The Customer Is Always Wrong

The Customer Is Always Wrong is not the statement you want to hear, but we seem to get a lot of it mainly due to ignorance or incompetence of the peopel we are dealing with, or are dealing with us.

I have seen a lot of people recently having issues with Vocal , Medium and Stripe. Sometimes things do get fixed but sometimes people just hit a total brick wall with the people they are dealing with playing blame tennis (it’s not our fault it’s somebody else’s fault).

I will go back over some issues of mine for illustrations of this happening but here are some issues with Vocal and Stripe that I have seen people have issues with.

Vocal and Stripe

While Stripe doesn’t take money off you there is a deduction via Vocal but it can take up to seven days once money has been received from Vocal to hit your account. Vocal can also be tardy in getting the money to Stripe, but I don’t think many people have Vocal as a prime source of income but if your money is delayed it can be annoying.

Stripe does not support certain countries yet I see people still trying to get it to work taking it up with Vocal / Stripe users rather than Vocal / Stripe themselves.

I recently had an issue with an Ambassador payment not appearing in my Vocal wallet. Vocal asked for a screenshot of my wallet (I don’t know why they couldn't check it themselves) . I sent it and it showed a previous ambassador payment so they replied that everything was up to date.

I pointed out that it was an old payment and they looked again and released the payment immediately.

This was an instance of Vocal getting it right, but several emails to them have gone unanswered, and when that happens who can you go to?

Answers to that if you have them.

Ladbrokes

I once put a bet on for a player to score in 90 minutes. 90 minutes is an umbrella for game time plus added stoppage time. The player scored in the 4th minute of stoppage time and the person dealing with it refused to pay out because it wasn’t scored in 90 minutes. This was a case of someone not being properly trained, but it took a manager and time to to get it resolved,

Tesco and the Missing Address

I tried to claim an offer from Tesco and it required me to select my address from a drop down. My address was not there but the houses on either side were there. I phoned up and the person said I must have done something wrong. I pointed out that I hadn’t, there was a problem with their address list. They kept saying it was my problem and as it was a small thing i just gave up. You can't win sometimes even when you are right.

British Telecom

In the early days of remote working, my line kept losing connection. British Telecom were the sole providers. When I rang and asked for them to look into it, they just said “Tough” and I’d have to live with it. I moved and have never used them since.

TSB

Eighty pounds went out of my account drawn from a cash machine in a city twenty miles away that I never visit. I queried this as I hadn’t drawn the money , they turned round and said I was probably drunk and didn’t remember doing it. Further complaints got nowhere so I closed my account.

Conclusion

Sometimes you get someone who can resolve your problem and sometimes you get people who are just spiteful bullies. If you get the latter, try and speak to their manager or supervisor, they do need reigning in but you also have to consider whether your time is worth pursuing it.