Moan of the month

Is it just in my imagination, or do some large companies treat their customers with contempt.

I pay insurance cover for my washing machine so that should it break down the cost of repairing or replacing is covered. At the beginning of August I renewed my insurance cover and received an agreement letter. Paragraph 3 stated ‘Please check the above details are correct. If they are not, write ….. who will make the necessary corrections and reissue etc.’

On checking, the agreement document had the machine details incorrect. The procedure was followed and today I have received the new agreement. It is word for word absolutely identical, with the wrong information restated.

The final paragraph informed me the Customer Services team would be happy to help if I had a query and that I could telephone them.

So this is where the story gets silly!

I phoned and spoke to D – she told me that it didn’t matter about the incorrect details as they couldn’t be altered as HEAD OFFICE had set up the letter. She had no way of explaining to me why I needed to write about incorrect information that could not be altered. So I asked to speak to a supervisor or manager. Hold on please ….. After a minute D came back on the line and told me that what she had told me was correct and that the supervisor would only tell exactly the same as she had told me. So I repeated the request to speak to a supervisor and got the same response! I asked again to speak to a supervisor or manager and I eventually wore down her resistance and she asked me to hold on.

This time I had to wait about three minutes before I got a reply. Supervisor VK spoke to me now and gave me exactly the same reply as D. She could not explain why the request was made to write to the company if details were incorrect when no changes could be made. She did not feel it was a problem (By now, I was considering it a matter of principle) I asked who else I could speak to and was informed that the agreement letter format was “set in stone” and could not be changed. (What sort of business can prosper with this sort of “set in stone” attitude?) I began to feel that I was banging my head against a brick wall – or should that be a stone wall.

I said that I would need to write to Head Office to ask for an explanation as the ‘happy to help’ Customer services team were unable to help. DK informed me that all Head Office would do would be to forward the letter to Customer Services who would then reissue an agreement identical to the two I already have.

I really feel I should be saying to myself I’ve wasted enough time on the matter – I have better things to do with my time etc - and let the matter drop. But perhaps when I have three hours with nothing better to do to pass the time …. I will write to them.