A business is only as good as its customer service. An efficient sales team can be undermined if the resultant customer experience is negative. And it is an indication of just how good that customer service is when things go wrong and they resolve it with a happy client. This past week, I’ve had a couple of experiences that are worth sharing because they illustrate so well the two extremes.
A few weeks ago one of the cats who will remain nameless knocked my SatNav off the dresser and the LCD screen was damaged as a consequence. Yes, I know, I know, I should have put it somewhere safe. I’ve already had that lecture… Anyway, as the unit cost over £300 to buy a little over a year or so ago, it was worth forking out for a repair. After a search on the wonderful interwebs I came up with a quote from the Satnav Repair service. The quote was reasonable so I decided to go with it. Last Wednesday, I put the unit in the post via special delivery. Thursday morning I had an email telling me that they would be assigning an engineer and would advise further as things progressed. Later that afternoon, they emailed asking for payment as the unit was now ready for shipment. Friday morning I had it back – well, I would have if I had been in to receive the parcel. As it was, Mrs L collected it on Saturday morning from the local sorting office. But the point stands, a forty-eight hour turnaround with a working unit at a fair price was, to me, good service. I.e they did what they said they would do.
Last week I had an email form Billmonitor telling me that I could save money on my phone bill by switching to a different contract. As our finances are tight to say the least, I looked at their recommendations. As both our handsets are getting long in the tooth we decided to go for the contract with the new Motorola Razrs through Mobiles.co.uk, who are a subsidiary of Carphone Warehouse. As I’ve used Carphone Warehouse before with no problems, I thought this would be straightforward. Not so.
Firstly, while my order went though just dandy with a contract on the Three network, Mrs L was declined as they wouldn’t allow two contracts on the same account within, apparently, three months of each other. Mobiles suggested she have one with T Mobile. The price was pretty much the same and we were still making savings on our current arrangement so she went with that.
As with the Satnav Repair people, the phones arrived in very short order – the following day (Friday). Mrs L’s had the wrong SIM card. These handsets take a micro SIM and she was given a standard one. Mobiles.co uk told her to contact T Mobile. T Mobile told her to contact Mobiles.co.uk. The upshot being that she became pretty angry as no one would accept responsibility so she started to escalate the complaint until she could speak to a supervisor who could do something. In the end, she had to pay a £10 fee to T Mobile and get a refund from Mobiles.co.uk, As she pointed out several times before reaching this compromise – it wasn’t her mistake, so why should she be the one to fix it? They should be able to arrange a replacement SIM and pay T Mobile direct. That this should be the case, is pretty obvious. However, no amount of complaining would get her past that buffer and it took several calls over the course of the morning to get that far. Okay, so they have they agreed to refund the cost of the replacement SIM and they will refund the cost of the calls she made, but that’s not the point. She shouldn’t have had to make several calls when one should have sufficed with a simple resolution – Mobiles.co.uk contact T Mobile and arrange a replacement SIM.
Meanwhile, my problems had only just started. My SIM didn’t work at all as it was not yet activated. Three told me to wait up to twenty-four hours. By Monday morning, it was not working so I contacted them again and this time they told me that they had no record of it. Nor did they recognise the IMEI number of the handset. The problem, they told me, was that Mobiles.co.uk had not registered the sale with them, so they could do nothing. They would look into it and call me back. I never received a call back.
I called Mobiles.co.uk who told me that they were having problems with their notification system and I should give it a couple of days. By Wednesday, the problem persisted so I called again. They told me to call back on Friday as they were still having problems with the notification system. On Friday, my patience had worn thin. I’d had the phone a week – and still it didn’t work. I started my phone around with Three, as they were open earlier in the morning, to see if they had the SIM on their system. No, they didn’t. They would look into it, contact Mobiles.co.uk and call me back. Yeah, you got it, no callback. I ran out of time as I had to go out. No calls were received during the course of the day, so I started again when I arrived home that afternoon.
I called Mobiles.co.uk. Yes, they had received a number of irate phone calls from customers whose phones did not, apparently, exist. Please could I be patient? On Monday they are planning a conference call with Three between some high level managers to try and resolve the issue. Now, I don’t care whose fault it is, I simply want a working phone. By now, I should have ported over my number and cancelled my old contract. As it is, I have an item that is about as useful to me as a plasticine house brick.
The Sale of Goods and Services act 1979 requires that goods and services be fit for purpose. A mobile phone that does not make calls is manifestly not fit for purpose. I’ve decided, given my deep well of patience, thin though it has become, to allow them time to complete their conference call on Monday – along with their promise of a call back. We shall see if this happens. If the phone isn’t fixed by the end of the second week, I will be bundling it back up and returning it. The deal will be off as they have failed to fulfil their side of the contract.
Now, here’s your starter for ten, which of the above companies would I recommend to a friend?
I don’t know who to recommend, but my wife and I always deal direct. She used to be with Orange moved to Vodafone. I was with Virgin moved to 3. No troubles at all. All were done though their main outlets in town though.
Do you know that you can trim a SIM to a MicroSIM with a pair of scissors? (For those not confident in that look on eBay for a cutter that looks like a little stapler – @£2.)
I did try trimming it. Unfortunately this didn’t work. The Gold contacts were too large and the plastic was too thick for the slot. The correct SIM when it arrived fitted perfectly.
Yeah, previously, I’ve dealt directly with the Network provider. That isn’t always as smooth as it could be. Try changing one O2 contract to another O2 contract and see how easy it is to keep your number. The only way they can facilitate it is if you ten take out a temporary PAYG SIM, port the number to that and then back to the new contract.
We bought a cheap as chips one from Tesco for my 88 year old mum. We spent 5 hours programming it for one touch dialing and as she had had a couple of bad falls told her to keep it with her at all times. Ten minutes after we left to go home to Bristol, she had managed to drop it down the loo. Kaput! Tesco changed it for a new one instantly, no questions asked.
As for great value companies… I’m a smoker and have a Zippo Lighter. I have sent it back for repair free of charge twice now (the hinge is the weak link) and their lifetime guarantee is an actual fact. All you pay for is postage to Pennsylvania.
I changed my health insurance a month ago. The chap who did the paperwork was polite, friendly, knew the products and how to get the best deal for what I needed. Great to be served by people like that. But as I walked off I realised i had forgotten something important. I turned round and ran into him leaving the office for his mid-morning coffee and cigarette. I apologised and explained the problem. He smiled politely, put out the fag and we went back to the office to do the paperwork again. Customet service is not just solving the customer’s problems, it’s looking as though you’re enjoying it. This lad was probably remembering my mother, but you wouldn’t have noticed.
RAB
I gave up smoking a few years ago, but I still carry a silver Zippo my mother gave me as a peace offering when she realised that she wasn’t going to get me to stop by shouting at me. Twenty-odd years old and still works perfectly.
There are a number of possible reason why one company can offer things cheaper than its competitors, but often it is lower overheads because of fewer staff and less resources which means it quickly falls down if anything goes wrong.
The warning: You get what you pay for, seems these days to go unheeded – a bit old fashioned. This is why people on budget airlines having paid £2-50 for their return flight, complain when they were not put up in an hotel and treated to a gourmet meal when their flight is cancelled because the wings have dropped of the only plane Seatofthepants Airlines has.
While we are saving money, the deals are not exactly cheap either. Also, the companies concerned are major players in the market, so this one doesn’t really apply.
I think the mobile would already be in the return post if it were me. However, I know I’m becoming increasingly intolerant of such lousy service as I get older. One of the things that really gets my goat is firms who claim to have something in stock, only for it to mysteriously go out of stock once your order is placed. Indeed, only this week I’ve found myself cancelling an order for a new PC monitor for exactly that reason.