My third phone call was at 5pm. I recapped the day's events and was told that the engineer had gone home for the day. I said that I didn't especially care which engineer, I just wanted the problem resolved today, as implied in our contract.
Conversation with the person who took the call: I learnt that they have fulfilled their contract by sending someone out to attend to the box to the best of his abilities. Second is that they can only offer me an 'all day' call from Wednesday onwards. Also, that staff at the engineer's firm 'Custom', just like at my employer, have to take annual leave or lose pay when they take time off (funny that...).
I asked to speak to the supervisor who turned out to be the firm's manager, Daniel. Daniel-with-an-attitude-problem. Defensive and attacking. No, he can't give anything more than specific than 'all day', even though I specifically said my partner would be available from 3pm. No, he can't make a management decision to prioritise a call for someone who has already had a failed visit (so, not really a manager at all, I presume). It's not his fault. There is no contract to replace the box, I don't have a contract with them, I haven't paid them any money*. As far as he was concerned, it wasn't his problem. I'd have to get onto Sky. I'm just another irritating customer with the impertinence to expect a job completed on the appointed day. I did feel he wanted to say "Woman, know your place..."
I used Say not to 0870 and got through to the geographical number in amazingly quick time. I wonder if they have a special team set up for people 'saying no to 0870' because the chap I dealt with was an excellent Customer Service person, conciliatory and giving the impression of empathising, which is the basis of good customer service. Nevertheless, he was only authorised to give me a £20 credit, but even the way he said it was conciliatory - not defensive, not aggressive - so I was inclined to believe him (I know a tiny bit about delegated financial authorities).
I made a big deal about 'I suppose I can arrange to work at home on Friday' because that was obviously preferable to hanging around all day on Saturday (of course my manager would laugh himself silly at that concept)**, but the list of programmes I won't be able to watch is growing. I hope that is resolved by 4pm Friday because that will be my last chance to catch the JDF Barber of Seville. At least, until it's repeated again in a few months time, but a few months time isn't good enough. (if the reports from professionals and amateurs alike are anything to go by JDF is certain to be my Tenor of the Month*** (Under 65 category)****)
Because I work part-time, I have more time than many people to be making these calls, but I work part-time for a reason, my health, and Jimmy gets angry when he sees me dealing with muppets on the phone and watching the colour visibly drain out of me. It seems like all these matters are a war of attrition, and the big firms win by beating down the people who pay their wages/profits. It sucks.
* hasn't grasped the accruals concept; nor the basis of subcontracting - imagine if an airline used the excuse 'you're not our customer, you booked via a travel agent; or a 'name' food manufacturer said 'it's not our problem, you bought it from Tesco'
** Friday is not a 'working day' for me
*** Remember my other nom de net is La Donna Mobile
****Not that mobile
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