Skip to main content

Is this the worst customer service ever?

Ever since my time at British Airways I've been passionate about customer service, and in the dim mists of the past I wrote a book on the subject called Capturing Customers' Hearts - still available, and dare I say it, still rather good on the subject.

This being the case, I have a sad tale to relate that I suspect is about the worst example of customer service I've ever come across. It's all down to a company called Anglian Windows. Look away now if you can't stand pain.

Despite a couple of letters pointing out what they've done, Anglian hasn't even apologized for the sorry tale that is about to emerge. Remember as you read it that each time there was an appointment I had to spend half a day waiting for these people.

A few years ago we replaced some old patio doors with shiny new ones from Anglian. After only a couple of years, both panes of glass - big panes - had condensation inside them. Because we have something of an upside down house, these patio doors are upstairs. I first contacted them in September 2006. They said they'd ring me back. Now it begins.
  • Booking 1 - 20 November 2006. I had a call to say they couldn't make it because the engineer had injured his hand. But he would come out to me before Christmas. I heard nothing, so finally called them on 9 January 2007, and had a booking made for 20 February. I was told they already had the measurements, so this would be the fitting.
  • Booking 2 - 20 February 2007. The engineer arrived. Hurray. Just to measure up. Boo. I wrote to complain, got a letter saying 'we're looking into it' and never heard anything more. I rebooked.
  • Booking 3 - 3 April 2007. When no one came I rang them up. The engineer was off sick, and they had had to re-order the glass, as they couldn't find it. I was rung back to say now they had found it, but the engineer was sick and they didn't know why no one had called me. I wrote again to complain. No reply ever.
  • Booking 4 - 16 April 2007. Guess what? No one came.
  • Booking 5 - 20 April 2007. Yes! They came. AND fitted one pane. But the other was too heavy for two of them to carry up the stairs. They needed a third person.
  • Booking 6 - 6 July 2007. Got a call that morning. They had three engineers, but the glass wouldn't fit in the van they'd been given. I was told the customer service manager would ring me. He didn't.
  • Booking 7 - 5 September 2007. Deja vu. I got a call to say the glass wouldn't fit in the van they'd been given. I would get a call from the customer service manager, one Nick Sugg, (but they made the mistake of giving me his mobile number). I rang him on 11th, 12th and 17th of September. After the last call he rang back and said he would fix a date within 24 hours and this time it WOULD happen.
  • Booking 8 - 31 October 2007. I got a call to say one of the engineers had gone sick. They would call back and reschedule within 24 hours. I left a message with the manager, who called back, apologized and said I should expect something in a day or two. I didn't hear anything. Left messages on 15 November, 28 November, every day from 30 November to 6 December when finally he rang back. He said he had been to the local Avon branch (I think he meant the branch in the area called Avon, not the local door-to-door cosmetics firm), and would have a team round tomorrow morning. I emphasized, and he noted, that it would take three engineers.
  • Booking 9 - 7 December 2007. No one came. I left messages with the manager, but he was out of the office until 24 December. I spoke to his office - they had no record of the promised booking on 7 December. The earliest they could fit it was 9 January. The supervisor would call me back. They didn't. I called again 2 and 4 January, emphasising the need for a big van and three engineers. They said they would ring back, but didn't.
  • Booking 10 - 9 January 2008. THE SECOND PANE WAS FITTED.
Beat that. The address I was given for complaints was Anglian Home Improvements, Customer Services, P O Box 65, Norwich NR6 6EJ.

At the time of writing I have still to get an apology.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Why I hate opera

If I'm honest, the title of this post is an exaggeration to make a point. I don't really hate opera. There are a couple of operas - notably Monteverdi's Incoranazione di Poppea and Purcell's Dido & Aeneas - that I quite like. But what I do find truly sickening is the reverence with which opera is treated, as if it were some particularly great art form. Nowhere was this more obvious than in ITV's 2010 gut-wrenchingly awful series Pop Star to Opera Star , where the likes of Alan Tichmarsh treated the real opera singers as if they were fragile pieces on Antiques Roadshow, and the music as if it were a gift of the gods. In my opinion - and I know not everyone agrees - opera is: Mediocre music Melodramatic plots Amateurishly hammy acting A forced and unpleasant singing style Ridiculously over-supported by public funds I won't even bother to go into any detail on the plots and the acting - this is just self-evident. But the other aspects need some exp

Is 5x3 the same as 3x5?

The Internet has gone mildly bonkers over a child in America who was marked down in a test because when asked to work out 5x3 by repeated addition he/she used 5+5+5 instead of 3+3+3+3+3. Those who support the teacher say that 5x3 means 'five lots of 3' where the complainants say that 'times' is commutative (reversible) so the distinction is meaningless as 5x3 and 3x5 are indistinguishable. It's certainly true that not all mathematical operations are commutative. I think we are all comfortable that 5-3 is not the same as 3-5.  However. This not true of multiplication (of numbers). And so if there is to be any distinction, it has to be in the use of English to interpret the 'x' sign. Unfortunately, even here there is no logical way of coming up with a definitive answer. I suspect most primary school teachers would expands 'times' as 'lots of' as mentioned above. So we get 5 x 3 as '5 lots of 3'. Unfortunately that only wor

Why backgammon is a better game than chess

I freely admit that chess, for those who enjoy it, is a wonderful game, but I honestly believe that as a game , backgammon is better (and this isn't just because I'm a lot better at playing backgammon than chess). Having relatively recently written a book on game theory, I have given quite a lot of thought to the nature of games, and from that I'd say that chess has two significant weaknesses compared with backgammon. One is the lack of randomness. Because backgammon includes the roll of the dice, it introduces a random factor into the play. Of course, a game that is totally random provides very little enjoyment. Tossing a coin isn't at all entertaining. But the clever thing about backgammon is that the randomness is contributory without dominating - there is still plenty of room for skill (apart from very flukey dice throws, I can always be beaten by a really good backgammon player), but the introduction of a random factor makes it more life-like, with more of a sense