The high cost of poor customer service

I have switched energy suppliers and insurers a few times because of bad customer service, never because of price. Once switched, I never go back. I have also stopped using certain shops because I don’t like their manners. In my experience Cooperative Energy was the best energy company in dealing with customer enquiries; I would still be with them now but our new house was already ‘tied’ to E.On so I couldn’t easily transfer on purchase. I have found E.On very good to deal with and I have stuck with them because their tariff is preferable – and I suppose we’ve grown to like each other!

I am going to give praise to Sky customer support. Never thought I would do that.

Having had Sky satellite TV for years, we always dreaded having to deal with their customer support. They were dreadful. It would take forever to speak to someone on a premium rate number then you could never get past 1st line support and speak to someone who could sort you out. It was like banging your head against a brick wall.

But that seems to have changed….

Our o2 broadband was taken over by Sky and we have been having problems. They are not sorted out yet but I will give their customer support full marks for trying. The premium rate phone number has gone, you get to speak to someone fairly quickly and 1st line support now pass you over to technical support.

We recently had a power cut late evening. I rang the UK Power Networks reporting line to find out details. They could not have been more helpful; the chap I talked to took time to find out that a crew was on site, what had happened and then spenttime to find out exactly where the fault was located. And did I want to be kept updated with progress (we have medical equipment with limited battery back-up). Great service.

The next day I had a call from UKPN asking whether everything was OK, were we happy with the previous night’s service, and anything more they could do to help. They gave me a cheaper number to use if phoning from a mobile.

Good service is out there provided by helpful people. I can’t help thinking it’s all about individuals being bothered to do their jobs better – treat others like you would like to be treated – but either enhanced or impaired by a company culture. I think the remedy partly is in the hands of employees to be as helpful as possible to customers. What do they have to lose?

Sky are on yellow card. Two calls to get a service call, each time the “advisor” pushing us to upgrade our package (which, allegedly, gives us a year’s warranty on the kit including dish. Gave up in the end and upgraded (annoying, since I barely watch it myself) but next hassle it’s goodbye.

My complaint to British Gas was as follows: “From 26/03/14 until29/05/14 we had 10 call outs on Homecare. On the 1st call out the Engineer found some sludge in the system and advised thinking about a power flush. The Power flush was done on the 16/4/14. I paid £600 as the guarantee for a flush done 4 years previously was cancelled as we had changed supplier. On the 16th/4/14 the engineer then said there wasn’t much came out. He also burned out the pump motor as he forgot to switch off the power Since that flush we had 6 call outs up to the 29/05/14. We felt that the system was not functioning properly especially the radiator in the upstairs bathroom(very slow to heat up and not getting to full heat), . On a recent call out (07/12/14 the engineer checked the radiator and said he believed one of the valves was faulty. He came back 2 days later to replace the valve. He took off the radiator and when he replaced it nothing was coming through. He booked a re -flush and the engineer who came to do it was in the house from 0900 hrs until 1800 hrs.When he took the radiator off, and flushed it a lot of debris came out of the radiator. There was still no flow and he discovered that there was a complete blockage in the HEP pipe under the floor. This needed to be replaced by cutting holes in the floor. I have the pipe for evidence if someone wants to see it. That blockage and the amount of sediment in the system did not happen overnight. It is my view that the flush done on 16/4 was not done properly and I would like a refund of the £600 paid in April. I would welcome speaking to a manager about it.”
They answered as follows:
“Your complaint has been received and one of our Customer Service Advisors will contact you within the next 3 working days.

In the meantime if you would like to review our complaints handling procedure please click here or alternatively phone us on 0800 048 0202 and one of our advisors will send you a copy free of charge

Kind regards
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Arslan Sharif
Digital Director

I had a phone call from a service Manager who said he didn’t have the mechanism to refund my money. When I mentioned that I had ordered a new boiler I asked if he could discount the amount. He said he would contact the Sales person and he could possibly make a voucher for the £600. He was to meet the Sales person next day. That was on the 23rd Dec 2014. I haven’t heard from him since. I sent an e mail to Customer services 2 days ago and they have still not replied.
Its no wonder they rate poorly in Customer Service

Since joining Vodafone I have had nothing but bad service and I fell that no one working there cares, I have had a manager hang up on me, I have been promised several call back and nothing. When I joined I asked them to transfer my number from 02 this never happened and never once did they call me to explain why, when I called to complain no one would deal with it, I requested information on how they deal with complaints are still haven’t heard anything. Wish I had never moved