The consumer’s revenge
OK, revenge isn’t a pretty word, so I invite gentle readers to look away now…
I have been exercising my rights (after a fashion) pretty intensively of late, and I will give praise where it’s due and name and shame where necessary. Consumerism seems to bring out the very best and the very worst in me. First, the hall of fame:
Green & Blacks: not only is their chocolate delicious – I particularly recommend espresso flavour – but their customer service is second to none. A friend (Jo Khinmaung) bought Hils and me a bar of their cherry chocolate as a present. When we opened it, it was ginger. Nothing wrong with it – it, too, was delicious – but I thought I’d drop them a line. They were horrified! In response, they explained that an error had happened on the production line. They told me exactly what had happened, “sent off their staff for retraining” (can’t pretend I felt too good about that), and sent £15 of vouchers! Cheers for the present, Jo!
Yeo Valley organics: I bought some cheese, and it went off. I threw it away, and dropped them a line. I didn’t expect to hear anything from them, as I had no evidence. To their credit, they sent me a postal order for £5!
Brent council: Brilliant. They pay for my freedom pass, giving me free transport across the whole of London. What’s not to like?
Now, the hall of shame:
Orange: rubbish, rubbish, rubbish. They had debited my account twice over for 12 months, albeit for a relatively paltry sum of £3. When I drew this to their attention, they told me that they would reimburse me for three months’ worth, but no more, as I should have noticed sooner. I asked them if this was policy or an actual thing they could not do. They said it was policy. When I challenged them to reimburse me the full £36, or lose me as a heavy-use customer, they just let me go. Ah well, their loss.
Amazon.com: well, they’re a mixed bag. I quite like them sometimes. But once, when they sent me a wrong order, it went a bit wrong. They claimed – and possibly correctly – that the error was mine, and refused to take the order back. As my way of venting my spleen, I decided to start a set of bogus reviews – see http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A3ICTDGDPJUEHB/ref=cm_pdp_about_see_review/102-2356432-6548141 if you’re interested. Particular fun, I find, is to poke fun at occult books – occultists do seem to be an awfully serious bunch.
HSBC: where to begin? Having been a customer of theirs for 20 years, I assumed they’d take me vaguely seriously. Sadly, no. Not only did they not offer me a mortgage (everyone else did!) because I didn’t have a student bank account, but they insist on applying penalty charges to my bank account. I have decided to leave £1 in my account, and not to use it. It felt almost poignant after 20 years…
OK, I admit it, these things probably provoke me excessively. But it is time for consumers to stand up and be counted, even when it runs contrary to our pacifistic demeanour. Give it a (good-natured) go – always maintaining civility to the poor, underpaid and undervalued call-centre staff – and see how you get on.
OK, revenge isn’t a pretty word, so I invite gentle readers to look away now…
I have been exercising my rights (after a fashion) pretty intensively of late, and I will give praise where it’s due and name and shame where necessary. Consumerism seems to bring out the very best and the very worst in me. First, the hall of fame:
Green & Blacks: not only is their chocolate delicious – I particularly recommend espresso flavour – but their customer service is second to none. A friend (Jo Khinmaung) bought Hils and me a bar of their cherry chocolate as a present. When we opened it, it was ginger. Nothing wrong with it – it, too, was delicious – but I thought I’d drop them a line. They were horrified! In response, they explained that an error had happened on the production line. They told me exactly what had happened, “sent off their staff for retraining” (can’t pretend I felt too good about that), and sent £15 of vouchers! Cheers for the present, Jo!
Yeo Valley organics: I bought some cheese, and it went off. I threw it away, and dropped them a line. I didn’t expect to hear anything from them, as I had no evidence. To their credit, they sent me a postal order for £5!
Brent council: Brilliant. They pay for my freedom pass, giving me free transport across the whole of London. What’s not to like?
Now, the hall of shame:
Orange: rubbish, rubbish, rubbish. They had debited my account twice over for 12 months, albeit for a relatively paltry sum of £3. When I drew this to their attention, they told me that they would reimburse me for three months’ worth, but no more, as I should have noticed sooner. I asked them if this was policy or an actual thing they could not do. They said it was policy. When I challenged them to reimburse me the full £36, or lose me as a heavy-use customer, they just let me go. Ah well, their loss.
Amazon.com: well, they’re a mixed bag. I quite like them sometimes. But once, when they sent me a wrong order, it went a bit wrong. They claimed – and possibly correctly – that the error was mine, and refused to take the order back. As my way of venting my spleen, I decided to start a set of bogus reviews – see http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A3ICTDGDPJUEHB/ref=cm_pdp_about_see_review/102-2356432-6548141 if you’re interested. Particular fun, I find, is to poke fun at occult books – occultists do seem to be an awfully serious bunch.
HSBC: where to begin? Having been a customer of theirs for 20 years, I assumed they’d take me vaguely seriously. Sadly, no. Not only did they not offer me a mortgage (everyone else did!) because I didn’t have a student bank account, but they insist on applying penalty charges to my bank account. I have decided to leave £1 in my account, and not to use it. It felt almost poignant after 20 years…
OK, I admit it, these things probably provoke me excessively. But it is time for consumers to stand up and be counted, even when it runs contrary to our pacifistic demeanour. Give it a (good-natured) go – always maintaining civility to the poor, underpaid and undervalued call-centre staff – and see how you get on.
posted by HappyClappy at 8:58 pm
1 Comments:
I think this is the economist's endless quest for "rules" emerging! At risk of generalising:
- There is nothing in large companies' DNA that makes them unresponsive to customers. First Direct and smile (both internet and phone banks, so already at one remove from customers) have some of the best feedback and retention of all;
- if we assume there is nothing inherent to make their customer service useless, they do sometimes tend to complacency. I imagine their unwitting rationale runs something like this: if you're the biggest, you can afford to lose some customers - the customer is not king!
- good service does cost money, but hardly any. It's more about attitude and flexibility on the part of staff you deal with. More to the point, as you suggest in your point d, I doubt big companies understand the opportunity cost of bad customer service;
- as to the "something else" ... could it be that companies are so used to our fear, our inertia and our reticence, that they don't need to worry about losing us. we'll just assume we're wrong!
Go on - pretend you're a New Yorker today!
Post a Comment
<< Home