Very poor customer service (SVP Communications)

Member Name: TenThirteen

Product:	SVP Communications
Date:	08/10/08 (66 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Range and price of products

Disadvantages: Very poor customer service

Although their products are very good and prices competitive their customer "service" leaves a lot to be desired.

I tried (unsuccessfully) to contact them about an existing order - to add more items to it (more fool me!) so I needed to contact them urgently so the items could be added before my order status progressed onto "picked" and "packed" etc. I chose to contact them (or rather try to contact them) by telephone instead of email as waiting 24-48 hours for an email reply would have no doubt let the opportunity to add items to my order before dispatch go by.

Their only telephone number is an 0870 number (so 6p per minute during the daytime on BT lines) and their telephone system is a mess. There is one menu with option "1" to talk to an operator and option "2" to hear the menu again. Er, okay, yes I'd like to talk to someone please... After pressing "1" it rings five times before returning you to the main menu (such as it is!) where you need to press "1" again to try and talk to an operator.

After 40 minutes (!) you are then offered to leave a message (I suspect) but when I called (2pm on a week day afternoon, not a bank holiday or anything like that, just a regular day) I didn't get this option and was simply informed that the mailbox was full and I was subsequently disconnected.

Nice.

I spent 40 minutes on the phone on a 0870 number and I got to speak to no-one, there was no telephone queuing system and I couldn't even leave a message at the end of it all!

I hunted around their website and eventually found a "request a callback" form. I'm not holding my breath that they will bother to return my call. It must be a nice little earner for them to get customers to ring an 0870 number for 40 minutes and get nowhere.

What would have happened if there was a problem with an item I had ordered and I needed to arrange a refund or replacement? I have ordered about five times from this company now and their name 0870 number is listed on previous dispatch notes so they certainly don't offer a better telephone service to customers who have received their orders.

I won't be ordering from this company again and have now sought out the extra items I wanted from another website. I would advise others to consider my experience and what might happen if they needed to call regarding an order before using this company.

Summary: Will not be returning as a customer