What is more difficult - being polite and courteous or faking it. Just wondering.
Thought of sharing this with you all.
Update on IFB Rant Post
- on Monday, August 10, 2009
- customer service, IFB
- 10 comments
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After I was on phone with four call centre employees and spent nearly an hour with them, I was able to get service engineer at my home and got my machine fixed.
I have also lodged a written complaint on their website but nobody has reverted so far. Not even an auto reply mentioning that’ my complaint is received by them.’
However, after putting my rant on my Blog, consumer review site and facebook, I have come across many friends and customers who are not satisfied with customer service of IFB. It seems providing woeful service is in their DNA.
Till last fortnight, I was extremely satisfied customer of IFB and always recommended it to my friends. But everything has changed now. From now on I will not be recommending IFB products to any of my friends.
BTW thanks for your comments, suggestions and good wishes which were the only saviour in otherwise dull and frustrating episode.
Horrendous Customer Service by IFB
- on Saturday, August 8, 2009
- 7 comments
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A rant on poor customer service rendered by IFB.
Dear IFB Customer Service Head,
I am an extremely dissatisfied and disgruntled customer of yours. It seems your organization has cleaned the customer service from its face as your machines clean dirt from clothes.
I lodged a complaint with IFB call centre last week (July 31, 2009) as there was a leakage in my machine. Call centre person told me (according to his script) that my complaint would be handled on August 1, 2009. He did not give me any time but assured me that the complaint will be address on the said date. I waited in my home whole day but no one turned up. No one even called up to update me on the progress my complaint. I called up your esteemed call centre again in second half and they gave me numbers of Mr. Asthana, who is the local franchise. I tried calling him up but his phone was switched off. I called up call centre again and then following his script, call centre guy gave me the number of Area Manager (Amit Anand). I called up Amit and first question he asked that how I got his number. Then he told me to contact call centre. And no more conversation. Period. Can you imagine the dearth of customer service in your organization? Instead of giving me a solution, Area Manager is asking me how I got his number.
Tuesday 4th August 2009 at 8:00 PM I got a call from an IFB service engineer that our complained was still open. This was the first call that I ‘received’ after lodging my complaint, and contrary to the commitment that it will be resolved within first 24 hrs, it was now over 96 hrs that some one even bothered to call me. He said that he would not be able to come on Wednesday, 5th August 2009 as it was his holiday and he will be able to come on Thursday. I told him to please come on Saturday. I again got a call on Friday, 7th August 2009 confirming that a service engineer will come and attend the call on Saturday, 8th August 2009. I had mentioned at every stage of my conversation with IFB people that the issue with my washing machine was that there was leakage and also it needed descaling. My washing machine is still under warranty and every person in the call centre confirmed this. I re-iterated that the service engineer coming to attend my complaint should come equipped to handle these two issues.
On Saturday 8th August 2009, at around 9.30am a service engineer by the name of Mr Tara came to attend the complaint. This was after 7 days of registering the complaint. He was unaware of what the problem was with the machine and innocently said that he was not briefed about the issues that I had conveyed. He examined the machine, and since he had no other equipment with him he could not do anything. He said that he would come back in two hours (that is by 11.15am) with a pipe, adapter and de-scaling kit to attend the complaint. In the meantime, I again called your esteemed call centre and spoke to Mr Abhijeet. I told him my complaint number 3323941. I was shocked when he told me that this complaint is being reflected as “closed” and there was another complaint no against my name- 3328108. He committed that the complaint will be attended before 1.00pm definitely. I must mention here that “definitely” and “sorry” are two words well drilled into the script of your call centre executives without their knowing any value of these words. In my desperation to get my washing machine into the working condition again and save my harassment time I called back Mr Jairam who had called me on Tuesday 4th August 2009. He told me that the service engineer would not be able to reach before 1pm in any case, as they had to be in their office between 11am to 12pm to file a report for their work. But again no definite time was given to me.
At 12.30pm I again called your esteemed call centre to check the status of my complaint. I spoke to Mr Hemant who went into his script of saying ‘sorry’ for the delay and that my complaint will be handled “definitely’. He had no clue about the history of my complaint. Every time I had spoken to some representative of your organization I had to repeat the entire conversation held with the previous representatives inspite of mentioning the complaint id. He again told the same story that my complaint no 3323941 was closed and the new complaint no was 3328108. After going through the pain of explaining my predicament to him he was least sensitive and said that there will be a person visiting me within today that is Saturday 8th August. I told him that I had waited one whole Saturday just hearing this again and again that the complaint will be resolved within 24 hrs and I can not go through the harassment of waiting for one more Saturday. He then transferred my call to his supervisor Mr Jasbir Singh, who like others, had no clue about what my complaint was. After I painfully explained him the entire issue, he promised me that he would speak to the service centre and get back to me within 30 minutes. I was already 12.36pm and he promised to call back with the exact time by 1.06pm. I did not get a call from any one till 1.15pm. So I called back your esteemed call centre and was put on to Mr Manish. He insisted that I go through the pain and harassment again and tell him the entire history and that he also harasses me by asking same questions and giving same replies again, inspite of my telling him that I wanted to speak to Mr Jasbir Singh, as I had spoken to him earlier. After a great deal of harassment I was put on to Mr Jasbir Singh And still he did not have a definite answer. All this so called escalation handler was able to tell me was that the complaint will be resolved before the end of the day. No priority for a complaint which is pending with your organization for 7 days. Great!
I am surprised and amazed by employees of IFB who can remain unaffected by customer complaints. They have absolutely zero sensitivity towards customer concerns and complaints. I will never ever recommend this brand to anyone and reason is not that there is something wrong in product quality but because of extremely poor, pathetic and woeful customer service.
Yours truly,
A Dissatisfied Customer
PS - I putting this complaint on my blog, on customer forums and social networking sites because I know I cannot expect anything from your customer service department.
I lodged a complaint with IFB call centre last week (July 31, 2009) as there was a leakage in my machine. Call centre person told me (according to his script) that my complaint would be handled on August 1, 2009. He did not give me any time but assured me that the complaint will be address on the said date. I waited in my home whole day but no one turned up. No one even called up to update me on the progress my complaint. I called up your esteemed call centre again in second half and they gave me numbers of Mr. Asthana, who is the local franchise. I tried calling him up but his phone was switched off. I called up call centre again and then following his script, call centre guy gave me the number of Area Manager (Amit Anand). I called up Amit and first question he asked that how I got his number. Then he told me to contact call centre. And no more conversation. Period. Can you imagine the dearth of customer service in your organization? Instead of giving me a solution, Area Manager is asking me how I got his number.
Tuesday 4th August 2009 at 8:00 PM I got a call from an IFB service engineer that our complained was still open. This was the first call that I ‘received’ after lodging my complaint, and contrary to the commitment that it will be resolved within first 24 hrs, it was now over 96 hrs that some one even bothered to call me. He said that he would not be able to come on Wednesday, 5th August 2009 as it was his holiday and he will be able to come on Thursday. I told him to please come on Saturday. I again got a call on Friday, 7th August 2009 confirming that a service engineer will come and attend the call on Saturday, 8th August 2009. I had mentioned at every stage of my conversation with IFB people that the issue with my washing machine was that there was leakage and also it needed descaling. My washing machine is still under warranty and every person in the call centre confirmed this. I re-iterated that the service engineer coming to attend my complaint should come equipped to handle these two issues.
On Saturday 8th August 2009, at around 9.30am a service engineer by the name of Mr Tara came to attend the complaint. This was after 7 days of registering the complaint. He was unaware of what the problem was with the machine and innocently said that he was not briefed about the issues that I had conveyed. He examined the machine, and since he had no other equipment with him he could not do anything. He said that he would come back in two hours (that is by 11.15am) with a pipe, adapter and de-scaling kit to attend the complaint. In the meantime, I again called your esteemed call centre and spoke to Mr Abhijeet. I told him my complaint number 3323941. I was shocked when he told me that this complaint is being reflected as “closed” and there was another complaint no against my name- 3328108. He committed that the complaint will be attended before 1.00pm definitely. I must mention here that “definitely” and “sorry” are two words well drilled into the script of your call centre executives without their knowing any value of these words. In my desperation to get my washing machine into the working condition again and save my harassment time I called back Mr Jairam who had called me on Tuesday 4th August 2009. He told me that the service engineer would not be able to reach before 1pm in any case, as they had to be in their office between 11am to 12pm to file a report for their work. But again no definite time was given to me.
At 12.30pm I again called your esteemed call centre to check the status of my complaint. I spoke to Mr Hemant who went into his script of saying ‘sorry’ for the delay and that my complaint will be handled “definitely’. He had no clue about the history of my complaint. Every time I had spoken to some representative of your organization I had to repeat the entire conversation held with the previous representatives inspite of mentioning the complaint id. He again told the same story that my complaint no 3323941 was closed and the new complaint no was 3328108. After going through the pain of explaining my predicament to him he was least sensitive and said that there will be a person visiting me within today that is Saturday 8th August. I told him that I had waited one whole Saturday just hearing this again and again that the complaint will be resolved within 24 hrs and I can not go through the harassment of waiting for one more Saturday. He then transferred my call to his supervisor Mr Jasbir Singh, who like others, had no clue about what my complaint was. After I painfully explained him the entire issue, he promised me that he would speak to the service centre and get back to me within 30 minutes. I was already 12.36pm and he promised to call back with the exact time by 1.06pm. I did not get a call from any one till 1.15pm. So I called back your esteemed call centre and was put on to Mr Manish. He insisted that I go through the pain and harassment again and tell him the entire history and that he also harasses me by asking same questions and giving same replies again, inspite of my telling him that I wanted to speak to Mr Jasbir Singh, as I had spoken to him earlier. After a great deal of harassment I was put on to Mr Jasbir Singh And still he did not have a definite answer. All this so called escalation handler was able to tell me was that the complaint will be resolved before the end of the day. No priority for a complaint which is pending with your organization for 7 days. Great!
I am surprised and amazed by employees of IFB who can remain unaffected by customer complaints. They have absolutely zero sensitivity towards customer concerns and complaints. I will never ever recommend this brand to anyone and reason is not that there is something wrong in product quality but because of extremely poor, pathetic and woeful customer service.
Yours truly,
A Dissatisfied Customer
PS - I putting this complaint on my blog, on customer forums and social networking sites because I know I cannot expect anything from your customer service department.
The Spiral of Customer Service
- on Thursday, August 6, 2009
- customer service
- 7 comments
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When malls started mushrooming in India and organized retailers started gaining foothold in Indian landscape, customer service also became a talking point. Initially, customers used to be happy, when security guard opened entry and exit doors of stores for them. Customers were experiencing this thing for the first time, hence they were elated.
Slowly, this became a norm and customer wanted something more. Then employees started greeting, smiling and acknowledging customer as soon as he entered store. Soon, this also became a norm. Then there were better employee grooming standards. Soon, product knowledge gained importance. In this race to serve customer better, everybody kept following and everything was a norm after sometime.
This is a customer service spiral. In this spiral companies keep embracing new norms and keep their standards above or at par with competition. In this spiral, companies try to improve on their previous effort. This spiral ensures that customer is served better than competition. This spiral brings best out of companies. This spiral also prepares them better in tough situations.
Avoiding this spiral is not an option anymore. Joining and doing well is the only way out.
