Sir, - I am one of the thousands who succumbed to the advertising campaigns and returned to my native Ireland to embrace the benefits of the Celtic Tiger. While it is great to be back among family and friends, my efforts to settle in and to get things organised have been severely hampered by the complete lack of customer service that I have witnessed since arriving.
We have just bought a brand new house and have spent the last month ringing around trying to get things organised to make it habitable. The attitude of companies that I have approached has dumbfounded me: from having kitchen units fitted ("there are other kitchen companies who could do it - you don't have to partake of our service") to installation of telephone (there is a six-week waiting list with Eircom. Their staff have not once returned my several calls, despite promising every time to do so); from having TV cable installed (NTL/Cablelink don't even know when cable can be installed and they're not really trying to find out either) to having furniture delivered ("between nine and five, Monday to Friday only - no weekend or evening deliveries"). The overall attitude has been that I am an inconvenience! In this past month I have witnessed a level of apathy on the part of these people that I find incredible. Do these companies, spoilt by the riches of the current era, find it so difficult to go back to the first principles of good business - dedicated customer service, gaining and retaining customer loyalty?
This attitude would not be tolerated in the UK as I know from experience. When I bought a property in London last year, various product and service providers were falling over themselves to get our custom. They were flexible enough to arrange delivery at times which suited us and not them. Their level of service was impeccable and word-of-mouth ensured that many of my friends and colleagues subsequently called upon them too.
The attitude of these Irish companies is very foolish. The boom times will not last forever and they would do well to remember and to facilitate the people who got them where they are today. Ironically, they spend millions of pounds on advertising campaigns whereas word-of-mouth is known to be as effective as - and a whole lot cheaper than - any ad campaign.
I'm glad I can e-mail this letter to you because even the post offices here close at lunchtime so as to cause maximum inconvenience to those working people who use them. They don't mention this in the ad campaigns. - Yours, etc.,
Gerard Reynolds, Ballycullen Road, Knocklyon, Dublin 16.