What happened to Customer Service?

I don't know about you but I'm fed up of the lack of customer service. It's been missing for a long time and it's a topic that is on my mind often. 

In Dubai we've had 6 years of 'yes, yes' 'as you like' and 'inshallah' then refusing to answer the phone, not responding to emails and then just lying to your face.

In South Africa it was 'now now' 'we'll make a plan' and then nothing happened and people would actually just walk away from you.

The UK is actually no better, in fact, I'd say it's worse. Recently when I've asked a question face to face or on the phone and have been misled, lied to and ignored and I've said firmly that I'm not happy with their response I've been quoted to with 'I have the right to work in a safe environment' followed by me saying 'and I have the right to expect the service I have actually paid for'

I get a feeling that everyone I've encountered in Customer Service recently thinks they are doing me a favour, giving up their time and I'm just plain ungrateful. At no point have they taken into consideration that I've paid, over the odds for a service and if my food is stone cold, or my room has cobwebs on the walls or no one answered the phone or replied to my email to confirm bookings and details that, it isn't my fault and if they carry on with their face to face lies 'my manager didn't give me the number' showing them the message from their boss, then them saying 'no one answered when I rang' and me showing them my call log, at some point I am going to go FULL ON KAREN MODE.

I used to teach Customer Service skills at Worcester Tech and they still offer it as a course. It should be mandatory if you work in any environment, for the front of house staff, for those who answer the phone, or reply to emails, the actual FACE (First port of call) for your company, that they know how to deal with and respond to a customer without passing the buck, ignoring the issue or lying.

I leave Basil to explain how to satisfy customers in his hotel. He sums up the recent experiences we've had as paying guests.

How do you know what you don't know?

The answer is, you don't. That's why you hire professionals to do things for you. You ask others to help you and you do your research.

Life has been a lot more complicated for people recently around the world, dealing with Covid-19 and restrictions with new ways of doing things have to be found. There will inevitably be delays and last minute changes of plan, additional expenses and a lot of inconvenience. Then just when you think it's all settled and there is now an established way of doing things, it all changes again.

However, more often than not, you end up finding out things you don't know about that you need to know. I find the best way of dealing with things is to say at the beginning that I have no idea how anything works, what you want from me and in what order you want it done, so please start at the beginning and explain it to me. There always seems to be an assumption you've a) done this before and b) if you have done it before it will have been done the same way.

Here's a list of things I didn't know I had to know over recent months.

I didn't know that I'm supposed to know that:

I have to be at a hospital 2 hours prior to appointment time.

Not all medical appointments are direct billing and even if you ask if it's pay and claim or direct billing, you need to know that what you're told over the phone will differ from what actually happens on the day.

If you want to close a bank account and to actually have the account closed that you need to know that you have to ask for a clearance certificate or your bank account just remains open with a zero balance.

To ensure a smooth and swift delivery of your personal belongings via a shipping line that you need to know to ask the company you have the contract with to ask for the Bill of Lading from the Shipping company then know that although they've asked, they may not have received it and you have to know this, then you have to know that even when they give it to the shipping company that you need to know the person to contact in the UK to ask them to ensure they notify them, then you need to know they won't automatically inform your UK agent to arrange collection of your furniture for delivery to you. You also need to know that no one actually cares or accepts responsibility.

Estate agents won't date photos, evidencing damage, automatically before submitting them to the Deposit Protection Scheme, but you don't know you need to ask them to do that until after the claim has been refused, due to insufficient evidence that those photos were taken during the tenancy and not years earlier or later.

I automatically know I have to collect a ticket once I've decided what category my question/complaint fits into, then know which part of the building to go to for the corresponding ticket window.

I know that I have to do things in a certain order and ask my questions in the correct order or I'll have to take a new ticket and queue all over again.

I know where each department is and fully understand the orders barked at me to follow without being given time to process and to think about what else I don't know, that I may need to know before leaving the department and navigating my way to another building armed only with a ticket number.

Things that I do know though.

People will lie. Say things to get your business.

People and companies will fail to take ownership of their mistakes and will stop replying to emails, ignore your calls and eventually block your number.

People and companies will make things as difficult as possible for you to get refunds/monies owed in the hope you'll just go away.

People who don't know that they need to know, don't tend to understand your situation.

Paying agents to do a job, badly

I'm pissed off, totally, at the point of having a breakdown.

I'm pissed off because my container is delayed because the agents didn't submit the paperwork.

I'm pissed off with all the work I've had to do to our family home because the agents didn't manage the property and the tenants and submit the correct paperwork to the Deposit Protection Scheme.

I'm pissed off with paying agents/professionals to do a job that I am unqualified to do, which turns out that I am actually qualified to do as I'm the one who has to sort it out and draw on skills and intelligence I didn't know I actually had.

Let me tell you my shipping story.

It began in Dubai early September, I obtained 3 quotes, all the same price, all offering the same service. I did a google search, I asked on twitter. I made a decision.

I picked the one who said they could ship on September 10th.

The ship didn't sail till October 2nd. I spent from the day they packed until September the 22nd asking for the shipping details, until they finally said the container was loaded.

By then I was back in the UK, I googled shipping lines and discovered the ship didn't sail until October 2nd.

I also paid them nearly £500 for the shipping and breakage insurance, I filled in all the forms and sent them off and made payment on September the 9th.

I constantly chased them for the Insurance details until October 13th they informed me Insurance had been denied. I contacted the Insurance directly to be informed that the application hadn't been made until October 13th and therefore as the ship had already sailed I couldn't have insurance.

The company made out they were doing me a favour by refunding me the money. I'm still waiting for the refund.

My container was still at sea. During this time, an attempted hijack was reported off the Isle of Wight of a ship and a container fell off another ship near the coast of Weymouth.

There are many things I would be unable to replace such as photographs and the children's keepsakes, but should my container have been hijacked or fallen in the sea I wouldn't have been able to claim for loss of furniture etc.

My container arrived in Port on November 8th, with a customs clearing time of 5-12 days, after day 5 I am to be charged storage fees.

On November 6th I made yet another call to the UK agents who still hadn't responded to me to let me know the process. I explained I needed to get back to Dubai ASAP and they said they'd be in contact as soon as they were informed the container had been released. 

On November 17th I called the UK company, no response, finally they replied to my email on the 20th to say as soon as they heard they'd contact me.

On the 23rd, Monday this week. I phoned them up again, the container hadn't been released. It was now day 17, so I called the National Clearing Hub, the Port and UK Border Force who all informed me that my container had been cleared on the 17th November, so why hasn't it been collected?

I called the UAE company, no reply, I called the UK company, no reply. I sent emails and whatsapp messages and over the past 2 days I've had the UK agent tell me it's not her fault and she's working hard to resolve the issue. I contacted the shipping line to be informed the Bill of Lading, bascially the Inventory hasn't been sent to them.

Finally the UAE side replied, the agent was almost crying on the phone, I will do I promise, please let me sort this out. The receptionist sends me an email to tell me shipping company have received the Bill of Lading.

Shipping company email back this morning, they still don't have it. UK agent not answering phone or responding to emails. Call whatssapp number in Dubai, woman answers, she is agents and receptionists boss, she tells me Bill of Lading has been sent, it is the shipping lines fault, we argue, she patronises me with Lady, My Dear and Inshallah, she implies she was will sort the issue in 2 days, Inshallah, maybe a week. It's a 3 day National Holiday in Dubai next week, they're 4 hours ahead, the end of the working week is tomorrow, so to stand any chance of getting my container by Monday when I need to fly has to be resolved by 5am UK time tomorrow morning.

I tell her I have email from shipping company, all she has to do is reply to their request. She replies and copies me in. 

'We have long correspondence with your office here in Dubai asking them to submit to our agent at your end the original Bill of Lading.

For this shipment without success we even asked them during sailing of the cargo to release again sea express bill but no replies

& no action.'

She then gives the name of the person in Dubai and their contact details and asks the UK side to sort it out as she has had no luck.

I'm pissed off because the UK agent knows they should have this paperwork before they can collect the container, the shipping company because they know they have to present the paperwork to the UK side, the UAE agent for misleading me all the way through.

I'm pissed off for no one taking ownership of the problem.

I'm pissed off for people making out they're doing me a favour to resolve their mistakes.

I'm pissed off because if everything had gone to plan, my house sitters would've arrived October 22nd, the container would've been delivered and unpacked on the 48th day and I would've flown back out to Dubai to see my husband the first week of November and would no longer be stuck in the UK during Covid on my own. 

I'm pissed off but would've been less pissed off if the paperwork had been processed correctly as I would have flown back to Dubai the end of last week.

I won't have time to unpack now and I'll find out when I do in February if there is any damage and all the agents will be long gone by then and I won't be able to make any claim against them.

The only bonus is that I'm now staying with my son and his wife in Northern Ireland, that I haven't seen since February. 

UPDATE

Thursday 26th November. Shipping container cleared for collection. The Bill of Lading was finally supplied. To achieve this I enlisted the help of two random strangers from the internet who responded to my pleas for help, who worked together in both Dubai and the UK phoning my agents and the shipping line to get the matter sorted on my behalf, for which I am extremely grateful.

Friday 27th November 16.41 No response from UK agent with a delivery date. Yesterday they said delivery was booked for December 10th. Now that is a normal time frame after the container being cleared around 10-14 days. However as my container was actually ready on November 17th, it should be delivered Monday or Tuesday next week, which would be in time for me to fly back to Dubai as planned. They've said they'll do their best to get it sorted for then, but at this late stage of the day, when they're not answering my calls or reading the emails, I suspect it won't be happening.

In my opinion the agent in the UK should've realised that there was going to be an issue and not left it a week before finding out what was going on, in fact it was only because there were 13 of us calling her that eventually something was done, but it wasn't good enough. It wasn't them that sorted it, it was me and the online help i received. Basically the agents in Dubai didn't pay the seafaring bill, although they claimed they paid it on October 11th, yet on 24th November they emailed to say the shipping company hadn't invoiced them yet, a week after the ship docked in London.

I'll update further on the delivery date once I'm informed but I suspect I won't be going back to Dubai for a while yet.

Container being delivered Sunday 29th November. It arrived at 7pm and my sofa is in the neighbours garage until February when I return to the UK.

What makes good customer service?

The man on the desk at the car hire centre had no idea what type of day I'd had. He didn't know a simple 90 minute journey took almost 5 hours after the closure of the M40, that I had the start of a headache and that I was only collecting car hire because the one I currently had wanted to charge me over £500 to extend my hire for 5 days.

On arrival in the office I was greeted with 'You don't have your passport, there's nothing we can do' and that was the end of the conversation. So I turned my attention to another member of staff and said calmly 'Help me please, it's 7pm I'm now stranded in Birmingham with no way of getting back to South Wales, I'm not angry, cross or even upset, I just NEED your help'

Well the issue was resolved and an hour later I left with the new car hire (I was able to recall log in details for my electricity account to provide proof of address).

But it all could've gone so horribly wrong and I don't mean just not getting a car hired, but the whole experience could've descended into a full on shouting match as I've seen quite often, when people have had long flights, company booked car hire and driver doesn't have a credit card to secure the deposit or the car has been booked in the wrong name etc.

What makes good customer service for me, is when the member of staff can sense that there may be other issues going on and is intelligent enough to apply the same principal of how other peoples jobs may work differently to theirs.

For example if I was a Doctor, I wouldn't need the Doctor's advice on whether I should take antibiotics or need to get my foot seen at the local hospital or just rest it for a few days. You see I'm not a Doctor and the Doctor will assume I have no medical knowledge, therefore they will ask the right questions to get to the bottom of the matter, they don't just sit there and say 'computer says no'

When I go to bank and ask if something is possible and the teller tells me no with no further explanation, or the restaurant staff show me to a table but don't bring a menu or I go to the post office and don't see the ticket machine to take my turn, there's no need to shout at me or just stare blankly at me as I don't work there, I don't know the procedure or guess what? I'd be actually doing it and not asking for help and assistance. BTW I also don't know how your establishment works, if I did I wouldn't be there asking questions, which I don't know how to word anyway as guess what? I don't actually work there.

Poor customer service is something I've experienced living in both South Africa and Dubai. I start all conversations in unfamiliar settings with 'I'm a foreigner, I didn't grow up here, I have no idea how things work in these parts. I'm also finding myself saying this more and more back in the UK 'I haven't lived here for 8 years, I've no idea how things work here anymore'

Last week I was greeted with this

I just wanted to pee and I was desperate but had to ask for help to work it. I was met with a sigh, a smirk and then without me seeing how they just did it. Now I was at this building for 3 hours, I wasn't rude but I was firm as I said 'Don't laugh at me, I've never used one of these before, I suspect there are many things I can do that you can't, can you drive a car? Do you know how my laptop works? No, so how would you feel if I laughed at you when you were trying something new?'

Poor Customer Service and getting results online.

I'm getting increasingly fed up with up.

The last few times I've had a problem with major organisations and companies, I've followed the correct procedures, emailed the dedicated customer service team and waited for their response. Failing to get a response, where possible I've visited the relevant department and finally taken to Social Media, had an immediate response and the matter has been resolved within 24 hours.

Why have a customer service email and procedure to follow on a website when all you need to do is complain on twitter?

It irks me and it's not fair on people who don't use social media or have access to the internet and have to resort to being fobbed off over the telephone, after pressing a combination of buttons and being put on hold at considerable expense or being fobbed off face to face or even worse waiting for a reply via the postal system.

I visited several branches to obtain a deposit after a house move at the 'happiness centre' I left in tears on more than one occasion after being told all the paperwork they told me to have was incorrect and in the bank had a complete meltdown when i was made to obtain a ticket and queue 3 separate times to complete my banking needs and was in the branch for over an hour, as I had to see people in 3 different departments to change address and print a statement.

Living in Dubai I'm constantly comparing between here and the UK, whilst I find the above works pretty much the same in both countries, what I find different about Dubai is the service in the stores.

There appears to be an assumption in Dubai that all customers must be followed around the stores, closely by a sales assistant, muttering at you the entire time, taking your purchases off you and trying to get you to the counter or leading away from what you're looking at to show you something better and usually more expensive. This is for a variety of reasons.

Firstly, if they assist you with a sale, they may get commission on your purchase, secondly, if they're seen not to put packing your bags and serving you at break neck speed, then their manager will tell them off for not helping and thirdly because they think it's what we want or in some cases demand.

For me it feels rushed, I feel like I'm suspected of shop lifting. I like to browse. I may pick up several items to compare and then decide which one or two I would like to purchase. I might like to pack my own bags as I don't want potatoes put on top of bread or meat in with fruit or one item per plastic bag as I've actually brought my own bags with me.

Quite often though it is assumed you don't actually know what you want or what you are doing so they assume what you want and take over leading you down an avenue to purchase something you don't actually want or need. I don't speak any other language other than English and I'm pretty much in awe of people who do speak other languages, but often things get lost in translation or people just don't listen and it's difficult to get them to stop and work out what you are actually asking for without shouting at them to stop and listen.

But what irritates me the most is when I go into a relatively empty store, have dealt with most of the above and as I put something back on a rail or a shelf, before my hand has even left the object, the staff are right by your side, tidying it and lining it back up with perfection, making you feel like you're just an inconvenience and all it makes me want to do is leave the store and ruffle their window display as I exit.

Change is a big issue also for me as in no one ever has any and they think it's ok just to give you the receipt, since the introduction of VAT in January, unless the total is a round number, I'm no longer using cash and am paying by card, as I estimate I can save 2-3 dirhams a day which can add up to quite a considerable saving every year.

In Dubai there are 3 coins.

1 dirham

50 fils

25 fils

Prices are not set where it is possible to give exact change so a lot of rounding is done, if you pay by bank card you'll be deducted the 67 fils, if you pay by cash, they'll take 50 fils and let you off the rest.

Although sometimes if the total is 10.67 and you give them 11 dhs, you'll not get the change.

The cash machine dispenses large notes in denominations of 100, 200, 500 and 1000, yet the shops rarely have change for you. I was turned away from Boots trying to buy an 11 dhs packet of sanitary pads in an emergency and due to the fact I was using a UK bank card at the time I'd withdrawn 1000 dhs to save on costs and it came out the machine in 1 note. 

They will often force customers to use a bank card for small purchases, which is ok for me as I have a local card, but for a tourist, the charges can often cost more than the product.

A lot of companies are now charging VAT on products and services purchased prior to it's introduction earlier this month and it's causing a lot of arguments. We purchased a service agreement for Peter's car last year, there are 3 services left. At the time of purchase they were aware that VAT would be introduced, yet they waited until January 1st to ask for payment on all remaining services. Now in my mind that is not acceptable. It may be correct, but large organisations should in the name of good customer service, absorb these costs for their customers and only charge the VAT on newly purchased services. They're also trying to do it with gym memberships, purchased last year. Many companies have also taken the opportunity to increase their prices. At the car wash I was informed the price increase was due to the added 5% VAT, but in December the cost was 25 dirhams, now it is 36.75 dirhams, meaning a price increase of 10 dirhams for the same service, yet they're trying to tell me it's only gone up because of the added VAT.

I was denied access to speak with the manager at the garage, I called head office who informed me I had to speak to the manager, I called customer services who informed me I had to speak with the manager and despite telling them both no one made any effort on the desk to ask the manager to speak to me, they just then quoted the law about VAT at me on a loop till eventually I was forced to pay it as the garage refused to hand my car back to me until I did.

That is poor customer service and we will not be renewing the service agreement with them.

Do you have experiences with poor customer service? Does it always take longer to resolve an issue than it should? Is it the same where ever you are in the world?

Review of Tribes African Restaurant at Dubai Mall.

The best place in the world to eat out in has to be South Africa, the quality, the price, the service, in my opinion, it cannot be rivalled anywhere else in the world in general terms.

We spent 4 years living in South Africa, prior to relocating to Dubai just over 2 years ago, and although we're originally from the UK, I still think of South Africa as home, annual visits back to Pretoria just aren't enough for me, I miss my friends, the culture, the lifestyle and I miss the experience of eating out, dinner, lunch, coffee and cake.

Any opportunity for a 'taste of home' is welcomed, but also avoided. 'What if it's not the same? 'It looks the same?' Will the food taste as good?' 'Will the service go above and beyond?'

There's another South African chain in Dubai, that disappointed us greatly, but we visited shortly after we moved here and probably made too many comparisons, but we've been back and I can safely say, the food and atmosphere is not the same.

We hadn't intended to have dinner out the afternoon we visited Dubai Mall, but we spotted Tribes and both thought 'why not?' besides it was also on the Entertainer App, so if it didn't meet our high expectations of South African Dining, we would have still have had a meal and a pleasant evening at a fraction of the cost.

*We received nothing in exchange for this review, I just had a lovely evening that I wanted to share.

From the moment we stepped inside we knew it was going to be a good meal. The general vibe, the celebration of someones birthday, we felt at home instantly as the waiters prepared a table for us so we could sit at the window overlooking the fountains and the Burj Khalifa.

Drinks were served and order taken in good time, without being hurried or having to wait too long. The most delicious bread was brought to the table while we waited for our meals.

The food arrived, it was well presented, smelt good, both meals were hot, the portions were generous and everything was delivered together, no waiting for sides or sauces.

What makes a bad experience for me when I'm eating out and can influence whether I return, are:

a) constant interruptions from the waiter, being approached to ask about the food when we are clearly having a conversation and multi visits from other waiters, head waiter and manager, and

b) the removal of plates, glasses, serviettes the second some one finishes eating. In some cases as soon as the cutlery is put down the waiters swoop in and clean the table, remove place mats and wipe the table, while other people in the group are still eating.

However I needn't have worried, none of the above happened, although the manager did come over to ask how our food was, as well as the waiter, but our eating and conversation wasn't interrupted, it was at an appropriate time.

Dining out for me is not a pleasure, it is not something I look forward to or get excited about. I don't consider dining out as an experience, we eat, we pay, we leave. However our visit to Tribes was fantastic and we'll definitely be eating there again and trying some more of the menu.

How tolerant are you?

I bought a MacBook Air this week and Microsoft Word for Mac.

They offered to install it there and then but I requested an appointment to come back this morning to have it installed to give me the opportunity to play with my new toy and put a list together of things I needed some help with.

So I transferred files from the hard drive, some are corrupted, photos were moved over, the iPhone wasn’t authorised and I couldn’t find the hash tag key #### I also didn’t know how to open a download to have it installed and where to store files and where the search function was. Otherwise I’m more than happy with my new toy.

Now at 42, I know my adult kids think I’m past it when it comes to technology and my 14 year old certainly thinks I shouldn’t be allowed access to the internet, however my Mother thinks I’m a genius in all things technological J.

So when I’m greeted for my 30 minute tutorial by an employee the same age my eldest son, I must admit my hackles were up and I was ready for a fight, but I was so very wrong. He first asked me if I had any experience of Apple OS and I replied ‘other than my iPhone, no’. He then offered to file, move, sort everything for me, authorised my iPhone, discovered he didn’t know where the hash tag #### key on a UK keyboard was located (we found it together) He gave me instructions on how to migrate files so they weren’t corrupted, rather than just copy them across from the hard drive.

He demonstrated the click, 2 finger click (right click) how to close a file, rearrange my icons, open downloads for installing and not once did he demonstrate any kind of frustration with me or make me feel as if I was stupid and shouldn’t be allowed near technology.

Now this is how things should be isn’t it? I have a lot of knowledge about a lot of things and an awful lot of experience, which I use to help others on a daily basis. I’m often approached for advice from child welfare through to international shipping and I give my knowledge and time freely, to strangers off the net and to friends of friends etc.

However I often find I’m on the receiving end having asked for information on how a product, service works and if I can’t get the assistance I need from people who have personal experience I do what we all do, I turn to the professionals, often a free service, they call it customer care on the end of the phone, face to face in a store or via email, letter or telephone and I often find that these people just sometimes don’t care, treat you as if you’ve asked a stupid question or that you are actually stupid.

I tend to find that most visits that involve any kind of request for help for medical aid, cell phone contracts, opening bank accounts, registering a vehicle start like this:

I’m NOT South African, I know how things work in the UK, because that is where I was born, raised, have experience of things. I know in the UK how to phrase questions correctly to get a response, but here I don’t. If I want to ask for a mobile phone contract or ask for a demonstration on a sat nav or god forbid not understand how medical aid works, because where I come from it’s free, then I’m going to ask aren’t I? How else do I learn?

I don’t expect to be laughed at any more than I’d expect you to know how things work in my country either. So that’s why my hackles were up this morning when I entered the Apple Store, but I couldn’t have been more wrong.