There’s a film called Falling Down in which Michael Douglas plays an Everyman who, frustrated with the many small obstacles of everyday life, takes up arms against them. Let us forget, for a moment, that, by the end of the film, the protagonist is vilified and externalized as a dangerous loony, and own that — even though we have no intention of carrying out such things — we fantasize about compensating for our feeling of helplessness by going up to the nearest so-called customer service department and pumping the clerk full of a couple of hundred rounds from the shockingly large armaments that one just happens to be toting.
Item: For some reason best known to itself, my gas company hasn’t charged me for its services for almost two years. Yes, I have told them about it. Yes, I have offered to pay. Yes, they have dutifully taken down the meter reading … and still, nothing has happened. One day I shall get a bill for two year’s energy use at today’s inflated prices, all because they cocked up.
Item: For some strange reason best known to itself, my Internet Service Provider has denied me the use of my website. Initially this was because I’d gone over my allowed limit of free space, following which you’d have thought they’d have offered to charge me. But nope, they took down my site. I removed a lot of extraneous matter so that the site came below the limit … and my site still hasn’t come back up. I am forever on the phone to very apologetic people in foreign countries, who tell me very politely that their engineers are looking into it… but nothing happens.
Item: For some strange reason best known to itself, my rail company still advertises certain journeys involving transfers as through connections, even though they are almost impossible to make because of persistent delays caused by ongoing engineering works. One gets lots of apologies, and even lots of free rail vouchers, and even a promise of financial compensation: but that doesn’t compensate for a lot of time wasted, and promises that the rail company makes that it knows it can’t keep.
Those are just my particular bugbears. I haven’t even begun to address the clerical cock-ups that afflict Mrs Gee.
Actually, I do know the reason for all these things. It’s because the people at the other end of the phone, or across the desk, are often powerless to address the problem in hand, because they are too dim, or haven’t been trained, or that the systems with which they are meant to be dealing are so distributed and fragmented so that any one person in the company feels no sense of responsibility. Recent years have seen a proliferation in the so-called rights of customers, in the form of disputes procedures, ombudspersons for this, that and the other. But the problems have only got worse, and innocent customers end up footing the bill for the laxity of the organizations that are supposed to be rendering them a service.
That was pretty calm for rage, Henry. I’d have qualified that as frustration.
I agree that diffuse responsibility on the behalf of an organisation’s representatives is the root of all their customer’s ills. Such diffusion is endemic in France, too, if that is any comfort. A global irritation. The only solution I can think of is not to propagate it and set a better example.
Meanwhile, patience.
That was pretty calm for rage, Henry. I’d have qualified that as frustration
You should have seen what I wrote before Mrs Gee insisted I edit it.
If you want a webhosting package, you should drop me a line, Henry. Very good service from them, reasonable rates, and they have US-based servers (I use their Australian ones).
I was tempted to blog about the laptop I bought. The customer service was awful. My problem was all software related, but they still insisted I use a webform in Finnish. And my email sent to the address for “Scandinavia, English” came back with a “sod off and use the form” in German.
I took the machine back, and bought an Asus Eeeeeeee, as advertised by Henry. Their onine support is largely through a discussion board, so a little bit of searching means I don’t even have to waste their time.
If you want a webhosting package, you should drop me a line, Henry.
Consider it dropped, Richard. My ISP’s allotment of 20Mb free space seems niggardly by today’s standards, and their treatment of me considering I’ve been a customer since 1994 is shocking. I’m sure I can do better.
Bob – I love my Asus Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, which always sounds to me like an expression of extreme satisfaction in Heckmondwike.
Finally, Nature Networks joins the rest of the weblogging world and becomes a forum for unrelated personal griping! Allow me to congratulate you for opening the floodgates, Henry! Before I join the deluge, I might offer a few solutions:
(1) Change ISP. They show no loyalty to you, you have no obligation to be loyal to them.
(2) Unfortunately, this might not work so well for the gas thing. Starting a green political revolution seems to be the only way to bring down british gas and their government approved licence to print cash.
(3) Move to a foreign country and try to deal with all the same problems in a language that most infants can speak better than you. At least in Blighty you can swear effectively and efficiently at the poor sod that is paid to take your abuse by the people who are the cause of the frustration.
(1) Yes, but isn’t that a damn shame? Back in 1994, before Windows, my ISP was a bunch of techie enthusiasts who spoke my language. But it got taken over and their customer services are outsourced to a foreign country (see point 3). But what makes you think that any other ISP will be any better? And in the case of a monopoly (such as a train company) one is stuffed anyway.
(2) I have been thinking of installing solar water heating. As that’s pretty much all we do with gas (in the summer at least) that should solve part of the problem.
(3) When you are dealing with customer services people in a foreign country, you might as well be speaking in a foreign language. Sure, all the words seem intelligible, and they are always friendly and polite, but one has the sensation that one can’t really impress upon them the seriousness of one’s complaint. Such things as nuance go out the window.
Shouting abuse, I find, is ultimately unhelpful, although it makes one feel better in the short term.
My point, in essence, is twofold.
First, I don’t see why I, the customer, should pay for the incompetence of the people whom I’m already paying to render me a service.
Second, that replacing a simple, customer-friendly service with a complex, customer-unfriendly one might appeal to corporations for reasons of efficiency, but the customer will invariably suffer.
You should try having to deal with publishers’ customer service departments when endeavouring to get online access restored… Admittedly it is a bit better now than a few years ago, but it is a little annoying when you’re told that they can’t restore your access because their accounts department has not yet processed the cheque that was sent 6 weeks ago!
3) Move to a foreign country and try to deal with all the same problems in a language that most infants can speak better than you. At least in Blighty you can swear effectively and efficiently at the poor sod that is paid to take your abuse by the people who are the cause of the frustration.
As Henry points out, no you can’t. Almost all organizations (all the ones I am forced to deal with, anyway), have “outsourced” customer services to India. Hence if something breaks (phone line being my most recent example) you have to go through all that with someone who may in the literal sense understand English, but has no CONTEXT for the problem.
Last time I had a problem with the BT Broadband service I use, the (Indian) gentleman I eventually spoke to (after interminable music and pressing buttons on the phone) suggested I uninstall Internet Explorer to solve the problem. Just the type of advice you don’t need. I feel sorry for the little old ladies trying to cope with this strange world.
_ … uninstall Internet Explorer to solve the problem. _ I’ve had people in India tell me the same, and they’re right.
Explorer 6 is all right. Explorer 7, though, is the evil demon spawn of
a cheap-suited, over-cologned marketing droid from Colchester and the loudly over-fleshed, under-dressed girlfriend whose tongue is down his throatSatan.fwiw, it’s no better over here…I’ll not bore you with details, but I imagine they’re essentially the problems…
I feel sorry for the little old ladies trying to cope with this strange world.
Absolutely Maxine. “Does this bus go to the internets tea room?”
Also in this genre is the classic Judge Peter Openshaw for real court drama in 2007.
Henry, you may be right about Internet Explorer ina general sense, but I think that whether it was uninstalled or installed would have had no effect on the fact that my Broadband connection was down owing to a “technical problem at BT’s end” ;-)
Hmmm. I guess you’re right. My broadband connection was down for most of last August because of the failure of a tiny plastic component in the green box down the end of the street. It had perished and was letting water in…
According to Energywatch, if your gas provider has not sent a bill for more than a year then they should not try to recover payment for more than the last twelve months usage. See here: http://www.energywatch.org.uk/help_and_advice/billing_basics/index.asp#2
David – thank you, thank you, thank you. That’s a fabulously useful link and could come in very useful.
the people at the other end of the phone, or across the desk, are often powerless to address the problem in hand, because they are too dim, or haven’t been trained, or that the systems with which they are meant to be dealing are so distributed and fragmented so that any one person in the company feels no sense of responsibility
But have you considered the possibility that the gas company, your ISP, and the rail company are colluding to rattle the most unflappable members of the British Empire? Or that the people at the other end of the phone, or across the desk, are perhaps so powerful that they can decide your fate on a mere whim? The possibility that after you hang up, shaking your fist in frustration, thwarted again, that maniacal laughter is echoing around the call center: “Muahahahahaha… Muahahahahahaha!”
There’s the classic saying… “it’s not paranoia if they really are out to get you!”
Hilary — I honestly believe that they are trying to be helpful, but simply cannot cope. In the end, you get the service that your company thinks it can afford, ignoring the premise that there is a difference between cheapness and value for money.