Saturday, December 4. 2010Roll On ChristmasJohn Linton It was an interesting week, I can't think of a better adjective. When the 1st of any month falls on a Wednesday it seems as though there is a 'general pause' in events generally....as if people take a 'mini break' from Wednesday to Friday to extend the upcoming weekend. I suppose school holidays play a part in this when it occurs in December as well as an increasing participation in the the various Christmas and end of year functions. So we finished November in a good way and started December very quietly - and I do realise it's only three days so far. However it may be a sign, along with the increasing stream of 'analysis' appearing in the financial press that all is not well in the economy down under. We didn't make a decision on renting additional space in our current building though we did get the layout done by the long term company that has done all of our fit outs since we started in business and they promised to have the costing done by the end of next week now we have approved the design. I guess our dithering hasn't cost us anything other than to 'save' an additional week's rent in the event that we do proceed. Frankly, although the agent tells us there are at least two very serious other potential buyers I am inclined to believe that the chance of a completion before the new year is looking less likely than it once was and maybe other people are like us - not quite certain of exactly what the new year will bring. I did the final interviews with the three remaining candidates for the Sales Director Position over the last five days. After thinking about it I eliminated one despite him having a very good, verifiable, track record. My conclusion was that Exetel and he would not be a fit with our ways of operating and that his future aspirations would only be met by a much larger and more 'corporate' employer. So we need to decide over the weekend whether or not to proceed with this appointment and, if so, which of the two possible people we will select. It is not an easy decision to make with both possibilities having compelling, but very different, capabilities and very different personalities and other characteristics. We made miniscule progress towards completing the next six month's business plan and, of course, that means that the time to complete this extremely important set of tasks has shrunk by a further 7 days. I don't quite know what to do about getting the plan completed on time and I think it's one further indication of just how difficult operating a small Australian communications company has become in these very 'challenging' times. Perhaps I too am suffering from lethargy engendered by early December syndrome. Exetel's law suit against the TIO drew some media and industry attention during the week. My personal email from people who work in the industry, most of whom I didn't know, ran 11 - 0 in favour of attempting to bring some order to the chaos that the TIO represents to any moderately sensible person who has any knowledge of how that organisation operates. The media that apparently got hold of the Exetel December Newsletter didn't really grasp what we had tried to explain in it - but then when is that ever not the case. I am quite satisfied that the documentation we have put together (largely based on the TIO's own emails) clearly demonstrates an organisation whose employees consider themselves to be a law unto themselves and flagrantly and self admittedly breach the TIO's constitution with the often repeated statement in writing that "we can do whatever we like". I will be interested to see what defence the TIO put to the court and even more interested in how a judge views hundreds of indisputable constitutional breaches by TIO junior, and often completely inexperienced, employees. There were two lighter moments in the week that I was made aware of when two different 'ex customers' attempted to sign up with Exetel again. I have made the observation before that I am completely bewildered as to why an ex customer of Exetel who, while he was a customer, heaped the most appalling abuse on every aspect of our service and the competence of the people he spoke to (using the most disgusting language) as well as making threats of physical violence as well as legal and other threats (and in one case having a payment history of multiple dishonours) would try to resign with us. I mean - what mental state must they exist in for this to happen? Nevertheless not once, but twice this week this has happened. One of the automated systems we put in place some years ago keeps a black list of telephone numbers where abuse of this type has emanated from and if the abuser tries to sign up again it sends an email briefly stating that the service is unable to be provisioned. If the number is detected as trying to sign up for a second time an email is sent saying the service can only be provisioned on the payment of a deposit of $500.00. So this happened twice this week with a new flood of disgustingly abusive and threatening phone calls. The insane call I liked best was conveyed to me by one of our politest corporate sales reps whose phone it was directed to. She told me that an important customer was on her line and demanded to speak to the CEO immediately. He told her he was calling from an office where there were several media reporters, his solicitors and the police and if the CEO didn't speak with him immediately he would sue xxxxxx xxx xxx for everything we owned. She was told to simply advise the person that the CEO was not available and then hang up the telephone. That particular lunatic also needs to change his script - we have a recording of a previous call he made when his service was terminated at the end of the contract that was worded virtually identically. Now we have two. At least it gave us a good laugh. Makes you wonder. Copyright © Exetel Pty Ltd 2010
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Why would he even think of suggesting he had the police standing by?
Were they going to say "We are the police" if you took the call??? Why didn't he say he had the fire brigade, army and anyone else in a uniform there as well!!! Would it be against the law to scramble the voice a bit and post a link to this on your customer server contact page as a counter example to a list of points on dealing with customer service in an effective and courteous manner. If nothing else it would be likely to give a few of us a laugh as well and generate some more hits to your website. You could end with a note saying "if you're not like the customer in this recording click here for great customer service on our best services". Regards, Michael. Comments (2)
I see the moderation is back on, that's a shame I take it people were being juvenile again.
Good luck with the TIO. At the very least they need to give you an option for a right of reply before charging you. The whole of government (and unfortunately some large companies) need to take more responsibility for what their staff do. There should be a well documented procedure for things (publicly available where possible) and a proper resolution process in place (also published). They could start with something simple like we gave you wrong information which affected your decision so your decision is now non binding, any money you gave to us or we charged you will be 100% refunded to you if you would like to reverse the decision. In the case of insurance they could say you told us everything we asked but we forget to ask something so we shouldn't have insured you, but we did so we will honour the contract you signed in good faith. The media could easily have gotten hold of your newsletter because some of them are your customers. Comments (2)
"I see the moderation is back on, that's a shame I take it people were being juvenile again."
No - it's just I forgot to tick the box and I have always been too stupid to learn how to set it as a default. Comments (5)
I think it would be illegal in some obscure way.
Also the language used is not something that should be published - It is truly disgusting. Comments (5)
What a terrible indictment of society your last paragraph betrays.
Someone has actually convinced themselves that the employment of blatant lies and abuse they can obtain some sort of useful result!? Further, your opening fragment, "The insane call I liked best" is even more worrying in that it indicates that yourself and your staff (who I have found professional and kind beyond question) have multiple candidates to choose from when it comes to selecting a "winner". Was this complete and utter nutter a residential or corporate customer? Comment (1)
The examples I cited were residential ADSL customers. I don't get to hear about such incidents generally and I would think that all customer call centres get such abusive people and their crazy statements.
Bear in mind that neither of these calls were from customers they were from lunatics who were told that Exetel would not have them as customers. Comments (5)
I actually read the $500 deposit story earlier today, the guy is talking TIO already, what a moron http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1588267
Comment (1)
The telephone recording of the call will make for good input to the TIO's review
So funny that guys thread on WP - he sort of / kind of forgot to mention the history in his first few posts - and now has fallen silent! Comment (1)
The sad/insane aspect of such incidents is that the complainants must actually view their ravings as somehow useful to themselves.
What on Earth are their lives like? Comments (5)
Is the blacklist based only on phone number? Could an innocent party be refused service because of someone else's abuse?
Comment (1)
Yes they could - but what would it matter?
Someone applies for a service and is told it's not able to be provided....they apply to someone else. Comments (5)
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