@SP_EnergyPeople Charging for Parking with no Warning @britishgas

Having used the lacklustre British Gas for years I have experience of the boiler care market. Despite British Gas's constant spamming and sales calls, dismissive customer service team & constant pressure to buy a new boiler they at least got one thing right,they never ever even thought of asking for parking charges when visiting the property.The same cannot be said of Scottish Power who in the very first visit quite inexplicably requested for parking money which has shocked me particularly seeing as they already have my bank details signed up to a £18 per month boiler care package which should see a nice profit for them long term because the boiler is in perfect working order.

I still haven't got this sorted with them but rest assured if they do not waive this parking issue I will be forced to look elsewhere. How can they expect to compete with British Gas? The parking charges levied on every single visit would exceed the policy! Typically these boiler engineers pop in for 10-20 minutes ,check a correctly functioning boiler then leave. Are they struggling so much financially as a firm that they need a couple of quid for parking?

Whether you think the parking charges are justified or not,they are not charged by competitors and are not mentioned in the application process which I went through with a fine toothcomb.

Also strange was the use of a subcontractor which smacks of a company that has poor coverage service wise.

So far I have one call basically the jist being they charge for parking 'so deal with it' and a response from the executive team that basically ignored the whole complaint and directed me to reschedule the initial appointment which never actually took place due to the parking issue.

Let's see if Scottish Power customer service can deal with this matter accordingly, I'm not holding my breathe judging by the experience so far.

@williamhill Beaurocracy , Frustrating Service but OK in the end

I placed a bet on NYI to win and Tavares to score.The bet was placed many hours before the start of the game:

It then came to my attention HOURS BEFORE THE GAME STARTED that John Tavares was out for the season with injury so I contacted Hills via Live Chat immediately.The guy on the other end was polite and well meaning but slow and had to run everything by his Supervisor. The operative asked me to send a link with proof of the injury ,I told him to Google it. After we both agreed Tavares was indeed injured, I waited about in hope that my stake would be rightfully returned (I shouldn't have to hope it's a straight forward case but you never know with Bookmakers these days). After he told me to wait again for 5-10 minutes he came back saying the bet would be voided and sent a link with Terms and Conditions which is a bookmakers' way of saying we're not bothered that you have a common sense issue that we can help you with as a valued customer but what we will do instead is point to some obscure Ts and Cs that allow us to mug you off and add your stake to our revenue figures for this month.

There are 3 major issues here which I have contacted CEO Phillip Bowcock with:

1) The lack of common sense and flexibility at local level.

2) The total disregard for a customers' experience in the face of profit and legalese.

3) The slowness of response and the onus on the customer to take the matter further to achieve justice.

I turned to Twitter to shed light on the situation and after some naming and shaming Hills did indeed return the the stake for this bet but it was a long,frustrating experience.

Hills gain credit for getting it right in the end and they deserve a back handed compliment,they are far from the worse bookmaker out there but the lesson is be weary with bookies and ensure that you get justice when you have a completely reasonable case.

@WilliamHill : Fraudulent Bet Advertising

The bookmaker's hall of shame is filling up by the hour. How poor Estate Agents and Tax inspectors get a worse shake than Bookies is beyond me. I had a cheeky punt on the Ice hockey NHL.The terms of the bet are clear as day for a punter looking online. Cam Atkinson scores and Columbus Blue Jackets win and you get paid right?

Errr not exactly. Hills tried to point to some hidden Ts and Cs that state the bet is only valid upto 60mins,the winning goal was scored in Overtime. Well it would have been nice if this was written directly by the bet! 

Looking at the advertising online this can only be viewed as underhand by Hills and I'm disappointed because I actually viewed them as one of the good guys.

I also note how reluctant Hills and all bookies are to give out their CEO's details,they never know the name of the boss or his/her contact details which is as convenient for them as it is unprofessional.They get credit for a 0800 phoneline but lose this for the evasive way they gave details for complaint contacts and CEOs details.

Generally Hllls are ok,their website is ok,their service is ok,but on this occasion they have come up short.

Bad Customer Service Hall of Fame. Why do we put up with it?

Why have companies seemingly got so much contempt for their paying customers these days?

Dealing with energy suppliers,financial services firms,sports betting firms etc is like pulling teeth. The customer services staff often give incorrect information,take ages to respond to queries and greet mistakes with vacuous apologies and on occasion blind indifference.

I am tempted to name and shame but for the time being I will focus on purely ranting without specifics to serve as a brainstorming session before undertaking further in depth analysis in further blog posts. Actually forget that,let us name and shame,that's exactly what ranting is about.

What I do not understand about poor customer service is that we pay our money to these firms and they often behave as if they are doing us a favour,in return for our pound notes and loyalty we often get treated like mugs or worse still an afterthought for some firms.

The obvious response to this incompetence is to vote with your feet and take your business elsewhere but after a while you run out of options or find that all these firms are under the same umbrella like the awful Betfred/Totesport organisation or Paddy Power and Betfair. Sports betting is a great example of this where all the big firms are roughly just as bad as each other. Betfair have a very good exchange but the customer service on its Sportsbook is useless,slow bet settling,long response times to emails and a cold corporate attitude to accountability and dispute resolution.

British Gas are an absolute disgrace.They spend millions on advertising to succour in new custom and then bombard you day and night with junkmail ,phone calls and emails selling you various forms of household 'cover' that you do not need in the hope of draining your bank balance and giving you sweet FA in return.

Edf Energy are a joke with their foreign based callcentre and clueless staff who leave you wishing you lived off grid with no need for electricity such is the level of hassle you have to go through to get a correctly itemised bill or have a query answered coherently.

Tesco Bank are the worst financial firm in business,no email address contact and a policy of dealing with finance related queries over Twitter and Facebook,are they completely  stupid? Then they wonder why they get hacked exposing customers to fraud which happened to them just months ago. The answer given for no email contact was that they do not have a secure messaging centre.If they cared so much about secure messaging would they be asking customers to DM and tweet problems with their chip and pin issues? Unbelievable.

Having said all this the one firm that seems to be rated highly by all is Amazon who seem to have the customer service side of things fully covered,why more companies do not bother to match such high levels of service is beyond me.

The answer as usual probably leads to money.Big firms do the bare minimum that they have to,if the money is rolling in why should they care? Foxtons Estate Agents is a great example of this,despite a reputation for sharp practice and contempt for buyers and tenants they continue to prosper. Perhaps bad customer service is a feature of a sociopathic society devoid of compassion and consumed by the profit principle.