Never give up
In these days of horrible customer service and big companies who try to throw their weight around and ignore their customers it's important to never give in to their tactics and just keep being a pain in their ass until they eventually listen to you. This past year I've had some real challenges but I can quickly become a pit-bull when people try to ignore me. These are just some of the fights, some large and some small, that I won by persevering.
Wrongful Dismissal
Stream Global Services wrongfully dismissed me from my lousy job as a call centre agent last November. They claimed to have fired me for cause, which was a lie. They tried to get my EI denied, but I filed an appeal with the Board of Directors with EI and it didn't even get to a hearing. They approved my claim immediately.
I filed a complaint under the Employment Standards Act for their failure to pay me notice and just over a year later I got not only my two weeks' notice, but a portion of the commissions they didn't pay me.
Self Employment Program
This was one of the most protracted fights I've ever had. After applied to take the program in London I was met with the most arrogant, ignorant man I have ever met in my life. He lied about emails and phone calls that never happened, all just to protect his ass. I appealed to the Ministry of Colleges and Universities and they bought all his lies and confirmed my denial into the program. I filed a complaints with the Ontario Ombudsman's Office and, at first, they bought the lies passed on from the Ministry, but after an hour and a half phone call with a senior official at the Ombudsman's office they went back to the Ministry and a further investigation turned up all the lies that had been told. I got a letter of apology from the Ministry and they allowed me to apply again through the St. Thomas office and even paid my cab fare there. I have now been approved to take the course at the St. Thomas office and they are paying my transportation for the entire course. If I am approved for the program I will receive $423 a week to aunch my business, which will certainly help.
Bell Canada
Like all the big telecoms they are raising prices, nickel and diming us to death. I guess they need us to pay for their takeover of Astral and Maple Leaf Sports. We already pay some of the highest rates for TV, cell phones and internet in the world. Bell had a license to print money by having a monopoly for decades, all on the back of the taxpayers but their greed knows no bounds. They assault us with a ridiculous amount of advertising and force us to buy packages with channels we don't want. Thanks to their cronies at the CRTC everything they wat is virtually rubber stamped. Bell has killed hundreds of good customer service jobs in Canada and gone with cheap offshore call centres. They are one of the worst corporate citizens out there.
I was sick of these ongoing charges so I contacted another company who, of course, were going to provide an even better service at a much lower cost. Having worked at one of Bell's horrible call centres I knew the games they play so I called to cancel. The next thing I know they are sending me a new HD-PVR receiver for free and dropping my bill an astounding $40 a month with no change in service, in fact, they increased my data cap to 95GB, twice what I had. It pays to fight.
Rexall Drugs
They are right around the corner from me so naturally I have been dealing with them for almost three years since I moved here. Not sure it's a great thing, but all the staff know my voice on the phone. Their delivery driver, Nancy, was great and always brought me extra things like a bag of milk or a loaf of bread when I needed it. Most of my medications are covered under my drug plan, but my needles aren't, and they're expensive so I've always put them on my MasterCard with no problems. Monday I phoned to order my needles and was told that they can no longer charge my credit card. I could only write a cheque, which I don't use, or pay cash, which I rarely have. The local staff were getting a lot of complaints about this new policy, no doubt instituted by some bean-counter at Head Office.
I called their customer service line and had a pointless conversation with an agent who didn't even know they had changed their policy. After putting me on hold forever she promised that either the local store manager or their Regional Manager would call me back "right away". I was out of milk so I said I needed to know if they were delivering or not. Naturally I got no call.
I walked to the closest pharmacy, Shoppers Drug Mart, and met with the pharmacist. He was very pleasant and said there would be no problem charging anything to my credit card or bringing me things like milk or anything else. I bought my needles and he threw in a sample box of needles which really helps. He said he would phone Rexall and get all my prescriptions, just over seven hundred dollars a month. Wednesday I finally get a call from the Rexall Regional Manager and I told her it was too late and I had moved to Shoppers. Ironic that she did not offer to change their policy back. I suggested that no company in this economy, especially those in depressed London, could afford to lose customers and she agreed.
Dell
Way back in May of this year I was having an incredibly tough time trying to get a new keyboard for my Dell laptop. This is a computer I have had for seven years and seven keyboards have had to be changed because the writing wears off. Finally I managed to reach a lady in Michael Dell's office and the next day I received a new keyboard by courier, free. In one of our conversations she asked if I was considering getting a new computer, but I said there was no way I could afford it. I then got a call from a sales rep in Toronto who offered to sell me the computer I wanted at less than half price. An offer I could not refuse. I got the computer a few days later, and the trouble started. I could not adequately describe all the problems I had but they were things I had not seen in thirty years of computer consulting. Thus started the long and very trying saga with Dell.
A gazillion emails, two replacement computers, hours on the phone with Tech Support and it looks like I finally have a functional computer. I figure I've wasted at least three hundreds hours transferring data back and forth, transferring and registering my programs and on and on. Dell's own backup program, which would have made all this much easier, didn't work. Three months of back and forth emails on this one issue and we got nowhere. The backup finally worked yesterday. I hated not having a backup since September 13th. Things do go wrong at the worst possible time so I was very nervous all the time.
While this sounds like a litany of complaints about Dell, what I do sincerely appreciate is that they never gave up on me. Some were more helpful than others but no one tried to blow me off. They worked tirelessly to make this right and I sincerely appreciate it. If you bought a dud at a Future Shop I highly doubt you would get this kind of amazing warranty service.
Yes, it's sad that we have to fight so hard for our consumer rights. That's why a recent survey showed that ninety-five percent of people are unhappy with the customer service they receive. It's no wonder.
What's wrong with this country?
A recent survey found that over ninety percent of consumers are unhappy with customer service. Automated phone systems are often frustrating. Agents are untrained in the product or service. Offshore call centres are staffed with people who cannot understand or speak English. Large companies, mostly cable and telecom giants are viewed as greedy and out of touch with their customers.
What’s wrong here?
For whatever reason, companies have insulated themselves from actually dealing with customers. They put all kinds of walls up to protect themselves from criticism. They all profess lofty goals of offering exceptional customer service, yet their policies and procedures fly in the face of this goal. Call centres are measured on taking the least amount of time to deal with customers on the phone and not on the results of these calls.
My own experience over many years clearly shows the decline in customer service. Just a few examples –
I got word that the call centre where I work was looking at upgrading all their antiquated computers. Given that this was my business for almost twenty years I wanted to submit a proposal. I am a Dell fan, so I contacted their Enterprise sales department to build the initial quote for 600 work stations here in London. I also told them there was a potential 30,000 if we won the world wide contract, which only a company like Dell could handle. I got the usual form response that someone would contact me soon. Despite follow-up emails no one ever responded. Is Dell so comfortable that they can afford to ignore this type of contract?
Having been a fan of President’s Choice products since the day they came out, I sent a proposal to Loblaws suggesting they try a new concept store where you would be able to eat healthy meals, eat-in or take-out and sample their PC products. Nearby there would be a PC store where you could only buy PC brand products, along with fresh produce from only local growers, who would also setup farmers’ markets on Saturdays to promote their products carried in the store. I had researched a location here in London that would be perfect, a closed fast food joint out front and a closed dollar store, the perfect size for the PC Brands store. The response? Thanks for your letter. blah blah blah. Yeah, I’ll be really ticked off when they open this concept and it goes across the country.
After lying in a filthy bed in forty degree heat at a shelter I designed a shelter that provided some dignity for residents. I saw it as a public/private partnership. I overheard a staff member talking about a new resident and how they could make sure they got their $46 a night. Seriously? This for a disgusting bed in a dorm and eating mostly donated food? That’s over $1,200 a month. Where is all the money going? I contacted several local builders and sent my detailed renderings of a better shelter concept. Not a single one responded. One in particular owns several empty buildings around town which could easily be converted to my concept, but he would not even meet with me.
Thirty years ago I was involved in installing computer networks, desktop software and even computer furniture. It was the early days of both networking software (Novell ELS 1.0) and Microsoft Windows (3.1). On one customer site I had a particularly challenging install that involved an issue with the network card in the server. At 11:30 PM I called Microsoft and was soon on a conference call with customer service and a technician, who helped me solve the problem. Fast forward to today and just try to speak to a real person at Microsoft. They want something like $90 for fifteen minutes and that’s after you go through a myriad of pushing buttons trying to get to the person you need.
Even more telling is that over ten years ago, when I was working for Northern Computer in Kelowna, I developed a detailed proposal for what today we call the Cloud. I had worked with a number of small businesses who needed access to a computer network, but did not have the funds to buy their own hardware or software licenses. I worked with a local ISP (Silk Internet) who committed to buying the required hardware for a data centre where customers would share server space. I got all the way up to an assistant to Bill Gates, who told me Microsoft would NEVER share software access over the internet. How things have changed today! After I had developed a full desktop model for Windows and access from anywhere, something common today, Microsoft refused to even look at the site for fear of intellectual property concerns by their lawyers. Instead of losing market share to companies like Google, today Microsoft could have been the market leader without question.
Of interest is that, after Microsoft refused to look at my proposal, I contacted Google, Netscape, Apple, Facebook and several venture capitalists who had been involved in the internet. Not one of them responded, yet today they are all using some form of what I had proposed. Shortly after I had contacted Microsoft they launched several of the features that had been part of my proposal. Coincidence? I doubt it.
Over the years I have sent proposals, large and small, to many companies. Here in London Tim Horton’s has a small store downtown, with no seating and it’s always a crush of people trying to get their coffee fix. They also close at 6:00 every night, even though the downtown is swarming with people who would want Timmies. There was an empty store in a building right across the street, and next to McDonald’s, with plenty of seating and right on the corner where all the buses meet. I wrote to Tim Horton’s to suggest this was a perfect location. I got the typical “thanks for contacting us” form response, but nothing else. I sent three follow-up emails, again with no response, most importantly one after Quiznos had closed in the location, mostly because it took way too long to get service for people on limited lunch hours. Nothing. I sent a letter to Tim Horton’s Head Office, expressing my frustration that no one had responded to my emails. No surprise. No response.
After a poor experience with a filthy washroom at a McDonald’s I sent a letter to their Head Office. An exec did call me and tell me he was contacting the manager at the store and that they would “get back to me”. No one has called. I also sent a letter suggesting they use those little plastic shot glasses to sample their new smoothies. I have never been a fan of yogurt, but I would be willing to try a small sample. He also informed me that I could ask for one with no yogurt. Who knew? I think they would double their sales if they offered small testers, but, again, no one responds.
Probably no surprise that I’m dealing with the government on an issue that dates back over twenty-five years ago and I’ve written to everyone from the Prime Minister to the Governor General, but haven’t had a single response for three years. What happened to government for the people?
I spent several weeks developing a business proposal for a new way to connect job seekers with employers (www.PrismCareerNetworks.com). As a fan of the show Dragon’s Den I researched Robert Herjavec of the Herjavec Group and sent him the complete business proposal suggesting a partnership. His response? Nothing.
As consumers our voices are being heard less and less. These companies are putting systems in place to insulate themselves from their customers. They simply don’t listen anymore. Do you think if they did a survey asking if customers would prefer to deal with an automated phone system over a real person that these frustrating systems would have ever been implemented? No way. It’s amazing that companies are now promoting connecting with a real person as something new. Seriously?
My all time favorite was Rogers, with whom I had a disastrous experience. They frustrated me at every turn over three days, seventeen phone calls and trips by bus to their local store, only to discover that some idiot technician had disconnected my service by mistake. After all the wasted hours with them I remembered a site called IHateRogers. I went to the site and sent a detailed email to the contact number shown on the site. It came right back as “undeliverable”. I did some further research and discovered other contact addresses and sent emails off. All of them came back as “undeliverable”. I finally went to WhoIs, a site that provides the registration details for a website. Guess who owned the site? You got it – Rogers! They bought it to stifle complaints against them and promptly disabled all the contact addresses. How’s that for listening to customers?
The paradox of all these pathetic customer service failures is that other studies have shown that over ninety percent of consumers will return to a business based on the customer service they receive initially. Go figure.
Diabetes - PLEASE heed this warning
Nine million Canadians are living with some form of diabetes. An estimated two million Canadians are undiagnosed. The number of people diagnosed with diabetes is projected to increase 56% over the next ten years. Juvenile diabetes has increased forty percent over the last ten years, mostly because of poor diet, physical inactivity and obesity.
Back in 2004, after I had crashed my dirt bike, tore up my ankle and couldn't do any physical activity for a year, I gained fifty pounds and I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. When I was able to return to my many activities I lost the weight quickly and my diabetes was managed with only Metformin.
In late 2007 circumstances led to a high level of stress and my sugars were literally "off the charts". My doctor put me on high doses of insulin and my sugars moderated. He told me I was a poster boy for a heart attack and I needed to get out from under the stress or it would kill me. I moved to Panama and my diabetes was managed with Metformin and daily insulin in relatively small doses.
Circumstances led to my return to Canada and, at one point, I found myself living on the streets, unable to afford my medications for six weeks. I did not know at the time that I was doing irreparable damage to the nerves in my feet. I developed severe diabetic neuropathy, a burning, excruciating pain for which there is no cure. A host of medications, plus huge increases in my daily insulin, do little to mitigate the pain. The only "relief" is when I sleep, but obviously I can't enjoy it because I am asleep. I wake to the vicious cycle of every step being painful.
I have gone from a healthy, ridiculously active person who hiked, biked, danced, roller-bladed, skied (cross-country, downhill and water skied), played racquetball and tennis, and even para-glided, to someone who can barely walk with the aid of a cane. All this in only a couple of short years. My doctors offer little hope and just tell me to learn to live with the pain.
I cannot urge you enough to get tested, regardless of your age. People often think that diabetes is an old person's disease, but this is not true. Diabetes can reduce your life expectancy by more than ten years. It can result in amputations. It is a leading risk factor for heart attacks. If diagnosed early enough diabetes can be managed, not cured, but the risks of amputations and early death can be greatly reduced. Don't ignore the warning and be part of that two million people undiagnosed. It is much better to know and be able to manage it.
Courier Companies. Do website programmers check their own sites?
It was a simple request. I wanted to ship my old computer to a friend in the Okanagan. I wanted it to arrive in a few days and I wanted to make sure it was handled carefully.
FedEx
Not sure why I chose them first because my computers had come Purolator without incident. I went on their website to get a quote. I had to enter my postal code and the postal code for my friend. I got an error message that my postal code didn't exist. Canada Post and the folks living in my building would be upset to know that FedEx doesn't think we exist. So much for FedEx.
Purolator
First, I've had an account with Purolator for years so I logged into my account and chose to get an estimate. I entered all the info, including my request for special handling, an extra $18, and got a quote that was reasonable so I proceeded to "Create a Shipment". After entering all my information, even though I had an account and this should have been shown, and all the shipping information for my friend, then hit the "submit" button. I was creating the shipment for the next day pick-up and wanted to charge my credit card, information they had on my account. I got an error message that they could not charge my credit card for a "future dated" shipment. Why the hell not? Every company in the world, except apparently Purolator, allows you to place an order and have your card charged when they ship the order.
My only choice was to give up all the data I had just entered and simply request a pick-up. No account info. No credit card info. No special handling request. Just a pick-up. When the driver arrived I explained what happened and he had no explanation. He filled out a manual bill and took the parcel. I went online to ask Purolator why I could not do a next day shipment and got back an idiotic reply stating that they cannot charge my credit card for a future dated shipment. No explanation as to why not.
Concerned that the shipment was going to be handled properly and that it would arrive on Friday, as the driver confirmed, I started trying to track it online. My account, of course, showed no shipments. The Bill of Lading number just came back with a blank screen and a note to call. On Friday I called expecting confirmation that it had been delivered. First I was told that it wasn't to be delivered until the following Friday. When I said the driver had said it would be delivered this Friday, she disappeared for a time and then came back telling me it was in Kelowna and it would be delivered on Tuesday. When I said it was to be delivered on Friday all I got was a "sorry". Knowing the depot in Kelowna I knew that it was sitting in the back. I asked if my friend could pick it up, but she said that wasn't possible either. Why not?
I gave my friend the contact information and told her to ask for a friend who worked there if she was in because I knew she would find it. Apparently they are now delivering it on Monday, which is better than Tuesday, but not Friday as promised. I told her to check it out thoroughly for damage because I doubt there was any "special handling" as I wanted. God knows what will happen to a computer if it's thrown around a truck. It had better arrive in one piece and working.
The next issue will be the bill because I don't intend to pay for service I didn't get. And whoever programmed their website needs their head examined as to why you can't create a shipment the way you should be able to. Frustrating!
Healthcare in Ontario SUCKS!
When I lived in BC and was diagnosed with diabetes in 2004 everything I needed was covered by my medical plan. Not so in Ontariario. You have to fight for every dollar. The best example of idiotic care here is that they pay for insulin but not the needles to take it. Are we supposed to drink it? Needles are $40 a box, and, if like me you use six a day, that box doesn't last very long.
The Death of Customer Service?
Apparently Facebook's new search feature will allow people to search for certain key words from a number of sources. Hopefully it will search WordPress blogs as well. This post is about my disaster of an experience with BelairDirect, my insurance company. They only underwrite insurance in Ontario, so this won't be of any interest if you are in BC, where ICBC handles all the insurance. I didn't know how good I had it while I lived in BC.
What's more important - your job or your health?
This was my letter to Service Canada regarding filing for medical benefits –
I find myself in an intolerable position with my current employer, Stream Global Services, here in London, and I need urgent advice.
I started with this company October 12th, 2011 as a Customer Service Representative for the Bell Satellite TV contract. I fell for the stated goal that we were to offer “exceptional service” to Bell’s customers to regain market position. I attended various training sessions in which we were encouraged to investigate all possible issues with a customer and do our very best to resolve the issues and retain the customer. On the floor this turned out to be a lie. What, in fact, we were to do was as little as possible in the shortest amount of time. I was admonished on every call where, although I solved problems that had been ignored before and thus retained the customer, my AHT (Average Handling Time) was over the goal of ten minutes. The fact that I retained thousands of dollars of business by solving customer’s problems; had the highest FCR (First Call Resolution), meaning my customers did not have to call back again, and my PCCS (Post Call Customer Survey) scores were the highest on the floor, various managers constantly berated me over my AHT.
It got so bad that they put me in a remedial program called B2B to “correct my behavior” and lower my AHT. Upon completion of the program I was forced to sign an acknowledgement of my target AHT and that I would be fired if I did not meet the “agreed” goal. Shortly before graduating one of the senior staff berated me on the floor in front of my colleagues, treating me like a five year-old, over a long call that he claimed was unnecessary because I was wrong, even though I had consulted a senior on the call. He claimed he would also discipline the senior, even though she did not report to him. When I consulted with my senior, she not only confirmed that he was wrong, but was also livid that he told me she would be “disciplined”. I reported this issue to Human Resources and advised them that if I was ever berated in public again I would take the matter up with a wrongful dismissal lawyer.
It should be pointed out this is a deplorable company. They have no respect for their employees, lie about their programs and treat employees unbelievably poorly. We have fridges that don’t work. Broken Microwaves in which to heat our lunch. Toilets that have been broken for months. Their practices are Neanderthal. Knowing that staff had been quitting in droves in February they announced a whole new program of metrics that would allow us to make more money. To date this program has never been implemented. Even their current program, which offers minimal reward for meeting all of your metrics, and on which they find every excuse in the world to not pay you, they run a month behind on payments, a clear violation of the contract.
There have been countless incidents of employees being bullied and harassed. One employee who had to book time off for a medical procedure was told she would lose her shift seniority and be placed back on a night shift where she would not see her kids. When I asked why the outside door to the smoking area did not have handicapped access for an employee in a wheelchair, I was told not to report it because the company would close the smoking area. Every piece of equipment we have to do our jobs – the phones, the archaic computers and, most importantly, our software, constantly break down or are unavailable. The most critical software tool we have to deal with customers goes down on a regular basis, every day. We are told to lie to customers and tell them “our software is being updated”.
Every word you say to a customer is recorded and Quality Control staff are constantly monitoring what is said. They write you up for the slightest mistake and are more than often wrong in their interpretation of what was said. I was written up for calling someone at Bell “stupid”. Only when I objected to signing the report did they listen to the call again and realize I had said “that was stupid”. Big difference. Last Monday I was written up for saying that I was glad that Bell was recording the call, inferring that because the company was so stupid I was glad it was being recorded. Again, I refused to sign the report because I knew what I had said. The customer was being obviously flirtatious with me, making suggestive comments and I advised her to remember that the call was being recorded to keep the call professional. My manager had grabbed me the minute I walked in for my shift and threatened to write me up and action (fire me) over this call. I told him to listen to the call before he went any further. I also questioned why Quality had never once written up a call where I had saved a customer who called to cancel or on any of the other hundreds of calls where I had saved a customer. My most frequent request from customers is to be able to call me back personally because I am the “only one who ever helped me properly”. No, they only report you on negative calls.
Instead of fixing all of the countless issues we have with our software, they focused their efforts on their new “Rockstar” program based on feedback from customers. They list numerous issues we are to investigate with the customer, mostly to sell them more programming, but not once do they qualify this lofty objective by adding “in the shortest possible time”. The program was to launch last week, but, no surprise, there are “glitches in the software”. Our new desktop phone management system was to launch last February, but we are still waiting. The current version crashes all day and even disconnects customers, but nobody cares. They also changed policy this week that we are to call disconnected customers back within thirty seconds, but, first our system fires the next call at you in less than one second, and, secondly, we are to get a manager’s approval before making a callback. Yet more stress.
During my time with this company my health has deteriorated substantially. Even though I am a diabetic my blood pressure has always been low (110 over 70) and my sugars were under control. I do suffer from diabetic neuropathy which results in very painful feet. My work limitations resulted in my being approved for ODSP as of last July. Due to my earnings I lost my financial assistance and my drug card, which I appealed and won and my drug card was restored. On my last visit to my diabetic team at St. Josephs they were very concerned that my heart was “racing” and my BP had increased to a dangerous level. I told them that my experience with my employer had gone from being upset, stressed and shaky after my shift, to experiencing the same condition going to work. The pressure has become intolerable and I cannot work there anymore. My health is more important to me and I will not let a job this bad kill me.
As for my current status at Stream I emailed my manager after the berating over the call, asking for VTO (Voluntary Time Off) and was told none was available. I was told to ask for vacation time, but the system would only allow a request for the next day. I then advised him that I wanted to go home sick because I could not do my job effectively under the present conditions. I reminded him that my AHT metric had been cause for termination weeks ago, at least that had been the daily threat, so just terminate me and stop threatening me. He told me he would speak to the Bell rep on site and then I was to meet with HR, but no one got back to me before the end of my shift. My manager is off the same days as I am, Tuesday and Wednesday, so I sent an email to the Bell rep that I would not be back, but I was not quitting. I would phone in sick, if only because I haven’t missed a single minute since I started and have voluntarily worked every holiday since I started.
To make matters worse, my doctor has discovered a potentially cancerous growth on my abdomen and is trying to get me in for a biopsy as quickly as possible, which is only adding to my stress. My mother died of cancer and I had a birthmark on my forehead removed several years ago because it tested positive.
My situation is complex, but I do not wish to make my life even worse. London Housing has also been taking the maximum $612 a month in rent from me, which makes working even more pointless. ODSP has been deducting the full amount of my wages plus my pension, leaving me wondering why I am working when it is killing me? I need to support myself and, most importantly, get my health back under control. I know I have worked the required hours to file for Employment Insurance, but I need some direction on what I am to do with my employment. Life has been stressful enough without making my situation worse.
I would very much appreciate your guidance.
(Due to the urgency of my situation I was hoping to meet with someone who could advise me, but I was told the process takes five days. I phoned in sick this morning mostly because I am waiting to get a biopsy, plus my stress level is off the charts.)
Think ICBC is a bad deal?
A few years ago I saw a small classified ad for a Ford Ranger. I was getting into renovating and needed a truck. After I went to the shop and decided to buy the truck I wanted to leave my car for some bodywork to sell it, so I needed plates and insurance to be able to drive the truck.