Four letters...

A fairly mundane communication with the call centre of a company that installed double glazing in our house proved to have an unsatisfactory outcome.  I was basically told on the phone that no one could help me with my enquiry.  I asked to speak to a manager and was told that I could not.  I asked what help could be provided and the answer was none.  Nothing at all.

I do not give up easily so I wrote to the Managing Director of the company.  This provoked an immediate response.  Four letters were dispatched to me on the same day.  This would have been a fantastic response had it not been for the conflicting advice given within the letters.  

One letter told me that the company was investigating the matter.  Another told me there was nothing that the company could do: my windows were out of warranty.  A further letter told me that the units were covered with a fifteen year warranty that was still in force.  A final letter told me the warranty was for ten years, that it had expired and that the issue was irrelevant anyway because the problem that I had was my own fault.

Talk about a confusing message.  I can appreciate large companies might have several people dealing with customer services but three of these letters came from the same person. Perhaps the objective is to confuse me to the point that I give up (and to an extent it has worked).

I often wonder if we get the customer service we deserve.  An article I read recently suggested that in a downturn the most effective action is to focus completely on the customer.  Call centres seem a particularly ill equipped way to do this. I wonder if one effect of the current recession will be to force companies into better ways to deliver service to people.