Customer Service - the good and the bad.

[490808]

I thought it might be worth having a dedicated thread for peoples customer service experiences.

I am minded to start this after a very pleasant and effective customer service experience with the Halifax Building Society in the UK. I have to deal with the Halifax because I have Power of Attorney for my mother's financial affairs. I had some problems with not being able to sort out an issue with a fraud check that shouldn't have been applied to one of her accounts. The issue being I live in Ireland and they don't have a process to verify who I am (if I lived in the UK their system of postcode checks would work). That was all incredibly frustrating. So I put in a Formal Complaint through their complaints process and two days later I was called by someone who had the authority to verify who I was and the problem was dealt with in a very professional manner 110% to my satisfaction. I was also given contact information for dealing with any further issues.

Now I've just had another small issue with the account and used the same channel to ask a question and again got 110% satisfaction. I said to the agent that called me that it wasn't really a complaint and that I was being lazy by emailing and not phoning myself. The agent however had checked my query and because I had previously been given incorrect information said I had a justified complaint that she will follow up until its resolved.

I am quite sure there are other institutions which would have looked at my complaints and said there is nothing they can do about it. I've had a few issues with Amazon recently nothing terrible but their reps only seem to have the ability to refund or replace and feel thats an end to all issues. When however an item is in stock but still not been dispatched a month after ordering they can do nothing except make up stories which change with every rep you speak to.

Anyway I'm rambling, if anyone has and bad or especially good dealings with customer service please let us know.

[nlgbbbblth]

A general observation - Irish businesses are not great at replying to email enquiries. I will try and give my business to local retailers but often they just won't bother replying or don't have the item in stock. So I go online and buy it without a hitch from Amazon.

I remember trying to book a venue for a significant birthday and picked a small pub that failed to respond to email, letter or phone calls. They also had nobody available when I called in person. I gave up after that and approached a much larger venue that did the following
1/ Met me without an appointment and gave me tour of venue
2/ Sent me an email with precise details on arrangements the same day
3/ Followed up any queries promptly - by email
4/ Ensured that the night went off without a hitch - very attentive service all evening.

[peasant]

Best techie service experience I ever had was with ...drumroll ...UTVinternet.
Any and all queries were dealt with immediately by a max of two people, reception and a techie usually, no waiting loop music, no press one, press two ...just great service always to satisfaction...and a bit of banter thrown in for good measure.
Sadly they no longer exist.

I hate call centers with a passion and if you can't understand them ...that's just the icing on the cake.

[765489]

Worst customer service experience for me 2021 was Currys. Since Brexit I've used mostly Irish suppliers and avoided international , can't fault any of the ones I've used. There was one however that I ordered a hundred metres of rope off and what arrived was 30 metres of basically baling twine. They asked for the 30 metre reel to be sent back, that only cost a fiver, and they would send out the correct order. That to me suggests they are hungry cnts. So won't be ordering anything of them anymore either.

[nlgbbbblth]

Made six online orders on Saturday 16 April from six different countries

Germany - item arrived 21 April
Holland - item posted 19 April
Poland - item posted 19 April
Belgium - item posted 18 April
Spain - item posted 19 April
Ireland - after five days of silence, seller just sent message 21 April to say item actually wasn't in stock

[95438756]

Ireland - after five days of silence, seller just sent message 21 April to say item actually wasn't in stock

certified gobshite