Prime Time Investigates "Service with a Snarl"

[Brendan Burgess]

Prime Time on Monday next will be presented by Conor Pope of the Irish Times who has written a good article in today's paper.

NTL features in the article so I hope that they feature on the TV programme. I can't believe the claim of the MD that they have improved.

Brendan

[budapest]

Poor customer service is an easy thing to complain about but IMO, comparatively, Ireland is quite good in this respect. The basic concept doesn't even really exist in Hungary or certain other parts of Europe.

[Padraigb]

While the article that Brendan links doesn't say anything truly surprising, I liked this bit:

SUPERQUINN IS ONE company in Ireland that has been associated with good customer service. "It seems to me that the most important element is to take the long-term approach. I think that has slipped a little as accountants have taken over," says Fergal Quinn, the former owner of the supermarket chain.

As a Superquinn shopper, I must commend his masterly understatement.

[Ancutza]

Customer service, or the lack of it, has to be seen to be believed in Romania!! It's one of my pet rants!

They're fine to me as I'm a foreigner but how they address each other in shops is mind-boggling. I'm forever hammering home to my staff that if I hear them being rude to a customer that they'll be leaving so quick their feet won't touch the floor!

Service in Ireland is streets ahead IMO.

[SlurrySlump]

My top three worst for customer service.

1. NTL. www.upc.ie
2. Mercer www.mercer.ie
3. First Active www.firstactive.ie

[extopia]

Originally Posted by Ancutza

Service in Ireland is streets ahead IMO.

Streets ahead of Romania is faint praise indeed.

There's good and bad here. NTL is legendary for its lousy service. And don't get me started on eircom. Then there was the government department (I can't remember which) with the answering machine message "To serve you better, we only answer the phone on Mondays and Thursdays" (or words to that effect).

[budapest]

Ulster Bank Mortgages are also pretty terrible to deal with but I think it is/was primarily an under-staffing problem. In my experience though, most companies in Ireland are relatively hassle-free to deal with. Nothing wrong with demanding even higher standards though.

[Towger]

Originally Posted by budapest

Ulster Bank Mortgages are also pretty terrible to deal with but I think it is/was primarily an under-staffing problem.

How can they be under staffed when the mortage section has had almost nothing to do for the best part of a year :-)

BTW. I have sent written complaints to their Ulster HQ and Dublin HQ and years later I am still waiting for a reply!

[Sherman]

Originally Posted by extopia

Streets ahead of Romania is faint praise indeed.

There's good and bad here. NTL is legendary for its lousy service. And don't get me started on eircom. Then there was the government department (I can't remember which) with the answering machine message "To serve you better, we only answer the phone on Mondays and Thursdays" (or words to that effect).

The common thread being there that all three examples are current or former government entities...

[Towger]

Originally Posted by Sherman

The common thread being there that all three examples are current or former government entities...

Don't mention what, you will get Complainer upset again

[Joe1234]

Apparently when you ring the revenue office in Dundalk, after 4pm you get a message stating that the office is closed and the opening hours are 9.30 to 5.00. I heard it was because when the time changed in October the clock on the phone system was not adjusted, so it automatically puts on the naswe service. This was the situation about 3 weeks ago. Don't know if it has been changed since.

[parsi]

Originally Posted by Sherman

The common thread being there that all three examples are current or former government entities...

When was NTL a governemnt entity ?

[j26]

Originally Posted by extopia

...Then there was the government department (I can't remember which) with the answering machine message "To serve you better, we only answer the phone on Mondays and Thursdays" (or words to that effect).

While it's efficacy was debatable, that was intended to allow civil servants to get work done rather than have to spend all day on the phone fielding queries from the public.
There seems to be a move to call centres, which has removed the need for it.

Our office did it for a while, and while I thought it was a bit silly, it did allow us to process more casework, and ultimately serve the customer by getting the work done, rather than chasing our tails. However, the information centre set up after that little experiment works much better for us.

[Black Sheep]

Perhaps a little less use of the phone and a little more use of the head might leave our call centres less frantic. I prefer to do as much research as possible before ringing a call centre as you can get a variety of answers to the same question.
Maybe I'm just a sceptic but like to see the written word

[podgerodge]

Originally Posted by parsi

When was NTL a governemnt entity ?

probably referring to the fact that NTL purchased Cablelink. Cablelink had been owned by Telecom Eireann and RTE.

[parsi]

Aha !

But the former government part of that is so diluted as to be non-existent - all of Chorus is under that umbrella too and they were fully private and God-awful to deal with.

[ubiquitous]

"Service with a Snarl" - Does that include TV licence inspectors?

[bond-007]

Ah you mean jumped up postmen that think they are Elliot Ness as they trawl thru peoples bins looking for their "evidence"?

[Elainee40]

what about the mobile company "3", there customer care is awful and i hate ringing them

[kcb]

Ulster Bank are awful
Imagine are the pits aswell