21st century customer service... My experience!

[markeyturbo]

Just thought I would share my experience with you lot of a recent enquiry with a well known uk company

http://www.rtoc.org/boards/showthread.php?p=320916...

Apologies for link to another forum but its too lengthy to write out again

Any input welcomed, good or bad. If I'm being unfair or unreasonable I'd rather know

[markeyturbo]

Also apologies if this is in the wrong section, just thought it should be shared :-S

[Harpo]

Tea cup. Storm.
Actually egg cup and a fart.
You owe me 4 mins of my life back.

[surveyor]

Clearly felt you were trying a fast one as others presumably have.

Bit harsh, but if you'd asked about parts availability straight away rather than mention a non-existent refurb perhaps the outcome would have been different.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

that aint no molehill, it's a mountain!

[markeyturbo]

My first email asked for prices... Prices for me to spend my hard earned on

[thehammer]

Shouldnt have run it dry then

[Grenoble]

I think your thread highlights the challenge of email as a narrow channel of communication.

All of which could have been solved by asking for a phone number for a 2 min chat.

[Gad-Westy]

markeyturbo said:

My first email asked for prices... Prices for me to spend my hard earned on

Don't worry. it seems that the OP is always the enemy on here.

FWIW, I'm pretty appalled. Not a company I'm ever likely to use but certainly one I've heard of. A simple apologetic acknowledgement of their misunderstanding (no matter who's fault that was) would have probably put this matter to bed instantly and saved them this negative publicity. To turn on a customer like that is bizarre behaviour.

[MysteryLemon]

Bit of an OTT reaction from the OP.

Unfortunately for the bloke responding to the emails, he probably gets that all the time and unfortunately you got the blunt end of his temper. He shouldn't really reply like that to a "potential" customer but he obviously decided that you wern't going to buy anything.

[markeyturbo]

Thanks for replies, like I said good or bad

Do as you wish with my email address, it's no secret

Seems like a lot of you would accept being accused by the sounds of it, and my car is 'fixed', I was lookin to spend more on it but oh well

[Grenoble]

markeyturbo said:

Thanks for replies, like I said good or bad

Do as you wish with my email address, it's no secret

Seems like a lot of you would accept being accused by the sounds of it, and my car is 'fixed', I was lookin to spend more on it but oh well

I think my (constructive) feedback is that email is a lousy form of conversation if you detect any possible misunderstanding in a dialogue with someone. Rather than extenuate the problem, a quick call to clarify can help and only takes 2 mins.

If after a chat the other party is still unhelpful, then you have a right to have an issue - but email on it's own is a lousy form of communication.

[405dogvan]

To think "someone is trying to pull a fast one" is the default approach of many (esp smaller) businesses - esp businesses who are trading on small margins or simply don't really do quality work (e.g. it happens a lot)

To actually come out and accuse someone of doing that, with almost zero evidence, is the behaviour of a sociopath and it's clearly going to cost him some work.

That he thinks the whole conversation will pan-out in his favour suggests he's not read it

Too many people run businesses thinking they're 'entitled' to custom - 'entitled' to earn money and they don't really put any effort into it.

They sell sub-par items and try to blame customers when they break - they treat customers badly and wonder why they don't have them anyone (and blame their competitors)

When you work in IT you get to see the 'warts and all' version of people's businesses - generally we have to understand people's businesses better than they do - and all that's led me to learn is that I'm amazed some people last as long as they do before going bust!

p.s. take a tip from big companies and make yourself enormously profitable before you start shafting your customers eh?

[zcacogp]

The Crack Fox said:

Small company gives slightly grumpy reply to request from someone who may or may not have been a customer. Customer then gets the hump and decides to plaster the correspondence all over the internet. Nobody died, it cost you nothing, and I'm pretty damn sure no-one is interested. OP, put your energy into fixing your car instead of b1tching on the 'net, good luck.

Oh, and your email address is vivible to the world, Mr Butterworth.

Wot He Sed


Oli.

[SV8Predator]

markeyturbo said:

I sent my pump back last year for refurb, it's lost pressure again and all I get is a dribble.

You started out completely on the wrong foot with that statement.

No wonder 'Richard' thought you were expecting warranty work. Their certainly wouldn't be any confusion with the above statement.

Then you completely change the story and say that 'I think it was checked rather than rebuilt as I don't remember a big bill'.

So no wonder Richard thought you were trying to pull a fast one.

I think you have done him (and his company) a disservice.

[dbdb]

Whether or not there was any ambiguity stemming from the initial email, it was astonishingly badly handled by the company.

[wolves_wanderer]

SV8Predator said:

markeyturbo said:

I sent my pump back last year for refurb, it's lost pressure again and all I get is a dribble.

You started out completely on the wrong foot with that statement.

No wonder 'Richard' thought you were expecting warranty work. Their certainly wouldn't be any confusion with the above statement.

Then you completely change the story and say that 'I think it was checked rather than rebuilt as I don't remember a big bill'.

So no wonder Richard thought you were trying to pull a fast one.

I think you have done him (and his company) a disservice.

That is how I read it, although as already stated a phone call is so much better for this type of thing.

[Engineer1]

dbdb said:

Whether or not there was any ambiguity stemming from the initial email, it was astonishingly badly handled by the company.

bks, It starts out with:

I sent you this and it's stopped working again.

Reasonable response,

Ok I guess you may have only looked at it not fixed it.

etc slowly making it look like the OP has gone in hard because they screwed up only to back track when they can prove from their records that they haven't had the part in to fix.

Reading between the lines it also sounds like the kit the OP has is old as they stopped using the pump he has years ago.

So the OP goes in all guns blazing shoots himself in the foot with the first message then keeps doing it, with no attempt to clarify what he actually wants then threatens to post it across the net.