Sick Of Bad Customer Service

tallaghtfornia · 17-12-2013 10:34AM #1

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 · 17-12-2013 10:37AM

Ah, diddums.
Did you find your patients again?

Frank Black · 17-12-2013 10:39AM

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

Dravokivich · 17-12-2013 10:39AM

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 · 17-12-2013 10:39AM

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

hfallada · 17-12-2013 10:42AM

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 · 17-12-2013 10:43AM

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 · 17-12-2013 10:44AM

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 · 17-12-2013 10:46AM

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 · 17-12-2013 10:47AM

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 · 17-12-2013 10:48AM

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.

17-12-2013 10:50AM

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

mitosis · 17-12-2013 10:54AM

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 · 17-12-2013 10:55AM

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 · 17-12-2013 10:55AM

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 · 17-12-2013 10:56AM

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 · 17-12-2013 10:56AM

That's the Private Sector for ya!

Creamy Goodness · 17-12-2013 10:58AM

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 · 17-12-2013 11:07AM

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 · 17-12-2013 11:08AM

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 · 17-12-2013 11:11AM

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 · 17-12-2013 11:11AM

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 · 17-12-2013 11:17AM

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 · 17-12-2013 11:21AM

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 · 17-12-2013 11:23AM

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 · 17-12-2013 11:26AM

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

tallaghtfornia · 17-12-2013 11:36AM

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 · 17-12-2013 11:51AM

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

tallaghtfornia · 17-12-2013 12:19PM

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 · 17-12-2013 08:22PM

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 · 17-12-2013 08:27PM

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.

Sick Of Bad Customer Service

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