Wednesday, November 21, 2012

A BIG QUESTION

"You'll get the confirmation and a form to sign in the post within three working days,"  she said, "and thank you for your call."

Five working days later I have received all sorts of mail, but not the correspondence I am waiting for. As time is of the essence - there's a deadline to be met - there is nothing else for it, but to phone. There's the usual recorded message and a couple of menus; however, my sense of calm is short-lived as the android pipes up and wants all sorts of information, which has to be tapped out on my telephone keys. I search for the answer to one question and by the time I've got it, the android has given up on me and I find I am in a queue.  I sit and hope it is the right queue.

Ten minutes later, when I get to speak to her,  the operator is very apologetic for my wait, and for the lack of delivery of the letter. Yes, it was sent, the records show that it was.  
BIG QUESTION....... "who have you used to deliver your mail?"  
"We have just started to use TNT".  
I groan.  "If I get the mail," I tell her,  "from previous experience, it will be earliest seven days, more likely ten".  
"They use first class mail." She said.  
"Not here they don't." I insisted.  "I would not need to have called if that had been the case."

Because of where I live, it is agreed that another set of papers will be sent out to me, but this time, to be delivered by Royal mail.  

The replacement correspondence arrived today, two days after my call.  The original lot, which is being sent via TNT,  is still floating around the U.K. somewhere.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

It goes from bad to worse sadly! Flighty xx

Anonymous said...

Ah, the dubious joys of privatisation. Pleased your correspondence arrived eventually, but sorry that it was necessary to go through all the aggro.

ZACL said...

Hello Mr F,

I dread it when a company starts using private mail carriers that we already have poor experiences of. If they think TNT are uniformly efficient throughout the UK, they need to be disabused of that fantasy.

xx

ZACL said...

Hello GillyK,

Too darn right about the 'joys' of privatisation. It is clear that the operatives believe that TNT works evenly nationwide, and that they operate systems as understood with Royal Mail. I can only think that this misinformation has been passed down from the top, who have been advised by TNT. Or, at its kindest, the management have primed their staff to unknowingly practice kidology with their customers.

I had dealings with a similar organisation who used two types of post. One with TNT, whose deliveries were minimum seven days, and they knew that, or Royal Mail, when faster post services were required.

I have difficulty therefore, believing that the directorate of major organisation I was communicating with, would not know this.

It is a Royal Mail delivery I received yesterday and it is a Royal Mail 1st class service the correspondence will be returned with. There is no more time to lose.

Snowbird said...

It's really crazy isn't it, I wonder how long it'll take before it arrives.

I hate those calls....I rang sky the other day, I hung on for an hour before I gave up. I also loathe the press 1, press 2 tinny voice. I always feel like re-writing their script, press 1 if you're ready to jump from a bridge, press 2 if you can no longer cope with the tinny music, press 3 if you are actually screaming,......lol xxxxx

ZACL said...

Hi PP,

Your script should go viral. It's good, says it all and from the poor consumer's point-of-view.

The construction of the electronic/android/horrendous noise/back to android, systems are not customer or user friendly. The companies are banking on the fact that the customer will go through the hoops rather than be totally inconvenienced. Talk about being hung out to dry; we're dried out while we wait to talk!!