The increasing incompetence of companies

Haggisman

Haggisman

Haggisman

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Birmingham
Maybe I'm just getting less tolerant of dealing with other people's ****-ups as I get older, but I've noticed an increasing trend of supposedly reputable companies being downright useless and expecting me as a customer to just be accepting of that.

I've had Virgin refuse to honour their offer for unlimited data on your mobile phone if the internet goes down due to a fault on their end, despite sending them a link to the page on their website which explicitly states they will do so (eventually resolved after an hour on the phone and having to escalate it).

I've had Oculus support tell me they couldn't help with warranty as I didn't purchase from an authorised retailer - OcUK, even though they feature OcUK as an authorised retailer on their site.

I've had numerous instances of Hermes saying they tried to deliver and no-one was in (nonsense), resulting in orders being returned/delayed by several days.

Last week I had to deal with Sky who were charging me extra for HD every month despite me re-negotiating my contract in July and the offer confirmation email I received not mentioning anything about it, and then refusing to honour the original agreement (since resolved after phone call #3 and speaking to someone else).

Now I've had my online Morrison's order just not turn up, no communication from them at all, spoke to them yesterday where they couldn't give me any information, but promising a call back (which of course never materialised), and first thing this morning received a refund out of the blue, no explanation, apology or anything.

Also reading the Royal Mail thread on here where another forum member is having a similar experience.

While this obviously isn't a new thing, it does seem to have become a lot more prevalent in the last 3-4 years, to the point I now expect to have a fight on my hands when something goes wrong and I'm pleasantly surprised when actually I have a positive experience with a company.

I get that things go wrong, and have no problem with that - my issue is that whereas previously companies would try to sort things out properly and come to a solution which kept everyone happy, now they just try to brush you off as if it never happened.

Is this something I'm just imagining, or have others noticed the same?
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
Company: ‘sorry covid init’ …..

everyone else: …..:confused::mad::rolleyes:
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Sounds about right. Even though the issues have been present since before covid, and aren't anything to do with a shortage of staff/goods, it's a convenient catch-all excuse.

Maybe I'll start knocking 10% off every bill I pay and item I buy, because covid... :p
 
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OpenToSuggestions said:
As it is hard to get rid of incompetent employees these days, it is generally acceptable to be crap at work.
Very frustrating.
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This. It's impossible to fire anyone who is incompetent due to rights, unions, etc. Unless they do some really bad gross misconduct.

People also on both ends seem to be getting further away. The smart people are getting smarter and dumb people are getting dumber. Technology likley to blame as is social media the major part of that technology shift. People can't do basic things and rely on a machine to tell them what to do and when.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
Company: ‘sorry covid init’ …..

everyone else: …..:confused::mad::rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Cut amount of support staff in half and blame covid.... sorted

Worst I have had is send a support ticket to Thrustmaster, got the usual 'in these covid times, tickets may take longer than expected'
They took a whole month to reply with a solution that I already said I did in the text of the ticket. :rolleyes:
 
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Yes, I've also witnessed thise since i started in my new job.

Companies say one thing, then take the actual pee with the lead times.

"Yes sir, that will be a 2-3 day lead time"

then 2 weeks later

"Here you go sir as promised. Sorry for the delay"

Only half of what was specified is delivered!

Nothing about the 5 emails sent in between asking where it is. or why they took so long. ffs
 
Customer service is seen as a cost by most companies, so its run on a shoestring and hence the rule of pay peanuts, get monkeys applies. Its mostly a horrible job with poor pay, no career progression and no thanks from anyone.

I have a half-baked idea for a motivational video showing a shower of entitled Karens berating people for trivial complaints and then telling kids "Work hard in school or you will be the one dealing with these clowns" :D
 
peterwalkley said:
Customer service is seen as a cost by most companies, so its run on a shoestring and hence the rule of pay peanuts, get monkeys applies. Its mostly a horrible job with poor pay, no career progression and no thanks from anyone.

I have a half-baked idea for a motivational video showing a shower of entitled Karens berating people for trivial complaints and then telling kids "Work hard in school or you will be the one dealing with these clowns" :D
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If companies could get away with it there’d be no CS staff at all, they’re a cost, often a big one and don’t really drive new business. Accountants hate them.
 
No one takes any responsibility these days they aren't forced to, no conscientiousness - even things as simple as resealing anti-viral wipes so they don't dry out people can't seem to take any responsibility for taking on themselves.

I got recognition recently for taking the initiative and preventing flooding in one part of the building and dealing with a flood in another part while ensuring ongoing operations were able to continue as close to normal as possible - when I was slightly surprised by being rewarded for it they basically said a lot of people would have just said blow it and closed up for the rest of the day (night) and left it for someone else to deal with.
 
Starting to think I've maybe gained through a company's incompetence.

Had an electric smart meter installed a few weeks back. Didn't want one, but my red key thing is knackered.

Anyway, bloke comes round and installs the thing. I do my bit, then try to top up, but it doesn't work. The guy on the phone says 'Oh, we sent you the wrong number, let me fix it'. Then my home display (IHD) shows credit. Great.

Come midnight, the IHD ceases receiving information. No credit, no values no figures, nothing. Thing is, power consumption deducts from your credit in real time, and when the guy did his fix, it stopped deducted.

Fairly confident I would have exhausted all my credit + emergency by now...
 
MissChief said:
If companies could get away with it there’d be no CS staff at all, they’re a cost, often a big one and don’t really drive new business. Accountants hate them.
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I don't know, e.g. a lot of people recommend John Lewis because of their aftersales care & warranty support, my PC parts almost exclusively come from OcUK because I've always found their customer service great, and I'm looking at new monitors (LG 38GN950 or Alienware AW3821DW) and several recommendations are for the Alienware over the LG because of the Dell support/warranty, even though the LG is arguably the better product.

If your CS stands out over the competition, then that's going to bring in customers who otherwise would have gone elsewhere. The inverse is also true, there are a few companies I will never give another penny to, no matter how good their product is, because of the terrible CS I've experienced when dealing with them.

Smokey Deza said:
Starting to think I've maybe gained through a company's incompetence.

Had an electric smart meter installed a few weeks back. Didn't want one, but my red key thing is knackered.

Anyway, bloke comes round and installs the thing. I do my bit, then try to top up, but it doesn't work. The guy on the phone says 'Oh, we sent you the wrong number, let me fix it'. Then my home display (IHD) shows credit. Great.

Come midnight, the IHD ceases receiving information. No credit, no values no figures, nothing. Thing is, power consumption deducts from your credit in real time, and when the guy did his fix, it stopped deducted.

Fairly confident I would have exhausted all my credit + emergency by now...
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Don't get me started on utility companies, they are by far the worst! I had to start invoicing NPower for my wasted time before they actually sorted my bill out, and I'm still waiting for a final bill from Together Energy after leaving them in April 2019...
 
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Smokey Deza said:
Starting to think I've maybe gained through a company's incompetence.

Had an electric smart meter installed a few weeks back. Didn't want one, but my red key thing is knackered.

Anyway, bloke comes round and installs the thing. I do my bit, then try to top up, but it doesn't work. The guy on the phone says 'Oh, we sent you the wrong number, let me fix it'. Then my home display (IHD) shows credit. Great.

Come midnight, the IHD ceases receiving information. No credit, no values no figures, nothing. Thing is, power consumption deducts from your credit in real time, and when the guy did his fix, it stopped deducted.

Fairly confident I would have exhausted all my credit + emergency by now...
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oh don't worry, They know what you are using and will charge you for it handsomely :p
 
I was thinking this very same thing recently.

There is a general undertone of incompetence in almost every business I deal with now.

For big companies, it is increasingly difficult to even get to speak to anyone. And no matter what time of day you call, they are 'experiencing high call volumes at the moment'.

As a consumer my patience is quite often getting tested.
 
I felt the need to record my phone call with Virgin recently as I was so fed up with being told one thing on the phone and then something completely different appearing on the bill. They also put me on hold for about 30mins when they checked something which the cynic in me believes was to get me to go away but they just blamed covid.

If an agreement is made on the phone that should be the end of it, you shouldn't have to keep calling back to get what you were promised.
 
It is a strange world we live in that we have social media all around us 24/7 yet people seem to be becoming less socialable.

I remember the old phrase "the customer is always right". Many in business don't seem to see the bigger picture. That even if you're not sure if you're right or wrong you should give the benefit of doubt to the customer.

Maybe this a side effect of short termism.
 
Puzzled said:
I felt the need to record my phone call with Virgin recently as I was so fed up with being told one thing on the phone and then something completely different appearing on the bill. They also put me on hold for about 30mins when they checked something which the cynic in me believes was to get me to go away but they just blamed covid.

If an agreement is made on the phone that should be the end of it, you shouldn't have to keep calling back to get what you were promised.
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Sounds exactly like my discussion with Sky. Fortunately the person I spoke to on Live Chat was able to sort out my offers (in fact it's now actually £2/month less than it was before), but I've taken a copy and screenshots of the whole conversation for when they invariably **** it up yet again.

The next step will be cancelling my contract, since the only way they can prove I agreed to a new minimum term will be by providing the recording of the phonecall, which will prove that they shouldn't have been charging me the extra in the first place. I really don't understand why we need to waste everyone's time playing the game (well... the cynic in me thinks it's because 90% of people will give up at the first hurdle, resulting in easy extra ££ for the company by basically scamming people).

BowdonUK said:
I remember the old phrase "the customer is always right". Many in business don't seem to see the bigger picture. That even if you're not sure if you're right or wrong you should give the benefit of doubt to the customer.
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See, I don't agree with this 100%. There are plenty of customers who will shout and scream and kick up a fuss over nothing. "The customer is always right" gives "Karen" an excuse to treat employees of the company like **** and expect the moon on a stick.

Problems happen, that's fine, but fix it afterwards - take ownership of the issue, keep me updated and at least honour the contract you've made, don't promise ABC, then deliver A and charge me for ABC & D and tell me there's nothing you can do about it.
 
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