h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

but the worst telephone answering system in the whole world (even worse than trying to find out train times in England) is the Australian consulate in Manchester,England ()

Wow! Does customer service have a long way to go in the UK! In Canada, for the most part customer service is pretty good. Many major suppliers to industry are setting up customer service departments, and the purchasing agent at least has some leeway in dealing with them.

One call to a customer service department lead me around in circles, till I was dizzy and gave up. In a business situation, the solution was to call my contact person. The conversation went:"John, I've just been talking to your customer service department, and I just couldn't get anywhere. I need my (widgets), and I couldn't find anyone to help me. Can you see what happened to my PO number---". My sales rep got me my answers, and you may be sure the CSR got a blast. The leverage is, I could drop the ABC company, and place the order with the XYZ company, and everyone but my worksite would loose. The potential loss of sales could be thousands of dollars, and someone's commission.

In another situation, I was in a panic to have an order shipped immediately. The product in this case was specialty rock bolts. The mine would shut down Monday, if I didn't get 16 of them by Sunday, latest. It was Friday, and I called the customer service department, and talked to a Sean. I explained my situation, gave him my purchase order number, and he looked it up on his computer, and gave me the expected delivery date. I asked him if we could get them couriered right away - he'd call me back. A few minutes later he called, and we made arrangements for them to go out that night, special truck, to arrive Sunday morning. He asked me if I worked the weekend, I did, and he asked me to call him when they arrived. I called and thanked him, then sent an e-mail to my sales contact and told him how pleased I was with the service.