Sky is the Limit
After months of putting it off, my boyfriend finally signed up to Sky (the UK’s largest satellite TV provider).
You know how much I like bitching about dumb customers, but yet again I found myself on the receiving end of, for lack of a better word, the shittest customer service I’ve had to deal with since I left AOL, and I just have to say something about it. I was always having to ring AOL with some problem and they would usually, eventually solve it. As much as people hate call centers, I didn’t think it could get much worse than that.
I also had to ring FedEx once, when they lost over £500 worth of (imported) iPhones, but that was quite funny.
We had been tracking the package on the internet and watched it go all round the country before sitting for 2 days in Glasgow. I gave them a ring, said I wanted to check the delivery status when the girl I was speaking to said “Ah...yes...it’s in Glasgow”. I said “Yes. I know it’s in Glasgow. That’s why I’m ringing you. It’s been there since Tuesday”. I know not a lot of people like FedEx but they were very nice over the phone. They got a manager to speak to me and he even rang back to check our package had been delivered. A++!
But I’ve just been on the phone to Sky because the “engineer”, who came to install it this morning, has drilled a hole so big in the wall, we can see the side of next doors house through it, and that’s with the wire going through. Not only that, we’d also ordered multi-room but he only arrived with one box, so no multi-room until Monday when another engineer has to come and sort out this mess.
Those aren’t the only things wrong though. I could go on...no phone call beforehand (they’re supposed to let you know when they’re coming), he hasn’t connected the Sky box to the phone line (which is part of the contract), and he left a pile of boxes in the road outside the house.
Was Sky’s customer support line any help though? No! It’s just the luck of the draw who you get through to, and I did eventually get through to someone who apologised, but the rest seemed a pretty incompetent bunch. There’s also no complaints department over the phone so we have to right a letter or email, and it could take weeks to get a reply, and we already had to wait over 3 weeks to get it installed in the first place.
Grrr! It’s like everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong, and we are seriously regretting signing up in the first place. So, if you’re thinking of getting Sky, be warned! You could end up being a very unhappy customer.
Two Sides of the Same Coin
However, it turned out the girlfriend is the deputy manager of a jewelers and is a stickler for pricing; get the price of a ring wrong and you could end up losing thousands. So she asked for the address of head office, which I said they could get from customer service, and I also suggested they talk to the manager before they left.
Unlike the guy who was complaining about the price of the canvases, I totally understand where this couple were coming from. The price was wrong, full stop, and although the description on the label didn’t fit the tank, it was above head height so it was hard to read anyway. I was really fortunate that they were so laid back otherwise I would have been on the front line facing a full on customer bitch attack.
So, while the girl went off to customer service I stayed behind with the guy and tried to work out some order with the remaining prices. Over half the fish tanks were incorrectly priced! And I dread to think what the rest of the department was like. I tried not to make excuses and blatantly said that the guy who ran that department was incompetent. I know I shouldn’t say things like that to customers but they both worked in retail so they know what it’s like anyway. It was ages before she returned from customer service and the first thing she said was the behaviour she’d seen from the staff over there was disgusting. Way to rub salt in a wound!
Apparently Scary Mary had been eating behind the desk and swearing loudly and someone else had been drinking a bottle of pop. We were just waiting for the manager to come over when she said to me “Don’t worry, I said you were exceptional” which made me feel slightly better but I still felt ashamed on behalf of the people on customer service.
In the end the manager gave them 20% off the tank and assured them that the guy on that department would be fired, blah blah blah. I was like yeah right, but I’d thought he’d at least get written up for it. All that’s happened is he’s got a bollocking and been told to get the department in order. Big deal, that happens every few months or so and guess who was one of the people who had to pick up the pieces last time. Yeah-me.
a) It shouldn’t be left to get like that, and b) it shouldn’t be other people that have to sort out that department while the guy gets nothing but a slap on the wrist. Discipline is a really big problem in our store. No one is afraid of the consequences if they don’t do any work because there won’t be any.
I really hope that couple do write to head office because the company won’t listen to anyone else.
Something I found funny though was how the people on customer service couldn’t stop going on about how much of a bitch the girl was when I thought they were some of the nicest, understanding customers I’ve ever had. It just shows how some customers can be ordinary nice people in other circumstances but shops seem to bring out the worst in them, it just depends what side you find yourself on.
RT is STILL a Cry Baby Customer
I understand about their insurance and everything but I’m still pissed. It’s literally just round the corner from my house. And like Nick said in the comments-he took his business elsewhere because they make it so difficult to get in contact with them. Lost business, lost profit. There’s a lot of conflicting information about them on google.
I’ll still end up buying from them because there’s not much chance of it getting lost in the 800m it has to travel to my house, but knowing Royal Mail it will still take 3 weeks.
Hmmm....very, very annoying.
Strawberry Fields Forever: Greedy customers get barred.
The farm had been running since 1923 but they lost so much of the crop last year due to people not paying (and poor weather conditions) that they can’t afford to open it to the public anymore. I’m not sure if they’ve closed the farm completely or just to the public.
One family he saw walking round had a bowl of water and some cream and were eating the strawberries as they went. When they got back to the exit they claimed they hadn’t found any and left.
Another woman used her skirt to carry a load of strawberries to the car while her husband went to the counter, claimed they could hardly find any and paid for about 3 strawberries.
There were also countless people who would turn up at the counter with their face and clothes covered in juice and only pay for the couple of strawberries they’d have in their basket.
What is wrong with these people? This man is trying to run a business, and farmers are struggling enough as it is. How is not paying for the strawberries you stuffed your face with while going round the field any different than scoffing an ice bun in the supermarket and not telling the cashier?
Children were also responsible for destroying a lot of the crop because they’d run around, knock the fruit off then either stand on them or throw them, and the parents would do nothing. Another case of bad parenting. Why aren’t these people sterilised?
One person rang in to the radio station and said “This is just farmers being greedy. They should employ people to pick them and not exploit people by getting them to pick them for free.”
What? Exploitation? It’s not the farmer doing the exploiting! It’s the greedy fucking customers again! Just because he’s not paying anyone to pick them, doesn’t mean it’s a free-for-all. He still has to sell the strawberries to make a living.
This has pissed me off no end. I know it’s only a strawberry field. Hell, I won’t miss it. But the fucking cheek of some of these people. Taking cream with them for crying out loud!
“It’s ok, it’s only a few strawberries”. How about I feed your kids to a pack of wolves, then you wouldn’t have as many mouths to feed.
Sorted!
