Bah Humbug .... To Customer Service!

[Ann]

Very annoyed with TalkTalk at the moment and we can't change providers as our contract is on until August (we pay if we leave them)

Our YouView box which was fitted new in March, went wrong on Monday 16 December (equipment failed, not our fault!) which has left us for two weeks without the facility of recording programmes or watching catch up TV - just what you want over Christmas!!!! After enduring an unbelievable 2 and half hours last week arguing with TT helpline staff and their managers about the fact that they have nobody to come and replace the box for 2 whole weeks (Mon 30 Dec) we had to give up with frustration and exhaustion. The time of that appointment still stands at next Monday and has left us with no TV recording over the very few days when we needed it as relatives were visiting. Is it too much to call in extra staff e.g.engineers over such a busy period? The box could have been sent out in the post like they do their Broadband router boxes, simple for my ex-TV installer husband to fit, but they absolutely refused as "the box is too expensive!" What a shower, how unhelpful and unsympathetic! It is impossible to speak with them without losing your temper, hard to understand them also, as they are based abroad and are obviously just following a script.

Which company do you give the thumbs down to this Christmas and which companies have gone out of their way with excellent customer service?

[Ann]

Forgot to say ........... we have been offered the grand sum of .... £15 as compensation for our inconvenience! We pay £30 a month to Talktalk. what a joke!

[sunny-dave]

Not sending it by post/courier is ridiculous - I've fitted a couple of BT YouView boxes for friends and they were both sent by courier.


Unexpected 'going the extra mile' award here was for (of all people) a CityLink delivery man - who popped back at 7pm to deliver a parcel I'd missed earlier in the day. "I was in the area so I thought I'd save you waiting in tomorrow".

[shaneystar2]

I've given the thumbs up to British Gas Homecare. Our boiler packed up between Christmas night and Boxing day .We came down yesterday to an icebox .
Engineer here this morning first thing .
Boiler fixed ,nice and warm again ....brilliant .

[albaqwerty]

topping up dongle was easy with Voda. They changed their format for doing so and it was a pain in the appendix.


Most lovely lady at other end of the phone, after 3 hours of not pulling my hair out sorted it. She has a 3 year old son and works between 12 and 8pm at weekends. Lovely lass.
And voda seem to have sorted their website out. Yippeee!!!

[237SJ]

I haven`t had a Christmas Eve off for ages so I had better things to do at 5.30pm that day than driving a couple of miles to Poundland only to find them closed when their website said they would be open until 6.30. I emailed yesterday to tell them to make sure their website opening times are correct in future. I had a very apologetic reply first thing this morning asking for my address so that they could send me a voucher. I was quite impressed with that although I haven`t got the heart to take a voucher from a £1 shop so I told them to put the equivalent amount of money in a charity pot.

[boxtops]

I'd take the £1 - they're a business same as anyone else, they're not a charity!

Ann, couldn't you have watched the TV on your computer? That's what I did when our TV went on the blink in the storm before Christmas.

[237SJ]

I wasn`t out for compensation though - a simple apology and more importantly, the correct information on their website was enough.

[Eve]

The staff in my local HMV are fantastic, nothing is ever too much trouble for them. I went in just before Christmas and they offered to fetch and bring to us things we both asked them about, definitely great customer service though not just recently, they seem to have a lot of staff who really put a lot into their job.

[Ann]

I could watch catch up on my computer Boxy but it keeps buffering and not easy to watch. I also wanted to record several programmes/films to keep.

[Ann]

Amazon gets the thumbs up in this house - everything ordered has been delivered on time! Brilliant company.

[DaisyNonna]

Amazon gets my vote. Even got stuff which was originally out of stock and all before the expected delivery date.

[ELVIS68]

Pain in the arse when service is crap and you have to deal with overseas robots

I had an issue with Orange on Xmas Eve but they sorted it straight away

[woofgang]

Thumbs up to Amazon, Waitrose, AO, and to all my lovely post people and couriers. I seem to have cornered the market in nice ones, one and all they are a cheerful helpful bunch.

[Ann]

//I had an issue with Orange on Xmas Eve but they sorted it straight away//

Thanks Elvis, with your permission please I will quote that in my fight to get compensation for the major inconvenience! Talktalk hate hearing their rivals are better than them.

[Tuvok]

I recently had to contact Tesco Clubcard Customer services (my vouchers had been pinched! - not the paper copies!)

Wasn't too impressed by the person I spoke to - we have multiple cards but she never asked for my card number - I had to prompt her! But she did give me an email address.

Within less than a day I had an email back from them - asking for more info (data protection). Next day get a phone call - "we know who took your vouchers - re credited them to your account - not as vouchers - but will become vouchers again on next statement - if you want to use them before then get back in touch and we'll arrange that"

[Ann]

DHL couriers are wonderful too, OH tracked a package on their tracking system website, it came from New York in 4 days, flew into East Midlands Airport and we watched every step of it's journey, most impressive.

[Ann]

Thumbs up to my postman! Earlier this year I was waiting for a delivery of photographs I had sent away to be developed for a relative's "This is your life" special birthday party. I told our friendly postman every day I was waiting for this package and what it was for. Imagine my amazement when he popped round especially to give the package to me the evening before her birthday - it had just come into the sorting office and he had spotted it. He knew I had work to do that evening putting all the photos in an album before the special day - bless him!

[Jenarry]

I would agree with your comments on Talktalk. i had a terrible time with them trying to change my account or to even talk to them about the account(I kept having problems with my broadband service) as it was still in my ex bf's name and they refused to talk to me. They had been happy enough to receive my money every month from my single bank account for over 2 years after he left. They wanted a signed letter from my ex to change the account into my name and unfortunately he was out of the country. I was getting very frustrated and finally just changed to someone completely different. I'm now with Plusnet after a lot of research into all the broadband providers and I couldn't recommend them enough. The change over was really well managed and I have only had excellent customer service from them.
More recently with bad customer service was ringing a butchers at the start of Dec to order a turkey for christmas and being told we could pay for it on the phone but we couldn't order it on the phone. What on earth!! We spent our money elsewhere.

[Ann]

When you changed providers Jen, did you have to pay Talktalk for the months you had left until your contract ended? I refuse to do this ......

[Caran]

We have TT for phones and broadband. When they put prices up a few months back I phoned them. Said I wasn't happy at the increase, they refunded me the increase and gave me another £2.95 off each month for my inconvenience. I now pay less than I did before so no complaints.