Archive for the ‘customer services’ Category
Monday, August 3rd, 2009 |
It was with shock that I read in my local community newspaper of Woolworths practice of using eggs produced by battery chickens in some of their meals.
I was always under the impression that Woolworths at would at least advertise on their products if they are using/not using free range eggs in their baking or cooking.
A Woolworths spokesperson however said that using free range eggs in all recipes was not cost effective, but that would change when the costs come down as the industry grows.
According to the newspaper the story unfolded when a filmmaker called Wendy Hardie discovered that Woolies were not using free-range eggs in their ready-made foods like cakes, desserts, omelettes, quiches and biscuits.
Many people purchase their food products at Woolworths, even though they are mostly more expensive than other supermarkets, because they believe the Woolworths brand to be one that has integrity.
Unfortunately Woolworths have blown it by not disclosing something that serious.
Some of us actually do care where our food comes from and how the animals who provide by products get treated.
Until the “costs come down and the industry grows” I guess those who choose to not eat factory farmed eggs will probably have to find alternative places to shop for easy cooked meals.
Posted in customer services | 1 Comment »
Monday, June 29th, 2009 |
So Eskom got it’s way and from Wednesday 1 July we have to pay 31% extra for our electricity.
Who knows what the City of Cape Town intends adding onto that – because they buy the electricity from Eskom and then dishes it out to us lucky buggers who have no other choice but to pay up.
Unless of course we want to sit in the dark and shower with ice cold water!
Eskom doubtlessly caused their own mess – which makes matters even worse!
About two years ago they started with those rolling black outs, because we were told we consumers were consuming to much energy.
Well, we cut down our energy usage – even got blankets to keep our geasers warm!
That of course led to Eskom losing revenue.
The more we spent before, the more they earned.
So what do they do next? They hike the price of electricity up sky high.
To make matters more interesting, they advertise on tv – warning township dwellers to not use illegal electricity.
How on earth will poor people afford electricity when the middle class will struggle?
Eskom are really a disgrace – we will have to see what they come up with next.
Now that we’re going to be paying more, what kind of service can we expect from Eskom?
Posted in customer services | No Comments »
Saturday, May 2nd, 2009 |
A few weeks ago my Nokia cellphone refused to connect to the Vodacom’s internet network – maklik it wasn’t.
I contacted both Autopage Cellular and Vodacom to try to ask for advice.
After many frustrating e-mails and phone calls to Vodacom’s call centre and being given the same instructions by different operators over and over, my frustration reached its limits.
Autopage was no help at all – neither their call centre, nor their shop in St George’s Mall Cape Town acted interested in my problem…as long as I pay the bill, I guess.
They however did reply to e-mail within minutes, except that the information was of no help at all.
Eventually I took my phone to Vodacare at Canal Walk. They acknowledged that the problem not just settings and booked the phone in.
After not hearing from them for 3 weeks, I called on Thursday and was told my phone was ready for collection.
Turns out the problem was with the phone itself – although no explanation was given, it was replaced with a brand new phone at no cost.
I’m not arguing with that!
Problem solved.
Posted in customer services | 1 Comment »
Friday, April 17th, 2009 |
My expectations of my webhosting company is twofold:
- They must be neither seen nor heard. Their job is to see that my website and blog stays online, even when I’m sleeping.
- When I need them they need to respond immediately, because I won’t contact them because I’m bored.
Afrihost has met and surpassed my expectations.
I never hear from them, unless it’s necessary and they respond within minutes of a query, then they sort it out.
My problem arose when my traffic started increasing in leaps and bounds recently, despite not following the advice of many blogging gurus (I’m sure there’s a bad Mike Myers movie in there somewere).
Anyway, I contacted Afrihost at around lunch time today and asked a few questions, which were answered within minutes.
By the time I got home from work and shopping, I received an email to let me know my domain was moved to give me much more bandwidth at no extra cost.
Very impressive service!
Posted in customer services | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 |
For more than two weeks now, I have been experiencing problems with my contract cellphone. The first and last time I will ever get a contract phone again!
It’s one of those really annoying problems that only the cellphone companies involved can fix and they’ve been nothing short of patronising.
The Nokia N series phone works fine for telephone calls and smses, but not internet (I get a “package data not available” message, followed by “simcard not registered”) – the problem only exists on the Vodacom network. Virgin Mobile works completely as does MTN – on the same phone.
Vodacom worked before I switched to Virgin Mobile a few months ago.
Between Autopage Cellular’s network technicians and Vodacom’s customer services line, I was told about 10 times to reset my internet settings – which I did about 100 times.
What followed was more calls and emails and more of the same advice. Eventually I was told to go to the Vodacom’s 3G store in Cavendish Square.
Much help that did on one of the hotest days in Cape Town! The shop assistants were as uninterested as the ones on the phone.
They wanted to charge me R50 to put the settings (the same settings already on the phone) and then told me they couldn’t help and sent me on my merry way to Vodacare (what a misnomer!) in Greenpoint or Canal Walk.
Autopage was even worse than Vodacom (if that’s possible). Their website query system is fast, if fast is the only thing you want. There is no way to contact the person who replies to your first e-mail and addressing your complaint to management is as helpful as addressing it to cleaning staff.
Both Vodacom and Autopage suggested I take my phone to their technicians as “something is wrong with the phone”.
No one explained why I should go anywhere or what could be wrong with the phone.
No one looked or sounded like they knew what the problem was. They continuosly threw things out in the hope something would stick.
As someone who troubleshoots computer problems as part of my job, I am amazed at the lack of curiousity from both Vodacom and Autopage’s network technicians.
No follow ups, no nothing.
Posted in customer services, vodacom | 3 Comments »
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