Attitude to customer service in the UK

paulfoel

Just a small thing but it just shows the general attitude to customer service here in the UK.

Picked up hire car yesterday from enterprise. Driving along today - no washer fluid. Nice one. Thing in car saying it had been checked - obviously not.

So phoned depot. To say the person did not give a stuff was an understatement. All they said was 'bring it back'. Did try to explain I was a bit busy for that and since it was their fault can they send someone around? (Its 15 mins drive away). Umm, no.

Pointed out that if I brought the car back with no fuel in, they'd charge me £stupid/litre because they've got the hassle to fill it up again. But if they screw up they expect me to run around to get it sorted.

Even offered to buy some washer fluid from garage and they re-imburse me. No - bring it back.

Really annoys me that companies here think they're allowed to screw up and then just say 'oh sorry' and thats it. Some people get away with murder because they know they can take you're money and, at worse, give you a refund if they screw up.

keyser666

paulfoel wrote: »

Just a small thing but it just shows the general attitude to customer service here in the UK.

Picked up hire car yesterday from enterprise. Driving along today - no washer fluid. Nice one. Thing in car saying it had been checked - obviously not.

So phoned depot. To say the person did not give a stuff was an understatement. All they said was 'bring it back'. Did try to explain I was a bit busy for that and since it was their fault can they send someone around? (Its 15 mins drive away). Umm, no.

Pointed out that if I brought the car back with no fuel in, they'd charge me £stupid/litre because they've got the hassle to fill it up again. But if they screw up they expect me to run around to get it sorted.

Even offered to buy some washer fluid from garage and they re-imburse me. No - bring it back.

Really annoys me that companies here think they're allowed to screw up and then just say 'oh sorry' and thats it. Some people get away with murder because they know they can take you're money and, at worse, give you a refund if they screw up.

Dont see anything wrong with that, I cant see in this situation where they said sorry and that was it either they offered a remedy and you didnt take them up on it.

Why should they reimburse you for buying the liquid? What is to say that you just bought one and are just giving them a receipt for a bottle? They need to check to see if this is the case they isnt any in there.

I also think you are a fool not to take out 15 minutes of your time to bring it back because I bet if you did they would check everything else on the car, because if they missed the washer fluid what else did they miss in their checks? I know I would be getting it checked or asking for another car. Also there would be some sort of protocol that whoever signed it off as checked hasnt checked it and will need to be dealt with internally as they are a risk to the company

Oh and one last thing, when you got in the vehicle did you check to see how much fuel was in there?

Idiophreak

keyser666 wrote: »

I also think you are a fool not to take out 15 minutes of your time to bring it back because I bet if you did they would check everything else on the car, because if they missed the washer fluid what else did they miss in their checks? I know I would be getting it checked or asking for another car. Also there would be some sort of protocol that whoever signed it off as checked hasnt checked it and will need to be dealt with internally as they are a risk to the company

So your proposal is that the OP should take the time and fuel to drive 15 minutes there, wait for an hour, then drive 15 mins back...Just so they can carry out a bunch of checks *they were supposed to have done already*?

If I took the car back, it would be going back for a full refund as clearly their checklist means exactly squat and as you say - who knows what else they haven't checked.

If the garage were smart, they'd pay the fiver for the OP to stick some washer fluid in and leave it at that...then they can dig around internally and find out who's to blame for the stuff up...Given their failure to provide the car in the agreed condition, they're in no position to expect the OP to go out of their way to remedy the situation...

pmduk

I'm not a driver, so forgive me if I'm wrong. But isn't it the drivers's responsibility to check the presence of washer fluid, (and indeed all other safety items,) before each journey. Saying that someone else is supposed to have done it I suspect would be insufficient if checked by the police,

keyser666

Idiophreak wrote: »

So your proposal is that the OP should take the time and fuel to drive 15 minutes there, wait for an hour, then drive 15 mins back...Just so they can carry out a bunch of checks *they were supposed to have done already*?

If I took the car back, it would be going back for a full refund as clearly their checklist means exactly squat and as you say - who knows what else they haven't checked.

If the garage were smart, they'd pay the fiver for the OP to stick some washer fluid in and leave it at that...then they can dig around internally and find out who's to blame for the stuff up...Given their failure to provide the car in the agreed condition, they're in no position to expect the OP to go out of their way to remedy the situation...

It is not my proposal, it is what I would do, very different.

If the garage were smart then they would not pay a fiver for the fluid but would send someone out with a replacement motor and collect the "faulty" one. By paying the fiver as you have it they then IMHO leave themselves wide open due to the for any prospective claim if there is a failure on the car say in a accident or damage, regardless what their T&C's say.

notanewuser

Did this really warrant 2 threads?!

cockaleekee

notanewuser wrote: »

Did this really warrant 2 threads?!

The OP does seem to be a serial complainer. Makes you wonder if he is part of the problem, his attitude provokes this apparent "couldn't care less" response?

Azari

pmduk wrote: »

I'm not a driver, so forgive me if I'm wrong. But isn't it the drivers's responsibility to check the presence of washer fluid, (and indeed all other safety items,) before each journey. Saying that someone else is supposed to have done it I suspect would be insufficient if checked by the police,

Sorry, but that is an utterly stupid argument.

If every driver had to check every item on a car whose absence/wear/malfunction could lead to prosecution they would virtually need to do a full MOT before picking up a hire car.

That would make the whole business of car hire all but impossible.

People are entitled to rely on companies to check the things they say they check.

Incidentally, if a hire company claimed they had checked something and they hadn't and that oversight led to an accident, they would certainly be liable for the consequences with both insurance companies involved coming after them.

Azari

keyser666 wrote: »

Dont see anything wrong with that, I cant see in this situation where they said sorry and that was it either they offered a remedy and you didnt take them up on it.

And the OP would be entitled to invoice them for all the cost involved including such things as loss of earnings, loss of business and the cost of the petrol involved in making the detour.

So whilst you may be technically correct it is an daft way for the hire company to behave.

pmduk

Azari wrote: »

Sorry, but that is an utterly stupid argument.

But it is the case isn't it? You might not like the law, but that's what it says.

notanewuser

I had a courtesy car while mine was in for a service on Monday. It was literally running on fumes when I started it. I stuck £6 of fuel in and the red light was still on. I did the 36 miles I needed to do and mentioned it to them when I dropped it back. Did I rant and rave about it? No. Did I threaten legal action? No. Did it really matter? No.