Mobile phones and insurance policies.<\/p>\n
I like NEITHER.\u00a0 Yet renewal time comes around and we dutifully spend hours on web sites to ‘compare the market’ and get great prices.<\/p>\n
So this morning, after a mammoth web-surfing session I rang KWIK FIT Insurance Services to tell that we were not renewing our existing policy because we had found a better price and insurance coverage elsewhere.\u00a0 I was put on hold while they transferred my call to someone who could ‘cancel down’ their renewal quote.<\/p>\n
In fact I was transferred to someone who was trained to stop me placing my business elsewhere.\u00a0 He asked me why I hadn’t rung them for a quote as they can offer better deals over the phone than they do over the net!<\/p>\n
Not what I wanted to hear!<\/p>\n
Mobile phone companies are the same.\u00a0 They only offer you their best deals once you have already decided to place you business elsewhere!<\/p>\n
Bad psychology and bad business!<\/p>\n
So – in spite of all the recommendations to use web-based comparison sites to get the best deals and safe money – the best bet is to use those sites to find the best deal you can – and then ring up call centres and haggle to see who will beat the deal!<\/p>\n
Hardly model customer service though is it?<\/p>\n
So much for progress.<\/p>\n
If you read my HP rant then you maybe interested to hear how it finally got resolved!\u00a0\u00a0 Eventually they told me they would issue me with a letter to authorise the seller to replace the machine. Yippee!\u00a0 Then two days letter I got a call from an engineer telling me he was outside my house wanting to repair the machine!\u00a0 I am the other side of the city about to go into a meeting.\u00a0 No-one has mentioned this change of plan to me – or that the engineer was coming!!<\/p>\n
Eventually without any further dealings with call centres I was able to get the engineer access to the machine and he replaced the motherboard.\u00a0 Should be back in busniess soon!<\/p>\n