Townends Estate Agents – Sunbury on Thames

This is one of the worst and most disrespectful and underperforming companies I have ever dealt with XXXX. They operate a business called “Townends” estate agents in Sunbury on Thames where they “manage” my rental property. For the privilege I pay them 15% of the rent that the tenant pays (when the tenant pays it). In return they don’t do these things:

1) They don’t alert me when the rent is overdue
2) They don’t at any time check on the condition of the property
3) They don’t pay the rent into my bank account in a timely way after late payments
4) They rarely return emails and never return phone calls
5) They don’t issue any notices (such as section 8 when the tenant is in default)

Actually it is quite difficult for me to understand what they do do.

I highly recommend that you share this information with your friends who I know have properties they want to rent out. They will want to know who to avoid in this business.

Yours

…

Singapore Airlines (Excellence)

To: The Manager, Chiswick Park, Building 11, 566 Chiswick High Road , London, W4 5YS 18th March 2009

Dear Sir,

I flew, on Sunday 15th March, from London to Singapore and then from Singapore to Ho Chi Minh City with Singapore Airlines. I wanted to let you know that I am a regular long distance traveler and have in recent years flown with KLM, US Airways, British Airways, Qantas, Air New Zealand, Royal Brunei and Emirates.

I was so pleased with my travel experience on Singapore Airlines that I felt compelled to write and let you know. Without a doubt Singapore Airlines has been the best and most pleasant travel experience I have had for many years.

Your staff was considerate, attentive and polite. They left me feeling that they enjoyed their jobs and that they take pride in their work. The ground staff at Heathrow was also helpful and as a tall person I appreciated that they were able to assign me a seat with extra legroom. This is a courtesy almost never afforded professionally by other airlines in recent years.

Other things that I noticed and would like to share with other passengers are that:

• in general your economy class seats appeared to have more legroom than other airlines
• the food served on board was really good, tasty and identifiable. It made the meals something to look forward to rather than to dread. The one, very minor, exception was the coffee which was a little too strong and cool for my liking.
• the entertainment system was excellent and I appreciated that the movies were NOT patronizingly edited for content.

I will certainly in future make appoint of trying to fly with Singapore Airlines.

Yours sincerely

Say “No” to 0870

This is a plug for a site that can be incredibly helpful when you are faced with the unfairness of being asked to pay for “service” that you might have been expecting in the original price of something that you bought (i.e. when you are asked to ring a premium rate number to speak to service staff).

From the site: If you have an ‘inclusive landline calls’ phone package, then it is very rare that 0844, 0845, 0870, or 0871 numbers are are included in your ‘free minutes’ allocation, unlike normal numbers. Many mobile phone packages also exclude freephone 0800 and 0808 numbers for your bundled minutes. 

Worse still some companies that use these numbers are actually receiving a cut of the phone call costs.

Many companies advertise a separate number that can be used when calling from abroad – This usually begins in the format +44 – There is nothing to stop you using this number from the UK (as it is a normal rate telephone call), and will be included in any inclusive minutes provided by your landline or mobile phone provider. Many others will give you a standard number if you ask.

This site is all about listing these numbers, saving you money, without having to pay additional charges. To get started and find a particular number, please click on the ‘Search to find an alternative number’ link at the top of the page.

http://www.saynoto0870.com

Virgin Trains – Watch that shonky website

Paper mail sent on 5^th March 2009 to: Customer Relations, Virgin Trains, Freepost BM661, Birmingham, B5 4ER

Dear Sir, 

            Re: My booking reference xxxxxxxx

I note that you have not responded to my email of 3^rd March and wish to draw your attention again to this matter. I have included the original email at the end of this document and it may be viewed on my website http://waggingthedog.wordpress.com under the heading “Virgin Trains – Watch that shonky website”.

Today, following non-response to your email I again rang your customer services people (on freecall number – why don’t you advertise that VirginTrains Customer Services can be contacted on 0845 722 2333?) to follow up on the issue.

As I implied in my last email the details are as follows:

1)    On Saturday 1^st March I logged onto my account on your website and changed my address details. At that point I specifically removed old address details from the system and checked that the only address you retained for me was the current one.

2)    I then order tickets from my elderly pensioner parents to travel from Buxted to Newcastle in May.

3)    The system asked me if I wanted the tickets delivered to the billing address and I confirmed this.

4)    On Tuesday on reading your automated email response about the booking I noted that the tickets had been delivered to the wrong address. They had in fact been delivered to the old address which I had removed from the system.

5)    Your staff informed me variously that they would refund the ticket value and issue new tickets at a charge of £10, and then that they would reissue new tickets but I would not get a refund until the old tickets were returned, at which time I would have to pay a fee of £10 for the refund.

6)    That the problem with the website could not have occurred.

Today your staff basically reiterated position two except that they put it like this:

- You will have to buy new tickets regardless of where we sent them to, regardless of fault, we take no responsibility.

- If you find the old tickets you will need to send them back to us and we will refund the value less £10.

I tried to enter into discussion as to why VirginTrains would not accept responsibility for an issue that was clearly their fault but the person seemed unable or unwilling to conceive of such a thing.

I repeat my request from the previous message, is there anything you can do to help with this situation please?

Yours sincerely

Email to Virgin Trains, UK. 3rd March 2009

Dear Sir,

on 28th February 2009 I logged on to your website (username xxxxxxxx@gmail.com) and after updating my address details (see attached screen dump) I booked two train tickets from Buxted to Newcastle upon Tyne.

Today I checked the email confirming the booking and found that the tickets were delivered to the wrong address, an old address that I do not use and which is many hundred miles from where I live. I immediately rang your Customer Services line (note this is a premium rate, timed 0870 number). After about 10 minutes I was allowed to speak to a customer services representative.

She told me: I must have made a mistake and not updated the address.

She said that this was my fault and that I would have to pay £10 for issue of new tickets because the Virgin Website operates correctly.

I asked what she meant by this and she said I would have to pay £10 plus the price of two new tickets.

She said that a new set of tickets would be issued with new seat numbers and that the cost of the old tickets would be credited to my account.

I asked then “why not just charge me £10 and reissue the same tickets with the same seat numbers?” She said that wasn’t the way they worked.

I said “will I be charged any more she said £10 per ticket only”.

I asked why I had to pay anything when it is the Virgin website which has not worked correctly. The woman said that I must not have pressed “save” on the screen when I changed my address.

I then, while I was speaking, logged into your website to see if my address had been perhaps not updated correctly. Imagine my surprise to find that in fact there were two address recorded for me, only two, and both are the correct address. I informed the woman of this and she said regardless I would have to pay the £10 per ticket for new tickets.

I asked to speak to a supervisor.

After further time on your PREMIUM RATE 0870 telephone line the supervisor came to the phone and told me that he couldn’t help me except to tell me that I would have to buy two new tickets and IF the old tickets were returned to Virgin I would be given a refund on them and a £10 administration charge.

At this point I gave up, knowing that I had already spent a considerable amount on the telephone call and clearly these people were not trying to help.

Is there anything you can do to assist in this matter?

I do not have any way to retrieve the tickets that Virgin sent to the old address.

My parents are coming to visit in May and need their tickets to get to Newcastle. These people are not wealthy, they are elderly pensioners and I was doing this to help them out. You help would be appreciated.

BP – British Petroleum – Predators

From me to BP Petroleum 1st March 2009

Dear Sir/Madam,

Last week I needed to refill my car with diesel fuel. As I approached a BP Service Station I noticed that it advertised diesel at 99.9 pence per litre. This compared with my local service station (selling at the same price) so I pulled in to fill up.

There were three filling nozzles on each row of pumps and an isolated pump at the far end of the forecourt. I pulled up at one of the standard rows of pumps and started filling from the sole diesel nozzle. After I had put in about £45 of fuel I noticed that the pump was charging £1.27 per litre. I stopped filling the car immediately and went inside to both pay and complain to the attendant.

Before I could say anything when I got to the counter the attendant started apologising to me. He said “I am terribly sorry sir, the owners are thieves and rogues, this happens all the time. I am so sorry. There is nothing I can do.”.

I then pointed out that by charging me an extra 28pence a litre they had just lost a customer for life. He empathised and I paid the bill and left.

Now I have started to look carefully I see that all BP service stations in the North of England appear to advertise this low price using the same format billboards. They advertise their lowest petrol price, then beneath that the 99.9p diesel price, and below that the words BP Ultimate.

This is theft, it is dishonest and disdainful of customers. I can’t say that I am surprised that there are companies in the world that would do something like this (clearly attempting to deceive and mislead the customer) but am shocked that BP is one of them.

From BP’s “care” line to me via email 2 March 2009

Dear Mr XXXXXX

Thank you for your email regarding the polesign prices.

Four years ago BP launched a new range of performance fuels under the Ultimate brand which included for the first time in the UK, a second diesel grade. Due to availability of space, only the price of regular fuels is displayed on the pole sign. The price of Ultimate products is displayed on the pumps. This is in agreement with Trading Standards.

Thank you for taking the time to bring the matter to our attention and for allowing us the opportunity to respond to your concerns at this time.

Kind Regards

Linda, Customer Care-Retail, BP Oil UK Ltd., Witan Gate House, 500-600 Witan gate, Milton Keynes MK9 1ES

Email: careline@bp.com, Telephone 0800 402402, Fax No: 01908 853961

internet www.bp.com

My response. 2nd March 2009

Dear Linda,

The dictionary defines “regular” as “customary, usual or normal”. If your customary, usual or normal diesel is advertised then it should be available on all the customary usual or normal pumps. It was not, it was available from a single pump at the end of the forecourt.

The majority of the pumps are selling the “Ultimate” product (i.e. by inference that which is not customary, usual or normal) and NOT the regular product.

Your email has though inspired me to reconsider returning to BP and your obvious passion for great customer service, integrity, honesty and accountability. Upon reconsideration my decision never to darken your doorway again pertains.

I will update my blog accordingly.

…xxxxxx

More Vodafone…the drama continues

1 March 2009 Letter to: Alpa Panchal, Vodafone Customer Services, PO Box 549, Banbury OX17 3ZJ

Dear Alpa

RE: Your reference C3768074. My Vodafone account

I am in receipt of your letter dated 23rd February but must admit to being somewhat confused as to your response. You open by saying you tried to call me several times but could not get through. I am sorry to hear this, my Vodafone has in the past been quite reliable, I have experienced good coverage and all missed calls have been recorded as such. In this instance I have experienced no missed calls or been out of a coverage area for some weeks and yet you say you have tried to call me several times. This is indeed puzzling.

I have also checked my new O2 phone which is with me at all times, there have been no missed calls on that phone either.

Perhaps there is a problem at your end. Please try again at your leisure to call me on my new mobile number 075 XXXX XXXX or on my home phone XXXXXXXXX or at work on XXXXXXXXX. Of course my old Vodafone services will no longer work as I have enclosed the two SIMs with this letter and previously asked you to cancel the service (see my letters of 28th December and 17th February).

You then go on to try to clarify some details for me. However the opening paragraph of this “clarification” is written in a sort of pseudo English, to wit:

“Furthermore, I realise that although giving the details your Direct Debit was cancelled. Let me clarify the details for you.”

I am not sure what this means so it is hard to refute or comment on and I will say no more on this. Of more concern is the next paragraph which says:

“I have checked your account and can see that on 10th November 2008, the new Direct Debit details were updated however, due to non-payment your account was transferred to Collections on 12th December 2008 and the Direct Debit details were cancelled.”

Alpa, I can assure you that at no time have there been insufficient funds in my account to pay a telephone bill from Vodafone and that if a Direct Debit was exercised by Vodafone it would have been paid.

I must say to you I feel insulted that you are inferring that I have not paid a bill or that I have not been able to pay a bill that I have been requested to pay.

In the next but one paragraph you state that I contacted you on 28th December 2008 to lower my price plan. I did not. I contacted you on 28th December to ask why my phone had been cut off without warning and why the access to my online account which I could have used to check for problems was also removed without warning. I also requested information as to why I had received no phone call from Vodafone to try to clear the matter up, and why Vodafone had not emailed me (you have had my email address for several years) to try to clear the matter up.

During this conversation and after the service person from Vodafone told me that it was normal practice to cut customer services off without warning and that they did not consider it necessary to try to follow up first with a customer I informed the operator that I wished to reduce the service and to cancel the account. At this point the call was dropped. I then wrote to you asking you to cancel the service forthwith.

I called again on the 29th December to pay the outstanding charge on the phone so that at least I could use it until you actioned the cancellation. I also requested at that time to reduce the service level until the cancellation was auctioned and was told that this was not possible.

Your next paragraph requests me to let you know if I wish to switch to paper billing. Alpa I am no longer a Vodafone customer, I will not be attempting again to use your on-line services or your mobile phone services. I want, as I requested, a full and final bill. Whether you wish to send it to my email address or to my home address is irrelevant. But do not post it on your computer system.

I am willing to concede that your early cancellation fee effective 23 February 2009 applies and will be happy to pay that fee and any service charges up to that date. I will not be liable for any service charges after that date as you were clearly informed in writing that I wish to cancel the service. I feel that I am being very reasonable here given that I asked for the service to be cancelled at the end of December 2008. Please send the full and final bill to me at your convenience by email (xxxx@gmail.com) or by paper mail to my home address.

I note your final paragraph:

“I have checked the address on the account is different from the address that is mentioned on your letter. If you have updated your address please let me know so that I can update it on your account and all the future correspondences can be sent at the new address”

Alpa, Vodafone was notified in writing in July 2008 of our new address (as shown on this letter). There has been no change to this address since that time.

A final thought.

The mobile phone business is a competitive one and the service offerings vary little from one supplier to another. It is indeed a privilege for a company to be chosen to supply this service to an individual. As a customer of Vodafone I expected to be treated with some respect and as an individual. Not as a number and not as beholden to you or Vodafone.

Your customer service is of very poor quality. Your electronic services are disjointed and irritating for consumers. You repeatedly ask for PIN numbers and logins as call handling is transferred from electronic to human-based systems, you cannot even get simple things like address changes right, your company is very difficult to communicate with, you do not present a human face to your customers (preferring electronic means), your web site is slow, inconsistent and difficult to use, and your staff take every opportunity to up-sell when one does come in contact with them.

Encs. 2

4 March 2009 Email from: Vodafone Customer Services

Hi Mr. (XXXXX – name misspelt),

I m sorry to learn about the level of service you have received from us and I sincerely apologise for all the inconvenience caused, as this is absolutely not the way Vodafone believes in serving its customers.

I have checked the details and confirm that your account was not cancelled in month of December, as the commitment period for both the number XXXXXXXX and XXXXXXXXX would not have been completed until April and May 2009 and if you would have cancelled them before the commitment completion date you would have been charged early cancellation fee.

As you have returned the SIM cards, I have cancelled both the numbers without any early cancellation fee immediately and you need to pay the outstanding balance of 113.09.

The final bill will be sent to you about three weeks from the date of cancellation and will include the line rental and usage charge until cancellation date. The address on your account is updated and I have sent copy of bills towrads the
 outstanding balance. I trust the above information is helpful.

Shrikant Londhe Vodafone Customer Services

4 March 2009 Email to Vodafone Customer Services.

Thanks Shrikant.

 

The Vodafone saga

29 December 2008 Letter to: The General Manager, Vodafone Customer Care, PO Box 549, Banbury, OX17 3ZJ

 

Dear Sir

RE: My Vodafone account XXXXXX

Following my recent experience with Vodafone I wish to close the above account and no longer wish to do business with your company.

Would you please close the two telephone services attached to the above accounts and send me a final bill.

Would you please ensure that my request of 28^th December to reduce my plan on XXXXXXXX to the lowest possible level has been actioned.

For your information the events that have led to this action are reiterated here:

1. I have had a long standing Vodafone account and been a regular (and I believe a good) customer for some time.
2. In late November I changed direct debit details from HSBC to RBS, it seems that this may not have happened for the Vodafone account
3. I have now determined that you were unable to exercise a direct debit from my account in early December
4. You made no attempt to speak to me by telephone, to mail me, or to email me regarding this problem.
5. On 23^rd December while I was on holiday in Australia, without warning or notification,  you stopped my telephone from making any outgoing calls, sending texts or contacting your customer services number
6. On 23^rd December you removed my access to online services that might have helped me to determine for myself what the issue was.
7. On 26^th of December when I sent urgent email to your Customer Services staff requesting assistance I received no reply.
8. On 28^th December when I returned home and rang your customer services staff I was given no assistance and treated with disrespect and disdain.
9. I lodged a formal request with your customer services staff on 28^th December to reduce my current plan to the lowest possible rate.

Thank you

 

17th February 2009 Letter to The General Manager, Vodafone Customer Care, PO Box 549, Banbury, OX17 3ZJ

Dear Sir

RE: My Vodafone account XXXXXXXX

Following my previous correspondence of 18^th December 2008 please would you note that I have not had access to my online billing reinstated, nor have I received a bill for December or January. Yet in February my account has been debited for Vodafone services.

I assume this is the final bill for the above account and shall cease using the telephone forthwith.

Thank you

My BT story

Letter to: BT Customer Complaints, BT Plc, Correspondence Centre Durham, DH98 1BT

11 May 2009

Dear Sir,
Re: Account XXXXXXXX, bill number Q005 A3 and my letters to you of 28th March and 21st February.

I am concerned that you are continuing to ignore my letters. Is this standard operating procedure?

Would you please have the civility to contact me regarding this serious complaint about mis-selling by BT staff and your plans to rectify my loss.

Yours sincerely

Letter to: BT Customer Complaints, BT Plc, Correspondence Centre Durham, DH98 1BT

28 March 2009

Dear Sir,

Re: My letter to you on 21 February 2009

I have not received a reply to my letter.

I note that there have been several calls from BT to my home phone but as I am rarely home to use that phone I do not know if this was you trying to contact me.

I generally use a mobile phone number for conversations: XXXXXXX however I would prefer that you responded to my letter at the above address with a confirmation that you have refunded my money, removed the unwanted service, and reviewed your staff training s that customers are not given conflicting and untrue information in the future.

Yours sincerely

Letter to: BT Customer Complaints, BT Plc, Correspondence Centre Durham, DH98 1BT

21 February 2009

Dear Sir,

Re: Account XXXXXXX, bill number YYYYY

On 18 November I contacted you support representative Mr Colin Steel by telephone over another matter (which he successfully resolved). In the course of the conversation Mr Steel asked me if I would be interested in paying £5 per month to be able to make overseas calls with no further charge. I asked for some further details and was given the following advice:

1. For each country I nominated I would be charged £5 per month. Although I regularly make calls to Australia, New Zealand and China (using my computer) - I elected to try the new service with calls to Australia as I have a large family there.
2. The calls were not unlimited but a reasonable usage limit would be applied. – I queried this and was told that the limit should not have an impact if all I wanted to do was speak regularly to family.
3. I was informed that the limit could not be disclosed to me. – I expressed concern but was told that the limit is generous.
4. That the scheme applied to any Australian number including mobile numbers. Again I queried this as the scheme would only be of interest if it included mobiles (I get free calls on my computer to landlines in Australia). Mr Steel reconfirmed that he could see no exemptions for mobile numbers.

I was dismayed to receive my telephone bill on 17th February and to find the following:

I made 14 calls to Australian mobiles totalling 1 hour, 58 minutes, and 46 seconds for which I was charged £41.11, a 10% discount was then applied against this. The bill further states that I have received 46 free calls.

I rang your agent who told me that the scheme I have been enrolled in “International Freedom” covers calls to dozens of countries. That it doesn’t cover calls to Australian Mobile phones, that it has a limit of about 10 hours of calls per month.

This is totally out of line with what I was told I was paying for and what I agreed to pay for.

I have not made 46 calls to Australian landlines and I do not want a service that does not include free calls to Australian mobile phones.

Please rectify this situation at your earliest convenience and refund my money. I will return to using the telephone to access my Tiscali Broadband service and stop using it for telephone calls. This was the reason it was originally installed.

Thank you

A Bad Workman Blames His…

If what you don’t know can’t hurt you, some folks are practically invulnerable:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7887438.stm

I am concerned about some of the statements in this article regarding the failure of the Royal Free Trust to adequately re-engineer its business processes to take advantage of a new computer system. Were these the work of a CEO or a journalist? Lets have a look at some:

“technical problems had cost the trust £10m and meant fewer patients could be seen”

The “technical problems” were that a new computer system that the Trust spent many months planning to implement did not work in the same way as the old one. It wasn’t “worse” per se, it was different (and actually better in many ways).

So, if one gives you an electric oven and you choose to light a fire in it do you blame the fitter because you didn’t use it properly?

Process and organisational change is not easy, it is not a job for the IT Department, it is the job for managers and organisational leaders.

What did the management team at the Royal Free do to focus staff on the extent and nature of the process  change they would need to lead?

Did they identify that the key objective of the project was reengineering processes?

Did they enlist staff in identifying how they would contribute to change and the harvesting the benefits that would accrue from success?

“I have personally apologised for the decision to implement the system before we were really clear about what we were going to receive… I had been led to believe it would all work.”

Automating processes is  never simple as plugging in a computer system and it “works”. Success in implementing any new tool (which is what a computer system is) depends upon understanding what that tool does, and doesn’t do, and then working out how you are going to use it.

In 30 years I have never seen a computer system solve a problem caused by bad process. Computer systems always enable us to perform bad processes faster and increase the magnitude of the impact of those poor processes.

Those same computer systems enable us to perform good processes faster and reap the rewards of doing so. The key to success is to identify the difference between a fundamentally good and a fundametally bad process.

A chief executive, in a sector that is driven by information and the technologies that enable its collection, sharing and dissemination; needs to understand that a computer system designed to support reengineering of a large percentage of his organisation’s processes will need to be implemented professionally.

He also needs to understand that the implementation should be driven by health care professionals from day one. Not by IT personnel or a government department.

Computer systems of course should not drive process, process must be sensible, efficient and above all effective. However if a process must change because a computer system can’t support it then that change must be carefully planned and executed by those who must make the change.

And the National Programme for IT?

How can a government department attempt to impose, on multi-hundred-million pound organisations, one-size fits all computer systems that are designed to automate their processes?”

Was there an assumption that each of the organisations involved could all operate processes the same way?

Did the DoH honestly believe that different local cultures, work patterns, patient demographic profiles, speciality profiles and funding profiles could all be automated under one standardised hospital process regime?

Did the government, through the “National Programme”, seriously think that they knew better than hospital-Trust management teams how a hospital should run?

Or did they think that involving a big telephone company (oops, “consultancy” firm) or a big Japanese computer company (oops, thats right they are known for leading best practice in hospital management processes, aren’t they?) would result in a better outcome than letting their management teams (thats right the management teams that they employed) get on with it?

Sometimes I despair…

Progress Report

In 3^rd quarter 2009 our Trust plans to go-live with its new electronic patient record (its eRecord).

The Trust has engaged the xxxx to assist it in building an electronic patient record. The Trust’s key focus is on supporting staff in making further improvements to patient care, enhancing the patient journey and improving work practices.

A second key focus of the programme is putting in place a central patient record which will eventually replace paper records as the core source of information about a patient’s care and history.

The new eRecord will initially be used to gather patient demographic and visit information, results of investigations such as radiology and laboratory reports, medicines administration records, and operating theatre booking information. It will also be used to automate and speed up processes in the accident and emergency department and to ensure that hospital staff are better informed when a patient is admitted from A&E to one of our hospitals.

Trust managers have, since April 2008, been reviewing and improving processes involved in booking appointments, scheduling theatre activity, managing beds, ordering investigations, and prescribing medicines. This is in preparation for a higher degree of automation and more effective data capture.

Process-change is the most difficult and certainly the largest component of any major information systems implementation. It is critical that new processes are communicated, understood and standardised. It is also important that the people who need to use the new systems understand their roles and have been engaged and empowered in designing how they will work.

The Trust is aware of the difficulties inherent in such a project and have engaged two senior managers with extensive experience of leading meaningful process change programmes in the New Zealand and US health sectors. In addition the Trust’s partner, xxxx, brings to the Programme experience building and deploying the yyyyyy applications in more than 17 hospitals. This experience has put the organisation in a strong position to advise on getting the most from yyyyyy products, clinical engagement, and opportunities for process reform.

The Trust sees the challenge of unifying its electronic patient records as an essential first step to providing an up-to-date and coherent view of a patient’s history to other providers in the NHS. The long-term plan for the eRecord is that nursing notes, theatre records, and specialist information systems used within the Trust will be integrated so that summary information is available to all clinicians with access to the eRecord.

The eRecord Programme management and the Trust’s IM&T Department are working closely with Connecting for Health to ensure that Choose and Book will be thoroughly integrated and that the development of the eRecord at our Trust is in-line with plans to integrate health information systems on a wider scale in the future. The Trust has also had significant engagement with CfH in designing the local electronic prescribing module which will be the first implementation of yyyyyy’s electronic prescribing in the UK.