Worst Company to contact by phone?

D

DirtyH2O

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I've had two awful experiences contacting companies by phone in the last week and was wondering if this is typical or if they are amongst the worst services provided.
I contacted BOI and each person I was transferred to put my call back onto the main Business online menu. I was eventually told to call the branch, which was how I contacted them to begin with.
The next day the system was down so they couldn't help although I did get a direct number so I can avoid every using the main phone service again.

Our NTL cable service has been down all week so I called to report on Saturday.
It took eighteen and a half minutes in the queue before being connected to an operator. I had the phone on speaker and had lunch and read the paper before being put through.
Are BOI and NTL sub standard or is this the normal level of service in Ireland?
 
I spent my 3 months, 8 phone calls and a total of 3 hours and 44 minutes (I counted) on hold trying to get Eircom to sort out my broadband. All I wanted was someone to call out can fix it. I was willing to pay whatever their rates were and told them so. In the end I gave up and moved to a different phone and internet provider. So Eircom are far and away the worst company, indeed organisation of any sort, that I have ever had the misfortune to call.
 
I think in gerneral custoer service has deteriorated in the past while and only if you are a new customer will your call get answered quickly. Found BT to be the worst where trying to sort out our Broadband problem was on hold for 30 mins,55 minutes,1.5 hours and 1 hour 20 minutes. This was the worst experince we have had with a service provider but actually once we got through to the relevant person they did deal with our problems just a pity about the long wait!
 
Eircom customer services by a mile - now try calling their sales end of things and you'll get through in a few mins, it took me over 50 mins to get through to customer services one night - i have since left them.
 
Eircom, by a mile.

Before I abandoned them as service providers, I spent 10 weeks (yes, ten) trying to get an answer from them on a billing issue (money was debited from my a/c but wasn't appearing in theirs - wouldn't be the first customer this has ever happened to I'm sure).

For the last 3 weeks of that famous 10 week period, I contacted them every working day either by phone, email, fax or posted letter. It got to be a standing joke in my workplace at the time.

I finally wrote to the head honcho copied all 14 (doubled-sided) pages of correspondence and told them to sort it out or the next fax was going to the Joe Duffy show (doubt that it would have been very interesting radio mind you!).

I got a phone call back and problem was sorted 2 days later.

I switched providers by the end of the week and wild horses wouldn't drag me back.
 
Kildrought said:
I switched providers by the end of the week and wild horses wouldn't drag me back.
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Same here. If their CEO arrived at my house with a hamper and a promise of free phone and Internet for life I'd tell him to shag off.
 
Whilst not defending eircom for a second - I am very surprised that NTL (NT Hell as they are known by their staff) aren't first on everybodies list of worst company to deal with. It is now over three years since I stopped dealing with them, anytime I hear mention of dreadful customer service I think of them, even replying to this thread gives me a small knot of anxiety, I thank God for Sky.

The thing is they might have improved their customer services a hundred fold since I last dealt with them, but I would do without television rather then ever go back to them.
 
Only in MY OWN experience, eircom wins hands down, but I've never had to deal with NTL. However, when trying to get through to eircom, just keep pressing the wrong key, eventually out of exasperation " the voice" should transfer you to a customer service representative. Good luck after that!
 
I recently had a problem with NTL - I called them three times, each time I called I was placed in a queue for roughly 25-30 minutes and then was disconnected. I never spoke to a soul. Luckily the problem seems to have resolved itself!

But it's not just their customer service. A mate of mine wanted to sign up with NTL in November. She was put on hold several times before being disconnected. When she did get through to someone, she was passed from department to department and given three different installation dates each time. (her place already had an NTL connection that had lapsed - not sure why they couldn't switch it on remotely) After being messed around for two weeks without being told anything definitive, she went to Sky. She would have gone with Sky earlier but her landlady wasn't keen on the dish.

I wonder how they're making money if their sales service is that bad, let alone their customer service.
 
Back in the 1980's when NTL were known as Cablelink you couldn't get through to them either. Back then my three worst companies to phone were Cablelink, Eircom and PMPA. Some things haven't changed. At the moment the company that is giving me hell is Mercer, not trying to make contact but trying to receive responses.
 
Eircom, by the proverbial country mile...BTW, I have found both bt broadband and BOI quite easy to deal with over the phone but then again maybe they were just better when compared to eircom...

d
 
NTL without a shadow of a doubt. It is a faceless compassionless organisation that sucks the soul out of you by way of hold music and lack of accountability. The ironically named Customer Service department must surely be the most useless in the world never mind Ireland.
 
Newby said:
NTL without a shadow of a doubt. It is a faceless compassionless organisation that sucks the soul out of you by way of hold music and lack of accountability. The ironically named Customer Service department must surely be the most useless in the world never mind Ireland.
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Could not have put it better myself-and believe it or not they have recently got even worse -I am waiting almost 3 weeks for a response to an email about their digital service which at times is unwatchable due to stalling etc.I long ago gave up trying to phone them.
 
Purple said:
So who's the best?
I find Vodafone business support to be superb.
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I guess the smaller the organisation the more likely you are to get the answers you require. I have a mortgage with a small branch of EBS and i find them excellent. Prompt callbacks, if question not answered immediately and if they cannot answer the question they will contact the head branch on your behalf and call you back. I wouldn't use anyone else. (No connection with EBS apart from my mortgage)
 
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Just got of the phone with Bord Gais Energy Supply; my call was answered within 3 rings and my query dealt with promptly and efficiently.
 
Never really had a problem with eircom (apart from their charges!) so thought that BT were worse by a mile to answer the phone and also didn't have anyone to answer queries at weekends.

When we used to have chorus a few years ago found them pretty dire and they never answered the phone when there was a problem (which was often)

SKY are another crowd who won't answer their phone but there service is reliable to don't have to ring them too often.
 
just talking to dublin corpo waste desposal department. very helpful and sorted out everything i needed sorting efficiently and promptly. pleasantly surprised.
 
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