The Lemon Fool

... is the message I get every time I try and call a certain provider of a service. And this is to set up a direct debit for them, which isn't available online!

I wonder if it's ever "usual"?

UncleEbenezer wrote:... is the message I get every time I try and call a certain provider of a service. And this is to set up a direct debit for them, which isn't available online!

I wonder if it's ever "usual"?

And they'll tell you they Really Value Your Call when it's quite clear they don't give a toss...

GS

UncleEbenezer wrote:... is the message I get every time I try and call a certain provider of a service. And this is to set up a direct debit for them, which isn't available online!

I wonder if it's ever "usual"?

I wonder if you want to use their service because it is the cheapest. I also wonder if there is a connection between their lowest price and their repeated inability to answer the fone and provide a reasonable standard of customer service.

Sadly we all get this from time to time. Really you ought to know that by now and lighten up a bit!

Dod

Mike4 wrote:

UncleEbenezer wrote:... is the message I get every time I try and call a certain provider of a service. And this is to set up a direct debit for them, which isn't available online!

I wonder if it's ever "usual"?

I wonder if you want to use their service because it is the cheapest. I also wonder if there is a connection between their lowest price and their repeated inability to answer the fone and provide a reasonable standard of customer service.

No, I use it 'cos they've given me good service since 1998.

This is my mobile phone contract with O2. What changed is that I moved from being a business customer to a personal customer. It seems customer service levels are so different as to be unrecognisable, though the phone service still (touch wood) works fine.

The worst ones of the lot are HMRC, and they are definitely not the best value around. However, it is quite clear that they don't give a toss.

Dod101 wrote:Sadly we all get this from time to time. Really you ought to know that by now and lighten up a bit!

Dod

I know we all get it. The particular grump was the misuse of "usual".

Bminusrob wrote:The worst ones of the lot are HMRC, and they are definitely not the best value around. However, it is quite clear that they don't give a toss.

Funnily enough I've never had that problem with them. Always reasonably quick responses, and only once (May 2009) did I suffer a truly unhelpful response. Virgin Media are far and away the worst: couldn't get through at all - on multiple occasions!

Tried again twice this morning. As usual, their phone lines are busier than usual.

It doesn't even have the logical interest of "all Cretans are Liars", or the barber who shaves every man who doesn't shave himself. Let alone the set of all sets that don't contain themselves.

Mike4 wrote:

UncleEbenezer wrote:... is the message I get every time I try and call a certain provider of a service. And this is to set up a direct debit for them, which isn't available online!

I wonder if it's ever "usual"?

I wonder if you want to use their service because it is the cheapest. I also wonder if there is a connection between their lowest price and their repeated inability to answer the fone and provide a reasonable standard of customer service.

Sadly, it isn't always the cheapest which do this. It is endemic and was endemic even before the pandemic. I do hate the wording of the message because it is now clearly a "normal" number of calls organisations received, not abnormal at all. It's just that they don't want to pay to shorten the queue.

As Dod says, we must all have got used to it, but it's still nice to share a gripe. Nothing like the occasional "rant of the day".

Arb.

Huh,

You folk have never had the 'pleasure' of dealing with ITI Capital, the broker appointed to take over from SVS Securities I'm not sure that they actually have phones that are connected and emails are rarely answered. There would be no point in them saying "we really value your call" because they don't seem to give a XXXX!

UncleEbenezer wrote:... is the message I get every time I try and call a certain provider of a service. And this is to set up a direct debit for them, which isn't available online!

I wonder if it's ever "usual"?

I get this with absolutely every organisation I telephone. Nobody will persuade me that working from home is the best way forward, especially when I can see the chap in the very expensive house opposite boxing with a punchball (if that's what they are called) in his garage at 11 a.m. when I imagine he is supposed to be working for the bank who employs him and must pay him very well. The productivity of anyone trying to conduct any business over the telephone must be greatly reduced; mine is, anyway. Try getting through to the DVLA if you have a query. Anything that cannot be done online is almost impossible to do and even then only after listening to an endless spiel.

Another followup this morning. As ever, busier than usual, but this time it said just "up to 15 minutes" against the usual 45, and I didn't immediately hang up at that. So I found out what happened next.

It was a series of "press 1 for ..." menus, ending with it hanging up on me. No sign of a route to any human.

There's an email address for complaints, which - in the absence of any other contact - looks like my next port of call.

About 30 years ago , the electric company had a system where ,when lines were busy , you pressed "5" and they called back when available. Unfortunately , soon after , centralisation took over and local offices were closed and this service disappeared.

UncleEbenezer wrote:... is the message I get every time I try and call a certain provider of a service. And this is to set up a direct debit for them, which isn't available online!

I wonder if it's ever "usual"?

I rang an internet company that makes pc's to order. Took one hour for them to answer and then I heard the sound of children playing in the background and the young lady on the phone who had not one clue about anything. I didn't stay on the phone long with her and have decided to shop elsewhere.

Sometimes I think you just have to vote with your feet or should I analogously say cheque book.

AiY

Bouleversee wrote: Nobody will persuade me that working from home is the best way forward, especially when I can see the chap in the very expensive house opposite boxing with a punchball (if that's what they are called) in his garage at 11 a.m. when I imagine he is supposed to be working for the bank who employs him and must pay him very well..

so everybody that WFH does that then?

Ive worked form home for all but a decade solid, and did so for other companies beforehand on occassion.

Why would my employers keep me on after a decade if i was punching a punchbag at 11am / all day?

didds

AsleepInYorkshire wrote:I rang an internet company that makes pc's to order. Took one hour for them to answer and then I heard the sound of children playing in the background and the young lady on the phone who had not one clue about anything. I didn't stay on the phone long with her and have decided to shop elsewhere.

of course she wouldnt have had a clue about anything whether she had kids in the background or not. The place where she was sitting was irrelevent to her uselessness.

didds

I'm still waiting to hear from someone who was supposed to call me back last Thursday about an insurance quote and that was after I had complained about their not doing so the previous week. That would never have happened before WFH started and I didn't previously have to hang on for an hour before giving up when trying to speak to nearly every company I have tried to contact.

I presume didds' employers are geared up to it but most companies seem not to be though WFH has prevailed for quite a while now. It probably depends on the field you are in and whether you need supervision.

Being fair I work in I.T. and have done so for decades (zzzz......) so yes _maybe_ the companies Ive worked in and work in now are geared up for it. (not all though if you catch my drift )

But after 7 months of this there really is not much excuse for not finding a solution now for those that dont work in an IT environment.

wrt WFH - of course its horses for courses. Its not for everybody and theyd rather spend good chunks of their life paying for commuting rather than staying in bed a while longer or being home as soon as they knock off with that cash in the bank account that is their prerogative. After all I was once told by a colleague that if he worked form home he'd miss the social life in the office. And there was me thinking you were employed to work, not enjoy a social life. hey ho...



didds

OK, I gave up on the direct debit, and have been logging on monthly to pay. A right pain, and reason to move when my fixed term ends. And a sad contrast to the excellent small-biz service I had from them (evidently a different team) for more than 20 years.

This month it gets worse: I can't pay at all. Just now (yet again) I tried to log in to pay, but I get (yet again) a screen saying "Back Soon", and a message.

Please bear with us.
We are really busy at the moment.

If you are looking to upgrade, you can visit our upgrade shop. You may have to wait a while but we will get to you as soon as we can.

Strewth!

Bouleversee wrote:I get this with absolutely every organisation I telephone. Nobody will persuade me that working from home is the best way forward, especially when I can see the chap in the very expensive house opposite boxing with a punchball (if that's what they are called) in his garage at 11 a.m. when I imagine he is supposed to be working for the bank who employs him and must pay him very well.

Maybe he's just taking out his frustration at not being able to get through to his bank by phone?