Miscellaneous -
Customer Service
The phrase 'Customer Service' is alien to a large
number of companies serving the UK and they seem
increasingly incapable of providing a standard of
service which most other European countries
receive as a matter of routine and customers take
for granted. Freeserve, BT, Sky Digital, NTL and
Internet Service Providers for instance, treat
their customers with total contempt once they've
signed on the dotted line. Like politics,
competition is no discouragement as they're all
the same. These companies must continually strive
to recruit more customers as they are unable to
keep the existing ones due to their own sheer
incompetence. A few examples of what the British
consumer can expect are outlined below.
FREESERVE
After signing up with Freeserve they take payment
from your bank account each month and just to
make things difficult for themselves, vary the
date of the request for payment to the extent
that not even their own customer service
personnel know what is happening. A few days
after each payment is made, they send out an
email saying there's a problem with your card and
ask you to phone them to confirm they have the
correct details. A call centre operative tells
you it's a mistake, everything's fine and to
ignore the email. After this has happened for the
fifth consecutive month, Freeserve disconnects
you, cancels your internet access and then writes
to invite you to sign up for a new account!
See also: Growing Pains
BT
Internet access from BT is promised at all times,
yet logging on to their network can often take
several attempts due to the fact they're unable
to cope with the number of subscribers trying to
use the service. This doesn't deter them however,
from spending vast amounts of money advertising
in the national press for new subscribers to sign
up with them. Their 'Anytime' account which
boasts 'Unlimited Access' is restricted to 12
HOURS A DAY which seems to be the normal state of
affairs with ISP's as more people attempt to use
the internet.
SKY DIGITAL
Half-page advertisements in the press are
commonplace in their crusade to sign up more
subscribers to their service. Sky have offered
nine months free viewing of some of their
channels to anyone subscribing to any of their
'World Packs' with the promise of more to come.
Existing customers get short thrift however if
they receive say, a new viewing card which
happens to be faulty. Calls to their customer
service department to first obtain and then chase
up a replacement card results in 'It will take
three days', 'It can take up to five days' and
'You must allow three weeks'. After three weeks
you get, 'I'll order you a new card, please allow
five days' with the promise of, 'Of course we'll
refund you for the time you've not been able to
receive the service'. When the card finally
arrives it does not allow you access to the
package you've subscribed to, resulting in yet
more phone calls.
NTL
Visit: www.nthellworld.co.uk for the complete guide
into the workings of NTL.
INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS
In the case of un-metered monthly payment
accounts, most ISP's are unable to cope with the
number of customers they have and 'Line busy, try
later' messages are all too common when trying to
log on. This is despite promises of being able to
use the service anytime. The idea is sound in
theory - use a free-call 0800 number and connect
at anytime for as long as you want, for a fixed
monthly fee. In practice though, it's crap. With
too many subscribers and lack of capacity, all of
these accounts are a total waste of money if you
actually want to use the service as intended, as
at 'peak times', it's almost impossible to
connect. Yet another example of companies not
supplying the service that's being paid for.
Along
with the previously mentioned, PlusNet, Force9,
Safariconnect and MyInternetPass (who disconnect
you after an hour), are all guilty of being
unable to provide the service for which they
charge. With Safariconnect, their email settings
also don't work and you are unable to access your
own account details. In order to cancel your
account, you're required to inform them in
writing. However, they ignore your request and
continue billing you every month.
Connectfree, were fine until they upgraded and
'improved' their service. The result is that you
can no longer access your account. Email and FTP
facilities are no longer available and so, you
have a web site you can't use anymore, despite
changing various settings as instructed.
ISP's periodically change the access numbers in
an attempt to improve their service but like
everything else in this country, each time a
service or product is 'improved' it invariably
becomes worse than before. AOL are probably the
worst offender in this. ISPs in the UK are still
a long way from being able to provide the same
standard of service as many other parts of the
world take for granted.
Other companies who fall far short of providing a
reasonable level of customer service include:
Dixons, Currys (who actually display boxes for
products they don't stock), Comet, Powerhouse, PC
World, Dollond & Aitchison and Allied
Carpets.
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