TARTING UP PICK AND MIX

The home insurance renewal offer has gone up in price, (considerably) from last year  "in line with the cost of living and inflation".  Uhm, did I read that correctly! As I recall, we had a miniscule amount of time when we were sitting at deflation, other than that, we are constantly being told that the cost of living has gone down, the global economy is not so buoyant either and that the Bank Of England base rate has remained at a steady all time low over about three or four years.  

I phoned three insurance representatives who insisted on babbling through verbal pro-formas, in the nicest possible way, expecting me to absorb the data they have visible and I do not. Links to policy summaries and policy wording would balance up the odds.

Knowledge Is Power

The best deals for utilities and insurances are to be had as new customers. Inertia is expensive. Loyalty has become a delightfully old fashioned concept.  I'm sure this must have led to the development of a nation of economic tarts. This week I have taken two major 'tart' decisions and now, I have spent hours making home insurance comparisons online. Best prices mostly reflect base line insurances. Watch the prices jump and the exclusions pop up as you add extras.  

The comparisons show that most companies are charging the same level of compulsory excesses for major and structural risk, in addition to any voluntary excess. The more excess you volunteer to pay, the more the premium reduces. Variations arise in the quality of 'extras' and exclusion clauses. This is where the customer would benefit from reading what's on offer. It looks like a couple more phone calls have to be made. I am beginning to to feel inertia setting in.  It's not easy being an economic pick-and-mix tart.

...IT WAS THE PLUMBING

We were expecting a tradesman this morning.  At 08.50 sharp, he phoned to tell us that he would arrive in ten minutes. Two minutes later the man phoned back to let us know he would be a bit later, his wife had phoned and he had to return home. The tradesman started work on our job about an hour later.

"How's your wife?" I asked.
..."It wasn't the wife, it was her plumbing".

With the matter-of-fact way he said it, my imagination took a turn into the musical hall and I stifled a laugh.  Hubby also turned away and 'cleared his throat'.

"At work I only do what I am expert at.... at home," said the man, "it's another story, I do everything." 

Time to change the subject.

Customer care was very good, in fact it was highly commendable.

GUARDING CUSTOMER SERVICES AGAINST CUSTOMERS

Who would think that updating firmware on a camera would be such a performance. After two hours of attempting, unsuccessfully, to do it, the battery ran low. And guess what, nothing will load, or upload, if the battery is not a hundred percent alive. 

Nothing is straightforward; even calling customer services. Panasonic now guard themselves against customers with new products of theirs; customers who need help in unscrambling incomprehensible instructions, written by people in their company who know not what simplicity and step-by-step instruction should look like for the many  customers who are not electronic technicians. If they did simplify their instruction, there would be no need to protect their technical help staff with call centre staff scattered in so many places round the world. A lot more people would understand what to do and be able to help themselves…Yay! This is too much to hope for.

How about contact by Pigeon Post?



The firmware problem did me a circuitous favour. The call centre worker in Eastern Europe had to call the technical desk in Bracknell, Berkshire, United Kingdom, (the same Kingdom I live in) as I was having so much bother getting the update on a piece of new equipment. 



After ten minutes of listening to some canned music, I found myself speaking to the technical man, himself. It was after all, sensible to deal with the issue first hand and step-by-step, it would have been impossible to manage it any other way. While I had him in my clutches, metaphorically speaking, I got Mr Technical Man to deal with two other outstanding technical questions, one outstanding for over a week, because, it had never been passed on from Romania to Bracknell in Berkshire, U.K.

HACKED AND HACKED OFF.

Recently,  two companies that have widespread businesses, which hold enormous databases of customer information, managed by third parties,  have had their information databases  compromised, dare I say it, by hackers.  The emails informing customers of this uncomfortable truth, though not the same, do have much the same terms of conciliation and flavour of apology.  It might be difficult to vary too much, a straightforward every day style of vocabulary in a potentially worrying message.    In both cases, access was, we are informed,  solely to email addresses.  

The first company carefully stated that payment and financial information had not been accessed or compromised in any way.  There is no suggestion that there was anything more than an uncovering of email addresses with the latest problem. We may, the advisory email warns, receive unwanted emails.

The first company that sent notification to its customers about the  breach of confidentiality, approximately a month ago, followed up with a reassuring email, assuring customers that there really was tight security with financial information and that it was held in a separate and different database storage facility.  

The newest advice, so far, is only about access to email addresses.  Both organisations named their database management company.  Does naming the 'culprit' make it easier, I wonder, for the contractor to appear to be less responsible?

There are other questions worth raising. The suggestion is that our financial data is more secure.  If that is so, why is it so?  If a particularly high, or, more secure level of  security is installed in one area of commerce, why is it deemed less necessary to offer the same level of security for customer personal contact data, which,  should be of equal importance?

EMBARRASSINGLY GOOD CUSTOMER CARE

The trouble is, I cannot find a third book that I fancy.  After spending ages searching the American publisher's website,  the two books I selected as replacements for two large tomes that I was disappointed in,  were really all I liked the look of.  The lovely lady I spoke to in the USA, is mailing the two books I selected, and will leave me to let her know in my own time, what third book I want.  I feel bad about the fact that I am having great difficulty selecting a third book.  In turn, she is actively encouraging me to request one.  

The American publishing house is a highly specialised one, in the main dealing with computer sciences.  The majority would be considered academic books.  The few books I found that whetted my curiosity led me to the two books I tentatively requested. 

All this came about because I commented on the publisher's site on my personal view of the books I bought. I was asked to either contact the guy who replied to my views, or another named individual, to resolve my issues.   At that point, they did not realize I was in the UK.  I believe the intention was to offer a refund under a 100% satisfaction guarantee they operate.  The books I have, were originally purchased via online UK stores.  No money went through the American publishing house site.  Determined to instate goodwill, the company offered me instead, goods at no charge, to be mailed at their cost.  I am so impressed with the high standard of customer service I am unexpectedly receiving.