In case anyone was wondering, I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth. I’m back, glad to be back, but a disgruntled customer of British Telecom nonetheless. I’ll tell you why I’ve been offline for two weeks further down the page, I’m going to briefly recap on the racing at the weekend, including “that” tumble at Newbury, then give you a preview of what I have planned for SkyBlueKangaroo this week.
OK, where were we? I do believe I was going to report back on an evening of networking with a few other internet scribes. Well, that was the plan, but then in stepped British Telecom. All I wanted to do was move my telephone and broadband from one line to another. The guy on the Business Sales Team was very helpful, very reassuring, very persuasive. But then I guess that is why he works in the sales department, and not in customer services.
Is it me, or does anyone else find that once someone has your credit card number, they suddenly lose all interest in your welfare? No more “Hello Mr Whelan, how has your day been?” In fact a simple “Hello” would have been great! But I’ll get to that in a minute. I had been given Friday 5th as my installation day. I was told I would not even be aware of the change over…. it would be “instantaneous”.
But when I got to my desk on the Friday morning, no line tone! No telephone, and no internet connection!
There then ensued much time on the mobile phone trying to get to the bottom of the seemingly simple change of line. How come the Sales Department pick up the phone after two rings, yet Customer Services always seem to be experiencing an “unusually high volume of calls”?
Long story short, it appeared that BT cut off my old line, and it has taken until the week end just gone to get the new line operational. Just a single new line. Goodness only knows how they manage anything slightly complicated. But what has really got my back up, is how in the eyes of the company you seem to morph from an important potential customer, to something you try to scrape off the bottom of your shoe, just as soon as you make your payment?
I guess I should be used to it… I’ve bought more than a few betting systems in the past, and been treated the same by some scumbag sellers. But not by a FTSE 100 company. Rant over!
On the evening before the start of the British Telecom fiasco, I had the pleasure of meeting up with some fellow internet marketers and blog writers from the horse racing and betting niche. Going around the table there was Graham Laurie from the CashMaster Blog, Matt Watson from Favourites Phenomenon, Matt Nesbitt from Oxfordshire Press, Matt Bisogno from GeeGeez.co.uk, and me. Clearly my mother and father missed a trick when they named me Paul…. obviously you stand a better cahnce of success online if you are called ”Matt”.
Seriously, it was a lively evening of banter as well as an opportunity to bounce ideas off of a few experienced sounding boards. I’m pleased to say there is a lot in the pipleline by way of products and services, aimed at helping the betting public enjoy a flutter whilst avoiding the charlatans who would sell their own granny. Several pints of Guinness and a large Jack Daniels later, it was time to board the late train out of smokey to Tring. Thanks guys and I look forward to our next business meeting.
I’ve mentioned the gremlins, and the Guinness, but what are these grinding gears to which I refer in the title of this post?
Well, to cap what had already been an extremely frustrating week, I went out for a ride on my bike with my cycling buddies a week ago Sunday, and my gears starting slipping. The chain was slipping off the largest rear cog. Anyone who rides a bike will be aware that the largest cog gives you your lowest gear… the easy gear you rely on when faced with a tough incline. So I had to grind my way up the hills in a higher gear than I would have liked, and completely sh*gged myself out after twenty miles. The trouble was, we were doing thirty miles, and I had suffered what is technically known as a “bonk”. No energy left. I was a forlorn figure weakly rolling the last ten miles home back to Tring.
I’m sorry if so far this post is a little on the negative side, and I sound like a grumpy old man. That’s enough now. The phone lines are working, and I’ve got the bike fixed. And I had a bonus piece of good fortune on Saturday.
Similar to most horse racing fans, I was looking forward to watching the mighty Denman in action in the Aon Chase at Newbury. His final prep run before the Gold Cup at Cheltenham, and his showdown with Kauto Star. Surely this would just be a formality? At six to one odds on to back Denman, what was the bet going to be? I had my money on Tricky Trickster each way to fill the runners up spot, so I was a rather fortnunate benefactor when Denman ploughed through the birch to unseat Mr McCoy. We punters suffer many bad beats at the race track each year, so it’s nice to be on the receiving end of a bit of good fortune evey now and then.
Happily Denman seems to have come through the race unscathed, and ironically he may well have done his supporters a favour as his price for the Gold Cup has eased, and offers some value. But his mishap on Saturday just goes to show that the obstacles are there to be jumped, and even the best can get it wrong. Incidentally, I am still in the Kauto Star camp, but I’m not smug, as KS has been known to cause punters to break out in a sweat at the last fence before now. Roll on the festival.
So what is in store this week at SkyBlueKangaroo? My final review of Betting Against Horses For Profit is complete, and ready to be posted. I’ve got what I think is an interesting piece on speed figures to put up. And on Friday I shall be previewing the racing for the coming weekend, which includes the Blue Square Gold Cup at Haydock, the Ascot Chase, and the Kingwell Hurdle.
I got rubbed up the wrong way by British Telecom. Do you have any stories of customer service failure? Have you been ever made to feel a third rate human being, much less a customer, nor were you categorically NOT given the service you expected? Leave your comments below.
Loading ...
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
BT can be a nightmare like that. They once made us wait two weeks for our phone. Horrible!