Simon Speight

Why is crap service so prevalent these days?

A few recent examples for me.

First Telewest, cable TV/phone/internet provider. We recently moved into a house that the previous owner had Telewest installed in. Very quickly we got a letter from them telling us that we could get Telewest really easily because the hard bit was already done. We wanted it anyway so we get them round to install the works - TV, broadband and the phone.

Except it wasn’t that easy, was it? The lazy twat engineer wouldn’t move the phone points for us (despite the lying bastard sales operative telling me they would when I ordered it), and refused to move the broadband point from the room it was in to the room we wanted it in (meaning he left us with a dirty great cable running from one to the other via 3 walls and the hallway). He was also rude and - get this one - lied about his name (he only revealed his real name as he was leaving, giving the reason that he was doing someone else’s jobs. A real comfort to me as my fiancee was at home on her own when he called(!)).

So we complain. The telephone thing was apparently a lie on behalf of the sales operative. Moving phone points is a chargeable service. Neither of the 3 other engineers who have since visited to correct the dodgy broadband install can understand the way it was done, so that at least is sorted (though it took me to point out that if they ran a new cable externally, it might be easier - and they arrived 7 minutes before a 3 hour window they gave me for this work).

Have I received a follow-up on the engineer-lying-about-his-name issue? Nope. Even though I was supposed to get a phone call from customer services a week ago.

No, yet again I’ve got to phone them to moan. And moan I shall. Its the height of stupidity to piss off a customer who is already complaining.

Next: NatWest bank (Podz, I know you can sympathise with this one).

So I’ve always banked with them, so has my fiancee. We then open a joint account. Then we went and complicated things by moving house.

So my fiancee phones them up to change her account address. The dumb operator tries to confirm her old address but reads my old address. Despite being told categorically that that is not the right previous address, this operator then proceeds to change both my fiancees account details and mine. Can anyone spell “Data Protection Act“?

So I complain. A person other than me changed my address. That’s serious. What have I had, over a month later? Aside from getting all our account addresses changed by customer services, I have had 2 letters, promising an investigation.

Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap. Someone else who’s getting a phone call tomorrow.

And by virtue of the fact that my fiancee works for another bank NatWest may well be losing two customers with 3 current accounts, a couple of savings accounts and 2 credit cards. Smart(!)

Last on my list - SCS Sofas. So, we order a couple of sofas for our new house last November. The daft little half-truths told by the sales-woman (”I’ll have to ask my boss”, “If you take out our extended warranty, he may give you the delivery free” et

c etc) aside, it was OK. We let them off and said we didn’t need it before Christmas, so she put us down for mid-January. They’d phone us to tell us.

Hah! Did they ****. I don’t think their phones work outgoing, because I didn’t get a single phone call from them. As time went by I called them - where are our sofas? They’ll be here next wee
k.

Next week came. I called again. Oh, they’ll be here by the end of next week. Why the change? The first date was apparently “provisional”. This date came from the warehouse and is more fixed.

Two days after this last date, I phone again. Where are our sofas? Oh, they’re in stock. (So why no ****ing phone call??). But I still had to have a day off work because they can’t tell me what time they’ll arrive.

Utterly useless. At least the sofas arrived OK and are fine and comfortable. But for pre-sales service, that stinks.

Its breath-taking how often this happens nowadays. Maybe I’m getting old. I dunno. All I can do really in a capitalist culture is take my money elsewhere and hope these useless companies go bust, quickly.

The only solice I take is from the fact that I have an outlet here to let you know about these incidents. That’s the greatest thing about blogs - it gives us all a voice in a world where we’re increasingly being ignored.