driving to you and back to collect. I'm taking out my card/cheque book and paying you! Is a 30 second phone call too much to ask?!

Rant over

my friend

Muckit wrote: »

It seems to be common practice around here, only in agricultural circles mind, that phone calls are only made by the customer ie the farmer.

An example. You want a part for a machine or you need to get it serviced. You ring up or call in and that's grand.
'When will it be ready (or when will the part b in?' you enquire.

'Give us a few days,' comes the reply.

So you go home and anxiously wait 'a few days'.

You ring back up and it'll be 'oh that came in yesterday' or 'it'll be tomorrow. '


Would it not make more sense, be more efficient for everyone and indeed courteous to the customer, for the business to be the one to give a quick ring or a text?

We're in an era of cheap unlimited mobile phone call bundles. It can't be much of a monetary saving for the business, or could it?

Either way, I'm ringing you initially. Then I'm driving to you and back to collect. I'm taking out my card/cheque book and paying you! Is a 30 second phone call too much to ask?!

Rant over

There's an opportunity in what you have described

Muckit

Please elaborate. Do you mean to set up a business with good customer service as it's top priority?

my friend

Muckit wrote: »

Please elaborate. Do you mean to set up a business with good customer service as it's top priority?

Yep, thing is will punters appreciate it? There seems to be a gra for poor customer service in Ireland

Connemara Farmer

One way traffic, same with email.

AnFeirmeoir

yes
Always feel like an annoying fkr cause i keep having to call the contractors multiple times.
Cant they just say when there coming and come, or say if theyre not coming.

AntrimGlens

Think it's the same the country over, sweet mother of baby jaysus but when I was building the house I had itemised phone bills that used to come in for each month some with over 200 calls made by me to tradesmen, often up to ten to the same man in the same day all because they hadn't the courtesy to ring back and let me know when they'd be coming or did they need stuff etc. I made over 3000 calls during that 18 month period to try and ensure that they had work that would provide them with money to pay their bills. Muckit, don't get me started. :mad:

RightTurnClyde

Just had that experience with local FRS. Rang them last week, "I need someone by Wednesday for fencing". " no problem we'll have someone out before then"
4 days later still no contact. Ring them, "we'll check it out and ring you back" . Nothing. Ring them again." We'll get him to ring you". Nothing
Just got a text "Meant to ring, we'll be out Friday evening to do the job"

In the meantime I've got someone else to do the job, but the Frs can load up and come on Friday. When they come on Friday, to a finished job, they're going to be told "meant to ring"

I'm very sick of this sh1t of not returning calls or having to follow up on orders placed 10 times. Sick to sh1t of it. It's pig ignorant.
Rant over (must be the hot weather)

MickeyShtyles

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

Just had that experience with local FRS. Rang them last week, "I need someone by Wednesday for fencing". " no problem we'll have someone out before then"
4 days later still no contact. Ring them, "we'll check it out and ring you back" . Nothing. Ring them again." We'll get him to ring you". Nothing
Just got a text "Meant to ring, we'll be out Friday evening to do the job"

In the meantime I've got someone else to do the job, but the Frs can load up and come on Friday. When they come on Friday, to a finished job, they're going to be told "meant to ring"

I'm very sick of this sh1t of not returning calls or having to follow up on orders placed 10 times. Sick to sh1t of it. It's pig ignorant.
Rant over (must be the hot weather)

Had the same carry on from Liffey Mills over a quote for corragated galvanize.
Shower of savages!!

Mac Taylor

Ah lads what wrong with ye. Ye should be grateful that they pick up the phone, don't mind make a call back. There's no pleasing some people:D:D

Cavanjack

In the middle of building a house and the same craic. If I'm pricing something and ring five people (companies) I would be lucky if three get back to me to quote. I just let the others off.
Even to build the house initially none of the local lads came back to me to quote. Seemingly your supposed to "keep onto them". I operate a one phone call policy:)
To agree with the op it is the same with everything farming related and other.
I was walking into a cloths shop one day at 11.50am to buy a shirt for a wedding, the lady was opening up but said to come back in 10 minutes as they didn't open till 12!
Rang a steel suppliers to get a quote on 3k worth of steel one Saturday at 12 am a few weeks back. " I'm just going out the door" he said "give me a ring back Monday like a good man" no bother says I. I won't bother him again.
Terrible way of doing business IMO. It Does most of them no harm by the looks of things. For instance a Tractor part dealer in the north Meath area has the manners of a pit bull but seems to be doing ok.

20silkcut

Cavanjack wrote: »

In the middle of building a house and the same craic. If I'm pricing something and ring five people (companies) I would be lucky if three get back to me to quote. I just let the others off.
Even to build the house initially none of the local lads came back to me to quote. Seemingly your supposed to "keep onto them". I operate a one phone call policy:)
To agree with the op it is the same with everything farming related and other.
I was walking into a cloths shop one day at 11.50am to buy a shirt for a wedding, the lady was opening up but said to come back in 10 minutes as they didn't open till 12!
Rang a steel suppliers to get a quote on 3k worth of steel one Saturday at 12 am a few weeks back. " I'm just going out the door" he said "give me a ring back Monday like a good man" no bother says I. I won't bother him again.
Terrible way of doing business IMO. It Does most of them no harm by the looks of things. For instance a Tractor part dealer in the north Meath area has the manners of a pit bull but seems to be doing ok.

I find hardware stores the worst of all.
On the face of it the trade counter in a hardware store is like a platoon of computer programmers heads down furiously typing and utterly focused on the screen in front of them severely put out by your trivial requests for service.
"Oh you want to buy something? **** off I'm playing solitaire"
I reckon the problem goes two ways these people are dealing with an endless procession of gruff ignorant queue jumping tradesmen all day long how could they be any different? Same with farming most farmers particularly older guys have the manners of pigs and ignorant as ****. The only way for enlightened souls like ourselves to survive is to become every bit as ignorant which is what will happen anyway.

Aenaes

Cavanjack wrote: »

I was walking into a cloths shop one day at 11.50am to buy a shirt for a wedding, the lady was opening up but said to come back in 10 minutes as they didn't open till 12!
Rang a steel suppliers to get a quote on 3k worth of steel one Saturday at 12 am a few weeks back. " I'm just going out the door" he said "give me a ring back Monday like a good man" no bother says I. I won't bother him again.
Terrible way of doing business IMO.

Terrible way of being a customer IMO.

They were both closed. What do you expect them to do?

The clothes shop didn't open til 12 but you wanted to able to walk in and buy before then?

The steel company obviously do half-days on Saturday. Ok, three thousand euro is a nice order for them and it shouldn't take too long to get a quote for you, you would think. Not so if the computers are all shut off, etc. and the employee could be on his way to a personal appointment in the afternoon.

severeoversteer

AntrimGlens wrote: »

Think it's the same the country over, sweet mother of baby jaysus but when I was building the house I had itemised phone bills that used to come in for each month some with over 200 calls made by me to tradesmen, often up to ten to the same man in the same day all because they hadn't the courtesy to ring back and let me know when they'd be coming or did they need stuff etc. I made over 3000 calls during that 18 month period to try and ensure that they had work that would provide them with money to pay their bills. Muckit, don't get me started. :mad:

imagine being a building contractor for a living!

I had 3 phones at one stage for different things but twas ridiculous so just have the one now as only have one mouth

most calls only last 30 secs but there are a lot of them,
and hundreds of people don't answer every week would drive ya mad

have given up saying hello and goodbye, I just hang up :rolleyes: and answer the phone with ''ya?'' or ''wha?''

I do speak nicely to the clients though !
especially if im tryin to get work off them or payment




the lads on the phone in parts companies and trade counters are the pits though, they say Ill ring ya back and never do, or tell you they have something and they don't have it after driving specially to get it:mad:

severeoversteer

Cavanjack wrote: »

In the middle of building a house and the same craic. If I'm pricing something and ring five people (companies) I would be lucky if three get back to me to quote. I just let the others off.
Even to build the house initially none of the local lads came back to me to quote. Seemingly your supposed to "keep onto them". I operate a one phone call policy:)
To agree with the op it is the same with everything farming related and other.
I was walking into a cloths shop one day at 11.50am to buy a shirt for a wedding, the lady was opening up but said to come back in 10 minutes as they didn't open till 12!
Rang a steel suppliers to get a quote on 3k worth of steel one Saturday at 12 am a few weeks back. " I'm just going out the door" he said "give me a ring back Monday like a good man" no bother says I. I won't bother him again.
Terrible way of doing business IMO. It Does most of them no harm by the looks of things. For instance a Tractor part dealer in the north Meath area has the manners of a pit bull but seems to be doing ok.

I rang that thick f3cker in meath before about parts

without any exaggeration he said
'' I don fvckin have it'' and hung up I rang him back just to annoy the cwnt but no answer


the northern parts dealers are top notch in fairness, they have their stuff together ill tell ya

Bullocks

I almost always answer or ring back people the same day , nothing after 9 O clock at night though unless it's something very last minute .
To be fair I usually don't have bother with people getting back to me with enquiries or prices either .

kollegeknight

I was in a west Clare parts shop today, lads behind the counter were having a chat and phone was ringing for about 20 rings. I nearly lost the cool.

I needed a part the day before and went ringing to no answer so had to drive in the 14 odd miles. The joys of a monopoly,

When my dad was alive, he would have to call the vet 20 times to pin point his location. Since he died, the vet must have felt sorry for me because he calls now to say when he will be up.

Jb1989

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

Just had that experience with local FRS. Rang them last week, "I need someone by Wednesday for fencing". " no problem we'll have someone out before then"
4 days later still no contact. Ring them, "we'll check it out and ring you back" . Nothing. Ring them again." We'll get him to ring you". Nothing
Just got a text "Meant to ring, we'll be out Friday evening to do the job"

In the meantime I've got someone else to do the job, but the Frs can load up and come on Friday. When they come on Friday, to a finished job, they're going to be told "meant to ring"

I'm very sick of this sh1t of not returning calls or having to follow up on orders placed 10 times. Sick to sh1t of it. It's pig ignorant.
Rant over (must be the hot weather)

How did they take it?

royaler83

Aenaes wrote: »

Terrible way of being a customer IMO.

They were both closed. What do you expect them to do?

The clothes shop didn't open til 12 but you wanted to able to walk in and buy before then?

The steel company obviously do half-days on Saturday. Ok, three thousand euro is a nice order for them and it shouldn't take too long to get a quote for you, you would think. Not so if the computers are all shut off, etc. and the employee could be on his way to a personal appointment in the afternoon.

Both could have been handled very differently, could yer one not let him in to try on a couple of shirts, it'd be opening time by the time he'd be paying, 1st sale @12 on the dot!

The steel man should have taken his number & rang him back 1st thing monday morning.

These businesses pay for advertising year round yet simple common sense costs alot less.

As someone said, they obviously do enough business without having to put themselves out too much.

No such thing as a terrible customer once the readies are handed over post sale!!

fanadman1

only people whos phones seem to make outgoing calls here are the sheep dealers sold they be buying or selling to me in fairness

Qualitymark

Couple of years ago I was looking for a plumber and builder to do a job. A plumber was recommended to me, and he recommended a builder. A greater pair of messers you never encountered in your life. I cancelled the job before they started, couldn't stand the way i was supposed to wait in for each of them to arrive, and get no phone call when they didn't, then wait in again. Then I got a raft of phone calls from the two of them, hurt and astonished.

johndeere3350

I get seriously irritated when your going in to get parts.
There's always one ass who is getting a tine for a harbor and it's like a life or death choice for him.
It is fairly annoying when a farmer rings to cut his silage and expects you to be there within an hour

Kovu

About half would, our mechanic will phone us up when the car/van/whatever is fixed and ready to be collected. AI man is an absolute gent, I'll give him a time of say after 4pm for a cow and I'll have her in then, he'll text me and say he'll be in the area at x or x or x and I can choose my time. He'll also bring you a breakfast roll from town if you ask nicely

I've often heard his phone on loudspeaker with an ignorant fella telling him exactly what time to be in the yard for the cow. You'd want the patience of a saint for those chaps.