Monday, December 07, 2009

Standards of Service

So Katie has done me a favour!  Well thanks, Really I would have preferred a router in double quick time, or quick time.  Not 2 DAYS time...
 
In case you are interested, we qualify for £25 for being down for all that time.
 
I am bowled over.  NOT!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Venus Katie <Katie.Venus@thus.net>
Date: 2009/12/4
Subject: Standards of Service

Dear Mr. Papouis,

Further to our conversation today, please find below the link to the
Standards of Service for Demon Business ADSL, and the request form for
Service Credits:

http://www.demon.net/helpdesk/producthelp/broadband_sos/

I have requested the credit on this occasion and you will receive an
email once it has been added to the account.

A wireless router has been ordered and will be dispatched on Monday, due
for delivery on Tuesday. Once this has been received we will issue a
returns bag for the wired router so that this can be sent back.

I hope this information is of some assistance however please do not
hesitate to contact me should you require any further details.

Kind Regards

--
Katie Venus
Customer Relations Advisor
THUS, a Cable&Wireless business
Tel: 0845 270 0052
Fax: 0870 051 8740

Friday, December 04, 2009

It Has Arrived!!

Well the router arrived!  At just before 3pm  Almost exactly 2 days!!! since I requested it.

Guess what??  Yup.  They sent the wrong one!  Our previous router was wireless, this one isn’t! Good thing that we can survive without the wireless functionality (for the time being).

All excited (as I really don’t like lawyers shouting at me) I plugged it in and connected it up.  Guess what???  It did not work!

I checked that the correct password was entered, and finally gave up and called the Help Desk (Glutton for punishment that I am).  10 mins of waiting on the phone and a human answered.  Would you believe it the connection sprang into live that very second.

Great!

The chap on the phone said he would ask the supplier if they will send us another correct one.  He did not sound to hopeful.  If they do I suspect that they will want to swap the one we now have, on the spot.  That is a non starter, unless the office is empty.

I tried to call Katy to tell her.  But she has gone till 4:00pm.  Her colleague promised that she will call me.

So now we need to talk about compensation.

There is the 48 hours of down time.  There is the cost of my time chasing Demon for what should have been, at worst, a next day delivery (with no chasing).  There is the time the lawyers have wasted having to send long emails on Blackberry (actually I suspect some of them slunk off to a local internet Cafe, but even that costs).

I am now going to send a text to Stuart to let him know the current status.

Oh and by the way, the left hand needs to talk to the right.  I am now informed that the delivery cut-off time is 2pm.  Had they told us that 2 days ago I would have gone out and purchased a router and not gone through all this pain.  Shame that this information has not percolated round Demon.  Katy tells me that she did know this.  Nice of her to tell me.  Or is this all part of the Demon Fantasy land?

Katy has just called.  Apparently we can request “Service Credits” to compensate us for loss of service.  Apparently I have to go on their website and fill in some forms.  Bit of a cheek really, considering how much time they have wasted.  I asked her to do it.  Let’s see shall we.

All in all, this has to be the worst service I have received from a company, that I did like a lot, for a long time.  I used to recommend Demon to my clients, but I shall have to give this some thought.  Can I in all honesty recommend them?

Clearly Demon do not give a hoot about their clients.

Watch this space…..

The Boss Sends me a Text

Stuart Smyth has just sent me a text, telling me that the router should be here by 3pm.  And apologising.

I appreciate the gesture, but am not sure that it will placate the ravening hordes that have not been on the net for 2 days.

Before you ask, I am posting this from email on my phone.

The Clock Ticks…

How long does it take to get from Birmingham to London?

I always thought you could mask this journey in under 3 hours (on a motorbike so that traffic is not really an issue).

Well Demon Internet have taken 2 days to NOT get a router delivered from their Birmingham based router provisioning department (external supplier).

The story so far…

On Wednesday at approximately 2:00 I called Demon to tell them that our router had failed. Foolishly I called the standard fault line 0845 2720040. After about 15 minutes of talking to a lady she still could not find us on the system and would not discuss our issue. I got fed up and tried calling the number I should have used in the 1st place. Yes I know, it was my mistake, but it was a simple fault (viz the router had died).

I called the correct number 0845 2720054 and, after a further 15 mins waiting, spoke a knowledgeable young man that correctly diagnose that the router was broken. I explained to him that this was urgent and that we would happily pay for a courier to get it here ASAP. He said that the “Cut-Off” time for deliveries was 3:00 and he should be able to get it in for next day delivery. He promised to call back and confirm, if there were any issues. As we did not hear I assumed all was OK.

Thursday. Morning. No delivery. Wait… 12:00 No delivery. Call Demon.

Apparently even though we had made the cut-off time we had only done so by 5 mins and so our order had not been processed. Surely a cut-off time means that that items received before will be processed and items received after will not. Perhaps they should rename it “Cut-Off time’ish”. We will process stuff received before, if we feel like it. Or perhaps they should move the cut-off time forward to 2:30.

We again offered to pay for a courier and were told it would cost £175 and may get here by 8:00pm! (5 hours from Birmingham??). We were advised that we could have it delivered by 9:00am for free. We agreed, assuming it would definitely be here.

Friday. Morning. No delivery. 10:00 Start to chase.

1st Steven Costello (allegedly a manager – 01702 2446611) tells me that they had tried to deliver it this morning, but they could not find us. We are in the Lloyds Building in the centre of the City of London. It is quite a distinctive building and hard to miss (http://www.lloyds.com/About_Us/The_Lloyds_building/Pictures_of_the_building-exterior/)

He says he will chase it. 11:00 I get a call from Minesh. He is from the provisioning department. I tell him that I want it delivered by 12:00. He cannot do that so I request that one be put on a bike in Birmingham, he can’t do that either. I ask to speak to his boss (Sally Barton). She is not available so I said that I wanted the issue escalating. Apparently that is to Anastasia Carter. But she is not available so I get Katy Venus (0845 2700052).

This is like talking to a brick wall. She ignores the fact that it should have been here at 9:00 and discovers that the courier has apparently gone AWOL (http://www.hdnl.co.uk). If that is the case then how do they know that he had tried to deliver it and couldn’t?

I asked for the name of the Senior person at Demon. Apparently it is Stuart Smyth (0141 567 1234). I call and leave 2 messages.

Katy is chasing. I make repeat requests for the router to be put on a bike. All refused. She starts to quote SLA’s (Service Level Agreements) and I point out that regardless of what the SLA says 2 DAYS! is too long for a company to be down and to get a parcel from Birmingham. Silence.

1:00pm I get a call back from Stuart, he says he will look into it. I then get a call and a text from Katy telling me that the couriers are in the area and may get it here by 3:00pm. I asked “if they are in the area, can I go and meet him and collect the router?” apparently not. I asked about plan “B”. What do you mean? I mean what are you going to do if it is not here by 3?? Nothing. There is no plan B.

She gives me a tracking number and a website for HDNL. She does not seem to see the irony in this (i.e. How can I check the website when out router is dead!!).

A quick visit to an internet cafe and the lies start to appear…

03/12/2009 20:49:00 DROITWICH Sorted at our hub
04/12/2009 05:53:00 NEW CROSS DEPOT Received into depot
04/12/2009 09:24:00 NEW CROSS VAN Loaded on to the drivers van

If it only got put on the van at 9:24 this morning how could they have failed to deliver it BEFORE 9:00?

Draw your own conclusions.

OK, so it’s now 1:20pm… Lets see what happens shall we. I will not be holding my breath.

Watch this space…