www.boxertrix.com

As if you did not know social media is a great way of getting the ear of people who are not listening. (if you know you are solid) I witnessed this recently at Granada airport. The company involved with the gripe was BA. Every time our daughter books a flight with them on line and requests assisted boarding and wheelchair seating arrangements the system fails and she ends up with a sympathetic queue behind her at check in.

The last time caused anxiety and she immediately" tweeted" her situation. 15 mins later she was allowed through to departure lounge with other operatives at the airport being very apologetic. The girl at the check in desk I hasten to add was only doing her job and following the rules, this is always the case.

So just this week I had a solid case with a well known shower manufacturer that I have been dealing with since 1987 and I know their products inside out, I have given them every opportunity to fessup and roll with it but the nice young tech man assures me that their product is rigorously tested and that it is not a known problem, trust me, ferrous self screwing torx fixings holding a thermo cartridge into a faucet mixing body is a problem waiting to happen. So I googled the problem, hey ho, it is a major problem so now armed with the power of social media and self righteousness I am taking them on. When I told the young man that a lot of people using www did not agree with him he was confused.

If they do not roll with this a video of a well known shower valve disassembly and replacement with a corrosion proof one is going on www. Incidentely I have offered them to arrange a service call and repair the item themselves and if their repair man finds installer issues we will happily pay.

Anyone else used social media to get a result? (From bad after sales or customer support, that is )

I hate BA and have avoided them wherever possible since an issue with them more than 10 years ago. Could have done with Twitter then.

Bottom line, I got a letter from them in response to a complaint stating that if I did not like their service I was free to chose from all the other airlines. That's exactly what I have done since.

I stayed in a guest house once, where the bed was a death trap!

I complained snd got nowhere - I wish I had done a number on them on Facebook!

Al

Had an on-going gripe with Scottish (Spanish really) Power. Finally posted a complaint on their FaceBook page, which they promptly deleted. So commented against one of their own, self-promoting posts, which they ignored (like my phone calls and letter to them).

But I have had many many comments of support against my comment from other unhappy customers.

Now with Ovo Energy...

Scottish Power - well, now there is a story.

we moved into a house where they had been the energy providers. VERY long story short, they failed to attend and read the meters ands then tried to hand us a £600 bill for previous occupants, gradually escalating the level of threats by post and being impossible to speak to on the 'phone.

My wife finally had enough, and coinciding with a report in the press where SP were being threatened with huge fines for similar behaviour and summoned before Parliamentary committee wrote to our MP. God bless him , his office was all over them like a rash within a week and we received grovelling apology and (small) compensation.

SP are absolute cr*p and I suggest anyone who has the misfortune to be their customer get out quick.

They're all the same - I had a huge battle with N-Power who believed I had signed a contract with them. They then proceeded to read someone else's meter, and send me lots of bills.

I should have followed it up with a complaint to the Ombudsman with a claim for undue stress, but satisfied myself with the response:


"Fcuk you! Strong letter to follow"

Like governments - you don't vote them in....... you vote the last lot - out.

Al