Customer Service.... the clue's in the title!

I have had possibly the worst experience of customer service from Curry’s PC World this weekend. Yesterday, I took delivery of a brand new washing machine which (despite much effort) would not switch on. Yes fuses were checked, yes plug sockets and switches were checked, yes I read the instructions. I even checked that the electric hadn't tripped the sockets but no, nothing worked and it was clear there was a fault.

Now this is a long story but stick with me......

And so the fun begins....... I rang the main customer service line and selected the option for “press 2 for faults” which then resulted in various questions around the manufacturer, the name of the item and the date of purchase. All of this was an automated system which eventually took me to a recorded message “due to the number of calls at present we are unable to take your call” which then took me through to another option to leave my number for a call back. I had probably spent 20 minutes on the phone by this stage.

The call back came 2 hours later. Much to my dismay however, this was not a person, it was yet another another recorded message saying someone would answer my call shortly. After 5 minutes on hold I was then cut off. I've waited 2 hours for a call back, I still haven't spoken to an actual person and now I've been cut off. Maybe there was a blip in the system I thought, so I waited another hour but no call back and so we begin the process again.

I ring back, same process and again, they can't take my call so, again, I left my number. Another 2 hours and lo and behold, I get another call back but this time I am connected to a person, but unfortunately due to the nature of the issue, she couldn't help me and she gave me another number to call. This number would "take me direct to the manufacturer". Brilliant I thought...... but guess what...... it didn't take me through to the manufacturer, in fact, I ended up back in the same queue for main customer service line “press 2 for faults”. My patience is, by now, starting to wear a little thin.

So, I go back to the main line - options are: 1. place an order 2. faults 3. deliveries. Selecting option 1 gets nowhere as you can’t order over the phone at the moment, I ring back again and try 3 for deliveries. Hallelujah!!! After 35 minutes on hold I get through to someone in deliveries but she couldn’t help either because I hadn’t bought the item online. Her advice was to go back to store and speak to a manager. At this point I’ve spent around 5 hours trying to speak to someone from start to finish.

So today I went back to the store. Went directly to the Customer Service desk, explained my issue and.... wait for it.... was told I “was probably selecting the wrong option when I called” and without the serial number they couldn’t help either. You can imagine my frustration by this point.

Nevertheless I take a deep breath, explain how many times I rang, how many different options I selected, how I waited for call backs, and even spoke to the manufacturer who told me they couldn’t help. So I asked him what I should do. He suggested I go home, get the serial number and try ringing customer service back. I told him that wasn’t good enough and I refused to spend another day wasting my time on the phone. At this point, he decided to get a Store Manager. The Manager offered to ring the manufacturer direct and he would call me back once resolved.

I’m getting a new machine delivered on Wednesday, but this only happened after multiple unsuccessful calls to customer service, a visit to store and escalating the issue to a manager. At no point did I receive an apology for any of the difficulties I’d experienced. In fact, they seemed totally indifferent to my frustration, were completely oblivious to the poor service I had received and showed a complete lack of care or consideration of my experience. In fact, they seemed exasperated that I needed them to help!

So, why am I posting this? I honestly believe nothing should be this difficult when you have an issue post-sale and surely I'm not alone in this belief. If I dealt with my customers in this way I doubt I could (a) sleep at night or b) continue to run a successful business. What does it take for big business to realise after care is REALLY important if they want repeat business.

I'm well aware that there will always be issues in business and problems which are out of our control however surely it's about how you deal with those issues which makes the difference? I've just read an article which states that 91% of customers who have a bad experience will not do business with your company again. This is most definitely true for me. I will not be buying anything from Currys ever again even if it means spending more money elsewhere. I was treated abysmally by almost everyone I spoke to and I will be looking very closely at my own aftercare process in my own business as a result of my experience.