Why is customer service so awful

[summerily25]

Rant incoming! my elderly, frail mum has just had an engineer visit her home to sort for a routine yearly service of her boiler. She paid in advance to what is supposed to be a reputable local company and the engineer attended this morning. Since then she is unable to turn on her heat! - she called and spoke to a lady on the phone who told her that the engineer was in a different area now and would get back to her at some stage soon. This was this morning and I have just called and spoken to someone there who informed me that the engineer will only be able to call, if possible today, "after 6" as he has other services. I have read them the riot act. I totally understand that not everything runs smoothly but the attitude of the so called customer service team who dont seem to view my mum as a customer anymore as "she got the service done" is just awful. I'm livid as I'm normally there with her but I'm away at the minute. had I have been I would have made sure the engineer checked all was in working order before he left.

I cannot seem to convince anyone in customer service that leaving an elderly woman at home cold all day long due to the fact that a job she has paid for has not been adequately carried out is not a good idea. The smugness of the guy in customer service who kept repeating "she will have to wait, we have other customers" was maddening to say the least. My brother and SIL have now gone to my mums house where my SIL will take her to their house - whilst my brother waits in mums for this guy to return, if he does, "sometime after 6".

What happened to people just doing their job and if something goes wrong the company trying to make it right asap. I will never use that company again (unfortunately for them I work in an area which has need of that particular service for a large number of properties so I will make sure that they aren't on our list of suppliers going forward. From what I can tell we have spent a substantial amount of money with them in the last number of years. Not now!). I'm now wondering how many other people they have left in this position. I've asked one of my team to find out the contact details of the Managing Director and I will be emailing him.

I suspect I'm likely overreacting but honestly the customer service rep really got my back up. My mum is not long over chemotherapy and she feels the cold dreadfully.

I know it’s hard, to you your mum is important and that’s understandable. However the engineer will have a schedule for the day and could he miles away.

When my youngest was a newborn my heating stopped working, the company provided me with fan heaters until they could come and fix it. I said I had a newborn and the lady I spoke to said unfortunately there are people in worse positions that yourself and we have to prioritise. I understood this, used the fan heaters and my heating was done in a couple of days.

Although it’s upsetting for your mum, it could be argued that the service took place and therefore the engineer did what he was contracted to. I imagine he has a list of calls he must make and will return when those are completed.

Yes, he should have checked it was in working order before he left, but if he returned immediately, someone else is without the service they booked and paid for. It also depends on how you spoke to the customer service representative. If you were angry with him, I expect it didn’t improve his disposition towards you.

What I find sad is that, so frequently, the job isn’t done properly in the first place- which may have been the case for your mum. You’d hope that tradesmen would have pride in the job they do and would want to get everything correct the first time, rather than have to return to do it again. I find that happens all the time though, whatever the trade and it’s why those who are invested in what they do, have such long waiting lists and can cherry pick their jobs.

Flowers that awful re being at home with a new born and being forced to sit with heaters. I suppose what has angered me more is the attitude of the customer service team. My mum is very gentle and I got the impression she was being fobbed off. I can tell you that if how I was treated was anything to go by then she definitely was. I suppose with reference to the engineers schedule, my mum was first on that schedule and the work was not done properly, hence the call having to be made. So technically she went to the end of the queue again as he was paid in advance, did a poor job at her house and moved on to the next job.

If the customer service rep had apologised, gave some indication of when the issue wouldnt be resolved rather than vagaries and the "wait your turn" attitude then it wouldnt have been as maddening. If my mum hadnt needed to turn on her heat then she would not have realised that it wasnt operating and- since they company dont operate a weekend service for private customers - would have been left with no heating all weekend!

the thing is the service didnt take place, the boiler was working before the service, its after that that the issue has happened. I do understand what you mean about him having return immediately but my attitude to that is that my mum was in the queue first, the work was done poorly and she has had to go to the end of the queue before its remedied. I can totally understand the engineer having to finish the job he was on when the call came in but before he continued on with his scheduled calls after the one he was in, he should have gone back to my mums.

Honestly I think im more upset about the customer service rep than the guy who most likely has forgotten to hit a button or switch somewhere. A simple apology, an update with accurate time for remedy and a polite tone would have eased it such a lot. Ive emailed the MD - really shoddy all round tbh.

I suspect the customer service rep didn’t appreciate someone reading the riot act to them for something that isn’t his fault. The engineer made the mistake. I am not saying the customer service rep couldn’t have been more helpful but I find the way the customer approaches the employee affects how helpful they are.

I couldnt agree more, which is why I was scrupulously polite and measured in how I approached it at the start. the attitude from customer service however was unhelpful to say the least. I appreciate the engineer made a mistake, as do we all in our jobs as we arent robots but if I'm speaking to a customer service rep then that person is representing the company and therefore is likely to be at the receiving end of all sorts of queries/complaints. It takes a particular type of person to do that job and not everyone is suited to it - case in point this morning.

If the customer service rep had apologised or in any way indicated that they were concerned about what I was saying then the riot act wouldnt have been required.

Anyway I have received a very prompt response from the MD's assistant so I will wait and see what happens. I would like to think that any customer complaining to the MD of a company would get such a prompt response but, given my surname is quite unusual and the place I work for does quite alot of business with this company I imagine that is what has gotten his attention. Believe me when I say the email I sent did not focus on the engineer making an error - as that was in a fact a mistake - it was the attitude of the customer service person.

I do however want to ensure that this company is good enough to use from a work perspective.

I think it’s a hard one, as others have said to you your mum is the most important, but for all you know they had appointments with 10 other mum’s that day.

Once your appointment is “done” then you do go to the back of the queue or to be done when possible, as soon as possible. They can’t cancel a whole day of appointments (can you imagine the calls from 10 other relative’s for their mum’s), so customer service hands are tied. They’ll have someone get to you as soon as they can but they do have other customer’s and they aren’t going to cancel the whole day to come back.

It sounds like unfortunately a mistake has been made and they’re going to have someone come sort it out, they just can’t magic up someone to come immediately.

The engineer was on another job, maybe miles away. He then has a list of other jobs, maybe miles away too. Maybe these other customers are vulnerable too, he’s coming back as soon as he can. He can’t drop everything just for your mum.

There's no slack in the system to mop up things like this. Everyone is working at full pelt.

Personally I think you're being a bit of an arse.

A mistake was made, with rectification happening same day. It's not freezing temperatures and one day under blankets or at a relatives house isn't THAT much of an inconvenience.

From the companies stand point would you rather 1 person make a complaint or 10?

Calm the fuck down.

How awful for your poor mum. Get your brother to check at the gas meter, sometimes gas engineers forget to turn the emergency control valve back into the on position after doing the service. He can Google ECV if he's not sure what to look for but it's a little lever that stops the flow of gas from the meter into the property

I know how you feel.
My mum is 100 years old.

Last January she was without any night storage heating at all for over a week. She managed.

She used free standing heaters, her electric shower and a heated throw to help her through it. She refused to live with me whilst I got her sorted out.

Customer Service no longer exists. We must stop thinking we can count on it.

Meanwhile stop using big companies for anything avoidable. Use a small local company and build a relationship with them. I use a local plumber, heating engineer, electrician and decorator. Works a treat because I have a “relationship” built up over a number of years.

That happened with mine after my service, they just forgot to switch it back

Customer service DOES exist because I work in it
but people wonder why it’s bad, then post on here about how it’s hard to live on 100k, how shit customer service is and how useless we all are

it’s not a great start when you turn up to work having read all that to take home your min wage and be berated by customers about how you should have worked harder and gone to uni (I did…)

Part of a gas safe boiler service (assuming gas) is running the heating and taking measurements from the gases going to the flue. So they can't complete a service without having the heating on, which suggests it's a setting change. It's probably something as simple as they've changed her thermostat - turned it to off from auto etc. But that's negligent when dealing with an elderly customer, they should be paying close attention to the original setup.

Hope it gets sorted for her today.

This

Sorry, probably an unpopular opinion but you sound like a right Karen. As someone who worked in call centres for national businesses for years, believe me if we could wave a wand and do something on the spot for EVERYONE we would. It has to be on a case by case basis like when you rock up at A&E. Kicking off won’t get you anywhere, while it’s not ideal she will be ok. It’s not -7. Most people can’t even afford to put their heating on yet.

Just read there’s electric heaters in use too. Sorry, I know that costs and all but my god do we speak to people in far worse situations we still can’t do anything for who are nowhere near as entitled

The engineer didn’t service the boiler properly because it wasn’t working when he left. When you raise it with the company, they make noises about possibly fitting it in at the end of the day as if they are doing you a favour. You couldn’t make it up, could you?

My Dad is in his 90s and still lives alone but he is a constant source of worry for me. Unless you’ve been there you couldn’t possibly understand. I find women in their fifties and older the most helpful when it comes to customer facing roles. They actually have empathy and get stuff done.

Most companies don’t give a shit if you complain. If you’re a woman of a certain age they assume you’re a Karen. Jeez, you’ve even been called it by someone on this thread. Vote with your feet and pull all of the work that your company feeds to this company. It’s the only way.

Might be a bit late now but last time my boiler was serviced the heating stopped working afterwards. I realised that as the engineer had turned the power off the clock had reset, and once I had reset it from the ‘middle of the night’ to the correct time, it started working again.

Maybe missing the point, but it’s still only September. And pretty mild still. Are people putting their heat on already?

I understand your mum is important to you and you feel it should be resolved immediately but being the wife of a gas engineer who has had situations like this...its very hard for them to go back once they have completed the job.

Because the weather has changed, it is likely they are busy with people turning on their heating and it not working properly. The engineers get a full day of work, and cannot just stop what they are doing to go back to fix something because they will upset a lot of customers.

They could get someone else in to look, but it will take longer because the other person will not know for sure what the engineer did.

Believe me when I say that reattends are really not wanted, and they get monitored on that. Some engineers are just rubbish and my husband has needed to fix some really bodge jobs.

When he is told there is no heating after he has attended, it is likely it is something simple like the boiler isnt switched on or the thermostat is wrong. Is there a code on the boiler screen? Not the answer you wanted, but in this situation with your mum...the most practical.

And btw....you would be in a lot of trouble if you tried to stop work because of your own personal experience. Its an absolute conflict of interest.

I would imagine that very few people have started putting their heating on, temp is still quite mild.

They’re not going back to fix something though. They’re going back to complete the job.

If I was managing this team of engineers, I would get him to finish the job he was working on and deal with this next because I know if it was my elderly Dad he would be panicking his arse off. If it makes the engineer late for his next appointment then he’ll have to apologise and explain. It might make him a little more mindful of ensuring things are working properly before he leaves.

There are never any consequences for poor service. You’re just expected to put up with what you get. If you query it you’re branded as difficult.

Find a reputable local company for her next service. We have two guys and they are amazing. They always do what they say they will and always turn up on time. They complete the work and send us the invoice a few days later. It’s the same with the garage we use for the cars. Two guys own it and they have a small team. Their customer service is beyond outstanding. There are lots of good companies out there.

@DelphiniumDoreen Of course in an ideal world, that is what you do, but a job can take 5 minutes or 5 hours. So what do you do? Annoy loads of customers? They are not miracle workers. They could have made a mistake or the boiler has another problem.