3GScottishUser
1st September 2005, 12:24 PM
From Mobile News:
"There had been flooding in Mumbai, but 3 appeared to have no disaster recovery plan"
After the normal preamble, a special announcement cut in. "Due to extreme weather conditions currently being experienced at one of our customer service offices, we are running with greatly reduced numbers of staff," said the Scottish lady on the recording.
There was more. "This will result in customers having excessive wait times before their call is answered. If your call is not urgent, we would strongly recommend that you call back in the next couple of days. Your patience in this matter is greatly appreciated."
I counted the raindrops outside my window for more than 10 minutes, then gave up and resolved to try again later.
By the time it came to making the second call, I imagined just how unhappy I'd be if I was tying to get through to 3 as a real punter with a non-functioning handset. The answer was I'd be pretty livid, weather conditions on the other side of the world or not. Not only because of the fact that I was phone-less, but because trying to speak to someone who could help me was eating up my leisure time.
It was in this state that I dialled the number for a second time that evening. To say my feelings toward 3 at this point were lukewarm is an understatement. After I'd listened to the announcement again, I entered the queue.
I whiled away the time by plugging the words "3 customer service" into Google. After a bit of confusion arising from the fact that there is such a thing as 'NVQ level 3 customer service', I found many web sites and bulletin boards containing reams of complaints, alongside relatively few crumbs of praise. It would be invidious to select any single site, but the general tone of the posts that weren't bigoted, opinionated or defamatory for the sake of it is that 3's Indian customer service personnel are, to a man (and woman) unfailingly polite and courteous.
The problem they face, according to the web-based commentators, is that they lack empowerment. Simply put, they are unable to take even the simplest cases further without escalating them to a different department with all the scope for confusion and delay this brings.
So fascinating was my trawl through the web that I failed to notice the time. Fully 12 minutes had past since I entered the queue. I hung up and put the kettle on.
The following morning, I tried again. To no avail.
http://www.mobilenewscwp.co.uk/cgi-bin/show_more.cgi?id=8303&referer=lister.cgi&area=FeatureIntro
"There had been flooding in Mumbai, but 3 appeared to have no disaster recovery plan"
After the normal preamble, a special announcement cut in. "Due to extreme weather conditions currently being experienced at one of our customer service offices, we are running with greatly reduced numbers of staff," said the Scottish lady on the recording.
There was more. "This will result in customers having excessive wait times before their call is answered. If your call is not urgent, we would strongly recommend that you call back in the next couple of days. Your patience in this matter is greatly appreciated."
I counted the raindrops outside my window for more than 10 minutes, then gave up and resolved to try again later.
By the time it came to making the second call, I imagined just how unhappy I'd be if I was tying to get through to 3 as a real punter with a non-functioning handset. The answer was I'd be pretty livid, weather conditions on the other side of the world or not. Not only because of the fact that I was phone-less, but because trying to speak to someone who could help me was eating up my leisure time.
It was in this state that I dialled the number for a second time that evening. To say my feelings toward 3 at this point were lukewarm is an understatement. After I'd listened to the announcement again, I entered the queue.
I whiled away the time by plugging the words "3 customer service" into Google. After a bit of confusion arising from the fact that there is such a thing as 'NVQ level 3 customer service', I found many web sites and bulletin boards containing reams of complaints, alongside relatively few crumbs of praise. It would be invidious to select any single site, but the general tone of the posts that weren't bigoted, opinionated or defamatory for the sake of it is that 3's Indian customer service personnel are, to a man (and woman) unfailingly polite and courteous.
The problem they face, according to the web-based commentators, is that they lack empowerment. Simply put, they are unable to take even the simplest cases further without escalating them to a different department with all the scope for confusion and delay this brings.
So fascinating was my trawl through the web that I failed to notice the time. Fully 12 minutes had past since I entered the queue. I hung up and put the kettle on.
The following morning, I tried again. To no avail.
http://www.mobilenewscwp.co.uk/cgi-bin/show_more.cgi?id=8303&referer=lister.cgi&area=FeatureIntro