Kit's Khaos

[Wardukw]

I sent a rude message to the sellers of my 3 month old trackball, the one with a failed RH button..............

Their reply was to the effect that '......we can't do anything about this now as too much time has passed and we can't check with our shippers when it was delivered....'

WHAT?

As I bought it via ebay all they have to do is look at the date on my original purchase, the shippers have naff all to do with it! All they're doing is trying to fob me off, but they've not heard of the 'Don't mess with Spackman' message that's writ large in these parts!

I've sent a 2nd, even ruder message to them, and if that doesn't get some action I'll be taking action vis ebay. That'll sort them out!   

One of the better uses of social media is putting pressure on companies that blow you off. Just post about the situation and get specific on who the company is. They don't like negative news about them.
I had a leaking electrical transformer dripping on my garbage cans. I posted about it and suggested that "I didn't know if PCBs were involved." A new transformer showed up in a few days instead of months plus a new set of pavers that were soaked in oil. Positive result. I was really charged up about it.

Lovely use of puns there matey 😃😃😃

[Rick Lowe]

I sent a rude message to the sellers of my 3 month old trackball, the one with a failed RH button..............

Their reply was to the effect that '......we can't do anything about this now as too much time has passed and we can't check with our shippers when it was delivered....'

WHAT?

As I bought it via ebay all they have to do is look at the date on my original purchase, the shippers have naff all to do with it! All they're doing is trying to fob me off, but they've not heard of the 'Don't mess with Spackman' message that's writ large in these parts!

I've sent a 2nd, even ruder message to them, and if that doesn't get some action I'll be taking action vis ebay. That'll sort them out!   

One of the better uses of social media is putting pressure on companies that blow you off. Just post about the situation and get specific on who the company is. They don't like negative news about them.
I had a leaking electrical transformer dripping on my garbage cans. I posted about it and suggested that "I didn't know if PCBs were involved." A new transformer showed up in a few days instead of months plus a new set of pavers that were soaked in oil. Positive result. I was really charged up about it.

Lovely use of puns there matey 😃😃😃

Indeed! 
Not too revolting, this time... 

Kit, is there an equivalent to the Better Business Bureau or the Commerce Commission over your way?
Might be worth dropping them a line.

[PR19_Kit]

Kit, is there an equivalent to the Better Business Bureau or the Commerce Commission over your way?
Might be worth dropping them a line.

Yes, there is, specially one for on-line transactions, but I have no experience of using them so I don't know if they work well or not. If they're anything like most Government agencies here they'll be darn nigh impossible to contact, they'll communicate as well as a breeze block and won't actually do anything, but we'll see.

No contact from the trackball people this morning, they're obviously trying to ignore me, hoping I'll go away. WRONG!

On other fronts I'm heading back home today from my 'country home' and my lady love, but it'll be a long trip as I'm going via Bedford to drop off a model of my fave train, the APT-E, so that its wheels can be machined down to run on EM gauge track. That's 18 mm across the rails, which is where the 'EM' comes from (Think about it.....)

We tried to run a model ' 50th anniversary special' on Aug 10th to commemorate breaking the British Rail Speed Record in 1975 at 152.3 mph and I was aboard it that day.    The record still stands as it's STILL the fastest non-electric train in the UK, despite what the HST fanatics will tell you. The demo run was at a superb 'layout' of the Vale of the White Horse in Wiltshire and Berkshire at the Pendon Museum, which was where we did the RW run 50 yrs ago. Sadly the model didn't run as planned, and we have lots of mods to make do it but they did make a neat promotional vid of the event here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m71r8t1ZLY

I'm afraid they had me do a spiel about it at the start. And yes I am missing a couple of front teeth, I fell off my bike.  

[Rick Lowe]

Kit, is there an equivalent to the Better Business Bureau or the Commerce Commission over your way?
Might be worth dropping them a line.

Yes, there is, specially one for on-line transactions, but I have no experience of using them so I don't know if they work well or not. If they're anything like most Government agencies here they'll be darn nigh impossible to contact, they'll communicate as well as a breeze block and won't actually do anything, but we'll see.

No contact from the trackball people this morning, they're obviously trying to ignore me, hoping I'll go away. WRONG!

They haven't encountered 'The Bl00dy-Mindedness of Kit!' Or not yet... 

All the best with the issue.

[PR19_Kit]

Modelling has come to a grinding halt since I got home on Thursday, mainly because most of my current builds are still in the car, and there's not enough free space ANYwhere in this khaotic house to put them at the moment! 

Lots of clearing up going on of course, if only to make some such space.

At least I found Chris an He-111 fuselage and canopy, and I've ordered a replacement IFR probe for my Dragon build, but I've no idea where the old one went, it wasn't in the paint stripping tank when I drained it. 

Someone will suggest that the Fairy stuff in the tank may have dissolved it, but that's unlikely as it was a white metal one!

[Weaver]

I sent a rude message to the sellers of my 3 month old trackball, the one with a failed RH button..............

Their reply was to the effect that '......we can't do anything about this now as too much time has passed and we can't check with our shippers when it was delivered....'

WHAT?

As I bought it via ebay all they have to do is look at the date on my original purchase, the shippers have naff all to do with it! All they're doing is trying to fob me off, but they've not heard of the 'Don't mess with Spackman' message that's writ large in these parts!

I've sent a 2nd, even ruder message to them, and if that doesn't get some action I'll be taking action vis ebay. That'll sort them out!   

One of the better uses of social media is putting pressure on companies that blow you off. Just post about the situation and get specific on who the company is. They don't like negative news about them.
I had a leaking electrical transformer dripping on my garbage cans. I posted about it and suggested that "I didn't know if PCBs were involved." A new transformer showed up in a few days instead of months plus a new set of pavers that were soaked in oil. Positive result. I was really charged up about it.

Yes, I've found that negative public posts on Twitter ("X" ) are pretty effective at getting companies to pay attention to you. Something along the lines of "Hey <bigcorp> why is it that your thing doesn't work and you're ignoring my e-mails about it. Have you got something to hide or do you just not give a **** about your customers?" usually does the trick. 

Trying to deal with Talk Talk (oh the irony... ) about my first dead auntie's phone was like that:

Website: "Oooooh noooooo, we don't have anything as old-fashioned as a phone number. Try our useless talkbot or send us an e-mail so we can ignore it."

Social Media team on Twitter, 10 mins after a snotty post: "Please ring our secret call centre on this number XXXX-XXX-XXXX to discuss your problem!!!"

They almost couldn't have been more helpful: the only question they wouldn't answer was, "why isn't that bloody number on your website in the first place?"* 



* Real answer: "because it'd be flooded with complaints in hours and we'd have to hire lots of expensivestaff to dela with them all..."

[PR19_Kit]

* Real answer: "because it'd be flooded with complaints in hours and we'd have to hire lots of expensive staff to dela with them all..."

But of course if they had enough staff to make the 'product' (whatever that is) properly in the first place, they wouldn't have so many irate customers to be dealt with by the inadequate number of 'Customer Service' staff!

When I was in charge at MTS UK Service we had a rule that the phone had to be answered within three rings, and I always had enough staff there to do just that.

[kerick]

I love it when I do get through to a real person their English is perfect but their accent is so strong I can only understand every other word. And the guy says his name is "Daniel", yeah right.

[Weaver]

* Real answer: "because it'd be flooded with complaints in hours and we'd have to hire lots of expensive staff to dela with them all..."

But of course if they had enough staff to make the 'product' (whatever that is) properly in the first place, they wouldn't have so many irate customers to be dealt with by the inadequate number of 'Customer Service' staff!

When I was in charge at MTS UK Service we had a rule that the phone had to be answered within three rings, and I always had enough staff there to do just that.

It's Talk Talk, so the "product" is phone/internet/cable services.

[Rheged]

I love it when I do get through to a real person their English is perfect but their accent is so strong I can only understand every other word. And the guy says his name is "Daniel", yeah right.

I had to deal with an "outsourced"    call centre recently............"Good afternoon, my name is Gordon..."  he said.     To which I answered "Namaste, Ganesh."  His response  "Oh dear me, it would appear that I have been rumbled".     After all this, he was a charming, efficient chap who did sort out my problem quickly and  satisfactorily.   

When I was running Customer Services for a big book wholesaler, our  aim was to answer the phone  in three rings, but ,practically, within 15 seconds was our usual .    I did however manage to persuade management that if our time to answer was more than 45 seconds, I could conscript a couple of extra bodies from Accounts.........they weren't much good at the job but I hope that it  showed we  were at least trying!

 i had a semi-retired member of my  staff whose father was Indian Army, and was  brought up near Delhi.  He would engage "outsourced" customer service people in fluent Hindi.............he reckoned  that once  "Gordon"   or "Peter"  got over the shock it got his problems solved amicably.

[Gondor]

I find that these "outsourced" call centre staff are normally good anyway. I must remember to say "Namaste" to the next one I speak to, as I learned the word from a former college lecturer that I had, and still have a crush on. 

[kerick]

Someone here mentioned about asking how the local football league was going.

[PR19_Kit]

On the subject of answering phones, I used to have two land lines here at home, one being a normal phone line and one was a dedicated fax and broadband line paid for by my employers, and naturally it was ex-directory. It did have a phone hand set as sometimes we needed to talk on it when having difficulties with fax transmissions, but those calls were always generated from my end, so incoming calls were almost unheard of.

But now and then some random phone number generator system somewhere would pop it onto some sale person's desk and they'd call it, which was a pain as I'd have to dig the hand set out from under the pile of junk that it usually lived under.

My standard response was to answer 'Operations! Going Secure!' and then whistle tonelessly down the phone line. 

This produced one of two responses, either the caller would hang up immediately, by far the most common, or the more obstinate would set off on their sales script. My response to that was to shout loudly 'This is a secure line and you do NOT have permission to call it!' Whereupon they'd drop the line, VERY rapidly.   

[kerick]

Ask for their computers IPN number and say, "Our people will be there in ten minutes. Don't move!"

[zenrat]

..."No sir, this the police.  Did you know Mr Spackman?  When did you last see him?  Did you harbour any grudges?  When can you make yourself available for fingerprinting and a cheek swab?..."