Poor customer service - Invoice them for your time

[SPinDerbyshire]

I’m from a Derbyshire CAB and we’re campaigning for better customer service from our energy suppliers. Mistakes happen, we understand that, but we find that that our clients – and us – spend an unacceptable amount of time having to sort them out. Long call waiting times, missing correspondence, being passed from pillar to post and repeating the same information ad infinitum without ever seeming to make any progress – these are all things with which most visitors to this forum will be familiar. Energy companies don’t seem to realise that our clients’ time is valuable (and that the resources of charities such as ourselves are limited).

 

And we’re not just talking about the inconvenience. Sometimes this shoddy treatment leads to real financial hardship, as in the case of a recent client who decided to pay a disputed bill for the sake of a quiet life, rather than have to put up with the stress of taking it further. Or the countless numbers of people who are put off switching to a cheaper supplier because of the incompetent way this has been handled in the past.

 

We think that energy companies will better appreciate the effects of their poor service if we use a language they will understand – money. We want to encourage people to invoice their energy company for the time they have wasted in trying to resolve their issues. Will the energy companies pay up? Not likely. Not unless you’re very lucky, but that’s not the point. What we want is better and more efficient service. We don’t think it’s beyond the power of these multi-billion pound enterprises to provide us with this, and if it takes a campaign like this to get their attention we think it’s worth doing.

 

If your energy supplier is giving you the run-around and you want to give them something to think about, stop by our 'Service Denied' Facebook page for instructions on how to use our invoice.

 

http://www.facebook.com/Daecab

[freakyleaky]

Hi SP.

I've just checked out your FB page and found the link to the invoice isn't working.

[SPinDerbyshire]

Odd, it's working for me. There might be an issue with redirect. This is a direct link to the blog page:

http://daecab.blogspot.co.uk/p/invoice-your-supplier.html

[freakyleaky]

Thanks. That link works fine. It's not redirecting on the FB link though.

Great idea. I'll be watching with interest.