A cheap complaint

[deanzt]

Hi Everyone. I'm a long time lurker, first time poster. I thought I'd escaped customer service but no such luck.....

I'm currently working in a complaints team for a big insurance company. I get my fair share of angry, rude and downright weird complaints but this is my favourite to date.


A customer rang in to complain that her final mothly direct debit payment of the year is higher than the others. She was furious that we "are taking more of my hard earned money without letting me know." Apparently "this is how you greedy bankers make your money and I'm not letting you get away with it."

She makes the aggrieved customer's usual demand for compensation ("at least £10"). We refuse but offer to write off the extra money so her final direct debit is the same as all her others have been.

She refuses this (excellent) offer. Now she wants £20 for "the time and inconvenience caused."

And the amount extra we are charging on her £180 a month payment? The extortionate extra charge that has ruined her monthly finances and was worth her calling in on five seperate occasions to demand compensation?


4p


Yep that's £0.04 extra on one payment. Needless to say she isn't getting compensation, especially as it is money that she owes us anyway!

Sometimes I wonder whether people have anything better to do.....

[Versalia]

WHAT?!

[Kristev]

Oh my god. Welcome to the boards. I wish it were under better circumstances.

[houdini]

"Yes, ma'am, I am a terribly greedy banker and I am fully intending to steal your money. A whole 4p will buy me a new merc- , no, wait...a private helip-...um. Four pence of alcohol to combat my incipient brain failure from talking to you?"

I don't think 4p will even buy you penny chews any more, because the price of those has gone up. And surely she's spent more on phone calls protesting this 4p than she would ever get back?

[SongsOfDragons]

In my local sweetshop, you can buy pink bubblegum for 5p a pop. So nearly there...

[Marmalady]

I don't think there's anything that can be bought for 4p now. (Having said that, 1 penny more will buy you a bag of soon-to-be-out-of-date crisps from where I work. Only one flavour left, and it's a disgusting one, but hey they're CHEAP!)

[deanzt]

The thing that really irritates me is that it is the flood of pointless, self-important, overprivalaged complaints like this that mean that polite people with actual problems (e.g. your incompetent system refuses to believe I've paid so it's now sending debt collectors to my door) don't get the time and attention as quickly as they deserve.

[EricKei]

Wow. I don't think that will even buy you a single drop of what you would need to erase her from your mind...

In any case, to !

[jerkface11]

I'd send her a check for it lol.

[Aethian]

I'd send her a check for it lol.

Heheh, check would be worth more then what it was written for.

[Stryker One]

I'd send her a check for it lol.

And send it postage due.

[Rapscallion]

Four sodding pence? I may have got a bit of a shock on my credit card bill of late, but four pence?

Cost her more in phone calls.

Rapscallion

[Barefootgirl]

Thats what I was thinking - surely it cost her more than that to phone you and grumble about it? Not to mention the cost of her time. I have an hourly rate for work and basically, if something is going to cost me more in time and effort than my hourly rate, i find someone else to do it, or jsut son't do it (as in this case!).

Stupid woman...

[Mytical]

I can just hear it now. "It's the principle of the thing!" .. no, it being stubborn and foolish. While demanding free stuff you don't deserve. To EW obsessing over 4p? Go away now.

[Soulstealer]

I can just hear it now. "It's the principle of the thing!" .. no, it being stubborn and foolish.

That phrase should never be applied to money. Jars and those child proof lock thingies.... After about a minute it becomes a challenge which I require to conquer lest my honour be sullied.

Suffice it to say I've had them taken away and opened for me if I'm about to break something (usually me).