April Fooooooooooool!

What an idiot, when L&Q and Axis sent me confirmation that they were coming to replace the fence that was damaged in the storms in December, and gave the date as April 1st, I really should have known better than to believe them.
Instead like a sucker, I have taken ANOTHER day off work, so that's ANOTHER day of precious annual leave wasted on sitting around in the house waiting on a contractor who has once again not shown up.
If I had known this would become such a common practise I would have started keeping a record of the dates.
But as an example we have two occasions contractors didn't show up to re-decorate the bathroom. We have the appointment to repair the fence earlier in the year which needed a chase up call, and ultimately resulted in a quick visit from a contractor to take pictures and then leave, and now we have today.

Each time I take a day off to wait in, as required to do so by the contractors request, I use up a days leave. That's fine though right, a day off is good, you can get things done.... NO!! You bloody well can't when you are stuck indoors waiting for someone to show up. Not even a sodding call!
The cruel irony is, its been a lovely morning, and it would have been OK if I could have sat in the garden with the dogs to wait.... But hold on, why didn't I then.
Oh that's right, THE FENCE IS DOWN and has been since December, so the dogs would get out.

Right now I am thoroughly fed up with the lackadaisical attitude of the companies and contractors who think I have nothing better to do with my life. Given how much leave I have already used on family matter this year, and we are only at the start of the 4th month, I am really running low on the stuff. And quite frankly I am reaching the point where I think someone should be compensating me for this time, yes seriously!

Its now 3 mins past the close of the appointment window, and no show, no call.

But it gets better. Weeks ago when I got the appointment I called up to confirm what was being done. At the time the person  spoke to at Axis noted the job was only booked for 2 hours, but was for 31 fence panels. Assured she would look into it and make sure the time was allocated correctly, I left it there.
Today I called up again, just to confirm that the appointment was still scheduled and that someone would be coming. Yup all is fine I was told. So I asked about the time allocation. I was informed that it was still 2 hours and 31 panels and that the contractor coming was also booked for another job this afternoon. Doomed to fail some might say, but I had faith.

Well the egg is on my face now, and my annual leave is slowly slipping away. The dogs haven't been out yet, I have achieved little, other than this rant, with my day, and now I wonder what I will be told when I call them back in a moment to ask what's happening.

Just take another day off and we will see if we can make it this time.
Contractor's fault, should have called you, take another day off anyway.
We will get someone to you ASAP, just wait in til 6pm now.
I have no record of a job for a fence today on my screen.

Or something more original?

Lets see...

*DIALING*

To be continued.................


Hilarious..

The lovely lady I spoke to said that the contractor advises he has only just received the go ahead on the job today, and is on his way over asap now to start the job. And will come back tomorrow morning with extra crew to get it finished,.

The polls are in, and Yodel.......

... well quite frankly they suck !

A recent poll from a reputable source, conducted in the UK about domestic parcel delivery put Yodel dead last.
In fact they were SO last, they actually had almost double the amount of BAD votes to the next placed carrier. Now that really says something when it comes to customer DIS-satisfaction.

Good		592 votes (18%)
OK		654 votes (20%)
Bad		2104 votes (63%)

As the boss of a company scoring THAT badly, surely you would start to look for ways to improve.

As the boss of a company USING a company that scores this badly, surely you would be looking for alternative carriers to keep your own customers happy.

But thats not how business works, we all know that by now. 

Most people complain about foreign call centres, but more and more companies are outsourcing their customer service centres by the year.

So, all my moaning, all my complaining and blogging. It seems I was far from alone in my bad feeling towards the company. Even more reason to maintain my stance that I will NOT order anything from a company in the knowledge that they use Yodel as a delivery agent.

At least someone is replying !

Thank you to the Financial Ombudsman for taking the time to review my email and get back to me with a case number regarding my complaint against Wonga.com

Dear Mr Snasdell

Your complaint

Thank you for contacting us. We will reply as soon as possible – but within six weeks.

If you need to get in touch before then, please use your reference, XXXXXXXXXXX

In the meantime, Wonga have still not managed to overcome sending me the same perpetual automated replies, asking me to call them, or asking for more information so they can work out who I am.

Well we have established one thing for sure.... My name is NOT Stephen! Idiots!

I don't really expect much from Wonga, at best, the next email I get with my name on it will probably be this time NEXT month saying they have screwed up again and my payment has failed again !

Are Wonga just taking the piss now?

Just got this automated template again!

But this time with a twist.

I'm positive they are just taking the piss now!!

Dear Steven,

After reviewing your email, it seems clear the best way to get this matter sorted is over the phone. 

Please call us on 020 7138 8331. We look forward to discussing your account and trying to help find a solution for you.

Who the FUCK is Stephen ?

More Wonga bullshit.

For the third time now, in the past couple of days, Wonga have sent me another automated reply, this time saying all is well. Still unable to get a human to look at the problem, they simply persist in sending automatic, template responses, answering nothing.

Obviously by them saying this I could be led to believe that my payment went through ok on the 18th, and in turn assume that the unauthorised payment was an extra payment they had no right to take?

Of course, if a human just took 5 mins to look at the account and explain it to me in an email it would all make far more sense, and be clearer, but no. Seemingly it's not the Wonga way!

Wonga, you continue to be a cause of stress and frustration in my weekend, so please once and for all, read the damn email I sent you, address the questions and give me a straight answer.

Oh and one more thing, that script you give the outsourced call centre..... When a customer phones up distressed and angry that YOU have failed to take a payment.... scripting the agent to ask 'so how is your day going so far' is a bit fuckin retarded! #JustSayin! 

So here is the template you can expect to receive when Wonga mess up, then you try to sort it out...

Hi Michael,Thanks so much for your patience while we were checking your account. Your payment was received and your plan remains in good standing. We really do appreciate you keeping your word. The status of your arrangement can be viewed, and payments can be made anytime, by logging into the 'my account' area of our site. To avoid any hiccups, please make sure your debit card information is up to date. If you know of any potential problems, please call us on 0207 138 8331 asap.Best wishes, Collections Team

Dear Wonga.... you utter muppets!

So, if you had not already guessed, my previous blog entry was referring to ... WONGA.COM. Those happy little people that are great when all is going well, and I have had good dealings with before. But when anything goes wrong, they are simply UTTER SHIT !

3 months the issues have dragged on for now, with them not even being able to arrange one single monthly payment from my account without sending me shitty emails telling me how they are going to systematically drain my bank account over the next day if you dont call them immediately. And if you DO call them, the agent will just take an unauthorised payment anyway, so its lose lose suckers !

So after saying in my email I didnt want a templated response from them, and would like the matter looked at properly, this is the insulting shit they send.

Hi,
 After reviewing your email, it seems clear the best way to get this matter sorted is over the phone. 
Please call us on 020 7138 8331. We look forward to discussing your account and trying to help find a solution for you.
You may also find you can get things sorted by using the options in the ‘my account’ area of our site.
Best wishes,

Hi,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, HI !! are you fuckin kidding my. My email signature has my name on it, my account has too, hell, even your threatening little YOU FAILED email has my first name on it, but now im 'Hi' FUCK OFF !!!

From this point in, everything goes public, nothing is a secret, and yes, I fucked up and used a pay day loan company, my bad! lol.

Wonga, your customer 'care' is an utter disgrace, disorganised, ill informed, poorly trained, and a complete polar opposite of the experience you offer when tempting people into taking loans with you.

I can see now why so many organisations have targeted you, and understand fully the stories that people like Sky News have run.

Shame on you !

Disgusted!

After a running battle with a financial company, that shall remain nameless for now, I am finally at my wits end with it all. I have just sent them the most balanced email I possibly could at this time. Right now I am full of anger and contempt with them for the way they are behaving, and can understand why they have come under such intense fire from the media over recent months.

I am of course going to follow up this matter, and forward it to anyone who might like to take a bite out of them, as well as the financial ombudsman and maybe a few media outlets, given their unauthorised activity on my bank account today.

VERY ANGRY RIGHT NOW !!

As my letter and blog writing skills show, im mind is not my own right now.

Dear Sir / Madam
I have just come off the phone from one of your agents after having probably THE worst customer 'care' ever. I am outraged at the events on the phone, as well as how your company has behaved over this matter. I therefore wish to advise you of my intentions to approach the Financial Ombudsman with this complaint.
Please see below the catalogue of errors which has lead to this issue.
A few months (payments) back my debit card was changed. Forgetting to advise yourselves, I rightfully received an email saying my payment had failed, and that I needed to call. I did so, and made payment there and then, as well as giving my details and authorisation for future automated payments to be taken.
Last month I received an email saying it had failed again. So I phoned up only to be told they could not check anything or change anything as the computer systems were down, and to try calling back later. Which I did.
I was then told that the payment had gone through fine, the email was an error, and all would be well THIS month.
Well, yesterday I received an email saying my payment had failed yet again. Not having time to stay on hold as the wait was a long time, I emailed, to which I received no response. Today I received an email saying the payment had failed, the plan was cancelled and that an attempt would be made to take the full amount tonight.
Let me just take that last email for a second and try and work this out. Your system and my bank for some how doesn't allow you to take 10% of the sum owed, so somehow the logical thing to do is to use the same system and bank details to take 100%. That makes sense doesn't it!
So, I have called your call centre again today, and this is where my biggest issue really starts. The scripted drone that I spoke with advised me that your systems were running very slowly today, so getting my details up would take a while, while waiting she asked me various security questions, and details of the existing arrangement and payments. While doing so she enquired about the agreement amount, which I told her of. Shortly after she asked for the last 4 digits of the card being used, and the security code, which I also told her. After a short pause she said 'ok that payment has gone through today'. I enquired what payment she meant, was the system showing the same as last month and had in fact collected payment. No she replied, the payment I just requested...
This is appauling that without so much as 'would you like me to try and collect a payment from your card now' or similar, she authorised herself to take payment on behalf of your company. Therefore I protest at this unauthorised payment being taken from my account in this way, and will be formally advising the financial ombudsman of my experience with yourselves. From what I see in the media, im sure it will just be one of many.
Falling into financial hardship is bad enough, without complete jokes of companies like your own behaving in the way you do.
On the ending of the conversation she also advised me that she had set up a payment plan that would come out on the 18th of each month from Nov. Once again, please accept this as my notification of intent towards your company. IF the payment fails for any reason other than fault of my own, and I receive the same automated email threatening to systematically milk my account of every penny you can, I will immediately cancel payment and willingly forfeit the settlement, with the explicit intention of taking legal action.
For the whole time, I have maintained my side of the agreement, but on a monthly basis you fail on your side time and time again, with escalating incompetence.
I expect this matter to be thoroughly investigated, and for a completely human typed, non templated response to be sent to me explaining the actions of the agent today, and explaining why oh why something as simple as this cannot be maintained.
I really hope this matter can be resolved properly once and for all.
Thank you sincerely for ruining the start to my weekend.
Michael Snasdell
PS, this letter is being published on my blog at the same time of sending. The company name has been withheld at this point out of common courtesy. 

**EDIT**
In a hilarious twist, the company concerned have just replied to my email, stating they cant find a record of me, and for me to supply more information for them to be able to help me. I wonder if they have 'lost' my account finance information too, I doubt it eh ! 

Are Blackberry just talking rubbish now?

Kinda makes me wonder now. First there were no updates, and no info, now there is just a flow of confusing info.
Fixed, sorted, back log to clear, broken, no fixed, oops spread across the Atlantic. Suddenly it hits the USA and RIM release status updates. However for some of us there is still a VERY poor, if not non existent service.
Three days of no one saying what is up, just saying its a hardware issue, then it fails again, then its just a huge backlog of data the servers have to clear....

Quite frankly its become an international joke now, seeing it on Sky News for me says how bad its become. If its spreading the the USA its not fixed, is it!