Category Archives: Customer Service

The Good And The Bad…

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A week or so ago I placed an order with my favourite porn kitchen store, Lakeland. I love their products and their service.

On Wednesday I had a card through my door from Hermes Delivery Service saying nothing but that they had missed me and would try again on Thursday. No phone number to call, despite there being a space for it on the card.

Thursday I was home for a good part of the morning but, alas, came home from picking Adam up from school and found another card from Hermes through my door. This one had a phone number and a name and, more or less, said if I didn’t get in touch they’d try one more time and then return it to the sender. I immediately rang the number, getting a generic answer phone rather than a specific one, asking them to re-deliver Friday afternoon, as I’d be out all morning.

Friday afternoon I get home to find a third Hermes delivery slip. This one said ‘Luckily your neighbour at number 15 was home and we don’t deliver to your area except in the morning.’ So my lovely neighbour had taken in my box and I finally got it.

And so I went looking for a way to complain to Hermes, not just for the lack of phone number the first time, but the tone of the final note. That is not good customer service. If a customer rings you and says ‘I can only be home in the afternoon.’ you say ‘Okay, then I’ll deliver in the afternoon.’

However, if you go to the Hermes website you learn something. You learn that all Hermes drivers are contractors. And that they have no complaints procedure. Really?

So I went to MyHermes, made up a tracking number, as it wouldn’t let me fill in the form with out it, and made my complaint that way.

I also told them I would be contacting the vendor to let them know how unhappy I was with their delivery and to suggest they find a better company.

I received replies from both companies today.

Lakeland fell all over themselves apologizing and assuring me they would speak to their delivery firm and they hoped I’d give them another chance. Which, of course, I will. They are the Good.

Hermes fell all over themselves blaming the driver and explaining that they are trained but are on their own beyond that but they’d try to speak to them. The Bad.

Here’s the thing. I have a voice. I have a computer. I have a Twitter. Granted, Hermes has no social media presence that I can find, although if you search Twitter from them you’ll find hundreds of complaints. There is one local Hermes franchise delivery page on Facebook but nothing for the general company.

But I will be hash tagging this as Hermes and @LakelandUK.

So people will know: Lakeland is The Good. And Hermes is The Bad.

And Hermes? It’s time to come into the 21st Century, improve your service, and use the internet. I know a really great company that could help you…

 

Are You Kidding Me? Tesco’s Inability To Fix a Basic Problem

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I’ve mentioned many times that I order our groceries from Tesco. And I’ve been really impressed with their improved customer service compared to when I gave up on them 3 years ago.

Except for one issue.

Tesco have a system where, if you give them a mobile number, they text you. First with a ‘don’t forget you’ve booked us!’ text the day before your delivery and then with a ‘your groceries will arrive between x and y’ on the morning of your delivery. That second one narrows down the delivery time to one hour and is very handy.

I have not received that second email in, literally, months.

In fact, on reflection, I am 99% sure I haven’t had one since March, when I included a screen shot of a text message they sent me, when my groceries were late. If you read that blog entry, you’ll see that the text message was sent at 1107 and said my groceries would arrive at 1021, after they sent one saying 1121.

I am fairly sure their inability to send me such texts started then. Every week I Tweet to @UKTesco and complain. Every week they claim it will be fixed.

It hasn’t been.

They have also ‘escalated it’, fixed it ‘manually’ and so on. For weeks.

At this point I don’t even care about the stupid text message, as handy as it is.

I just want them to admit they can’t fix it and they have no idea why.

But I doubt they will.

Tesco, You’ve Made The List. Again.

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So yesterday, as per usual, we had a grocery delivery booked for our week’s groceries. We do this through Tesco as it’s either them or Sainsbury’s and we’ve just always used Tesco.

The only thing that wasn’t usual about yesterday was the time. Since Simon’s parents were down and we didn’t know what we’d be doing during the day, we booked it to be delivered between 8 and 10 am, instead of between 2 and 4pm.

At 810 I received a text saying ‘your groceries will be delivered between 9 and 10.’ Perfect.

10am. No groceries.

Simon gets on the phone to their customer service centre who ‘try to contact the driver’. I have put that in quotes because Tesco have never successfully contacted a driver when there has been a delivery issue in the nearly 10 years (off and on) I’ve been having them delivery my groceries. Apparently everyone in the world has mobiles and GPS except Tesco drivers, as, once again, they couldn’t tell us where the truck was. So the customer service centre person said ‘I’ll ring the store and ring you back.’

At that point I gave up and began getting us organized to go to the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum and made a new shopping list so we could stop on our way back, because without that delivery? We had no food.

At 1107 I received text that said ‘Apologies, you delivery is delayed. It will arrive between 8 and 1121am.’  Two minutes later I received a second text, that one said ‘Apologies, your delivery is delayed. It will arrive between 8 and 1021 am.’ O_o. Tesco have a TARDIS?! Cool!

At 1122am we said ‘fuck it’ and started getting into the car. And then a Tesco van stopped at the end of the street. Not at our house. At the end of the street. Simon walked down to see if it was for us. Yup. But the driver was on the phone. O_o

At approximately 1130am our groceries were finally in our house.

The driver said ‘Oh are you heading out?’

To which I replied ‘Yes, you were suppose to be here an hour and a half ago.’

To which he replied ‘Well, I was suppose to leave the store at 915 (so much for delivering any earlier than 930, despite my 8-10 slot) and didn’t leave until 1115.’

I have now emailed Tesco the above story, along with a screen shot of the two ridiculous text messages. I have asked them what they will do to keep me as a customer as I am seriously thinking about changing to Sainsbury, although people tell me they are just as bad.

I have had an email saying they tried to ring me, which must be the Blocked Call I ignored on my mobile today (I rarely answer Blocked numbers unless I am actually doing work at the time). The email says they’ll ring again.

We’ll see.

My Totally Craptascular Week

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Monday – Actually not too bad, as I went to the Pain Clinic and have been scheduled for Acupuncture after the 1st of the year.

Tuesday – Washer repair man suppose to be here between 8 and 10.  At 9 my phone rings telling me the repairman is ill and won’t be here until Friday.  So we enter week 2 with no washing machine.  And I’m off to an evening gig, that I was 20 minutes late for because it took 30 minutes to get from here to the client’s in the pouring rain in a taxi.  Because it never rains in Belfast so no one knows how to drive in it. O__o

Wednesday – Horrible nights sleep but swamped with work, processing the video from Tuesday night, so can’t have a rest while Adam is at Germcare (TM).  At about 10 there’s a knock on my door.  It’s the plasterer, who was suppose to be here Tuesday afternoon, to take a  look at the paint that is bubbling again in my hall, assumed to be from a leak in the heating pipes as it was fine until the heating was turned on.  He has no idea what he’s suppose to do, so I tell him landlord said he’d cut a small hole in the wall to look for a leak.  He starts banging away and I try to get back to work.  Suddenly it goes quite so I go to look.  He’s left, leaving the front door open, and half my wall is stripped to the breeze block.  Angry email to my landlord with a picture.   He’s suppose to be back Monday morning at 9.

Thursday – Diabetes Clinic.  With Adam in tow.  Who was, as always, a star.  Except when the blood pressure cuff was ripped off my arm.  That scared him and made him cry.  Adding more Metphormin to my daily dose and see them in 6 months.

Friday – Washer guy shows up at 800.  By 9 he insists it’s fixed.  I ask him to let it run a bit longer but he insists it’s fixed and hauls ass.  By 915 washer was having the same fault.  Rang the repair company.  They ring the repair guy to get him back but he tells them he’s been gone for 40 minutes and can’t come back. I tell the repair company that’s bull.  They say too bad, but that he said to turn it off completely and unplug it, run a new cycle and it should work, but they’ll book in a repair visit for Monday morning.  So I did.  And it still doesn’t work.  So I haul 2 weeks of wash, in a duffel bag with wheels my mum left when she never returned in June and two Tesco bags, pushing Adam in his pram with one hand, up to the nearest launderette, in a hail storm.  3 hours and £20 later I’m home and the wash is done.  Of course, if it wasn’t for our service contract on the washer, it would have been about £200 later with no working washer as that was how much the repair guy said the new part and labour would have been without the contract.

This weekend can only be great, right?  RIGHT?

Spreading The Bad Customer Service Word

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So when my mom got sick in London and never made it back for Adam’s birthday, she left a whole lotta stuff here.

So I’ve boxed it up and tried to ship it UPS, who seemed to have the best rates. Except I got caught in a never ending loop of: –

Oh, you can use a credit card to ship that.

Oh but you need a UPS account in case there are custom’s charges.

Oh, but you can’t have a UPS account because you say you won’t ship much.

Oh but the receiver can have one. My mum gets one. Oh but the sender needs one as well, no matter that your credit card is on file with us.

Oh you will ship a lot (yes, I lied to the website, sue me)? Awesome, you can have a UPS account, someone will contact you within 24 hours.

That was 3 days ago. I am still waiting for someone to contact me.

And now I’m shipping with DHL.

And posting this story every where I can think on the internet.

Oh For F’s Sake…

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So, being responsible parents, when Adam was born Simon and I put certain financial strategies into place. One was to set up an ISA.  No problem, only an ISA can only accept a deposit of £250 or more at one time in the UK (no idea if this is true of the US).  My mom gives money for birthdays and Chanukkah that are to be put away for the child for their education.  Now we used his ‘welcome to the earth present’ to set up the ISA but needed a place to put these smaller amounts so they would gather a bit of interest and eventually be £250 to be added to the ISA.

So I looked on our bank’s website and decided on their eSaver account.  Its a total online account and you get a little extra interest because you never need to go into the bank.  Great, perfect for technophiles like Simon and I!

I started the process to set up this account just after we got back from the US, as my mom had given me the first of Adam’s gifts for Channukah.  So 1st week of January.  Please note that it is now 23rd February. And the account has finally been opened today.

First when I tried to apply online, my address was listed as wrong, but the form wouldn’t let me change it.  So I ring (phone call number 1) to get them to fix it.  They go through the security questions, I get one of them wrong, but they can’t tell me which one.   The guy on the phone actually said to me ‘I can put you through to the branch if there is someone there who can vouch for you?’  Is he serious? The only time I talk to a teller is when I have change to turn into bills.  They wouldn’t know me if I dropped dead in their lobby.  So into the branch I go.

The nice woman at the branch looks at the account and says everything is fine.  When I tell her I got a security question wrong but the phone guy couldn’t tell me which one, she actually rolled her eyes.  She made a note in the account that I came in with ID and sent me on my way.

Try again online.  Still has the wrong address in the form.  Phone call 2.  This time the woman tells me that it is my address that I got wrong.  What?!?  So trip 2 to the branch.

This time a different woman looks again and says ‘oh.  Your address and your husband’s address are listed differently.  You do live together?’ Um, yeah, for over 6 years now.  I do not live down the road from him, imagine that? So she changes it in her computer and sends me on my merry way.

Please note that at this point it has taken 2 trips to the branch and 2 phone calls to set up an account that is suppose to give you a little extra interest because you never have to deal with a human.

So I sit down to do it again online.  AHA! My address is right.  Wait, what’s this? Data error, please ring.  Oh FFS!  So I ring for the 3rd time.  Go through the security questions.  ‘Mrs Fraser, we have your husband’s birthday listed as 1979.’  Okay, I know I robbed the cradle a bit, but by 10 years?  That’s right, back into the branch with Simon and his birth certificate to prove that I only robbed the cradle by 5 years.  We’ve had this joint Current Account for 6 years and this has just come up? So much for banking security.

Bank contact count:  Calls 3. Trips to branch 3.

Finally manage to finish the entire form online and wait for my paperwork.  Paperwork arrives.  Uh oh.  Need proof of address.  Utility bill, nope all in Simon’s name.  Driver’s License? Nope don’t have one.  Anything on the list? Nope.  See note at bottom of page ‘if you have nothing on this list please ring.’  So I ring.  ‘You have nothing on the list?’ No.  Sorry, can’t open account.

So I place the paperwork on the shredding pile and say to Simon ‘guess we can’t open this.’  We are both a bit bewildered at this since we already have an account with them, which, when we opened it, we had to prove our address.  But that doesn’t count.

And then, the miracle occurred.  We received our Tax Credit Letter, with both of our names on it! Hurrah! An official letter from HM Revenue and Customs and its on The List!  I would like it noted here that at no time did HMR&C ever ask for proof of address, so how the bank can use that letter as proof of address is beyond me.

Anyway, I head into the bank last week with my passport and the letter.  And get told Simon and I have to come in together. :sigh:

So this past Saturday Simon and I finally had the time and nothing more urgent to do on a Saturday and we got the proof into the bank.

And yesterday I get an email ‘Congratulations, your eSaver is set up!  Please access it online the same way you do your Current Account!’

But its not there when I log on. :sigh:

I decide to give them 24 hours because sometimes these things happen.

Eh Violá!  This morning, it was there.  Only, there appeared to be no way to transfer from the Current Account to the eSaver…so I rang the bank.  Apparently a special form had to be filled out to allow us to transfer our own money from our Current Account to the eSaver.  It would be done tomorrow.

And then I was at Tesco when my mobile phone rang.  It was the bank.  So sorry for the confusion, your account has been open for so long that some how this debit feature was never set up.  Um, okay, but we pay standing orders from it all the time.  Yes ma’am but this part was not set up.  Now it is.

I get home. Eh Violá!  I transferred some money from our Current Account to the new eSaver.

So let’s recap.  To set up a savings account that was created specifically so that you get some extra interest for never bothering the bank:

Bank Visits: 5

Phone calls: 6 from me 1 to me

And almost 8 weeks to complete.  And probably 2 – 3 hours of my time.

That extra interest had better add up.

Excellent, and Quick, Customer Service

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So, when the OB said ‘come back in 2 weeks and then we’ll schedule a C-section for 10 days after that’ I went into panic mode a bit. Not about the baby nearly being here, but about being ready for the baby to nearly be here!

I still did not have:

The Amby Hammock

Sheets for the cot

Bumper for the cot

So I went online on Sunday and bought the Amby.  It was delivered yesterday. WOW!

Then on Tuesday, I remembered that a friend on Mumsnet, when I had expressed concern about the lack of a baby bumper, which are not recommended for small babies due to possibility of suffocation, whereas I was worried about baby hitting its head, told me about the Airwave Cot Bumper.  That was ordered Monday.  I received it yesterday. WOW!

Then Wednesday I popped into Mamas and Papas to look at their sheets, as they had been recommended by a friend.  The problem I had was that they had no waterproof mattress covers.  In fact, when I asked about them, the sales woman looked surprised I would even want them because ‘all of our mattresses are specially covered already.’  To which I replied ‘lovely, but I didn’t buy my mattress here.’  And promptly left.  So a web search for waterproof mattress covers sent me to: John Lewis.  Where I also found sheets.  So those were ordered on Wednesday.  They arrived today. WOW!

So within 5 days, I had everything left on my list for baby.

Now I just need to put the sheets and bumper on the cot and set up the Amby.

And have a baby. 🙂

Shoe Shopping Was a Success!!

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Got these and this.  Not the most sexy shoes I’ve ever bought, but they are comfy!

The interesting part was that my feet have gone up a size.  I knew this could happen during pregnancy, but all my old shoes still fit, so I’m a bit perplexed!

And today was a really good customer service day.  I first popped into the bank to post a cheque and while I was there I asked if they had coin bags, so Simon and I can count the change jar.  The people who work on Saturday are not tellers and don’t sit behind the teller desks, but off to one side.  The girl said that she didn’t think they did since they were in the teller bit.  The guy said ‘but are they locked up?’  Girl said she didn’t think so.  So guy jumped over the teller desk and got me a whole bunch!

Then, at Clark’s, they were very on the ball, getting me one size and then the next one with no fuss and a smile on their faces.

Overall a very good day’s shopping.