What is your biggest consumer gripe?

[tintinthegingertomcat]

I can think of plenty to moan about!!!!

Personally my biggest consumer gripe is when you try to telephone company and all you get is the automated voice saying press 1 for this and 3 for that....you know what I mean. ALL I WANT TO DO IS SPEAK TO A HUMAN BEING - NOT DIFFICULT!!!

I have tried to get through to the HMRC on several occasions and to be perfectly honest none of the options given actually related to my gripe so I try one route and end up having to put the phone down and try another route as I have never, never, never actually managed to speak to a real life person.

I would much rather the phone kept ringing until it was answered by a human being rather than going round the houses...getting nowhere...and all the time I am doing this I AM BEING CHARGED.

Rant over ladies.....what gets your goat?????????

[saasher2012]

How about fuel bills always going up just before the bad weather starts. Sam

[ed_blackadder_1]

Oh don't get me started on that one,  thankfully we pay monthly and as we have had such a warm spring and summer we have quite a lot of money in credit so we should be fine this winter.

[stampingpat]

I read this the other day and thought I agree with the phone thing, but couldn't really add anything to this.....But this morning I have my own gripe!!!

   I got a flyer in the local paper for a local shop that sells toys..... and it says home delivery available. Since having the dog and the hedgehogs, I am finding it hard to leave the house for shopping..... so thought brillant....... I have spent 4 hours trying to do an order to only have it say collect in store only. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Needless to say I have tried another shop and have got very similar and don't have to go to the shop to pick it up and it is free delivery!!! And the web site kept crashing and wouldn't let you view your basket to see what if any problem was. I wish shops that say they have websites then had proper websites that work!!!!

[saasher2012]

There must be many who will suffer because they didn't or couldn't pay monthly!

[rose2008-2008]

AFTER TODAY....BROADBAND COMPANIES THAT FIB TO YOU!!!!

[bitsnknots]

Couldn't agree more Rose. The one I'm with, it took them three weeks to let me have my router.  They even told me that they'd sent one out and I'd returned it 'cos it was faulty.  The status of the second one was failed delivery.  The thing is, they hadn't sent one router out at the time faulty or otherwise.  

[rose2008-2008]

Im wondering if they are all ROBOTS  up where they are as i e.mailed mine again this morning and they had sent one yesterday saying thank you for your e.mail about the diconnection!!!! without any aknowledgment of my complaint!!!!. QUITE MAD. They got another e.mail today.LOl.

[carolyorkie2010]

Yes, I've had that with my power company; the first time I was "on hold" for 40 minutes, the 2nd time, 30 minutes. Good job its a free phone number.

[dark_castle1]

My biggest consumer gripe is ! When I have a contract for broadband with a UK company and have a problem that needs sorted and I phone them it is an overseas call centre that does not understand what I am saying and vice versa.

In my opinion if you are a UK company your call centre should be located in the uk with staff that can understand your customers and your customers understand them.

[bitsnknots]

One of my cousins used to work in India teaching Indians how to speak English.  He wanted to fail some of them because there English wasn't up to scratch but he was told that he had to pass everyone.  He wasn't being racist but you can understand why we can't understand some of the staff at Indian call centres.

[ilove2patch]

Mind you a lot of Indian people speak much better English than the indigenous population! lol I do agree about the call centres though. 

[bitsnknots]

I agree with you on that Maggie.  Our GP is Indian and his English is perfect.  In fact, our GP got quite annoyed when he found out that the most popular man's name in this country was Mohammed.  He's convinced that the most popular man's name in this country should be John.

[dark_castle1]

books, I really do not see why your GP should be annoyed about the most popular name in this country is Mohammed when the indigenous population is fast becoming the minority here.

Yes some ethnic people do speak better English in this country but overseas call centres have the vast majority with extremely strong accents which make it difficult if not impossible to understand and that was my point ! Not who spoke the best english.

[ilove2patch]

Many strong accents can be a problem on the phone. I have trouble understanding broad Gordie & Scottish sometimes.

[bankhaunter]

I think the thing which annoys me the most is searching for something online, finding a seller selling it and then having to faff around registering a password and email address just so you can buy that one item.

How many people would put up with that happening when they went into a shop on the high street, why do online sellers think buyers are happy about it just because it's useful for the seller.  given the choice I will always go elsewhere.