Rant Alert! ...... Total Lack of Customer Service

If you have ever watched "The Big Bang Theory" on TV, you will no doubt be familiar with the Sheldon Cooper list of Mortal enemies. Well this morning I decided to start my own list! Topping the list at the moment is my catalogue. In the ongoing saga of the non-delivery of my freezer, yesterday, I rang the delivery company directly. They were very helpful and told me that I could arrange a delivery for any day next week and that once I had my work rota I could ring them back and get it sorted. They then told me something very interesting. That the freezer had never been booked in to be delivered on the 20th, the delivery date had been sent to them by the catalogue and had always been meant to be delivered on the 22nd. This was confirmed yesterday by a text I received form the catalogue telling me that my freezer was scheduled for delivery today (the 22nd). Someone at the catalogue lied to me and told me that the reason it didn't get delivered on the 20th was that it didn't arrive at the couriers in time, it seems what actually happened is that someone at the catalogue messed up and sent the wrong delivery date to the courier! In future, don't fob me off or lie to me and pass the buck, hold your hands up and say I made a mistake and will do whatever it takes to sort out the situation. I would have more respect for them if they did that. So, they are number one on my mortal enemies list!

Number two on my list is my mobile phone company. I haven't had any mobile phone signal inside my house for 2 days now. I usually get the basic coverage for phone calls and texts but nothing fancy like 3G and 4G because of the rural location of my house and I accept that. I understand the limitations and I only ever use my phone for calls and texts. I checked on the live checker and found out they were working on a mast in my area and that it was being fixed but I wanted to find out when this was likely to be. I went to their website and started an online chat with a "guru". I use this term very loosely because the guy was a moron. Despite telling him about the mast being under repair and that if I go just down the road to a different mast area my phone works just fine, he did a "check" and determined that it was my sim card that wasn't working and that I needed a new one. Strike one!! 

I then phoned customer services and after pressing numerous option buttons and listening to 5 minutes-worth of hideous "muzac" I explained the situation to a bloke who said he would need to send me a notification to my phone with a number on it to verify security!!! I asked how this was possible when I had no signal and could do absolutely nothing with my phone, except maybe use it as a hockey puck, but he insisted it would work. He then sounded most confused when said notification failed to materialise on my phone. By this time I practically foaming at the mouth and I asked to speak to someone else. Sadly, all he could offer were the "gurus" again so, I said goodbye, hung up and re-dialled in the hope of getting someone with at least two brain cells! Strike two!! 

This time I got what sounded like a stroppy teenager who proceeded to tell me in no uncertain terms that ...... and this is a direct quote ...... "it's because you live in a bad reception area. It's not our fault, it's in your terms and conditions that we don't guarantee service 100% of the time" All I wanted to know was if the mast was going to be fixed soon! Strike three!!!!! 

I did eventually get out of miss stroppy-pants that it should be fixed within 24 hours but I'm not convinced I actually believe her!

When did it become so difficult to speak to someone who can actually help and when did the people who work in customer services become so un-bloody-helpful? I'm now totally frazzled and I'm going to go and lie down in a dark room somewhere and re-group before I go to work ........ oh joy!!!