To think customer service is SHIT in the UK

[PMTsickandtiredofyourshit]

•All phone lines are automated and take up to an hour to get through. They usually have some nonsense excuse answerphone message about Covid 19 causing ‘higher than normal call volumes’ that hasn’t been changed in years.

•restaurants are increasingly taking ages to serve and give the impression you’re on a time limit at your table. Wait staff less charming/ less people skills/ less cherishing of customers.

•Today I went to mountain warehouse to get DD some snow boots. Every question I asked the staff they couldn’t answer. I asked if they’d had shoe fitting training because I couldn’t tell which size DD should have. The staff just shrugged and said they had no training. Finally found a good pair but it had a sharp bit sticking out of the inside. I asked if they had the same pair without the fault and was told no but they’d give me a discount! Obviously I wasn’t going to buy my DD a pair of boots with a metal shard sticking out of the interior!

•Then I went to Aldi where they had loads of new self-checkouts which I was heartily encouraged to use by one of the staff, despite the fact I had a full trolly of food. It was a fucking nightmare and took a good 30 minutes. Every other item didn’t scan, there was no where to fit my DD, my trolly and myself without being in the way of the people trying to get out, there were boxes and crap dumped on the floor in front of the trolly. It was incredibly stressful and made me resolve to stop using ALdi and just bankrupt myself by using a nicer, less stressful supermarket.

•Finally I went to Neros where the queue was its usual mile long glacial paced scenario with three women behind the counter, one who was having a huge scratch of her scalp then serving pastries. She got in a huge muddle when selling me two gift cards and was completely baffled by the fact that the two gift cards were to be given to two separate people so I would need two separate gift receipts. I have no idea if these £30 worth of gift cards have actually been credited.

Even trying to book an appointment with my Dr, I have to be given the Spanish Inquisition by one of the receptionists who seems to be qualified to triage the doctor’s diary in the most brusk, patronising non-compassionate way ever. I’m sorry if I don’t want to tell you the ins and outs of my vaginal thrush problem whilst stood outside my office in earshot of my colleagues having been on hold since I was getting dressed at home Janet! FFS. 🤦‍♀️

I just don’t know what has become of customer service these days. It’s as though people who work with the public actively hate them.

How can this be changed!?

As a pp said, I find it I am polite to them, they are polite back.
So many people lose their temper so quickly these days without realising they are talking to a human being who is probably overworked, underpaid and probably received minimal training.

This thread has just reminded me to leave a customer review for an experience we had yesterday. Three members of staff turned what could've been a negative experience into a lovely memorable one on probably one of their busiest most stressful days of the year. I'm off to say "Thank you".

My husband went to The Range today with our 5 year old. At 11.45am they went up to the cafe for an early lunch but it was closed. They asked an employee what time it opened and she didn't know 🤷🏼‍♀️ How can you work in a cafe and not know what time it opens? She made no effort to find out so they left and went to McDonalds instead. She gave an excuse of being short staffed 'because of the snow' - we literally had a watery flurry overnight and there was a bit of slush about early this morning but that's it!

I'm experiencing excellent customer service this evening.

Staying in a hotel and I could hear loud music from the function room.

Complained to reception and was immediately moved to another upgraded room. Staff member sent up to move my bags and offered a complimentary drink.

Other than Clarks and independent children's shoe shops, I have never assumed retail staff are trained in shoe fitting. That's quite specialist.

MissBuffyAnneSummers

there’s your answer folks - complain - get free stuff.

I recently had excellent customer service from Fortnum and Mason. I've visited the store 3 times and been treated as a very valued customer with staff going above and beyond. I called them in the summer with a query and they were great. Most recently I forgot to add something to my order and emailed to ask if it could be added. It couldn't but they said if I made a new order for my one little bar of chocolate they'd refund me the postage costs. I'm not making big orders either or buying much in store.

Center parcs have also been great at rectifying their error with our booking and going above and beyond in what they did.

Amazon are always great.

Restaurants haven't been the same since covid. The TGIs thread yesterday made me sad because it was my favourite restaurant with many great memories there. I don't bother eating out now.

Waitrose also excellent. I've been using their delivery service since covid and can't fault them. I get a call if they are going to be late or early, they refund any produce that isn't quite up to standard, if it's use by the day you get it then it's free, and staff are friendly, helpful and appear to enjoy their job.

Well pharmacy have been great lately apart from one awful woman who audibly complains about customers.

I've experienced really good customer service from staff at train stations recently as well, when needing extra help with a disabled daughter. Also, find most staff in baker's shops to be friendly and cheerful (independent ones and Greggs). So the answer is it varies, but most of the bad examples I put down to poor employers.

If people want things as cheap as possible then corners will be cut.

Bit of a sweeping statement! Yes some customer service is bad but I can think
of a lot more that is good.

Sophie's got to ID anyone who might potentially look under 25, not over 18, and while it might be abundantly clear to you, if its not to her and she's worried about losing her job over not doing it, then she doesn't need to get a grip, the fully grown adult buying a controlled substance in a country with well known licensing laws needs to get a grip and get over the fact they've got to spend all of 5 seconds pulling proof of age out of their wallet, which if you are going to buy something that requires you to be over a certain age for, it's your responsibility to have on you.... but sure, the person doing their job is the problem here 🙄

Very good point

I’ve found the opposite- customers are far ruder, more intolerant and much more impatient than before lockdown.

Trying to get through to a real person on the phone is a nightmare. I've just spent the weekend with no heating due to my gas meter failing, and the amount of calls I had to make where I was just hanging for up to an hour was ridiculous. And the people I did speak to were overseas (asked me what time it was here) and sounded like they were at home with very loud family life going on in the background. I felt quite concerned for how I would have coped if I'd been very elderly - the whole experience was really stressful and confusing.

Pay for customer service staff is way way too low and they are usually understaffed.

Combine this with the shocking rudeness of many customers and here we are.

We need more equality in our society and more basic respect for fellow human beings.

I used to be on minimum wage and paid crap, I was still polite and did my best to do a good job!

Just on holiday in Thailand- lucky me. People here are poor but generally very helpful in all customer service situations. The Buddhist family oriented upbringing and culture permeates the way of life. In UK sadly our fragmented society and selfish attitudes play out in situations like yours. Yes there are kind loving compassionate people but our society is very unequal and selfish as a whole and the media and government perpetuate this. Can it be changed- sadly not any time soon. Just be stoic and don’t give it back it pays in the long run

It depends.. as ever.

I've had great customer service from small companies - Big Bloomers Bra Co told me which of their bras are stretchiest (the white ones are much much stretchier than same size coloured ones), got a pair of pants and measured the gusset for me... over and above I am sure you'll agree, and prompt with it.

On the other hand, Millbrook Health Care who are supposedly managing my Disabled Facilities Grant suck absolute donkey balls - have not told me the technical officer dealing with my case has left, this is the THIRD time this has happened and their protocol appears to be 'bin ongoing cases when someone leaves. Leave client in the dark, ignore their emails'... im 6 years into waiting for something that shouldn't have taken more than 18 months!

I try to use small companies, UK based companies, wherever I can but it isn't always easy to do this.

Everyone wants to pay less but wants great service. Shareholders still want maximum profit but cant put prices up because the market will only stand so much. The pinch point is running costs namely staff headcounts. Reduced head count equals less service because one person can only do what they can do in the time they have. Thrown in abusive customers and general poor treatment along with customers who think you are somehow beneath them and you get poor customer service. Why should customers get to treat people like shit just because they answer the phone. Combine poor customer attitude with staff shortages unrealistic workloads crap pay and conditions and you have unmotivated staff who do 'the job' and have no interest in going the extra mile for people who don't value them.

I'm fine about the shit wages, had far more responsibility for less money in social care!

I'm even fine about people not using basic common manners like please and thank you, that quite frankly for some is a lost cause and this whole "You are here to serve me, lowly serf and therefore shall be treated how I see fit" is mildly irritating but generally washes over me, and a throwback to classism, and those who get way too excited about having a bit of perceived power over other people.

The thing that really gets me though is the exaggeration and the lying, and lack of personal responsibility.
People expect what they want, regardless of if it's actually offered or not by the business or if it's even available. So many people expect all the rules to change for them, even laws, because 'customer service'.

And of course the trump card when you really can't do what is being demanded, you've always, always been rude, had an attitude, had a funny tone, looked at them this or that way - because they know fine well they're being unreasonable but also that there's no come back from accusing someone of being rude, it suddenly gives their ridiculous complaint some credibility, and it gets them a bit of attention and some free stuff sometimes and they can be the victim - which some people definitely enjoy!

And an increase in people seemingly unable to go to places that actually suit them and will meet their needs and wants, they go into places and expect the whole thing to change around them because they're a paying customer!!!

And as for this "Don't like it then get another job", well that's maybe why a lot of places don't have enough staff - people have done exactly that. Great job treating those who are there like shit and making the situation worse as they then decide enough is enough though 👍. Or they've gone off and got a job where they're actually treated like a human being.🤷🏼‍♀️

I've been customer facing on & off a long time and it has got markedly worse since covid, and even veterans like me who are used to the shitty customers are just getting overwhelmed now. An almost constant negative and bullying atmosphere takes it's toll, and paying people money doesn't change the fact they're human.

Loads of places have kept the QR code ordering system which drives me mad. I don't want to be wrangling a glitchy app just to order a portion of chips. Then the app automatically adds a tip! For carrying out the chips? I've done most of the service work myself. Grrr

70% sounds very high.

Also I have been told that my question was answered by the FAQs when it categorically wasn't, and that was why I was calling/emailing.

When you are waiting to get through on the phone, there is a constant message telling you that you can do things online. Yes, that's why I am sitting here on the phone waiting for ages because I could have looked it up/done it online in 10 seconds.

I think customer service has improved a lot over the years but there is still plenty of shite customer service about.

I regularly come across great customer service tbh.

One of my kids worked for Costa and started out being an amazing and enthusiastic employee who took pride in making sure all the tables were cleaned and the customers were served quickly and carefully. Once she worked out quite how shite the manager and area manager were and how much she was being exploited she started not to care as much. She was often not paid for all her hours worked and as a 'new' employee she wasn't allowed any of the tips for the first 6 months even though she worked far more hours than anyone else. Luckily it was a short term filler job before started a grad job.

Ha, I'm doing customer service for my siblings business to help out in the run up to Xmas. The level of aggression in emails this year is astounding.

First contact, not tried to call us, no bots etc, just an email. Perhaps we've missed something out a parcel - yes, infuriating, but doesn't really call for an aggressive rant and demands for compensation for a £1.10p item.

Another one has been an absolute arsehole because a driver rang the doorbell at their front door, but they don't use their front door and the driver should apparently be psychic and never deign to ring their doorbell because they should walk round the back of the terrace of 20 houses and knock the back door.... 😐. No note on the order, no note on their door - how the actual fuck is the driver supposed to know this? And no, I'm not fucking refunding your order for the inconvenience.

Another one is out for a full refund for a past BBE dry goods product that they bought reduced - and it was reduced BECAUSE IT'S PASSED IT'S BBE. Literally says it in the title, in the product description on the website and on their order confirmation. Fuck sake.

I do NOT miss working with the public. I absolutely endeavour to be the loveliest customer in shops and on phones etc 😂