Using Complaints to Get Things Done in the UK
As a US expatriate living in London for nearly 15 years (and I love living here, and most things about this country), I have never quite gotten over the frequent unwillingness of some customer-facing personnel at UK businesses to respond to reasonable service requests. In the past year, though, I have discovered a remarkably effective solution. Just make a polite and truthful complaint, through a formal process or on social media.
I have gotten these results in the past year with this approach:
- A large UK bank on two different problems (one on a personal account and one on a business account) had been frustratingly unresponsive. After I insisted on registering formal complaints (a simple process), each problem was addressed reasonably quickly, and I was offered compensation of £100 for one problem and £50 for the other.
- I bought printer cartridges in a 2-for-1 deal from a high-street stationery retailer, and the second one did not work at all (after the first one ran out). Even though I had kept a receipt, the shop would not exchange the useless cartridge. I tweeted about the problem, and was promptly offered a free cartridge by post, and an apology.
- Our neighbours have an ongoing construction project, and the builders have been very noisy, missed deadlines and been generally difficult, despite repeated requests. Again, one tweet mentioning the builder and the problems was sufficient to prompt a quick call from the company's commercial director, an apology, and a promise of better conduct and communication.
I don't know why complaints seem to work so well in the UK when polite requests for action do not. Maybe it's about fear -- people here don't perceive an imperative to act until there are apparent consequences of inaction. From my recollection , the situation is somewhat different in the US, where a customer with a reasonable grievance usually does fairly well by contacting customer service (and complaints are much more rarely necessary). An interesting cultural difference.
So for all you Britons who have just gotten used to the sometimes appalling service in the UK (of course there are many UK service people who do a good job), my new year advice to you is to consider a polite complaint when other approaches have failed.
I have gotten these results in the past year with this approach:
- A large UK bank on two different problems (one on a personal account and one on a business account) had been frustratingly unresponsive. After I insisted on registering formal complaints (a simple process), each problem was addressed reasonably quickly, and I was offered compensation of £100 for one problem and £50 for the other.
- I bought printer cartridges in a 2-for-1 deal from a high-street stationery retailer, and the second one did not work at all (after the first one ran out). Even though I had kept a receipt, the shop would not exchange the useless cartridge. I tweeted about the problem, and was promptly offered a free cartridge by post, and an apology.
- Our neighbours have an ongoing construction project, and the builders have been very noisy, missed deadlines and been generally difficult, despite repeated requests. Again, one tweet mentioning the builder and the problems was sufficient to prompt a quick call from the company's commercial director, an apology, and a promise of better conduct and communication.
I don't know why complaints seem to work so well in the UK when polite requests for action do not. Maybe it's about fear -- people here don't perceive an imperative to act until there are apparent consequences of inaction. From my recollection , the situation is somewhat different in the US, where a customer with a reasonable grievance usually does fairly well by contacting customer service (and complaints are much more rarely necessary). An interesting cultural difference.
So for all you Britons who have just gotten used to the sometimes appalling service in the UK (of course there are many UK service people who do a good job), my new year advice to you is to consider a polite complaint when other approaches have failed.
No comments have been added yet.
