[MAW]

I started this thread because over the last few months customer service has got worse and worse and worse and I am thinking this maybe all quite deliberate? (the thread title should read as a question but I cant change it!)

Anyway, how can this be? They cant PERPETUALLY be so busy they cant answer the phones. This is a multi national scale corporate with £billions, how can it n0ot have solved this by now? There comes a point where there is such a consistent under-resourcing of customer facing telephone operatives I now wonder what is driving this. There appears to be a concerted effort to completely avoid talking directly with customers over the phone by making it utterly impossible to get through to them

[RobD42]

@MAW Totally agree. Their customer service is dire. I had to send 10 emails from differing email addresses just to get a reply to a simple question.

[meldrewreborn]

@RobD42

The queues would be shorter is people did some simple research and not bothered customer services for straightforward matters. I've posted before that most people want to contact customers services via the telephone, but Eon Next seem to want everyone to use social media or similar avenues which, while they operate 24/7, often don't give an immediate response. Personally I hate chat lines - especially when a chat bot is on the other end - next to useless in my opinion. I don't think that right, but the only thing we can do if we're not happy is complain to OFGEM and/or walk away to another supplier with a better reputation - its not as if the prices are significantly different.

But customer services is essentially free, so it gets abused. Anything being given free is abused, it’s human nature. Freebies at train stations, outside sports rounds, in hotels offering half board with virtually unlimited breakfasts are examples i can think of. I recently watched the film "heavens above" on talking pictures. Although clearly fictional the film accurately summed up human nature when free food was provided by a misguided Vicar. I've personally cleared out the homes of 4 relatives and found cupboards crammed full with unused prescription medicines, but still collected because they’re free.

This post was quite substantially edited on 17/10/23 because somebody reported the initial version. that post, although accurate, engendered some adverse reaction. So I've expanded the post to make my point crystal clear.

[MAW]

Originally Posted by meldrewreborn

@RobD42

the queues would be shorter is people did some simple research and not bothered customer services. But customer services is essentially free, so it gets abused. Anything being given free is abused, it’s human nature. Pensioners cupboards are often crammed full with unused prescription medicines not taken, but still collected because they’re free.

Customer service is not "essentially free". What a strange way to view things. Fine, for my business I will start charging customers who call us. We'd be bankrupt in a week and so would these jokers if they weren't supplying a vital service and anybody had any real choice.

[retrotecchie]

@MAW

Customer service is free at the point of use in exactly the same way as the NHS is. Next time you're in a queue on the phone, be glad your not laying on a trolley in A&E for 14 hours with six broken ribs and a ruptured spleen as I was just recently.

[meldrewreborn]

@MAW

you can switch to any number of other suppliers - customers should vote by switching if they’re not happy. Unless customers are on a good fixed deal ( remember them ?) there’s nothing tying them to this supplier.

but there are two sides to every story, customer service here is not at all good because of E.On Next not employing sufficient staff, and not fixing issues first time. And their handling of the £400 discounts over 6 months was and is atrocious given they had months to prepare.
I read today about the crush at a Brixton music venue. The focus of the local MP was on the actions of the police - no criticism of the thousands turning up without tickets. It takes two to tango so I’m told.

[MAW]

@retrotecchie nope. Just want a huge multi national for-profit business thats worth £billions to employ enough trained staff. thats all. Got nothing to do with the NHS.

[retrotecchie]

@MAW

Firstly, E.On Next are a separate British-registered subsidiary of the German E.On group. They are not a multinational.

Secondly, if you check their returns at Companies House, they are not even breaking even right now. Under normal circumstances they are not technically even a 'going concern' if it wasn't for the fact they do provide an essential service and their costs of buying in energy are currently being underwritten by the Treasury.

I agree that their customer service leaves much to be desired, but having taken on customers last year following the failure of three other companies (not through choice but as 'supplier of last resort') plus sheer volumes of traffic they are coping with right now, much of which doesn't even need customer service intervention...I'm not surprised they are struggling.

I would expect that this forum could deal with at least 60 percent of routine questions, freeing up precious resources for more urgent enquiries.

[meldrewreborn]

@MAW

Everybody wants things to be better, what is your recommendation as to how to achieve that in this instance?

[MAW]

@retrotecchie eh? a UK subsidiary of a foreign company is by definition part of a multi-national. I'm a trained business analyst. Accounts lodged at CH in the UK are the greatest works of financial engineering in human history. They can mean anything they want them to mean.

Energy Live News August 2022.

"E.ON makes more than £3bn in profit in first six months"

EON operates in Germany, UK, Romania, Hungary, Sweden, Poland, Slovakia and others.

It is heavily involved in renewables (which are nothing of the kind of course, we all now know that is a nonsense to rip off the taxpayer) which means vast govt subsidies and our money into their pockets.

Wake up.