rant
Be Broadband – a tragic end to a lovely relationship
This is a rant – and one that I hope ends up in the MD of Be Unlimited‘s lap. Sir, this is directed at you & your organisation.
I was a customer of yours for years. I took my connection to 2 or 3 properties whilst a student in Southampton, and then on to my new house in Wiltshire when I’d finished Uni. I then bought a new house, which was in an area you couldn’t service. I cancelled my contract (reluctantly), and sent back my modem. Then, suddenly, without any notice whatsoever 11 MONTHS LATER, I suddenly get a letter from a debt collection agency telling me I owe you money. It’s only £30-odd, but did I hear from you first? Did I receive any letters, emails or calls (you have all this information)? No. The first I hear is a debt collection agency sending me a letter. A final notice letter, all in red. Beautiful. So I call you guys, explain my problem to an agent, who tells me you did send me emails etc – and SMS messages, apparently. I said I’d never got them, and asked to be resent any/all of these messages – which he said he would. That was 3 or 4 days ago, and I’ve still not received any. I KNOW you have the right details on file because you confirmed them to me when I called.
I used to be an evangelist of your products: I even recommended one or two customer. Now I’d recommend people stay away, which – dramatically – is a most terrible and tragic legacy of this relationship. Well done. You handled this break-up really well.
That’s it. Thanks for reading. I guess I’ll just pay this scary debt for fear of being credit blacklisted – which is exactly what I don’t want right now given that I’ve just bought my first house and just become a new father. The issue of whether I owe the money isn’t in question here: it’s the way in which I was never told and referred to a debt collector.
:: Update (26th September): Progress? ::
So, after getting in touch with the MD Chris Stening directly via LinkedIn, I’ve already received a missed call from Be customer services who want to talk to me again about the situation. This feels like progress: I’ll update tomorrow when I’ve spoken to them.
Transcript so far below:
Hi Chris, Thanks very much for the reply. I am sorry to trouble you directly with this, but you seem to be the only way I can get anywhere with this situation. I did indeed receive a call from your billing dept, and have just had a chat with them. Over a week ago, when I first spoke to them, I asked them to resend the emails that I should’ve received alerting me to the amount I owed – bearing in mind this is money supposedly owed from nearly a year ago. I didn’t receive anything. Having just spoken to them, they’ve resent me some billing PDFs (to a different email address). These PDFs are confusing, in honesty: I moved house in October 2010 – which is roughly when I called to cancel because Be couldn’t service the area I’d moved to.
These bills:
- Reference charges for December…
- With a phone number I had in my last residence…
- For a physical address I lived in back in 2009
For a company that relies on accurate address data to actually provide their service, this is a pretty crap customer experience, I’m sure you’ll agree. No wonder I didn’t have any warning before being sent to a debt collection agency. I’d appreciate your intervention here. I’d love to become an advocate again for Be’s products: right now, I’m doing the opposite. Thanks again for your help. George
On 09/26/11 11:02 AM, Chris Stening wrote:
Hi Sorry about this. I’ve asked our Billing team to call you to resolve – apparently they have left a message this afternoon. Please let me know if this is not quickly resolved for you. Apologies again and I hope one day we can welcome you back as as a customer
Thanks Chris
On 09/26/11 7:09 AM, George Rosier wrote:
Hi Chris: sorry for the unorthodox comms method – but I keep getting messages from a Debt Collection agency on Be’s behalf. I’ve not been a customer for over a year now so this is surprise to me I’d like to add you on LinkedIn to discuss, seeing as your call centre can’t/won’t help – G Rosier
0Apple headphones aren’t covered under warranty
I’ve used iPods in various incarnations since 2005 when I was bought one as a gift. I still have it – a 4th gen white ipod – in a box at home. It’s a bit battered and scratched, but fully-functional. I feel this is pretty good for hardware that’s usually expected to stop working after a couple of years.
On the other hand, I’ve got through about 8 pairs of the standard Apple headphones through the years: they just don’t last! And they’re not covered under warranty unless you buy the £25 Apple Care service when you buy a new iPod.
This is shit.
Rant over.
p.s: My ear-holes are a funny shape – therefore any comments along the lines of “Oh get some Sennheiser headphones, they’re amazing” will be rudely ignored. 