It’s the summer time and it is a bank holiday so – for one day only – we are going to dispense with giving out and highlight some of the good and great customer-service stories we have heard of late.
We are going to start with our friends in Ryanair as we know they think we are biased against them, something that could not be further from the truth.
A reader called Emer mailed us at the start of July with a story she said was “different to the norm as it is about two good news stories” rolled into one.
Her good news begins in Bologna on July 4th with some very bad news indeed.
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Emer admits that she is “old school” and prints her boarding passes before travelling. This was something she, perhaps, had cause to regret on that particular Friday as both her and husband’s passports and boarding passes were stolen.
The theft happened at around midday on the day they were due to travel home and they had less than four hours to try to resolve the situation.
Their first port of call was the authorities, Emer writes in her email. “We immediately went to the police station to report the theft and contacted our son who was a travel rep some years ago and he contacted the consulate in Milan,” she continues.
The couple knew the clock was ticking and – given that it was a Friday afternoon, things were looking bleak.
“The consulate contacted us and told us to go to their office in Milan on Monday as they were closing for the weekend and could not help us till then. We could not book a hotel anywhere as we had no identification,” she says.
“With our police report of the theft we got a taxi to the airport on the very off-chance we would be allowed on the Ryanair flight with our Irish social welfare travel cards as an only means of identification,” she writes.
“We told our story to the girl on the luggage check-in desk and she talked to her supervisor, and then to Dublin, to see if they would let us through passport control and if we would be allowed on the flight.”
Pricewatch would not have been holding out much hope at this stage, we have to say.
“Word eventually came from Dublin and we were on our way home. So a huge thank you to Ryanair and their check-in staff,” Emer writes.
We can only assume the couple were able to make it through passport control without their passports – and Emer adds a second piece of good news which was that she and her husband applied for new passports on the Sunday after they arrived home and three days later their new passports came through the door.
“So thank you to the staff at Ryanair for your caring and compassionate response to our plight and thank you to the staff for your efficiency and speed in the passport office.”
Next up is Phil from Navan who says he is “always more fond of e-mailing about great customer service than bad”.
He visited Decathlon in Dublin recently searching for what he describes as his “very comfy socks, which I’d clicked and was collecting. I struggled to get from the car to the click and collect location because of my mobility disability. Meanwhile the security guard was eyeing me up the whole time.”
Phil successfully collected his order and turned around and noted that the security guard “still had my eyes and I beckoned over towards the trolleys and asked if he could please get me one – all this without speaking to him!
“Quick as a flash he sprang into action to slide me over a trolley and ensure I was staying upright safely. I followed my family around the shop, stopping by to pick up some more comfy socks,” he writes. “I emailed the shop that evening telling them that I was delighted with the big, happy head on him.”
Noeleen had a very positive experience with Petworld recently. “I telephoned them on March 31st at about 11.30am asking about their delivery service. I told the helpful girl that I was rehoming a dog and needed a crate urgently.”
Noeleen was told to place an order online, which she did at 11.55am.
The Petworld staff member told her the order would be marked as urgent as soon as it showed up on their systems. “The courier delivered the item at 12.14pm the following day, just two hours after the dog arrived.”
Louise got in touch to praise David Cullen Jewellers in Clare Hall.
“I dropped in a chain for repair but it couldn’t be repaired on site,” she says. “I received a text when it was sent off and a phone call to confirm I was happy. I also got another text message with an estimated completion time and was updated daily and called when it was ready.”
And, speaking of jewellery, we also heard from Sheelagh. She recently wrote to Newbridge Silverware in connection with a bracelet her sister had given her which had broken. She returned it to the company for repair and in her note said – in a by-the-way fashion – that her sister had bought five bracelets at the same time for herself and each of her sisters “to mark a sisters weekend. Unfortunately my sister has lost her own bracelet on the very day she gave them to us”, Sheelagh writes.
To her surprise, she subsequently received not one but two bracelets from Newbridge, with an invitation to a factory tour at any point in the future.
A reader called Caroline recently needed to have some building work done on her home. “Unfortunately, the external structure needed a bigger job than I had envisioned and more unfortunate again was the builder I initially asked to do the work.”
[ How to find the right builder: check the Construction Industry RegisterOpens in new window ]
She says he went missing in action and she ended up dealing directly with the steel manufacturer.
“Here is where my faith in humanity was restored. From my very first call to Keystone Lintels in Cookstown, wherein I advised them of my situation, they were exceptional. Aimee in customer service was always efficient and patiently kind. Their technical engineer, Paul, hearing of my plight, contacted me directly asking how they could be a part of the solution. They have gone above and beyond in addressing a problem that was not their issue.
A woman called Terry was in touch to say she had “the most positive experience dealing with the VHI in sorting out my upcoming renewal. I was not at all happy with the new quote for my health plan and the lady I spoke to went to extraordinary lengths to help find a plan to suit my budget,” she writes.
“I explained that I couldn’t understand the complex range of plans on offer, I just wanted a very basic plan. The lady spent almost three-quarters of an hour clearly and in simple language finding me that plan, and making sure I was happy. No add-ons, or trying to make a sale, just giving me what I needed. So patient, customer service at its best.”
Catherine got in touch to share “a very positive experience I had with Dublin Bus staff”.
She notes that the company “often gets a bad press with the phenomenon of the ‘disappearing buses’ and frequent talk of unpunctuality etc. However, I wanted to highlight our really positive experience recently”.
Catherine’s teenage daughter was travelling on the Number 40 bus late on a Tuesday from Leeson Street to Drumcondra.
“Unfortunately she left her new iPhone and ID card on the bus when she left the bus in Drumcondra. Cue panic all round. She managed to get the number of the bus depot from another bus driver. She called next morning without much hope or expectation. A friendly voice said they had the phone and to “come on out”.
So, the mother and daughter drove to the Harristown bus depot “and she was met by a number of staff in the lost property department who had all the details of her phone and who were all friendly and very helpful.
“After some quick ID verification she emerged completely thrilled with her iPhone, her ID card and some money (notes) that she had tucked into the back of the phone. Who says the age of honesty is dead? Three cheers for the driver of the Number 40, the brilliant staff in Harriston bus depot and for the honest person who handed in the phone.”
We also heard from Donal from Sligo who noted that Pricewatch occasionally “offer bouquets instead of brickbats and today I would like to nominate a company for a bouquet. For the past number of years my wife and I have travelled frequently by ferry between Ireland and France and Ireland and the UK. We travel exclusively with Stena ferries because their booking system is easy to navigate and if there are particular needs to be addressed there is a phone number.”
He also says the “telephone is always answered promptly by a person” and he adds that the “personnel on the end of the phone have always been friendly, helpful and efficient”.
He suggests that the “same staff culture is also evident on board their ferries and at the ports. It is so refreshing to receive such welcome customer service with no sign of a bot. I would emphasise that the only connection we have with Stena is as satisfied customers.”
Declan from Dublin mailed about a brief encounter with good customer service “by way of contrast with so many of the other kind which we hear about”.
He says he recently ordered 1,000 litres of home heating oil from Capital Oil/Local Fuels and paid €838 by credit card.
“However, the tank took a little less than that, costing about €18 less. This was shown on the docket left on delivery. I meant to send an email but did not get around to it for about a week.
“Doing a routine check on my account, I found that the difference had been credited back to it by Capitol Oil without any intervention from me, in contrast with the dozens of complaints you get about how difficult it is to get valid refunds from so many companies. Good customer relations or what?”
Then there was Damian, who got in touch after coming back from 10 days in Spain where he had hired a car through National in Malaga. He had the basic insurance cover as he had an excess policy with AIG.
He says that, to cut a long story short, half way through his holiday he had parked outside a supermarket when “some kind soul in the same make parked beside me using the side panel of my car as a guide to park his”.
He says this caused four small one-inch scrapes in the paintwork. “Goodbye to my €1,700 excess with National, I thought, but upon my return and when I pointed them out to the agent in full disclosure mode, his response was we don’t worry about small scratches like that. Now that is a great end to a holiday.”
We also have a good news story about Eir. On Tuesday June 10th Peter reported two manhole covers and surrounding paving in disrepair in his housing estate in Wicklow. A week later they had been replaced and repaired. “Fair dues to Eir and their contractors for fast and efficient service.”
And finally there is Diarmuid, who bought a hand-held vacuum cleaner last November from Lidl at a cost of €25. “I only got round to using it three weeks ago and found that it would not charge so I contacted Lidl. I also had lost the receipt. Today I received a new replacement model from the manufacturer in Germany.”
As we were reading through all of these stories something struck us. They are all linked by a single thread. Soundness. Sometimes customer service is not that complicated and if businesses just made the decision to be sound or to empower their staff to be sound, then we would have a lot less to be giving out about on this page and our world would be a much better place.
