Tag Archives: poor customer service

Cast Iron Pots, Cost and Customer Service

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I looked at the Le Creuset website this morning to see if I could find any hints about why a perfectly good casserole should suddenly let go. I asked for their advice on avoiding it happening again, whether it was safe to continue using and whether there was anything I could do to mend it. First I used the contact form, which was returned with a message saying it was not possible to deliver the message. Then I contacted them via the button in the bottom corner.  I had to ask several times to get the answers I required, and they were all pretty much what I had gathered from reading the internet anyway.

Bean Soup

What they told me was that their lifetime guarantee didn’t apply to items made before 2000, that it didn’t apply to wear and tear, abuse or professional use, that they don’t do repairs and that I could line it with parchment and use it for baking but shouldn’t do anything else because I risked eating glass. They also told me that the photos I supplied showed my pan had been abused and gave me advice on how to treat it properly. Then they repeated that there was no lifetime guarantee on the pot and they didn’t do repairs. Actually, they mentioned the guarantee about four times in all.

Now, where do I start? Well to begin – I never asked if they did repairs, just asked if it was possible to repair the damage. Two, I didn’t ask whether it was guaranteed, because quite honestly, it’s 40 years old and it isn’t going to be a manufacturing fault at that point. However, they seemed very keen on telling me the guarantee didn’t apply and repeated it constantly, despite me not bringing it up.

Then there was the “abuse”. It’s lasted forty years. That’s not really a sign of abuse. I’ve cooked red cabbage in it repeatedly, hence the staining, and despite what they said, I always use a wooden spoon apart from the times I use a ladle, which isn’t going to scratch the enamel.

Mushroom soup with pumpkin seeds

 

The main point though, is that I never sent them a photograph, so haven’t a clue what they were looking at or how they could judge how well I had looked after it. Yes, I repeat, I never sent them a photograph.

And they didn’t come up with an answer about how I could avoid it happening again.

Eventually, after writing a review about how good their pots were (fair is fair, after all) and how abysmal, disappointing and bullying their customer service was, I looked things up again. (Yes, I did use those words, so it may not get published).

It seems that the fault lies with me and my control of the gas flames. When I put the soup on to warm I used a low flame (I’m still getting used to gas) and it still wasn’t hot enough by the time I had finished making the sandwiches. So I turned it up. I think what probably happened was that the flame came up the side of the pot, overheated it and pinged the enamel off. Annoying and avoidable, but there you go. That’s all I wanted to know. I didn’t want to know about the guarantee, just how I could avoid damaging another pot.

Carrot & Ginger Soup

Carrot & Ginger Soup

They did later write and tell me they hoped I’d found their customer service useful and that as a goodwill gesture they would be happy to offer me a 30% discount. That’s a good discount. It comes to about £100. Yes, that’s right, the discount, not the price. Full price is £319. And for that you get a really nice cooking pot and really bad customer service. I’m going to buy an inferior make to replace it. It will cost a lot less and if I get poor customer service it will be value for money.

Unfortunately, I can’t find pictures of Le Creuset in action – all my soup photos seem to be of soup in bowls or in stainless steel pans.

Soup –  a mix of wrinkly root veg and fingers crossed

Must go now – over 700 words on poor customer service has taken some time, and I need to get julia to wood turning tomorrow.

 

 

How Difficult Can It Be?

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Blue Tit 

After much comparing and researching, we finally fixed on a broadband supplier. Having experienced Virgin in the past, I crossed them off the list (it is my ambition never to use them again for anything after the mobile phone debacle) and BT/EE, who were are with now, are too expensive. We also crossed off the smaller providers, as you never know how good they will be, and that left us with three. In terms of cost, service and satisfaction they seemed pretty similar, but a quick look at local wireless networks seemed to show that Vodafone were the most popular.

So Julia called them up online using her phone and filled in all the copious forms which seem to be necessary these days. This was made more complicated by us currently having two addresses – one needing an internet connection and one still being our current billing address for bank cards etc. It was more than slightly annoying when, after pressing the button to send the documentation, it refused to accept it. Julia did it all again – same result. And again . . .

Pied Wagtail at Donna Nook nature reserve.

So next morning, she rang. She was on the phone over an hour giving them all the same details, because the system had crashed. But eventually, we got it all done, though it was, by this time, costing us £1 a month extra and the £130 shopping voucher had become a £75 credit. However, it was, at last, arranged.

Or so we thought.

A couple of days later we had a notice of cancellation. Julia rang to see what it was about and was told that it was an acknowledgement that we had cancelled the order. We said we hadn’t, they said we had, we said we hadn’t, they said we would have to reorder, so an hour later . . .

We are now waiting to see what happens. The router should arrive by courier this week, and they should be round to install it later in the week. However, they don’t install it themselves. The installation will be carried out by City Fibre, one of the providers we decided not to use.

Let’s see what happens.

Mistletoe from eBay

Pictures are from December 2018 – Clangers because we used them as Christmas decorations that year after their appearance in a local scarecrow festival, and the birds because I saw these two species today at various times.

The Curmudgeon Chronicles (Pick a Number)

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I had a text from the pharmacy ate 12.25 pm. I had tried to ring them in the morning but they were permanently engaged.

By 2.00 there was a queue of about twenty people. Or maybe ten, on reflection, but it felt like twenty. So I went to TESCO to use the cash machine. Two have been shut down due to social distancing, and the third wasn’t working. Next I tried Sainsbury’s, again the only working machine wasn’t working. If that makes sense you have, like me, been in lockdown too long.

Back to the pharmacy…

The queue was down to one person, with two in the shop. They only allow two in the shop at one time, presumably because the previous restriction of three was too efficient. At that time it was actually three in the queue and two sitting waiting, Today they actually had two sitting waiting and nobody being served. Not the best use of the four staff they had in the shop.

I waited outside for 25 minutes. I timed it especially for this post. The lady in front of me was finally admitted. I waited another ten minutes. They allowed me in. Then they made me wait again. The lady in front of me was told she would have to wait ten minutes for her prescription. Mine, when I was served, was ready for me as arranged. I heard the sound of celestial trumpets and felt warm rays of light fall upon my head.

Because I have learned from experience I checked the bag.

My Warfarin were missing. Another five minutes passed before they waved a slip of paper to prove I didn’t have a prescription for it. If only they’d been as keen to contact the doctor and sort it.

I had to walk five yards and press doorbell to contact reception. I did this and waited. They were busy and it took a few minutes. They refused to discuss it with me as there were “people about” and they didn’t want me to have to discuss it with people listening. I don’t actually feel the need to hide the fact I have atrial fibrillation. If I’d contracted it in a brothel, or had to take my trousers off to explain it, I might feel a bit embarrassed, but I didn’t, and I don’t. I could actually have sorted it in five minutes but no, I had to ring.

So they sent me away with instructions to sort it out by ringing them.

After sorting a number of other things out, and calming myself down, I was able to ring the surgery and establish that they had missed the Warfarin off the prescription. As usual there is no explanation, no apology and, seemingly, no concern that they have cocked up yet again.

As a result, my careful planning has come to nothing. My exposure to the virus has been doubled by the need for a second visit. My attempt to avoid exposing pharmacy workers to the virus has been negated. Sometimes I wonder why I bother trying.

Other, more interesting things also happened, but they would merely cloud the issue.

bunch of white oval medication tablets and white medication capsules

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Catching Up (Again)

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Now, where was I?

We made our way home via Norfolk and Lincolnshire on Sunday. It’s not the most riveting of routes but it had its moments including several deer sightings.

On Monday Julia rang British Telecom to see where the new broadband hub has got to. They have no record of our order, so she had to go through it all again. After previous experiences I’m not actually surprised by this. I’m checking how to make effective complaints to BT. In 8 weeks we’ll be going to the ombudsman if it isn’t sorted.

On Tuesday there were big hold-ups on the Ring Road after an excavator on a low-loader hit a bridge parapet. I drove past not long after it happened. Fortunately it wasn’t on my carriageway.

On Wednesday we went to Springfields and, amongst other things, sat by the pond and watched the ducks, fountains and wagtails against a background of yellow flags. Life doesn’t get much better…

That brings us up to date.

Three of the family have had a busy day.

Number Two son had a job interview yesterday. He had a phone call today and has been invited back for another interview, so things are looking good.

Number One son is in Bulgaria on business. Seems unlikely to me, but what do I know?

Julia went to the Wild Flower Farm with her group. She reports that the third brood of tits has now left the nest box and the garden now seems rather quiet.

It was not the most dynamic of days for me at work, and on the way home I managed to get served by a stroppy teenager at Sainsbury’s. As customer service goes it was worse than BT. Once home I watched Pointless, put the bins out and watched Springwatch. That’s probably too much TV.

Tomorrow may well be a day of frantic activity.

Then again, it may not.

Golden Chamomile – Malta
Golden Chamomile – Malta

This is Golden Chamomile growing on Malta.

 

Bad Day in Bakewell (and Brierlow Bar)

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Well, it wasn’t actually a bad day, but when we went to the car park to leave I decided to use the toilet. This is what I found.

Sign at Bakewell, Derbyshire

Sign at Bakewell, Derbyshire

It would have been nice for them to have put up a big sign I could have seen earlier. Then I’d have been able to plan better.

Plan B, because I couldn’t be bothered to walk back into town, was to hang on until we got to our next stop – Brierlow Books.

The toilet bit of the shop visit went well, though there was a queue. There was a queue last time we called too – suggesting the facilities aren’t keeping up with the increasing number of customers. The book buying bit was a disaster, with nothing that caught my eye. So was the plan to buy a nice card for Julia’s sister’s birthday, as they no longer stock the cards we like. The whole place was congested and the two staff at the desk were offhand, to say the least, one to the point of rudeness, when Julia went to pay. This has never happened before – the staff (whatever I may think about the direction the shop is taking) have always been extremely pleasant over the years.

However, even this couldn’t spoil an enjoyable day. In fact, by falling short the bookshop cheered me up – I love it when predictions of doom come true.

You’ll have to read the next post to see why I was happy.