Bob Willson
7th August 2004, 07:56 PM
I love this one
Optus "customer service"
Background: If you are ever thinking of getting a cable connection from Optus, read this first and bookmark it. If my experience is anything to go on, you should be able to use 90% of it.
Dear Optus,
Some little while ago, I was moved to comment to one of your staff that I was inclined to the view that your administration and management must be drawn entirely from a specially selected squad of Telstra rejects. In retrospect, it struck me as a little harsh when I put the phone down, but I now believe the comment was not so much harsh as accurate but premature. I did not know it then, but I had only just entered upon the farcical journey that has been my Optus experience over six months. <O:p
I realise, of course, that most of the people I had dealings with were probably call centre staff, but if this is do, then somebody employed by Optus must have made the disastrous decision to out-source this key function. So either I was either dealing with obtuse Optus staff, or with non-Optus staff who were given no opportunity to act in the interests of anybody at all, who must have been placed in that position by obtuse Optus management. <O:p
The farce began some time in February last, when I had a phone call at work (note that he called me at work, because it becomes relevant later) from a callow-sounding youth who persuaded me that I should go ahead with a trial of Optus cable TV. Almost a month later, and some four days before the work was to be done, after a death in the family and with a funeral set down for the day of the installation, I started trying to ring him on the (landline) phone number he had supplied, to postpone the work. Each time, I was switched through to his mobile phone message bank, and each recorded message was ignored.
<O:p
With no response at all, the night before the installation was due, the night before the funeral, I looked up Optus in the phone book, called, and wasted twenty minutes or so waiting to get through to a reasonably intelligent person who assured me that the Optus truck would not come, and that I would be called about an alternative time.
Well so far as we know, the work was put off, because we saw nobody that day. Still, this was Optus I was dealing with, and I see now it should have come as no surprise that there was no return call. Some days later, I rang the Optus number, wasted more time hanging on, and was peremptorily told I could have a date for installation in June, three months away. I expressed some surprise at the delay, and was told bluntly that I could take it or leave it. As most of your customers probably do, I resented the attitude and the tone, but I accepted it. <O:p
Having heard nothing in the interim, a few days before the June date, I rang up to find out when the installers would arrive, and was told it was an "any time of day" job. In other words, I would have to be in all day, waiting for the installers to deign to call. I indicated that this was not good enough, and that I wanted a time specified, or at least a slot. The woman taking the call said she would ring back, and I indicated that if she could not do better than "all day", she need not bother.
This is the effect of dealing with Optus, you see. One learns to adopt a 'take it or leave it' attitude. Note where I got this from, as it becomes highly germane, at the end of this letter. When she called back, she indicated that she could give me either a slot, or have the people call me, shortly before they were due to arrive -- which is all I had asked for in the first place, but she was clearly furious at having to provide assistance to a customer. <O:p
By now I knew I was talking to Optus, and what that probably meant, so I checked the phone numbers recorded in your system, and found that the work number listed for me was some twelve months out of date, and asked for this to be changed. I then checked the home number listed, and found that this was shown as a Telstra number that I gave up when I moved to Optus some years earlier. <O:p
Now call me silly if you will, but I would have thought that if your sales people had my correct work number in February, this should have found its way into your records by June. Call me eccentric if you must, but I would have thought that when one of your highly efficient technicians had disconnected the Telstra line and terminated it with a dongle referring people to my Optus number, this fact might just possibly have impinged on the general Optus consciousness at some point prior to the heat death of the universe. <O:p
I would also have expected that these changes, having been found missing, would have been recorded without there being any need to blame the customer for having wrong information on your records. That, however, is what I experienced. I must say I am amazed that you people have the nerve to describe as "customer service" an ululating, hissing, venomous harridan whose specialty is bawling out your customers for errors made by Optus. Even mere graduates in marketing should know it is cheaper to keep an existing customer base than to create a new one. Even the rawest recruit should know that alienating customers has a knock-on effect as they spread the word to others.
Now let me say very clearly that I have no problem with the technical staff from Optus, and I have been lucky once or twice in my inquiries, and had real help. Sadly, the majority of the schedulers and public contact people work incredibly hard to push your reputation off the scale at the negative end of the dial. The technicians who came to our house ran, flat out, and in the middle of a challenging cabling task, and one of them took a call at almost 5 pm to go and do yet another installation. They hurriedly told me what to do, and left, without giving me a program guide, something I only realised after they had gone.
<O:p
Optus "customer service"
Background: If you are ever thinking of getting a cable connection from Optus, read this first and bookmark it. If my experience is anything to go on, you should be able to use 90% of it.
Dear Optus,
Some little while ago, I was moved to comment to one of your staff that I was inclined to the view that your administration and management must be drawn entirely from a specially selected squad of Telstra rejects. In retrospect, it struck me as a little harsh when I put the phone down, but I now believe the comment was not so much harsh as accurate but premature. I did not know it then, but I had only just entered upon the farcical journey that has been my Optus experience over six months. <O:p
I realise, of course, that most of the people I had dealings with were probably call centre staff, but if this is do, then somebody employed by Optus must have made the disastrous decision to out-source this key function. So either I was either dealing with obtuse Optus staff, or with non-Optus staff who were given no opportunity to act in the interests of anybody at all, who must have been placed in that position by obtuse Optus management. <O:p
The farce began some time in February last, when I had a phone call at work (note that he called me at work, because it becomes relevant later) from a callow-sounding youth who persuaded me that I should go ahead with a trial of Optus cable TV. Almost a month later, and some four days before the work was to be done, after a death in the family and with a funeral set down for the day of the installation, I started trying to ring him on the (landline) phone number he had supplied, to postpone the work. Each time, I was switched through to his mobile phone message bank, and each recorded message was ignored.
<O:p
With no response at all, the night before the installation was due, the night before the funeral, I looked up Optus in the phone book, called, and wasted twenty minutes or so waiting to get through to a reasonably intelligent person who assured me that the Optus truck would not come, and that I would be called about an alternative time.
Well so far as we know, the work was put off, because we saw nobody that day. Still, this was Optus I was dealing with, and I see now it should have come as no surprise that there was no return call. Some days later, I rang the Optus number, wasted more time hanging on, and was peremptorily told I could have a date for installation in June, three months away. I expressed some surprise at the delay, and was told bluntly that I could take it or leave it. As most of your customers probably do, I resented the attitude and the tone, but I accepted it. <O:p
Having heard nothing in the interim, a few days before the June date, I rang up to find out when the installers would arrive, and was told it was an "any time of day" job. In other words, I would have to be in all day, waiting for the installers to deign to call. I indicated that this was not good enough, and that I wanted a time specified, or at least a slot. The woman taking the call said she would ring back, and I indicated that if she could not do better than "all day", she need not bother.
This is the effect of dealing with Optus, you see. One learns to adopt a 'take it or leave it' attitude. Note where I got this from, as it becomes highly germane, at the end of this letter. When she called back, she indicated that she could give me either a slot, or have the people call me, shortly before they were due to arrive -- which is all I had asked for in the first place, but she was clearly furious at having to provide assistance to a customer. <O:p
By now I knew I was talking to Optus, and what that probably meant, so I checked the phone numbers recorded in your system, and found that the work number listed for me was some twelve months out of date, and asked for this to be changed. I then checked the home number listed, and found that this was shown as a Telstra number that I gave up when I moved to Optus some years earlier. <O:p
Now call me silly if you will, but I would have thought that if your sales people had my correct work number in February, this should have found its way into your records by June. Call me eccentric if you must, but I would have thought that when one of your highly efficient technicians had disconnected the Telstra line and terminated it with a dongle referring people to my Optus number, this fact might just possibly have impinged on the general Optus consciousness at some point prior to the heat death of the universe. <O:p
I would also have expected that these changes, having been found missing, would have been recorded without there being any need to blame the customer for having wrong information on your records. That, however, is what I experienced. I must say I am amazed that you people have the nerve to describe as "customer service" an ululating, hissing, venomous harridan whose specialty is bawling out your customers for errors made by Optus. Even mere graduates in marketing should know it is cheaper to keep an existing customer base than to create a new one. Even the rawest recruit should know that alienating customers has a knock-on effect as they spread the word to others.
Now let me say very clearly that I have no problem with the technical staff from Optus, and I have been lucky once or twice in my inquiries, and had real help. Sadly, the majority of the schedulers and public contact people work incredibly hard to push your reputation off the scale at the negative end of the dial. The technicians who came to our house ran, flat out, and in the middle of a challenging cabling task, and one of them took a call at almost 5 pm to go and do yet another installation. They hurriedly told me what to do, and left, without giving me a program guide, something I only realised after they had gone.
<O:p