Customer Service - The Good

[Whydoesthecatalwaysdothat]

I’m having either really brilliant customer service at the moment or the absolute pits. I thought it would be interesting to start a list of companies that are easy to deal with and actually seem to care about their customers/resolve problems efficiently.

Please feel free to add. I’ll start….

First Direct
LV=
Waitrose
John Lewis
Laithwaites
Fat Face
Whistlefish

This will shock and amaze but Vodafone. Had a broadband problem and they had an openreach engineer on the doorstep the same afternoon. They replaced all the wiring from the telegraph pole. It didn’t fix it. The next day they replaced the connector box thing in the house. It didn’t work. They sent a new router for next day delivery. Kept me updated with a dedicated phone number and reference no. Then reduced my bill. Without. Being. Asked. I was shook

Recently Jet2 and BT, really good staff.

Bamboo Clothing. Absolutely stellar service!

What a brilliant, positive thread. Having worked in a very lowly position in retail, and been spat at and often ignored by customers who you were being paid to serve, I believe wholeheartedly in a 'thank you'. Whenever I get good service I always email the head office and compliment the named customer service person....most recently in JL.

NatWest mortgages

Next- DD got a onesie for Christmas, but there was a little hole in the side seam. I did the web chat thing and told them, they were out of stock so gave me a refund and let me keep the onesie! They also gave me an extra £5 on top of the refund for the inconvenience 😯 I was happy with the easy refund, and not having to mess about returning it. I sewed up the hole and DD loves her onesie that I got paid £5 for!

@Theoldwrinkley

What a brilliant, positive thread. Having worked in a very lowly position in retail, and been spat at and often ignored by customers who you were being paid to serve, I believe wholeheartedly in a 'thank you'. Whenever I get good service I always email the head office and compliment the named customer service person....most recently in JL.

I was actually going to post another thread for 'The Bad' as I've actually had terrible service from two companies over the last couple of days then decided against it.

It's made me realise how much I value decent customer service and how I'm not prepared to waste my time and money on companies that just can't be bothered to sort their customer service out.

Life is hard enough at the moment without having to spend 45 minutes on the phone trying to communicate with someone who can't speak English and doesn't know how to resolve the problem so ends up putting you on hold ten times during the course of the call because there is no option for emailing the company............. That was me yesterday and I ended up putting the phone down and I was that bloody mad at the incompetence on the other end of the phone.

Whistlefish - the card company - really great x

British Gas
Admiral car insurance

Boden - always so helpful
Glossier make up - was amazing when something went wrong
Apple were really good when I had a problem
AO

@Sprig1

HMRC. Their voice recognition system is excellent and always understands what I have said, even if it is something complicated. Also, the staff have always been v helpful once I have got through.

I have to disagree here, though admittedly it's a couple of years since I phoned. I went through many options to select what my query was about, etc., and after all that faff I got a message saying, "Our staff are all busy, please call back later," and they hung up.

First Direct for me. I've been with then for 20+ years, and now, being somewhat old and doddery, I find online banking very stressful, so I use their telephone service. It's nearly always quick ( though that dropped somewhat during the pandemic, which they acknowledged, and said they'd employed more staff now). Once I explained that online banking stressed me, they were great. Said they understood and that it was in my notes so I'd never be questioned why I didn't use it again.

And they have contact centres in the Uk. As I use hearing aids, familiar accents are easier for me to understand.

And also, birchbox. While I've cancelled my subscription now, I complained about Hermes being their default deliverer. They immediately said they would ensure all deliveries were by post office.

Tesco absolutely first class.

ASOS

Now TV for their broadband, I've had 2 issues in 3 years and they've been solved within 24 hours and I've been compensated for the trouble without asking, plus I am still on my original deal from signing up 3 years ago. Great way to keep customers loyal.
Google get a mention too, I had an issue with my Chromecast and didn't have a clue how to fix it, it was to do with the broadband something or another and the agent actually found the fix for my broadband/router and talked me through it step by step instead of referring me to my provider to do, it got fixed and they rang back 24 hours later to make sure that it had continued to work!

I left both glowing reviews!

Another vote for HMRC here, and the Carphone Warehouse.