Does anyone take customer service seriously now?

[Vitnery]

Like most people I've spent a lot of the last two years listening to hold music and being told my call is important before being cut off. I've kind of come to expect that any dealings with any government department will be frustrating, truncated and unsatisfactory. I know that there are some people - DVLA, HMRC, Passport Office - who no longer deal with queries at all.

But today I finally managed to get through to Octopus. I've been trying for a while, because they took over my gas and electricity after my previous company went bust, and now they've sent me an email offering what they say is their best deal which involves me paying £150 more a month than I was previously. Plus they've finally got their act together and actually billed me for the period between September and now which is obviously hundreds, with just a week to pay it.

Obviously I'm going to have to pony up but I do balk at such shoddiness - not billing me throughout the winter despite me requesting it etc. And to top it all when I was on the phone getting gouged up the arse by them I could quite clearly hear Judge Judy playing in the background, which the call centre agent was obviously listening to, from home.

AIBU to think that if we're all going to get fucked over - which we are, no doubt about it - these corporations should at least pretend to act professionally while they're doing it?

When I read your thread title I came on to write about how fab Octopus are! I’ve stayed with them for 3 years because I’ve always found their customer service absolutely brilliant. You are right that she should not have had the TV loud enough for you to hear, but as others have said it is in no way her fault that you haven’t had a bill.

Also as you transferred from another provider could it have been that which meant you didn’t get your bill? Could there have been a problem the old company getting info over to Octopus?

Lastly as someone else said you should have been putting away X amount per month for your bill, so that you had most of the £500 ready to pay and it didn’t come as a surprise.

All energy companies are shit at the moment and none of them are investing in customer services because they know that of their customers leave their only other options are other, equally shitty providers. You shouldn’t have had to pay for 6 months all at once, especially if you’d repeatedly requested your bills and you should have been given more than a weeks notice to pay.

None of this is the fault of the person on the other end of the phone though. They are almost certainly on a zero hours contract on minimum wage and have the authority to look up your details and say “computer says no”. I’ve worked in a similar role and it’s embarrassing not being able to do anything, humiliating being shouted at and called useless by fully grown adults over 100 times a day and depressing how utterly micromanaged every movement you make is.

I would never put a TV show on in the background while speaking to a customer especially so they could hear it. I also don't think managers of a company would be happy to know that was being done.

The problem with customer service jobs is that people don't want to do them. Its getting close to impossible to recruit for them now - probably due to the horrible way companies have treated them in the past (minimum wage, timed loo breaks etc.) No one wants to work in a job where they listen to people complain 8 hours a day so you really can't be picky when you recruit. Pre-covid and the 'great resignation' there were more people looking for work like this and you could sift through applicants to get a better quality. Octopus may have had 6 months to hire extra staff for the volume of new customers, but I doubt they will have managed to have filled their quota.

Add to this the fact they have worked from home during the pandemic. The labour market shift to a candidates market means that even people will now 'demand' to work from home or they won't take the role. And for every great person there will be someone who doesn't care and will quite happily watch Judge Judy despite it being unprofessional. It's much harder for management to monitor this than it would be in a traditional call centre office and even if they do know they are faced with potentially getting rid of these people and not being able to replace them. So even worse customer service due to longer wait times.

Long story short, yes customer service is probably getting worse, but I dont think its that businesses just don't care its related to wider challenges.

Don't get why people are being so arsey, of course people shouldn't be watching TV when they're meant to be working. One of my colleague clearly has it on the background during calls and even mentions things she has seen, it's no coincidence that she is always behind in her work.

As I said, it isn't the agent's fault their billing system is crap. Would you rather listen to the average call-centre 'soundtrack' of agents on minimum wage trying to placate angry customers who are abusing them with anger that, while possibly justified, is being directed at a person who has zero control over the situation

This is exactly what is wrong with so-called ‘customer service’. You can’t get near the people who are actually responsible for the poor service. Getting angry and abusive is not justified but not surprising.

I rang to speak to someone about my tax the other day and he was still working from home, not an office.

I spoke to a mortgage advisor WFH who had to take a break from the call and phone me back as she had to take her child to the toilet!!!

I may be missing the point of your post but to make you aware, octopus have an app and if you put your meter reading into it you will have a bill in less than 24 hours, I input mine weekly so I know exactly where I am with my bills.

I don't know why some posters are honing in on the Judge Judy thing, but ofc it's bloody unprofessional to have the tv on in the background. OP is right that CS has gone to shit lately. Firms seem to be doing everything in their power lately to avoid customers being able to contact them. If they want to take huge amounts of money off us, the very least they can do is provide good customer service to deal with any queries we might have.

Customer Service is a cost bearing part of business, and the days of 'look after customers and they will look after you' are long gone.

As consumers we are to blame . As a majority, We want the cheapest, fastest, easiest option.

Can we really complain if we use RyanAir , Amazon etc? . How do you think we get those cheap European breaks and next day deliveries? It's not from companies having a well oiled Customer Service operation.

Other industries have taken the lead from this. I work in a university and the excuse for having less student support and helpdesk staff is that 'everyone just wants 24/7 online support now' . This just gives the excuse of employing less people in favour of cobbling together a confusing website.

Basically we all know now that if you want good customer service from a commercial outlet, you have to pay a loaded price to start with.

I am entirely in agreement that you have been treated poorly OP and anyone who says otherwise is wrong. The bill issue is outrageous. Because of winter usage and rising prices you will no doubt have put money away to cover your bill but because you don't know the correct amount your calculations will almost definitely been incorrect and you will have had to find the extra. You have also wasted time and energy repeatedly trying to resolve the issue. To then give you one week to pay the bill is unfair. You should have been given at least until the end of the month so that you could plug any gap. The call centre operators is not responsible for the lateness of your bill but they represent the company. It is basic good manners towards the customer not to speak to them with noise in the background. What the noise is, is irrelevant. The same good manners should be extended to the call assistant by the customer. Since the beginning of covid customer service has fallen through the floor. I was at a self service check out in Waitrose yesterday and asked the assistant if she could please pass me a carrier bag. She pointed to the wall where the carrier bags were obscured by another customer at the tills and told me to get it myself. When I was an undergraduate I worked in Boots. I would have been reprimanded if I had told someone to get their own carrier bag when they had asked me politely if I could do.it. There would not have been a debate because they were the customer and I was employed to help them. If people were generally more considerate about the needs of others standards would be a lot higher. I am personally tired of the race to the bottom in this area!

I agree with you op, I have had a few dealings with customer service like this. People who are arguing with you, obviously work from home. Phoned a well known bank last week, I waited an hour to speak to someone, fair enough. But the guy i spoke to had no interest in my call. A dog barking and tv in the background, loud. That’s just one example, between me and my partner, there has been a few. Customer service has went down hill. There is no reason now that folk shouldn’t be in the office.

@YouCantTourniquetTheTaint

Octopus gained 5 million customers when EDF went tits up, they wouldn't have the number of necessary staff needed to give you, your updated bill, when they needed to help existing customers too.

You know that you're going to be billed and will need to pay your gas and electric bill, that money should have been put in a "safe place" and not spent.

And everyone's bills are going up, especially when the price caps go in April, by thousands each year.

As for judge Judy, do you expect them to work in silence? OK they should have put it on mute, when taking your call, but is it really the end of humanity? And the end of customer service standards because she puts a tele program on?

EDF are not tits up. They are a subsidiary of a French state-owned company. In France there is no artificial competition in domestic supply, no huge costs of failing companies to be passed on to the consumer via standing charge with maximum inconvenience. Thatcher introduced that burden to the UK to enrich shareholders, and it’s normal to be angry about it. It was the stated intention at the time that smaller companies would go bust leaving 5 or 6 big suppliers.

I wouldn’t expect a homeworker to have the TV on, surely there are back-office tasks that can be done in the unlikely event that calls are few. They’d be sacked in short order if they had TV on in the office…we’ve worked our whole lives there without background music.

@FleurDeLizz

This thread really is the worst MN has to offer. Posters being deliberately obtuse just to wind the op up.

OP I’ve enjoyed reading your posts anyway. Customer service is shit, the billing system is automated so there’s no excuse not to send you a bill. And call centre agents should not be watching anything on tv while taking calls. Yeah it’s a boring job but at least make a stab at professionalism

Yes I agree, although i suspect some aren't on the wind up and don't see the issue with watching TV whilst working- probably the same who proclaim how much more work they get done now and would quit rather than return to office.

@Bibbetybobbity

Completely agree with you OP. I’ve been trying for months to solve a glitch with Barclays and on one of my most recent attempts the call handler was obviously on the bus (doors beeping as they closed intermittently, noise of fellow passengers). Complete joke.

I had a glitch with Barclays after trying to resolve it, going through their complaints process reporting them to the ombudsman and having to challenge the ombudsman’s findings with a freedom of information request - 6 months later they finally admitted customer service had screwed up. They had just flatly refused to engage with the issue - until I proved beyond all doubt that there was no issue - someone had made shit up. I was compensated but there was no need for any of it.

I love Judge Judy!

YANBU of course. And what a lot of absolute weirdos you have had on this thread!

You seem to ring people a lot more than I do

Did you have a contract with Octopus for the 6 months interim period? Unlikely. So good luck to them proving you owe them money. They chose to buy bad debt from a previous company - that's not your problem.

Negotiate them down. Do not pay the 6 months in one go.

@Vitnery

As I previously asked, what exactly was lacking in the customer service you received?

I didn't get a bill for six months and when I did get one I had a week to pay it. I repeatedly asked for a bill during that six months.

But if you knew you hadn't been billed surely you've been saving that money for 6 months anyway?

I do agree the agent should be being professional and not watching daytime TV in the background though.

Some call agents at my work got warnings for this when the tv was clearly audible in the background of calls - especially when they were also failing quality audits they'd never had a problem with before.

You’re absolutely right OP. I feel your pain

I may be missing the point of your post but to make you aware, octopus have an app and if you put your meter reading into it you will have a bill in less than 24 hours, I input mine weekly so I know exactly where I am with my bills.

You don’t even need the app, you can just log it it their website, all your billing is there. I’ve never had a paper bill from Octopus in 3 years.

I don't think she should work in silence but I do think it shouldn't be loud enough for you to hear it, how on earth is she able to listen to the call if the TV is that loud?!
Octopus 100% should've billed you in those 6 months. I do agree with other posters though who have said that you should've put money aside each month as you knew you would have to have paid it at some point. Which you may have done but you haven't said you have, and if you had I wouldn't have thought there would be an issue having a weeks notice to pay,
And regarding your complaint about your future bills being £150 more a month, of course they are, everyone is well aware of energy prices at the moment and everyone is in the same boat. You can't compare what you were paying 6 months ago to what you will be paying next month.