P O WHAT?

When my home Wi-Fi recently stopped working for no apparent reason I contacted the provider to find out why. After jumping through a series of phone menu hoops I got through to a real live person who told me it was a network fault and all I could do was wait until it was fixed.

Call me demanding but if I’m paying for a service, I expect to receive that service as agreed so I asked for an email address to which I could complain.

‘Of course,’ came the reply, ‘the address is PO Box 123, Milton Keynes…’

‘Ha, you’re funny… the email address please?’

‘There isn’t one.’

So this company, which has already wasted so much of my time and which provides technology services, thinks I should: type a letter, print it out, find an envelope, walk to the post office, buy stamps, walk to the post box, and then sit around twiddling my thumbs for a fortnight waiting for a reply.

In 2014. Really?

If I’m looking for this address I’m obviously unhappy about something. If I’m already annoyed, why make the situation worse and more complicated?

A customer getting in touch for any reason, good or bad, is a chance to impress them; turn them into an advocate; make them tell their friends what an amazing experience they had; re-woo them.  

And it really ought to go without saying that the last outcome should be an even angrier (potentially ex) customer.