One Week - Four Customer Care Encounters

As you (probably) know, I work in customer care. I’m a great believer in providing customers with the best possible after sales service, and will do all I can to help a customer resolve any issues they may have as quickly as possible, with minimum fuss and delay. I’ve worked in customer care since my first job, in one form or another, and yes, I’m passionate about it.

As someone who works in this industry, I am too aware of the fact that customers who receive bad customer service are normally the ones to shout about it – customers who receive good customer service say thank you (sometimes) and disappear. You rarely see complimentary comments about customer service received from companies, so when I receive it I like to shout about it.

The last week I’ve encountered both brilliant and abysmal customer service from a variety of companies – so here’s my shouting about it.

HOTPOINT – My 7 year old washing machine was purchased when we first moved into our house. I chose a Hotpoint machine thinking I was purchasing a good quality product that would last a long time – which it did – but also thinking that when things did start going wrong I would have the support of Hotpoint to help me resolve the issues. I contacted them on Friday last week when the washing machine started making the most awful noise – like I was washing bricks – a quick diagnostic online pointed toward the bearings requiring replacement. Unfortunately the model machine I had, you couldn’t replace the bearings only – you had to replace the whole drum, including bearings, the cost of which was almost as much as a replacement washing machine. I contacted Hotpoint via their website ‘Contact Us’ form asking if they were able to provide me with a quote for parts plus labour, as the cost of the replacement drum from a spares page would have meant Daddy P then having to fit it. Obviously as we have a young son I’m unable to be without a washing machine, so I needed a prompt reply. Despite e-mailing them first thing in the morning last Friday I have still not received a reply from them. Additional to this, I also Tweeted them @HotpointUK to find out when I could expect a reply to my e-mail at around lunchtime, since it was an urgent request – I have still not received a reply from the Tweet, either. So all round, for Hotpoint customer care, I would have to say ABYSMAL.

SAINSBURYS – Recently I’ve been suffering with pretty much constant sickness. It’s not for unknown reason – there is a known underlying cause (nothing sinister!) – but it has been causing me a lot of distress as it has meant I’ve not been sleeping properly, every time I go out I am looking out for places where I can have some privacy to be sick, I feel wobbly and shaky and because of it I’ve been dehydrated which has been causing some mammoth headaches. As mum to a four year old, plus (trying) to work full time, it has been awful, and really affecting me – I haven’t been able to play with J, I’ve been relying a lot on Daddy P to do housework and cooking and J’s bedtimes, and I’ve had to take time off work sick (which I hate doing as I know it puts stress on the team member who covers me when I’m off, she has her own job to do and doesn’t need the added workload) Anyway due to this sickness I finally spoke with my GP the other day who prescribed me some anti-sickness medication, and as I was too poorly to venture out myself to collect it she faxed the prescription to Sainsbury’s pharmacy, as Daddy P works next door to our local Sainsbury’s store, so he could pop in on his way home from work and collect it for me. Unfortunately the first time he tried to collect it, they were out of stock – the next morning they told him that they were hoping the medication would be on the afternoon delivery. When it did then arrive, they phoned him and left a message on his answer phone to say it had arrived and was ready to collect. Added to this, when I Tweeted Sainsbury’s earlier in the day about it, they got straight back to me asking me to DM contact details so they could look into it and help further. It was annoying having to wait an extra day for medication I desperately needed, but altogether Sainsbury’s customer care was BRILLIANT.

KNOW HOW – You may recall back in December I got a new dishwasher, purchased from Curry’s, and it was delivered by Know How. I was impressed then with their brilliant customer care – they messaged me first thing in the morning letting me know my delivery time slot; the delivery team phoned me when they left their previous delivery to let me know they were on the way to me. When they arrived the delivery team were polite, friendly, introduced themselves and were generally really nice guys. They removed the old dishwasher, fitted the new one, tested it, showed me how to use it, and asked me to get in touch straight away if I had any issues. I was really impressed with them. Last week when my washing machine started making awful noises, due to the lack of response from Hotpoint and my urgent need for a replacement washing machine, I ordered a new one from Curry’s. Again, it was delivered by Know How, and again the delivery team were utterly fantastic. I Tweeted @KnowHowToHelp straight away and told them how impressed I was with the service – they replied asking for my order ref, to ensure my comments reached the delivery team, so I’ve done that – once again, Know How customer care was BRILLIANT.

ICELAND – As I’ve been unable to get out of the house recently due to being unwell, we desperately needed a food shop done. Daddy P doesn’t drive, and there’s only so much he can carry home in his backpack on the bicycle, so online shopping is a brilliant option for me. I did a shop last night for delivery today – they messaged me first thing to confirm the delivery had been picked and packed for dispatch, then again to remind me about the delivery time slot an hour before the time slot opened. The time slot was between 11 and 1, and at 11.30 I noticed an Iceland van parked outside. When I opened the front door a lovely cheerful man from Iceland was unloading the last of my shopping from the van – he’d put most of it outside the front door already, when I opened the front door and started gathering bags up he brought the last of the shopping up to the house and immediately started passing the bags up from the front path to the front hall for me. Another lovely, polite, friendly delivery guy, and yes, Iceland customer care was BRILLIANT.

I suppose, when all is considered, three out of four isn’t bad, but still I am surprised and disappointed that Hotpoint, such a huge company, haven’t bothered to respond to my contact request and it’s been six days (four working days) Even a brief reply to say thank you for your e-mail would have been a start. Of course if they do ever get in touch, I’ll update this accordingly – but it’s a bit late now, as I no longer have any Hotpoint appliances, and guess what? A negative experience has put this customer off for good. I won’t be buying their products anymore.

Meanwhile, Sainsburys, Know How and Iceland all deserve a cheer for excellent customer service, prompt responses to all my enquiries and for keeping me updated about my orders every step of the way.

Shiny New Kitchen Appliance!

A few years ago, my parents were kind enough to get Daddy P and I a second hand dishwasher. It did well and served us faithfully for five or six years until without warning one day it was loaded and switched on and nothing happened. My cousin spoke to Daddy P over Skype and they located the manufacturing date to see if spare parts could be ordered for it and we discovered that dishwasher was 20 years old. No wonder it had finally given up. Spares weren’t in vast supply (unsurprisingly!) and I was resigned to washing up forever by hand, so I brought a pair of pink washing up gloves, tuned the radio in and danced my way through hours of washing up on a daily basis.

On Black Friday, on a whim, I happened to look up dishwashers from several retailers who were having special sale prices. Lots of them were still far too expensive, even with the Black Friday discounts, but one from Curry’s caught my eye and with the discount it was a very good deal even with delivery and installation on top.

On the website initially it showed delivery available for next day, so I selected that. After the sale was completed it said next day delivery was not possible as it was a 2 person delivery / installation (I would have thought with a dishwasher that would flag up anyway, before the delivery has already been chosen for next day and order is completed?) I had a selection of alternative delivery dates – I wasn’t fussed in the slightest so I clicked the first three showing available. I received an automated email saying that I would receive confirmation of delivery date by email soon. Nothing arrived.

I realised after ordering that I had an appointment which I couldn’t avoid which conflicted with one of the proposed delivery dates. I e-mailed customer services at Curry’s apologising about that and asking them to ensure delivery did not happen that day, but delivery any other day was fine. It took four days for a reply to arrive (after the date of the confliction anyway) and at that point the customer service guy advised that delivery was showing as booked for another date (obviously) but then I was confused by the date he gave me, as it wasn’t a date I thought had been optional when I’d made the order. It wasn’t an inconvenient date, but it meant that delivery would not be for 11 days after I’d made the order, which I felt was quite a long time. To date I have not received a reply back from the customer care team at Curry’s following my response to their initial e-mail.

On Tuesday morning I received a text message advising that my time slot for delivery was between 07:35 and 11:35. I was up and dressed and trying to get J sorted out when I had a missed call from a mobile number on my phone. When I rang back I was cut off, so I checked out the front window and saw the Know How van parked outside, so I dashed down and found one of the delivery guys on the doorstep. He was polite, wasn’t phased at all by the fact that both dogs were going absolutely nuts howling, barking and screaming. I put Holly in her cage in the kitchen and shut Buddy in the front room with the gates, and we discussed whether it would be easier to bring the dishwasher straight down the hallway through the house or come in down the alleyway at the side and through the back gate into the utility room directly. Due to the tight corner and the step, the delivery guys agreed straight through the house was the best option.

I never like leaving people alone in my house in that kind of situation. It makes me feel a bit weird. But what option did I have, but to leave him removing the old dishwasher from the space while I ran back upstairs to carry on sorting out J for school. A couple of minutes later, there was another knock at the door – I went and opened it and delivery man number 2 said hello. He came into the house and the first guy had already got the old dishwasher disconnected and ready to go – the two of them walked it through the house, and off to the van. Then the shiny new black one came in – I had to rush back off upstairs – and finished getting J ready. I heard the front door open and shut and saw delivery man number 2 was walking down the path to the van with a load of packaging stuff. A couple of minutes later I glanced out of the window again and he’d turned the van round ready to go. Then the first guy called me from downstairs, and I went down and found him ready to leave. He said he’d tested it and all was working fine, advised me to read and follow set up guidelines (adding rinse aid and salt before first use etc) and contact them if there were any issues. He asked if I had any questions, confirmed they’d taken my old dishwasher and the packaging for the new one and then he asked if it was OK to pet Buddy!

Now bear in mind, this bonkers dog had been bouncing around the front room howling, barking and screaming from the time the delivery truck had pulled into sight in the road outside, the whole time this guy had been in the house and as we’d stood talking at the front door, Buddy was separated from us by a baby gate so you could see him leaping all over the sofas and circling the room as he continued his deafening song. I looked at the delivery guy in disbelief. “Yeah, he’s fine to pet,” I said quickly. Buddy immediately shut up with a good ear scratch. “I love dogs,” The delivery guy said, “He’s a beauty.” I gathered my jaw up from the floor and managed to smile at him. “I like him more when he’s shouting less,” I said.

J and I left for school two minutes later, they’d already gone, no hanging around there! I was absolutely amazed at how quickly they’d got it sorted – and the only thing that took the two of them was bringing the new one into the house and taking the old one out, the fitting etc was all done by one. In total, they arrived at 08:07 and they left at 08:28. J and I were at school at normal time, and there was me worrying about being late!

When I got home I had a cup of tea before I started fiddling with the dishwasher, and I read the User Manual like a good customer. Our old dishwasher I never learned how to do certain things like putting the salt in and I feel that’s ridiculous as I’m sure it’s fairly standard in any dishwasher, but having never done it before I didn’t know. So I wanted to know about this dishwasher, and after reading the User Manual I managed to follow the set up guidelines and get it all organised within half an hour.

Go to product on website

I’m not daft – I did read the reviews before making the purchase – and one thing people had commented upon was not having enough room for larger dinner plates on the bottom rack due to the low position of the top rack. However I had also read that the top rack was height adjustable in the info about the product on the advert. I risked it – my dinner plates are huge. There was no way they would fit in the bottom rack with the top rack on the lower position. The instructions for changing the height aren’t exactly full and easy to understand but it provides enough information for a person to work it would and adjust. I managed it! After putting the top rack in the higher position there is just enough space for the arm to move before the tops of my dinner plates. If my dinner plates fit, I can confidently say that most would. You’d just need to adjust the top rack to do it.

I added the salt and the rinse aid and followed the set up guide by putting water into the salt compartment to run the dishwasher for the first time without any washing up in it. Another comment I’d seen on reviews was that it was really loud. Since the dishwasher lives in the utility room anyway, noise isn’t something that really bothers me. If I’m in the front room watching TV or upstairs I can’t hear a dishwasher running. I don’t know what volume these reviewers were expecting – especially as it states on the product info the noise level produced – but while it’s not silent, I would say it’s about average, not loud at all. When the cycle ends, the dishwasher beeps a few times – this beep is loud, and was clearly heard by me when I was upstairs in the front bedroom at the furthest point in the house away from the location of the dishwasher. If this went off at night it would probably disturb me, and the dogs, but probably not Daddy P or J unless they weren’t properly asleep anyway. I don’t know if it beeps intermittently once it’s finished until you open it, but as I heard it yesterday I came downstairs and opened it. It does beep if it is turned on and the door is not properly shut which is fine, until you’re loading things into it and it gets a bit annoying. I turned off the power while I was loading it!

I like the additional wiring in the racks to move around and make the best set up for what washing up you have – it can provide flat spaces if needed, or angled ones as required. The cutlery basket holes are a variety of shapes and sizes to try and accommodate a wide range of cutlery styles but unfortunately my sharp knives (which I put in handle-up) do not fit in there well as the handle is too large to fit in the gaps and this leaves the knife off balance / top heavy.

Another one of the negatives listed on the product reviews is that the bottom rack doesn’t stay out because the dishwasher door doesn’t open completely flat. No, the dishwasher door doesn’t lie completely flat, but it’s only a couple of degrees off it so the bottom rack may not stay the whole way out but it doesn’t roll the whole way back in, either – it moves in by an inch or two maybe. If you leave the top rack in, you can access all of the bottom rack without needing to pull the rack out again. Once you have some weight in the rack it stays more firmly in place though I did find I needed to be careful to roll the rack back into the body of the dishwasher properly as on one side the wheels pop off the runner easily.

The dishwasher has a delay cycle facility you can set to delay it going on by 3, 6 or 9 hours – my mum uses this function on her dishwasher for it to go on overnight, which I would do if the dishwasher made so much noise I couldn’t cope with it being on while I was downstairs, or if it was cheaper for me to run it overnight, but it doesn’t affect me either way so I won’t worry about that, but it’s a nice added feature. It offers Eco Mode, Intensive, Normal, 1Hr, Rapid and 3 in 1 wash cycles, all of which you can select and then use the ½ load button if required.

By far my favourite addition on the panel of buttons is the childlock option. You set the childlock on and whatever buttons get pushed after that just get ignored by the dishwasher. Since I’ve a four year old who LOVES fiddling with all things button related (especially with flashing red lights and beeping going on) this is a big bonus for me. It’s easy to set but I did find getting it right took a couple of attempts – You have to press two buttons at once, one of those buttons being the program selection, so I kept changing the program selection just before the childlock activated and then having to undo the childlock to change the program back! I need more co-ordination!

It did a washload yesterday and I was pleased with how things came out, using the Eco Mode program and it was quite full. The only thing was the deeper bottoms of some mugs still had water in them where the angle wasn’t quite enough for the water to run off over the depth of the lip. Not a massive deal really. Everything was clean and with the exception of the bottoms of those mugs everything was rinsed.

All in all, so far I am pleased with this dishwasher. It was a very good price, though the customer care could have been vastly improved with better contact, the text message was received with my time slot being very accurate, the delivery guys were polite, professional and quick, and so far the dishwasher has done what I want it to do. The instructions could be clearer for adjusting the top rack but it’s quite obvious once you think about it and for the cost in comparison to other products I think this is a decent product of the quality you would expect for an own-brand item vs brand name. You get various bits included – salt funnel, scoops for detergent etc – probably stuff you get as standard with a new dishwasher, but this is the first time I’ve had one from new!

Impressed with Curry’s product and the pricing, less impressed with their so-called customer ‘care’. Impressed with Know How’s delivery guys.

Good overall experience for me!

Love,

Mummy P

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