Why is customer service in the U.K. so atrocious?

Question

Every time I call a bank, sky tv, mobile providers - anyone I'm paying to provide a service - to ask a question, the only answers I get make my life more difficult or complex. That is, if I don't have to wait on hold for 30 minutes to get through to someone.

Answer 1

The days of "The customer is always right" seem to be long gone I think it has been replaced by companies with "The customer is always a pain" or if you threaten to cancel it is probably "There is always another mug where that one came from." You are not alone there are millions of us around the globe having the same problems.

Answer 2

I don't know abouth the U.K., but I will say this:  It's just as worse in the good ol' USA!

Answer 3

Mat, you've discovered the main problem with globalization!!

What I've noticed is that the bigger companies took over the little ones > just like the railroads did in the mid to late 1800s in the USofA..  And by eliminating any viable competition, they can say the same thing as railroad baron Vanderbilt said >>"The public be damned!"

You see, the CEO & his mistress comes first in the pecking order, the Board of Directors next, then the stockholders, managers, the peons working for peanuts, outsourcing departments like the janitorial staff, customer service reps in India, & then finally, you, the actual customer who is paying for everything & everyone above.  

Now when you're dead last, behind even the janitors, what do you expect from the Customer Service people, who are just a notch above you?

Answer 4

Because the person who is answering you from India has little experience of the service they are providing answers about.

Answer 5

practice.

Answer 6

not everyone is like that, but i do understand. It should make you think "when i recieive GOOD customer service i will be very thankful"

The people on the other end of the phone are usually out of work actors/singers/dancers and they dont WANT to be doing that job, they get paid fairly badly, and there is usually no backlash if someone makes a complaint against them. I know this because i am a manager in a call centre.

EDIT: have you noticed that everytime you call someone to get help, the call always seems to turn into a sales call? "while ive got you on the phone, would you be intereseted in a loan..." groan! that gets on my nerves more then anything

Answer 7

Its the same everywhere, not just in the UK. In the US, everything is outsourced. The parent company doesn't give the daughter company any real power or authority, so when you speak with a supervisor, they can't really do anything.

The people should really start speaking up. It's awful.