The increasing incompetence of companies

[eggbert]

I believe that a lot of the slip in competence within the call centres of companies is from the operators working from home. Call centres have always been hit and miss at best but now it seems pretty much just all miss.

 

[Haggisman]

Great one today.

Used the Dartford Crossing on Sunday, with everything going on at home I completely forgot to pay the charge until this morning - fair enough, my bad, entirely my fault.

Log in to the system to see if there's the off chance I can still get away with making the payment.
Enter my reg. no., system finds the car and shows 2 outstanding crossings - excellent, maybe it's OK.
I follow through the process, explicitly say "No" to an option which asks if I want to add any credit for additional crossings, and pay the outstanding £5. Job done.

Except it's not. I don't get any email receipt, so I sign back in using the payment reference to check if it's gone through OK, and "Available credit: £5, no crossings have been allocated to this payment"

wtf

I've since called them multiple times and I'm getting a completely different answer every single time, everything from "it has been allocated to the crossings and here's a different payment reference" to "there are 2x £70 PCNs on the way and there is no way to get a refund at all"

How difficult is it to get a straight answer?! Needless to say I'm a bit a) ****** off (partially at myself) and b) stressed about the ~£250 bill potentially on the way for making the payment less than 36 hrs late (lease car, so probably a £50 admin charge for each PCN as well).

Yes, completely my fault for not paying on time, but what a joke of a response

Well, no refund or promised call back yet (quelle surprise ). It's past midnight the following day, so they'll be getting an invoice for my £70 consultancy fee in the post as previously advised

 

[The_Arbiter]

You're invoicing them for your time lost due to their carp system?

Please update if you do receive a response

 

[Haggisman]

You're invoicing them for your time lost due to their carp system?

Of course

I advised them when I first contacted them that if I didn't get a refund by midnight the following day then I'd be invoicing them. Apparently they feel that's a reasonable timescale, so I don't see the problem

Even if I don't get a response, I'll at least waste their time. If it's costing me a couple of hundred £ then I'm going to get my money's worth. Assuming their call centre staff are on minimum wage then by my calculations they owe me 20+ hours.

 

[Deep]

I tried to order some picture frames from an online store called Framorey. Literally the most incompetent company I have EVER bought anything from in my life.

Ordered a number of matt black frames. When they arrived, they were black, but the wrong style, not matt black. I go through the chat function on their website to arrange an exchange. Pay out of pocket to get them sent back.

A week goes by since the tracking number says they should've received it, and I hear nothing, so I chase them up. I attach a screenshot of the full chat log from the first time, just to remind them. This second person proceeds to ask me the exact same questions I answered the first time (What was the tracking number. Do I want an exchange or refund. What product do I want them exchanging to). Everything they asked me was literally in the chat screenshot I gave them. I had to repeat myself 4 times. The best part was when I pre-empted their question of what I wanted to exchange them to by listing everything again in this second chat, then they go ahead and ask which type I wanted to exchange to.

Over a week goes by, and I hear nothing again. I don't know where my exchange is, if it's even ready, if it's even been sent out yet, nada. I chase them up, and they say "apologies they're in transit they should be with you this week". The next day, I get a follow up email, "sorry actually your order is being held at the depot because of the number of items, you need to pay additional postage to have them sent out". So, not only did they flat out lie to me by saying they're already in transit, and not only am I out of pocket by sending it back to them in the first place, I now need to pay even MORE to get their original screw up sorted??

So I get frustrated and just ask for a refund. Instead of just refunding it all in one go, for some odd reason they had to split it up and refund me 3 separate times till I got the full amount back (and of course I had to chase on the 2nd and 3rd times).

The annoying thing is the prints I had printed are apparently less common size, as a lot of websites don't seem to offer the exact size without having to get customs done, which end up a fair bit more expensive, so I might chance them again and pray it goes smoothly this time.

I used Frame Express for a custom sized frame and they were great

 

[Haggisman]

Great one today.

Used the Dartford Crossing on Sunday, with everything going on at home I completely forgot to pay the charge until this morning - fair enough, my bad, entirely my fault.

Log in to the system to see if there's the off chance I can still get away with making the payment.
Enter my reg. no., system finds the car and shows 2 outstanding crossings - excellent, maybe it's OK.
I follow through the process, explicitly say "No" to an option which asks if I want to add any credit for additional crossings, and pay the outstanding £5. Job done.

Except it's not. I don't get any email receipt, so I sign back in using the payment reference to check if it's gone through OK, and "Available credit: £5, no crossings have been allocated to this payment"

wtf

I've since called them multiple times and I'm getting a completely different answer every single time, everything from "it has been allocated to the crossings and here's a different payment reference" to "there are 2x £70 PCNs on the way and there is no way to get a refund at all"

How difficult is it to get a straight answer?! Needless to say I'm a bit a) ****** off (partially at myself) and b) stressed about the ~£250 bill potentially on the way for making the payment less than 36 hrs late (lease car, so probably a £50 admin charge for each PCN as well).

Yes, completely my fault for not paying on time, but what a joke of a response

Heh, just had a call from my local MP's office, if I do get a PCN then they've asked me to forward them the details, along with my proof of payment, and they'll write to the Dart people on my behalf

However, so far no PCN details showing against my reg, and not heard anything from the lease company. The payment I made is still showing as credit against the vehicle with no allocated crossings.

No idea how long it should take though, is it the same as a traffic offence where they have only 14 days?

 

[thenewoc]

It's because they're either or both:

a) charlatans
b) only interested in hiring the cheapest possible staff and clueless themselves to the damage this does to their business

 

[Haggisman]

Got an email the other day - my enquiry has been closed apparently. Phoned them again, finally spoke to someone who sounded like they knew what they were doing and has (apparently) issued a refund for the orphaned payment. Still waiting for any PCN - apparently they are issued by 2 different companies, Dart tell this other company who then issue the invoice, so Dart tell me "it's going to be issued", the PCN company tell me they've had nothing from Dart, but it could be up to 6 months before it's issued

If they're so desperate for their payment that it has to be done within less than 48 hours, why do they drag their heels so much issuing the PCN

The woman I spoke to did say that for some reason they have a bit of a backlog of PCNs at the moment, she didn't really have an answer when I pointed out that just maybe that was an indication that their system wasn't fit for purpose.

However....

Today's fun is brought to you by Morrison's. Got my groceries delivered, and one of the items is wrong. It's not a substitution as I had an email saying there weren't any, so obviously the picker has grabbed the wrong thing (not the end of the world, cooked small prawns instead of raw king prawns, but not suitable for the intended use). Dropped their customer service an email and they clearly haven't read it, and just responded with a copy/paste from their FAQ, insisting that I must have received an email advising of the substitution and should have rejected it at the doorstep.

Yes, it's definitely a minor issue in the grand scheme of things, but it's so very exhausting having to constantly waste time doing other people's jobs for them.

Edit: Oh yes, another one. I have a maintenance contract with my car with Autoserve, supposed to cover all MOTs and servicing for the duration of my lease, including a courtesy car or collection/delivery to/from the garage.

Called up last week to arrange my MOT and aforementioned courtesy car/collection: "we don't do that".

So why the **** am I paying you then?!

 

[cheesefest]

Noticed recently in various supermarkets, that the staff put things in the wrong section.

For example, normal food in the free from section or standard coffee in the decaf coffee.

The staff need to read the label of the product to the ticket on the shelf. If they are unsure, get another colleague to double check. My store has had a few new starters and I'm happy to assist them if they are unsure where something goes.

Not only this could potentially make someone poorly - if they ate the standard food v free from - if they grabbed something to eat on the go, it affects stock inventory and wastes time for customers at CSD getting a refund as its the wrong product.

I know sometimes we have stock issues and told to dress the shelf more with other lines, but we remove the ticket of the unavailable items - such as tomatoes in produce as we get anything at the moment due to extremely hot weather in Spain, Morocco and tomato virus.

With the free from stuff, especially branded stuff, there's very little difference between the two packs now, bar a "gluten/dairy free" banner.

 

[The_Arbiter]

Unfortunately celiac sufferers can do much worse than being ill. Sounds like a lack of distinct staff training. Some products such as Naked give the impression that they don't contain certain ingredients, and if put on those free from shelves could rise to a serious issues sadly.

 

[BUDFORCE]

Just before sorting out mortgage my car insurance was up for renewal, ended up switching to a different company. Before putting it through, I carefully checked if they did any credit checks because any hard searches could have had implications on the mortgage. Their website says 'we will perform an identity check which is only visible to you and Experian and not any other lender'. Lovely, so I took out the policy, paying monthly.

I get an email notification that a hard search (full credit application) has been done via TransUnion by this company. I've always paid monthly for my car insurance and NEVER in 16 years has any other company done a hard search or recorded payments via a credit reference agency. Phoned them up and asked them what was going on and the guy said 'we don't do hard credit checks, only soft ones for identity etc'. Told them that they'd done one and he said this was impossible. Escalated it and promised a callback from the manager which of course never happened.

After 3 days of waiting on calls, I eventually spoke to a manager who told me that there's no way this happened and I need to email proof in, which I did. He raised a formal complaint also. I get a response from the complaints team quoting their privacy policy about only doing the soft checks that I've already been told about and I've read myself, they completely ignored the proof I gave them.

I responded by telling them to actually look at the evidence provided and they said they can't do that but they'll escalate it to their customer relations team and that I'd need to wait 8 weeks for a response, by which time my policy would be well underway so I couldn't then cancel it because of this farce.

Why can nobody actually read and deal with things properly?! I ended up raising a dispute with TransUnion which was successful thank god so it's gone and it also didn't cause any issues with the mortgage but the **** poor customer service really rattled me.

Did you got to the financial ombudsman?

Most insurance companies are FCA regulated and you have 6 months to put the complaint in. They do take it seriously (the ombudsman that is) you'll probably end up getting a small payout if you do.

 

[el_dazza]

Did you got to the financial ombudsman?

Most insurance companies are FCA regulated and you have 6 months to put the complaint in. They do take it seriously (the ombudsman that is) you'll probably end up getting a small payout if you do.

I got £100 as an apology out of them for the poor customer service but they maintain their credit checks were correct. Going to the FOS is a hideously long process now. I have a complaint that was registered with the on the 1st February and a case handler still hasn't been assigned.

 

[BUDFORCE]

I got £100 as an apology out of them for the poor customer service but they maintain their credit checks were correct. Going to the FOS is a hideously long process now. I have a complaint that was registered with the on the 1st February and a case handler still hasn't been assigned.

Ok fair enough, I put one in about a data protection breach from my pension provider and they got back to me within about a week, I did have them bang to rights though with the evidence to prove it.

Surprised yours has taken so long.

 

[Haggisman]

Why can nobody actually read and deal with things properly?!

This is the crux off it really isn't it? I get that sometimes people make mistakes or things go wrong, but it seems even the people who are supposed to sort those problems out are more interested in creating MORE problems

 

[aVdub]

I wonder how many councils across the UK would be added to this thread, were they a company!

 

[cheesefest]

I wonder how many councils across the UK would be added to this thread, were they a company!

Leicester City Council - well you can blame the idiots of the city of voting Peter Soul(less)sby as mayor for the 4th term. Leicester city MPs are all Labour. All the Leicestershire county's MPs are Tory.

Pointless cycle lanes which hardly anyone uses, making the city centre as car unfriendly as they can do.

All councils waste so much money on red tape, then decide to close some public loos to save £20k pa - yet waste that in a few days.

 

[mid_gen]

I used Frame Express for a custom sized frame and they were great

I ordered frames from an online company once. After the third one arrived smashed I gave up and just use bricks and mortar framers now.

 

[Haggisman]

Great one today.

Used the Dartford Crossing on Sunday, with everything going on at home I completely forgot to pay the charge until this morning - fair enough, my bad, entirely my fault.

Log in to the system to see if there's the off chance I can still get away with making the payment.
Enter my reg. no., system finds the car and shows 2 outstanding crossings - excellent, maybe it's OK.
I follow through the process, explicitly say "No" to an option which asks if I want to add any credit for additional crossings, and pay the outstanding £5. Job done.

Except it's not. I don't get any email receipt, so I sign back in using the payment reference to check if it's gone through OK, and "Available credit: £5, no crossings have been allocated to this payment"

wtf

I've since called them multiple times and I'm getting a completely different answer every single time, everything from "it has been allocated to the crossings and here's a different payment reference" to "there are 2x £70 PCNs on the way and there is no way to get a refund at all"

How difficult is it to get a straight answer?! Needless to say I'm a bit a) ****** off (partially at myself) and b) stressed about the ~£250 bill potentially on the way for making the payment less than 36 hrs late (lease car, so probably a £50 admin charge for each PCN as well).

Yes, completely my fault for not paying on time, but what a joke of a response

I've still not had this PCN... it was apparently generated at the end of December, posted out 9th January, my lease company haven't had anything through, DART can't tell me any details because it's not in my name, so now need to wait until it is re-issued after 28 days, and hope it turns up this time. Utter jokers

Had yet another fun experience today; bought my partner a cardigan for Christmas, she wore it once and it's separated right at one of the seams, so we sent it back for an exchange.

The replacement arrived over the weekend, she's just opened it, and they've sent literally the same one back (it even still smells of her perfume!)... how do you mess that up?!

 

[sad099]

I've still not had this PCN... it was apparently generated at the end of December, posted out 9th January, my lease company haven't had anything through, DART can't tell me any details because it's not in my name, so now need to wait until it is re-issued after 28 days, and hope it turns up this time. Utter jokers

Had yet another fun experience today; bought my partner a cardigan for Christmas, she wore it once and it's separated right at one of the seams, so we sent it back for an exchange.

The replacement arrived over the weekend, she's just opened it, and they've sent literally the same one back (it even still smells of her perfume!)... how do you mess that up?!

Is it still separated at the seams or did they they try and tape it up before returning

 

[Nutty667]

As it is hard to get rid of incompetent employees these days, it is generally acceptable to be crap at work.
Very frustrating.

That and diversity quotas meaning you're not hiring based on merit and competence.