Customer Service - are they in trouble

[terryW]

Tuesday morning I rang an organisation with a query about terms and conditions. The person i spoke to could not help and passed me to Customer Service, well their answer phone, where i left a message to call me. After 3 hours nothing heard so i phoned again and was given the direct number for Customer service, well their answer phone anyway, so I left another message to phone.

 

Now one and a half working days and still not able to raise my concern with Customer Service I can only conclude that either:

 

1 They consider this is acceptable service

or

2 They are in trouble and have so many unhappy customers that they cannot return their calls within a reasonable period of time

 

or

 

am I being unreasonable? When I was working with the public 30 minutes to return a clients call was considered the maximum.

 

or

 

Don't the Camping & Caravaning Club want to retain members >:-)

[josie gibblebucket]

I rang the CandCC last night, the phone system told me I was 8th in the queue and that my call was important to them! :D To be fair, it did give approximate waiting times, 4 mins in my case, and I think that was probably about right, but it was obvious once I got through, that the lady just wanted to deal with me as quickly as possible (not really listen to what I needed to say) so that she could hang up and deal with the next caller. They do need to get their act together, especially the problems with the website. They must be losing loads of bookings if people can't get them on the phone either. >:-( I still haven't decided whether to renew our membership. Have only really stayed this long for the THS's

[francisgraham]

Are they in trouble? Rather jumping to conclusions I think!

The office staff have returned after a four day break and there's probably double the number of queries and phone calls compared to a normal Tuesday.

Also, any organisation can suffer when one or two phone in sick whilst there are also some on holiday, so I don't think that it's unfair to judge it on this one example. See how they respond today when things may have got back to normal.

[terryW]

I think we have decided not to renew. We were members for most of our working and caravaning life but when we retired and changed to a motorhome their booking policy that sets minimum stays caused us to leave, then this year we said we would give it another go.

 

Everyone deserves a second chance but they need to use it wisely.

 

 

[terryW]

francisgraham - 2012-04-11 12:45 PMAre they in trouble? Rather jumping to conclusions I think!

The office staff have returned after a four day break and there's probably double the number of queries and phone calls compared to a normal Tuesday.

Also, any organisation can suffer when one or two phone in sick whilst there are also some on holiday, so I don't think that it's unfair to judge it on this one example. See how they respond today when things may have got back to normal.

Perhaps I do expect too much. However the 4 day Easter break has been with us for a very long time and if they experience post holiday peaks then some management intervention to ensure additional staff are in place, like getting managers and supervisors to take calls would help. When they return my call perhaps I will find out.As I said, perhaps i expect too much but I can only judge it against the standards I expected to deliver when working.

[PJay]

Have to agree with you Terry. Not a member of C&CC, but of CC . I still think that on the whole both clubs are more geared to Caravans. A lot of the sites appear to be in the sticks, and in need of transport, which we don't have (Bikes etc) Did renew this year but not sure will do next.

[Guest peter]

PJay - 2012-04-11 1:36 PM

 

Have to agree with you Terry. Not a member of C&CC, but of CC . I still think that on the whole both clubs are more geared to Caravans. A lot of the sites appear to be in the sticks, and in need of transport, which we don't have (Bikes etc) Did renew this year but not sure will do next.

Likewise, waste of money really. Haven't used one of their sites in years. We prefer to go abroad and get a much better deal all ways round and save a bomb on the booze and baccy we bring back.

[kelly58]

Customer non service thats a laugh I had a problem with Swinton Insurance with a miss sold motor policy which as it turned out I lost  a fair amount of money , so I completed a customer complaint directive on-line as I could not get any joy from the local office and was advised I would receive a reply or call within 48 hrs 2 months on and still no reply. They takes your money and write you off .

[terryW]

Just back from the dreaded shopping to find they did call back this afternoon only to get my answerphone, sounds like justice to me.

 

I will ring again in the morning but I wonder if I will get their answerphone again?

[terryW]

Got through straight away this time but it was on another number. It appears the answerphone is standard practice not just when all staff are busy.

 

It now transpires that they were exceptional busy responding to calls following the tragic event that occurred on the Holmsley site in the New Forest at the weekend. What amazes me is that the normal complement of staff were left to deal with it, why weren't other staff, supervisors and managers drafted in to assist and clear the backlog.

 

My last word on the subject is to say that the response I received in the end was very good and I think they took on board the suggestions I made to help prevent others from experiencing the problem that I was bringing to their attention.

 

In 6 months I will look again at the points raised to see what if anything has been done.