"Don Pearce" wrote in message
...
I found a problem with the Radio Times web site this morning and sent
them an email via the Contact link on the site. A pop-up ad was
covering part of the programme details. Here's the time line.

10:39 sent the email
10:50 got a reply asking for details of my system
10:57 I sent the reply, telling them the problem was only in Firefox
11:14 got a reply saying the issue had been escalated
11:18 I said thank you
11:39 got a reply saying it had been fixed - it had.

So exactly one hour covered the whole transaction. Anyone beat that
for service?

d

Don. This is wildly OT!
Gird your loins with sack-cloth and ashes immediately:-))

Good to hear that someone in the UK values customer
relations. Did you get a year's free subscription to RT
in appreciation of your interest? :-)

My personal experiences in ordering goods and services
from British firms are rather disappointing. They should
be cashing in on increased order book due to the weakness
of sterling, but they don't seem to care much.

Frequently, the order is incomplete, or items are sent
which do not appear on either the order or the invoice.
I refuse to pay the return postage for things I did not order:-)


Some time ago, I was involved in the purchase of
equipment for an audio post suite being set up by what
was then Scandinavia's largest digital production house.

There were two main sources for equipment, Germany and
the UK. It was interesting to note the difference in the way
that companies from those two countries do business.

The UK contacts are on first-name terms after 30secs.
The Gemans much more reserved, polite but formal.

The British promise you delivery in ten weeks. After twelve,
part of the consignment shows up, but the sales engineer in
the UK is unavailable, and there is no-one who knows
anything about the rest of your order. It is completed in
the fifteenth week - five weeks late.

You and your clients are disappointed.

The Germans promise you delivery in twelve weeks.
After only ten weeks, you get a call from the local transport
agent saying that they can now deliver, if you are ready to accept
the equipment.

You and your client are delighted.

Having said that, just a few weeks aho, I was looking at
a music score and noticed what I thought was a wrong note,
one semitone below what it should have been. A complete
section of the orchestra had the same error spread over a
five-part chord, which worked as an entity in itself, but not
with the rest of the orchestra.. I telephoned the retailer/publisher
in the UK from whom the score and parts had been bought.
I got through to a young lady, who took my contact details,
and said she would find the score take a look, and phone me back.
Sure enough., she did, after only ten minutes or so.
I pointed out the error, and she promised to pass my message on.
I imagined her screwing the piece of paper into a ball and tossing
it onto the wast paper basket as I put the phone down.
I thought no more about it.

Then, more than a month later; Postman Pat delivered a large
envelope from the publishers in Belgium, with a letter thanking me
for my comments. It was indeed an error which would be corrected
in the next edition. They asked me to accept another score and
parts of a different work by the same composer (value about UKP70)
to compensaste for any inconvenience, and as a token of their
appreciation!!

A customer for life? You betcha!


I have never bought anything direct from the USA, always
through a European agent. Once when I tried to order some
literature by telephone, I spelled out the comnpany name and
address, ending in Stockholm, Sweden S-W-E-D-E-N.
There was a long pause at the other end, and the bored voice
asked "what state?" Rather taken aback I told her it was a
country in Europe. She said (rather unconvincingly) "Oh, OK then".

The literature never reached me. Some unsuspecting soul
in Wisconsin may or may not have received an unexpected
packet in the post.


Iain