claire Golding, at 5:47pm 22nd Aug 2007, wrote:

It can be frustrating trying to get your complaint through to someone over the phone-I've had a couple of annoying (to say the least!)experiences with a certain telephone company. Although most people are friendly and helpful, some treat you as though you are an inconvenience. I've also found with a couple of different companies that the person I've spoken to hasn't got a clue what I'm on about, with regard to offers that have been on or the automated messages. so much so that when I was enquiring about home insurance for our new house I was told of a particular offer that we were eligible for. When I rang to take up this offer, the person I spoke to said they didn't do an offer of that sort, and quite patronisingly told me i must have got it mistaken with life insurance!!when I insisted I hadn't, he checked and said there had been an offer liike that but it had expired-no apology or anything for the way I was spoken to!

Although I understand companies need to take more responsibility for their customer service training, it also comes down to the indvidual and their basic manners towards others!

linda, at 10:08pm 26th Aug 2007, wrote:

i hate talking to people on the phone ones like gas electric, and that sickly music they play and when you get though they pass u on to some one else rrrrwwwwww

dorothy ross, at 9:46pm 29th Aug 2007, wrote:

i agree and totally frustrating they never answer your question and pass you around pillar to post and you never come off the phone happy mainly annoyed as you know your phone bill will be sky high would prefer to talk face to face as you get it done quicker

emmanuel, at 3:25am 22nd Sep 2007, wrote:

above all things you need money.for you to be able to go out with a girl you need money. money make's the world go round.you need money to do the undo,to break the unbreakable,to overul the rule,to feed the unfeed and to get what you want.

David Gardiner, at 8:37pm 22nd Sep 2007, wrote:

I had always suspected that the relationship between provider and consumer was very much us and them, then I spent a few months working in "customer service".

Lesson one, "customer service" has little to do with the customer and less to do with service. I witnessed constant buck passing and covering of nether regions, it was totally taboo to agree with the customer if they suggested the company was wrong/culpable/inefficient/incompetent, even though it generally was and all the customer really wanted was an apology and for the service they had paid for to be provided.

Call centres are the buffer between the company and the customer, some sucker to be harangued by a customer more and more frustrated by the lousy service so many companies offer. They are quite deliberately understaffed to save money, often leaving you hanging on while the premium phone number fills their coffers. Then the ultimate insult, "your call is important to us, but not important enough to actually answer it".

As a user I am becoming increasingly frustrated by regional accents. I feel almost embarrassed to be critical on this one but I am even more embarrassed when I have to keep asking for the "representative" to repeat what they are saying because I simply can't understand them. Is this another ploy to extend the call? Offshoring only makes this worse.

To return to the Laura's original point the training I was offered was a joke, old hand shot through basics and then you're on your own. Many employees were agency staff and if they had anything about them found something less mind-numbing within weeks.

Add into the mix "the management", suits wandering about talking gibberish, comparing company cars and mumbling on about targets but never having anything to do with the customer.

The bigger the company, the worse it seems to get. I was lucky, I wasn't expected to sell anything, most are, with their jobs and income on the line. Imagine trying to sell to a customer who is still complaining about the failure of your last product.

Adam, at 3:25pm 23rd Sep 2007, wrote:

i agree with claire's post about regional accents, i mean its all well and good advertising "british call centres" but if it is still just as hard to understand the person on the other end of the phone, then it means nothing.

Denise Shortall, at 7:38pm 24th Sep 2007, wrote:

Don't bother phoning to complain - call centre agents are trained to stonewall you.... Find out the name of the Chief Exec or MD and the Head Office address and send a letter there.... it works every time!!!

Charles Prince, at 6:35pm 25th Sep 2007, wrote:

My experience is they should be renamed customer disservice, try asking for a manager - we dont have one, my team leader doesnt have a phone, they will never give you their name for security reasons, so why don't they have a number.Try writing and the letter never gets to them, the only solution is to buy shares in their company and go to the agm and raise questions for the CEO from the floor I have been escorted from 2 different mortgage providers by 'security', but it did get me a response, one of them tried to get me to sign a gagging clause.

Luke Deadman, at 7:09pm 26th Sep 2007, wrote:

i think its fustrating waiting in a phone queue for ages. Automated answer machines are so annoying and the music they play is terrible.

John Richardson, at 9:33am 27th Sep 2007, wrote:

Not the least on the agenda should be training in attention to the customer and smiling ( the latter not at all times as the Scout Law of old said but when the occasion arises and in greeting.

I went into a shop for a small item, and waited, it seems interminably for one of two assistants to finish a conversation with a colleague. I picked up another item and when I had the assistant's attention I said ' Had you welcomed me some four minutes ago you might have realised that I didn't want this item, but to enquire where I could find the goods I wished to buy.'

I am sure that where the staff are properly trained, whatever the product, more customer satisfaction will result.

[unsubscribed], at 5:27pm 28th Sep 2007, wrote:

I must admit that if the customer service person isnt making the grade I generally ask to speak to their supervisor, they cant actually refuse but they dont have a choice, espeically if youve been going around in circles with them...and ask for their name too....it usually works!"!!

George Spencer, at 7:51pm 2nd Oct 2007, wrote:

Some customer service can be fine but the annoyance for most comes in the fact that you have to pay over the odds on a non-geographic telephone number, you are then given a load of options, and when you eventually choose you then get to listen to some ballad or other whilst the minutes and your money is quickly diminishing.

[unsubscribed], at 1:33pm 4th Oct 2007, wrote:

I always seem to have problems with call centres. I have never, ever had one with no problems and I have called many over the years. The latest one asked me to press 1,2,3,4 etc etc and I went through the whole process to the part where you get through to someone, only to get to a message that said "we are experiencing high volumes of calls at present. Please try later." What was wrong with a message like that at the beginning of my call?

natasha, at 7:05pm 18th Apr 2008, wrote:

yh yh i agree