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Complaining

 
  

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pointless and uncalled for
08:07 / 09.12.04
True, there is a logic behind it, but there is this underlying point:

Customer Services staff are trained.

It really depends on the mentality of the MD in this situation, but if they have spent money on training staff to do a job a lot of them are going to refer the matter to the people in whom they have invested and entrusted to handle such matters. The MD of Tesco took a low cost gamble with a high chance of return. Not every MD will think that way.

On the other hand writing directly to the Director of Customer Services send a message that you aren't prepared to casually saunter up the chain of complaint and may go higher. If they can't resolve your complaint in a way that will stop you going up (to the MD) then when it goes up it will come back down in an unpleasant manner. Cc-ing it will make them do it to an audience who will rate them on their customer service performance.

Everyone in the business gets taught the Law of Customer Service Gravity.

The further up a chain that an inability to handle a complaint is exposed the harder, faster and more violently it will come back down.
 
 
grant
14:51 / 10.12.04
For the State of Florida (for whom my better half handles complaints, actually -- a gem of a job, being the personal who handles the complaints against social workers), the letters that go to the governor come back to the local offices in red folders. The ones that go directly to the "client relations" desk or the local supervisors get put it ordinary manila folders.

Wanna guess which color gets done first?

whether to copy it to the bank now, or merely use this as a threat.

Why threaten them? I mean, if you think the bank should know, cc the bank -- don't tell the contractors that you might write their bosses at some indeterminate future time.

Also, by telling the bank, you'll be helping people like Stoatie and whoever else. They're the ones with the power to make changes to the whole system, rather than simply pacifying a single squeaky wheel.


I also really want to know how all of these stories are going to end.

People: don't leave me hangin'!
 
 
mkt
14:42 / 11.12.04
Definitely cc the bank. They are the ones employing this company, after all. My job involves complaints against contractors and partner companies, and as a rule they do fuck all about direct complaints but suddenly start behaving themselves when we get involved.
How high up to complain really varies from company to company. In my company, complaints to senior management are just sent down to my manager to deal with, and she gives them to me. Complaints that come via the front line customer services department also come to me. I can assure you that I handle them all with the same degree of efficiency and care (unless they're rude, natch). However, I have worked for companies that are less egalitarian where a letter via the Chairman or GCE will be given priority. As a general rule, I don't think it will hurt to send it higher up.
 
 
Knodge - YOUR nemesis!
10:50 / 23.10.07
Hi there. Question for any American Barbelites:

We have something in the UK named the data protection act, where we pay £10 to receive copies of all inforamtion held about us on a business's computer systems, etc.

I've found something similar in the USA but it seems to be a freedom of information act for government files only. Do you have anything like this for businesses in the US?
 
  

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