A friend of mine is moving and getting new appliances. I have had to buy a new phone. One of the things I am learning is both the very poor quality of customer service in England and the limited competition. In fact, for most things, there is little or no competition.
Customer service in England for buying appliances and phones is abysmal. Four times in shops, I have received wrong and misleading information, which, when I checked specs or prices or service online or with the company was positively contradictory.
Most people in shops simply do not care. This poor customer service is not confined to one company. Another friend of mine had trouble with lying service reps in a store in a posh area of London.
There are three reasons for poor customer service. One, many of those waiting on us simply do not care, and will not be in the shop when one goes back to complain. Turn over in phone shops is appalling.
Two, there are less geeks in England than in America, that is, these guys are not interested, really, in computers, phones, the Net or all the paraphernalia surrounding technology. They do not have an interest in their work. The work is merely a job. I am not going so far as to say there is ignorance, but having been given absolutely wrong information several times from the same shop, after asking detailed questions, I am convinced that there is either poor training, or a lack of real interest.
Three, no competition. There are so few phone companies, the existing ones do not really care if the service is first rate. For example, my phone company has no family plans. Unbelievable.
Do not get me started on fridges and washing machines or dryers.
Sad days when one must rely on the Net or on talking to someone in a far away country to get the information one cannot get locally.