The customer is rarely right

Well, Virgin Media have finally given us back some broadband service, albeit slower than it they lure new customers into thinking it will be in their advertising campaign, and it has given rise to a dilema.  Do I still put myself through the distress and torture of trying to call their  customer "care" line, to report that we had a major issue but was unable to get through to anyone in their call centre yesterday, or do I just leave it?  I would really like to just leave it and hope that the service will not fall offline again, but as I said yesterday the broadband service has been intermittent at best lately, and so I feel that if I do not raise this latest lack of quality servive to them, then it means that the ongoing catalogue of errors does not mount up at the speed it should, and the company in question do not feel they have an issue.

The bulk of my week has been spent sleeping, and so there is not too much to report, but I did have another fantastic case of misplaced customer service when I ordered a wardrobe online.  I had browsed the internet and various retail establishments very carefully looking for the type of wardrobe to meet my needs.  I measured the available space, even marking the floor with masking tape so there will be no surprises when it arrives, and reviewed the colour options available.  The website of the particular retailer made it very clear that Christmas delivery would only be honoured for orders placed before 10 October, and so I was very clear that in this case my new specifically chosen wardrobe will be with me some time in the new year.  I receieved the order confirmation by email stating that the company would be in touch to arrange delivery once the item is available as per the delivery lead times.  I filed the email, and ticked Order Wardrobe off my to do list.  Perfect.

So I was a little surprised about an hour later to receive an email from the company to tell me that they were 'very sorry' but unfortunately my wardrobe was not in stock, and would have to wait until after Christmas as they had to order it in from Germany.  They could offer me a smaller wardrobe in the same colour within 2 weeks, or a bigger wardrobe in a different colour within 4 weeks, but if I wanted the wardrobe I had actually chosen and ordered, then I would have to wait.  They asked me to confirm what I wanted to do with this order, and whether I still wanted to have the wardrobe that I had selected and paid for online, as they would have to order it in.  Now, perhaps I am being very harsh and this is an example of very good customer service, in that they contacted me promptly to offer me something immediately regardless of the fact that it did not meet my needs, which in todays age of consumer immediacy, may be considered a positive, but I don't see it that way.  If I had wanted a smaller wardrobe, I would have ordered a smaller one.  If I had wanted a larger one in a different colour, I would have ordered that too.  As it is, the space in the spare bedroom is not going to change and so either of these two options would be not fully meeting the requirements I have as a customer.  Also, the website made it abundantly clear that there would be a delivery lead time, which I recognised and accepted, and so unfortunately in my eyes the efforts at customer service, if that is what it was, have actually made my impression of this organisation worse not better.

In my experience, they do this a lot in shoe shops as well.  You ask if they have the particular style of shoe in your size, a size 41 continental in my case (I used to say size 7 but for some reason in the last ten years the British footwear industry has recalibrated its scale so that a size 7 which always fitted me in British shoes between about 1992 and 2000, and was translated to a 41 in European sizes, appears to now be translated to a 40, which means that if you ask for an olf fashioned size 7, they invariably bring you a size 6 anyway which of course does not fit...)  Sorry, where was I?  Oh yes, you ask for your size and a few minutes later of fumbling in the store cupboard the shoe assistant almost always comes back and says,tells you he or she is very sorry but they don't do big sizes, but I can have it in a size 40 (ie 6) instead.  This is most unhelpful.  It is not as if I can put my feet on a diet, and try to slim down into a smaller size, nor can I lop off a toe to squeeze into a more delicate looking piece of footwear.  And since when was a UK size 7 or 41, a "big size".  I have always had big feet.  It comes of being tall.  If I had size 3 mouse like feet, I would fall over more than I already do as they would not be long enough to balance and support my height.  And I know lots of people who have similarly sized giant clod hoppers attached to the end of their legs.  I cannot believe that I have naturally gravitated in life towards friends who have larger than average feet, so I find it amazing that the British Shoe industry still perceives anything larger than a size 5 as "large".  There are lots of people out there who are taller than me, and so would fairly logically also have a need for larger footwear, and I find it quite insulting to be told by the shoe assistant that my request is going to be denied because I have asked for a "big size".  I am starting to see how the Elephant Man felt.

But, customer services is not something that many organisations really care about anymore.  There will be a target associated with selling as many pairs of shoes as possible, regardless of fit, and also one to do with keeping as low a stock holding as possible on wardrobes.  There may be one on the number of complaints received about the level of broadband service provided, and in this case Virgin Media's statistics will be better off today as I really cannot be bothered to spend any more of my precious awake time trying to convey my disappointment with them from yesterday.  But a target around good fitting shoes, or furniture that actually meets the customer's needs is not often a priority and so for today I will take the positive that at least my broad band is working again and I have not at least had to deal with that awful automated call service or a person on the other end of the phone who really does not appear to care either way.