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/2201/2003 Archived Entry: "Customer dis-service"

My luck was as expected. Almost. Securicor delivered my MP3 player at 4.30 last night. Pity I didn't get home until 4.45, isn't it?

So, seeing the card with a contact number on it I thought to myself, reasonably, I assumed, that I would ring them and arrange to have it re-delivered this evening and ensure that Candy came straight home from work, just in case they do the same thing again. (I knew Candy would be amenable to this - anything to give her an excuse not to stay at school, basically.)

I rang the number. And it rang. And it rang. And it rang. So, I rang off and rang back, just in case I had the wrong number. And it rang, and it rang. And it rang. (As I'm writing this, those two sets of repetitions appear, rather pleasingly, one directly under the other. It won't when you are reading it, but I just thought I'd mention it.) So, I tried once more. Rang off and rang back. It was engaged. For the next ten minutes. Now, either I was really unlucky and someone else rang them immediately after I did and managed to get through immediately, or someone there waited until I had rung off and then took the phone off the hook. Guess which I think it is?

This was the only number on the card. I deduced that as it was an 020 8.... number, it was probably for the actual depot rather than a central call centre. I thought there must be a number for that and, if it was anywhere, it would be on Securicor's web page (which I could give you the link for, but I'm not going to. If you are really desperate to check out there wepsite, I'm sure you can work out what it's going to be.) It wasn't. At least not on the actual Securicor front page. Instead, I had to go to the page that allowed me to track my parcel, look at the url, realise that it was a different site to the front page and theorise that it might mean there was ANOTHER front page. (I have just done it again and discovered that the logo above where I clicked to go to the tracking page is another link - it's not exactly what you call obvious though. It's not like they actually tell you to 'click here' or anything. No. That would be too much like customer friendliness.

The new front page I found did appear to be somewhat better designed. And did actually have a number to ring.

So I did.

The woman at the call centre answered the call by quoting the telephone number to me. Which confused me slightly. Call centres don't do this. The phone number is not important. If I've got through to them then, chances are, I probably want to speak to them and by saying who they are, it confirms that I've rung the correct number in the first place (or, alternatively, confirms that I've rung the wrong number, if I'm trying to get Pizza Hut or something...)

So, I explained that I had received the card. She said that the delivery could be anytime between 4 and 9pm. I said, I knew that and had just missed the delivery. So, she asked what time it had been delivered. I told her it was 4.30. She said 'well, that's between 4 and 9."

I was good. I didn't swear at her or get angry, or anything. I explained, in words of one syllable where possible, that I was aware of that and was just trying to get another delivery arranged. Which she actually did manage to do for me. I did say that I wasn't very happy with what happened when I rang the number on the card and she said that "it was a problem that they were aware of and was one of the reasons why they had set up a call centre." She didn't, however, say why the number for the call centre was not actually printed on the card and why I had to go through this rigmarole to find it.

So, Securicor and Customer Service. Not exactly a happening thing.

Okay. Got that off my chest now. Although I might just send this to them and see what response I get. If anything...