I went to Ikea yesterday with my family. I was impressed to find that their durable (reusable) shopping bags have been reduced from 50 pence to 25 pence. I don't know if they are making any profit from it but it is an attractive price that should not put anyone off from buying them. If they are slightly smaller, they will be perfect for your groceries.
It is interesting to compare this offering by Ikea to the supermarkets here. If only they were prepared to offer something similar, we would have virtually cut out the waste from plastic bags. Why stop at supermarkets. The other stores that supply plastic bags should follow suit. Even if they lose money, the good deed to the environment should stick in the minds of the customers. I feel good moral business practices will be better in the long run. I think the short-sighted culture is to blame for not being able to stop the use of plastic bags at supermarkets.
There are much more radical approaches to reduce the waste from supermarkets but I fear that their short-sightedness will again be the obstacle to introducing them.
Sunday 25 March 2007
Monday 12 March 2007
Water company with swift response to email
I emailed this certain water company just before 3pm and I received a phone call within two hours. This is extremely impressive when you consider some other companies who neglect to reply at all or take one or two weeks to reply. Is this efficiency possible in other sectors?
Saturday 10 March 2007
Contacted BT about a mysterious phone call
Dear Sir or Madam,
I received a call from a stranger at 10:55am, Saturday 10th March 2007. I asked him what this call is about, he told me he is calling on behalf of Telco or Telcom (the line was very bad and I could not hear him clearly). Then he suddenly mentions something about BT broadband. I told him I don't think you should be asking me these questions. He put the phone down on me.
Should I be worried about this mysterious call? Does he work on your behalf? Since the caller withheld their number, I cannot investigate this matter. I would appreciate any information you may have on this matter.
Yours faithfully,
Dr Julian Hartley
I received a call from a stranger at 10:55am, Saturday 10th March 2007. I asked him what this call is about, he told me he is calling on behalf of Telco or Telcom (the line was very bad and I could not hear him clearly). Then he suddenly mentions something about BT broadband. I told him I don't think you should be asking me these questions. He put the phone down on me.
Should I be worried about this mysterious call? Does he work on your behalf? Since the caller withheld their number, I cannot investigate this matter. I would appreciate any information you may have on this matter.
Yours faithfully,
Dr Julian Hartley
Virgin Media (used to be NTL)
Things are not looking impressive for Virgin Media, the new owner of NTL. I did not receive a reply so I sent them another email:
______________________
Dear Sir or Madam,
I have sent an email but I have yet to receive a reply.
The email I sent concerned the price discrepancy between the cable 25 pound service compared to the non-cable service. I don't see how you can justify the difference in price. Since I can receive both services, I am interested in switching to your non-cable service. Although I would be interested in a more competitive price for the existing service.
Another thing I thought you may be interested in is the problem I had with NTL. If you do not want to repeat the same mistake, please contact me.
Yours faithfully,
Dr Julian Hartley
___________________________
______________________
Dear Sir or Madam,
I have sent an email but I have yet to receive a reply.
The email I sent concerned the price discrepancy between the cable 25 pound service compared to the non-cable service. I don't see how you can justify the difference in price. Since I can receive both services, I am interested in switching to your non-cable service. Although I would be interested in a more competitive price for the existing service.
Another thing I thought you may be interested in is the problem I had with NTL. If you do not want to repeat the same mistake, please contact me.
Yours faithfully,
Dr Julian Hartley
___________________________
Canon UK
Dear Sir or Madam,
I noticed one of your adverts in the newspaper and I wondered why it did not show off your product very well. I would be grateful if you have an email address I can use to mention this matter to the appropriate person.
Looking at the website, I feel that there can be significant improvements that can be made. For instance, there are too many words to read. If you are interested in further advice from a general customer perspective, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Although I have worked on Levi adverts where the image is very important, my background in physics keeps me alert on the functionality of the website.
Yours faithfully,
Dr Julian Hartley
I noticed one of your adverts in the newspaper and I wondered why it did not show off your product very well. I would be grateful if you have an email address I can use to mention this matter to the appropriate person.
Looking at the website, I feel that there can be significant improvements that can be made. For instance, there are too many words to read. If you are interested in further advice from a general customer perspective, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Although I have worked on Levi adverts where the image is very important, my background in physics keeps me alert on the functionality of the website.
Yours faithfully,
Dr Julian Hartley
Ssangyong cars
I wrote an email to Ssangyong cars:
__________________________
I reside in the UK and have come across one of your adverts in the Daily Telegraph (back page 28th Feb 2007) and became puzzled with a problem. Why is there a large price at the top and an asterisk directing you to the bottom indicating that the car shown is only slightly more expensive? Why not advertise the fact that the model shown is in fact only a bit more. The customer has to look twice to determine how much this model costs. Usually this is the case if there is a huge price discrepancy. But in the case I saw, there is hardly any difference.
Intrigued, I took a look at your UK website and found even more errors. Why are the prices not the same as the one in the paper advert? Customers lose confidence in you. Why do you keep offers that are obviously expired still on the website?
Even your global website has problems at least for the English version. If you are interested in me giving advice on your English websites from a customer perspective, please do not hesitate to contact me.
_________________________
It is remarkable that companies neglect to reply to emails. Are they not worried about their reputation? If they are treating a person that is trying to help in this manner, I have doubts about how well they can treat their customers.
__________________________
I reside in the UK and have come across one of your adverts in the Daily Telegraph (back page 28th Feb 2007) and became puzzled with a problem. Why is there a large price at the top and an asterisk directing you to the bottom indicating that the car shown is only slightly more expensive? Why not advertise the fact that the model shown is in fact only a bit more. The customer has to look twice to determine how much this model costs. Usually this is the case if there is a huge price discrepancy. But in the case I saw, there is hardly any difference.
Intrigued, I took a look at your UK website and found even more errors. Why are the prices not the same as the one in the paper advert? Customers lose confidence in you. Why do you keep offers that are obviously expired still on the website?
Even your global website has problems at least for the English version. If you are interested in me giving advice on your English websites from a customer perspective, please do not hesitate to contact me.
_________________________
It is remarkable that companies neglect to reply to emails. Are they not worried about their reputation? If they are treating a person that is trying to help in this manner, I have doubts about how well they can treat their customers.
Monday 5 March 2007
Alternative to commission based salaries
I have written about parking attendants and bailiffs who have no moral values because of their commission based salaries.
I do not see why bailiffs need to have commission base salaries? Why not set the number of places to visit in a day regardless of whether they can bring back any money? The incentive to go to more places than what they are set would be an increase in their salaries. The salary should not be based on how much debt they can collect. The salary should be based on the number of places they visit for debt collection regardless of whether they collect the debt or not. Since the more times they go to the same place to collect, the higher the debt becomes, the debt will be paid eventually.
The above will not work for parking attendants. They should be given a basic salary. Their salary will depend on the number of complaints being made towards each parking attendant. I presume the commission based salaries were introduced because they were worried about the parking attendants not doing their job and collecting money for nothing. Random checks can be made to see if they are doing their job. They will now stop issuing penalty notices unfairly. The problem with this method is that the companies who employ them are private and profit hungry. Their profit is derived from more penalty notices issued. They shouldn't have been outsourced in the first place. They should be operated by local councils again.
I do not see why bailiffs need to have commission base salaries? Why not set the number of places to visit in a day regardless of whether they can bring back any money? The incentive to go to more places than what they are set would be an increase in their salaries. The salary should not be based on how much debt they can collect. The salary should be based on the number of places they visit for debt collection regardless of whether they collect the debt or not. Since the more times they go to the same place to collect, the higher the debt becomes, the debt will be paid eventually.
The above will not work for parking attendants. They should be given a basic salary. Their salary will depend on the number of complaints being made towards each parking attendant. I presume the commission based salaries were introduced because they were worried about the parking attendants not doing their job and collecting money for nothing. Random checks can be made to see if they are doing their job. They will now stop issuing penalty notices unfairly. The problem with this method is that the companies who employ them are private and profit hungry. Their profit is derived from more penalty notices issued. They shouldn't have been outsourced in the first place. They should be operated by local councils again.
Eat as much as you like sushi in one hour. Make condition of ads clear
The previous post reminded me of this attractive offer of eat as much as you like sushi in one hour. We ordered a reasonable amount and we ate it pretty leisurely. We realised that there is only perhaps five minutes left so we ordered again. We were still eating after the hour and an irate manager came out and told me off for not finishing the what we had ordered in the time allocated. I told him that I thought we could order within that time and as long as we did not waste the food or take it away, it would be fine. I also said that we had obviously ordered too much to eat everything in the hour so why did you not warn us and we would have ordered much less. He told us to never come again.
You may have guessed that that restaurant is now long gone. As a customer, the offer was very attractive regardless of whether you had to finish it all in one hour. But just because the offer was not clear, the whole experience became bad. Do not rely on the customer to know the conditions.
Besides, which offer is better for the restaurant? Of course. Order within the hour but you don't have to finish it. You have a greater chance of feeling satisfied than with a time limit to eat. The time limit to eat will spoil the taste of the food.
You may have guessed that that restaurant is now long gone. As a customer, the offer was very attractive regardless of whether you had to finish it all in one hour. But just because the offer was not clear, the whole experience became bad. Do not rely on the customer to know the conditions.
Besides, which offer is better for the restaurant? Of course. Order within the hour but you don't have to finish it. You have a greater chance of feeling satisfied than with a time limit to eat. The time limit to eat will spoil the taste of the food.
Don't offer a customer with a condition out of their hands
Take Away (Out) Pizza delivery menu. I don't normally eat take away pizza but I was looking at their menu which had been hand delivered. I spotted an unfortunate mistake that could cost them dearly. They state an offer and provide the following condition: if ordered and delivered before 4pm. Now someone who looks at this offer at say 3:30pm will think twice about taking advantage of this offer. Since delivery is out of the customers' control, it is not wise.
Status unverified after completing necessary steps to be verified
I am surprised with PayPal for not being able to show straight away my verified status. I completed the necessary steps and arrived at a page saying that I am now verified. I went to the My Account page but my status is still unverified. This will cause unnecessary alarm. Surely this can be fixed.
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