Yes, at last, with 100% thanks to Newnet, I finally have internet. I won’t repeat my praises too much about how excellent their tech support is, and how much of a pleasure it was to deal with them and get the problems sorted. I highly recommend them to anyone at all.
Jul 24 2008
Now, even though I still don’t have Internet due to BT crossing my lines, I am already singing Newnet’s praises. Their customer service is simply supreme. The difference is quite simple… call centre in England, with English speakers, but the important part is this, so I will emphasise this a lot:
The technical support know what they are talking about.
I have never had such a pleasurable experience being told I can’t get internet just yet. It was simply bliss. The good thing is, they explained the problem clearly, in simple-to-understand language, and without just repeating what BT Wholesale just told them, or just reading from a script!
So, here’s to Newnet, possibly the best ISP in the UK.
Jul 18 2008
I just found a good article regarding what I spoke about here. It’s called The Seven Deadly Sins of IVR (Interactive Voice Response), and it is just so true. When I rang TV Licensing the other day, my conversation with the machine went something like this:
Machine: Please say your postcode
James: PO15 XXX
Machine: Please say your street name
James: XXXX XXXX Road
Machine: Please say your house number
James: Eighteen
Machine: I’m sorry, I did not recognise your response. Please say your house number
James (slowly and clearly): EIGHTEEN
Machine: I’m sorry, I did not recognise your response. Lets try again from the beginning
James (smacking forehead)
Machine: Please say your postcode
James: PO15 XXX
Machine: Please say your street name
James: XXXX XXXX Road
Machine: Please say your house number
James (clearly): One eight
Machine: I’m sorry, I did not recognise your response. Lets try again from the beginning
James (shouting): EIGHTEEN YOU STUPID MACHINE HOW HARD IS IT TO UNDERSTAND?!
Machine: I’m sorry, I did not recognise your response.
James hangs up in anger and disliking the total lack of customer care.
As you can tell, I was pretty fustrated. I did call up and try again, but it totally failed at recognising something as simple as the number 18. It didn’t even understand “one eight”… and there was absolutely no way to transfer to a human operator, which I thought was stupid.
Rant over…
Jun 12 2008
Hannah told me this morning about a phone call she’d made to Parcelforce to get her parcel sent to the depot to collect. The thing that bugged me is that she told an automated machine to do it. I really dislike those automated systems where they say “Please say your name now…”, “Please say your telephone number now…” or “Please say yes or no if you are gay…” and so on.
In my opinion, these automated systems, for example for Portsmouth City Council, and now Parcelforce as well, really show the respective companies’ total lack of care for their customers. It’s one thing having an appaulingly bad call centre in India where they just read from a script, it’s another to have a machine do the job. There’s just nothing quite like calling a real person and speaking to them. More often than not, they’re friendly and I sometimes digress and talk about the weather or something lame, but it’s just really nice, and shows that someone cares about your problem/issue/enquiry.
Portsmouth City Council clearly don’t give a damn, and neither do Parcelforce.
Follow up to this post is here.
Ten outta ten guys, you have achieved:
Credits: Caption by: www.asgrim.com | Picture by: blogger.com/profile/8750466
Jun 5 2008
To warn anyone thinking of joining Pipex or already on Pipex – leaving Pipex has been the most stressful and annoying experiences of my life.
I joined Pipex in April 2006, never had any problems with them at all, a great service. The one time I lost my connection was when they were doing maintainence in my area, but they actually sent me a letter in advance informing me of disturbances.
On 2nd June 2008 I rang up to cancel my service as I am moving house and no longer need broadband, so thought I might as well cancel it as it’s a £24.99 a month I could spend on other things.
Upon calling, I was told I am still in my 12 month contract, and they insist this is the case, despite me having my activation letter which is dated 8th April 2006. I made at least 5 phone calls today alone, each about half an hour – on their lovely 0871 number(!), after discovering they had charged me a £100.79 “breach of contract” fee, on top of my normal £24.99/month. I immediately cancelled my direct debit in case they took any more money.
I asked to speak to a supervisor several times, to which they always said the supervisors were busy (suprised?). No-one could help me, so I have now applied to CISAS (Communications and Internet Services Adjudication Scheme) to complain against Pipex. I am also writing a letter of complaint to the head office.
No-one at Pipex Customer “Care” was able to help, they couldn’t even get me a supervisor to talk to. I am absolutely furious, and I really do warn anyone to steer WELL clear of Pipex.
If I get an outcome to my situation, I’ll post it here, but I don’t hold out much hope of anything positive.. money grabbing so and so’s….
