Making a complaint...

 Mis-sold utilities, ever increasing monthly payments, mis- sold mobile phone contracts, mis-sold cable contracts and mis-sold PPI's...

All of these issues come down to poor customer service.  Sales agents and shop assistants who are thinking about how much they get paid per signature (written or otherwise) they can get from you.

What can you do about it when you find yourself in one of these situations?

More often than not, when someone queries why they are paying so much more than they were expecting to pay - the person they are speaking to not only backs up the bad service you've already had in order to find yourself here, but gives you a whole bunch more bad service to boot!! Most of them have no real interest in what’s going on and just want to get you off the phone/online live chat thingy as quick as they can so they can get to the next customer and sell…they give technical jargon  by means of explanation, tell us they are right and we are wrong and that is that.

 

Sadly, this intimidates a lot of customers who are then either too embarrassed or confused that they don't understand what they've been told to do anything else about it, or think that because the first person has told them no, they have to accept it. 

I used to work on a high level complaints team for a big well known company in the UK. Before I was promoted to the position, I didn’t even realise that companies had such departments!  Like many, I would have given up at the first hurdle.  Now, I write super awesome complaints letters and have not yet failed!

My experiences here taught me how to listen, investigate, rate each case on its own individual merit and resolve accordingly in a fair and reasonable manner.

It sounds silly, but most of the advisors you will deal will not listen and this is what that plants the first seeds of doubt in your head.  If your advisor doesn't listen to what you have to say – how can they fully understand what you are asking and therefore give you the correct answer?  Many problems can be resolved just by listening to the problem!   

As for investigating – advisors have targets for all kinds of things, including calls per hour.  This means even if you do get through to someone who gives a damn, the time they have to look into the problem is limited.  This isn't so bad if it’s a reasonably straight forward problem.  If it’s bigger than this, then your best bet is escalation.

Working on this department also taught me not to be afraid of admitting liability and apologising when appropriate, many people feel a need to defend the company they work for when in reality, honesty pays more.  From a company point of view, you are more likely to restore faith in your customers if you’re willing to accept responsibility and say sorry!

Over the years, I've dealt with my own complaints too and because of my experiences both as the customer and the company, I’ve been asked many, many times to assist others with theirs.  I may even be able to help you!!

I’m currently in the process of complaining to my mobile phone provider for mis-selling my contract, my last mortgage provider for mis-selling a PPI policy (Payment Protection Insurance for those not familiar with it) and am about to raise a complaint with my cable company for mis-selling my upgrade contract.  I’ve just completed getting a full years’ worth of electricity charges written off for a close friend.

So how does one go about complaining??  Well, there are a few basic rules and steps that I follow in order to get what I want.  The rules are pretty much:

    1.     Stay calm – verbal abuse gets you nowhere.

    2.    Be patient – complaints take time – especially written ones as they need to be received, categorised and scanned to your account before they can be allocated to the advisor who is going to deal with your case. 

    3.    Don’t demand compensation from the start and only ask for it if it is genuinely deserved – you cannot expect to be compensated because you don’t want to have to pay for going over your allocated monthly minutes (you’d be amazed by how many times I’ve heard people demand compensation for problems they have caused themselves!)

Pretty easy to remember right?!  The steps are a little more involved, but are tried and tested so worth sticking to:

1.     My first port of call is to contact the company and let them know there is something I need to query. Personally, I prefer to do this in by email or live chat rather than by phone.  I can’t be bothered to wait on hold to get through to someone, plus you have a detailed paper trail to refer back to if needed. If using a web form or live chat you will need to copy and paste the thread into a word document or similar.

2.    I would expect a reply that is full of pre-prepared paragraphs that only vaguely answer my queries.  I then use this to begin the complaint, explaining that if I have taken the time to write to them and make them aware of my concerns, I expect them to write a proper response back to me addressing my particular concerns.  I then reiterate my concerns.

2.1.  If you decided to contact your company by telephone, you will need to ask to speak to a manager at this point instead. 

3.    If I’m still not satisfied with the reply (or managers action), I would then write a letter addressed to the MD.  This is a sure fire way to ensure your complaint reaches the dedicated complaints team.

4.   In my experience, you are still not likely to get your desired outcome in your first contact with this team. They may try calling you in a bid to covering any possible queries that may arise from their explanation, this will usually resolve the problem quicker – but remember to ask them to confirm the conversation in writing to maintain your paper trail.  Even if you are happy at this point, you may need to refer to the case again in the future.

5.    Trust your gut.  If you are still not happy at this point, let them know.  I always allow the dedicated team at least 2 opportunities to put it right before asking them to issue copies of all correspondence for me to pass to the ombudsman…this introduces your intention in a non-threatening manner so is more likely to have an impact and get you results. 

6.   Provided your expectations are realistic i.e. you are not complaining about a large balance after refusing to pay the recommended monthly payments….the industry ombudsman or governing body will take on your complaint.  They will take an impartial look at all contact between you and the company to decide if you have a case or not.  If you do, they will make a recommendation to the company as to how to proceed.  They will send you a copy of their report.  Both you and the company are given the opportunity to appeal against their findings , Then they will expect resolution.

I have followed these steps for the many, many complaints I have raised, assisted with or taken over during the last 5 or 6 years or so and have not yet needed to contact an ombudsman – although I’ve just sent the step 5 letter to my mobile phone company today!

Are you wondering if there’s something wrong with one of your accounts?  Are you thinking of making a complaint?  Have you made one?  Let us know you’re experiences – whether you need help or might be able to help someone else!  Leave us a note below and let us know!!

If you don’t want to post it on here, you can email me at thebluehairedgirl@virginmedia.com I’m more than happy to help in any way I can and best of all….unlike other services, my help is free!!!!!