For you regular readers, you may recall me stating I am changing dental practices yet again. The appointment was booked for a Friday lunchtime and I was all geared up to see what this new dentist would decide needed to be done. However, on the Tuesday evening prior to said booking I received a call from the dentist himself saying I would need to re-book as he was going for an interview in Bristol and would not be working. Hmmmm, is this some sort of omen? Bizarrely I then received an answer phone message from the same practice the following day......”hello Miss Davies, just a courtesy call to confirm your appointment on Friday at 12 o’clock, we look forward to seeing you.............oh I have just seen that you need to re-book so can you call as soon as possible”.......enough said. I have managed to re-book for 1st July, that is until I receive the next cancellation call from them. At this rate by the time I get to actually sit in the chair they will have reverted to private practice again, at which point I will bid them farewell.
Further examples of shocking customer service in this country were brought home to me on a shopping trip this week. I wanted to buy some t-shirt transfer paper, two fish and a gardening tool. Off I headed to Staples and found a pack of paper, although with only 5 sheets instead of the usual 20. Upon asking for a larger pack I was told “Errrrmm no, don’t think we do that now, can’t check though as I am on my own”. Great...............but at least I got a few sheets. Off next to Homebase for the gardening tool (that new fangled one by Fiskars that removes weeds without having to bend one’s back). None on display and told by the staff that they hadn’t got any. Tried at B & Q for the same device, alas “naaahhhh, ain’t got any”. Less efficient than the David Walliams ‘computer says no’ character and certainly not as attractive. Off to an independent retailer to be told they don’t stock Fiskars products.
I then went to Pets at Home for the fish, 1 x goldfish and 1 x catfish. An assistant with less charisma than Steve Davis said “we haven’t got any catfish”..........my reply was to ask what the things in the tank were (labelled catfish)....................”No they aren’t what you want”. Er hello, who is the customer here? I have bought fish on and off for years and I know what a catfish looks like. I left the store amid a flurry of live crickets hopping around the floor as they had escaped from their box. I only wish I had let them out.
Off next to the independent pet shop...................told they couldn’t sell fish today as they had just arrived and would be unsettled from their journey to the shop. I pointed out that they were in fact going to have to travel again whenever they were bought. I left the shop with a goldfish and a ghost catfish “at my own risk”. Ghost catfish is living up to his name as he is virtually invisible in the tank.
To round off my afternoon I went online to order said gardening implement from Homebase. It was unavailable as a home delivery item but could be reserved for collection from the store. The store I had been into less than an hour previously was showing 4 in stock. Upon contacting the store they confirmed this. What a dreadful service...........I now have to make a 20 mile round trip tomorrow to collect the weeder. It had better be worth the effort or else someone will be wearing it internally.
This is all.
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