Whiplash

On the way into work I was on a roundabout doing probably less than 20mph and signalling correctly when a truck came on to the roundabout and didn't stop.

Fortunately I saw him and yanked my wheel to the right so instead of hitting me square on at 90 degrees in the passenger side, he side swiped me and I ended up on the humpy bit in the middle of the roundabout with both passenger doors damaged.

When I got out of the car immediately after the accident, I was shaking slightly (the shock at bouncing off a HGV where the wheel was almost as tall as my car) but felt otherwise OK, exchanged insurance details and went into work.

That afternoon I had a headache and my neck felt a bit sore and by 8pm my neck, back, arms and leg were throbbing and I woke several times that night in pain despite some paracetamol.

Occupational Health at work referred me for physio and I've since had three sessions but almost three weeks on I'm still in pain. My neck and back just ache constantly and I have a permanent head ache. None of these great three weeks into a new job with an extensive commute. I still wake up at least twice each night and have to try sleeping in a more comfortable position. Sadly I'm not a bat and can't hang by my feet from the rail in the wardrobe as I've tried just about every other position.

Why am I sharing this? Well, yes, I have whiplash. The Occupational Health nurse, the Physiotherapist and the Massage guy (I'm sure he has a more impressive job title too) have all confirmed it.

I always thought people just made it up but for a low speed impact I can't believe how much it's impacted my life. I'm doing the exercises I've been told to by the Physiotherapist but been told there could be little improvement for two or three months. Good news if you work for a leading ibuprofen manufacturer though as I must have boosted your sales no end.

I've been in car accidents before and never had this so I can only put it down to the angle of the accident as when you're hit from the back or front the headrest does its job but from the side has little protection.

So the next time you read about fraudulent whiplash insurance cases, spare a thought for the genuine whiplash injuries. I wouldn't wish this on anyone.

(Written at 2am whilst microwaving a heat pad and taking some ibuprofen)

Thought for the day

Wouldn't the world be a nicer place if the majority did that?

Customer Service Highs & Lows

I am a "Customer Service Professional" and have been pictured on the cover of the Institute of Customer Service as a "Customer Service Pioneer" so it is something I am passionate about.

It still surprises me how good and how bad the customer service I experience from large companies is and so I thought I would share a few examples of the good, the bad and the bit odd here with you.

1. Marks and Spencer.

I bought three suits from Marks and Spencer two years ago. All three were similarly priced at around £120.

They all had the same wear and went to the same dry cleaner. Two were still perfect yet the third started showing specs of white which turned out to be elastic threads coming out of the cloth.

I sent the suit back to M&S as I thought it might be useful that the cloth used in this suit hadn't lasted as well as the others. I had worn the suit for two years though and so this was just for their information when selecting cloth for future suits.

They wrote back with an apologetic reply and much to my surprise enclosed vouchers for £120 towards a new suit. I bought three and will continue to buy their suits. Very happy customer.

2. NTL (now Virgin Media)

I had my cable television provided by NTL and as I was moving to a new address where they didn't have service, phoned them to cancel my service. Theh said that they would need to collect my cable box (receiver that plugs into the outside cable and the television) and would call the following Monday. I took time off work and they never came.

This happened two more times. I offered to drop it off at their depot three streets away. They refused. I offered to drop it off at their shop in the local mall. They refused. I left it in a bag on the doorstep and they still didn't collect it.

I asked whether I could just bin it and was told that if I did then I would be fined £100. So I took it off the doorstep and wrote to them saying I was going to charge them £100 a month for the safe storage of their equiptment if they didnt collect it by the end of the month. They didn't so I sent them an invoice.

A month passed and so I sent them a second invoice and a reminder that payment for the first invoice was overdue. No reply.

Another month passed and so a third invoice was sent with no reply.

So I took them to the small claims court and was awarded in my favour as they didn't respond to the court summons. They didn't pay either so I paid a small additional sum for court bailiffs to recover the money and their fees, which they duly did.

I repeated this three month cycle another two tines invoicing £900 in total. I suspect I could have carried on indefinitely had (a) I hadn't got bored with doing it, (b) binned their cable box having been at my new address for 6 months and (c) NTL ceasing trading with the business being bought out. Not at all surprising really.

3. Orange or Everything Everywhere as they've now named themselves

I had been an Orange customer for ten years running up a contract mobile phone (cell phone) bill of £50+ a month.

I went on holiday to Turkey and on my return found I had a bill for £1000 for data roaming services despite having a travel pack I'd paid for limiting my exposure to £150. They eventually refunded me despite having taken the full amount out of my bank account. Thankfully I have an extensive overdraft facility so bank charges were minimal. Getting the refund was an ordeal though with hours on hold and speaking to a non UK call centre.

So I asked them to unlock my IPhone so I could use a Turkish sim card when in Turkey and not incur huge data roaming charges with Turkey not being in the EU.

Three times they said they would.
Three times they said when they would.
Three times they didn't.

So I thought I'd email a complaint into them but for a telecoms company they don't have a customer service email address.

So I wrote to them.
Three times.
No reply ever received.
I'm now with Vodafone.

4. Burger King.

I had a really nice burger meal. In Heathrow airport. The food was quick and not, the staff friendly and even came out from behind the counter to clean my table for me - not that it was dirty but I appreciated the effort.

I decided to phone their customer service number displayed on a poster on the wall.

"Hello, Burger King customer services - what's your problem and I will try and help you?"

I told them what a great meal I'd had and great service too.

A pause followed, some background muttering as the customer service person consulted with a colleague and I was then transferred to a supervisor who took my details and said the branch manager would be thanked.

After I came back from my trip there was a letter of thanks waiting for me and some vouchers to use for future purchases. Seems people don't often contact companies to tell them of good service so if you experience some, let them know.

5. EA Games.

I like playing Scrabble. I have always liked playing Scrabble and when I discovered there was an official online Scrabble app I was really pleased. Well, I was initially. 

The app allows you to play friends you are connected to on Facebook. Great - so I searched for my friend in Canada and couldn't find her. I emailed customer support at EA Games. I got back a standard email referring me to their FAQs which didn't answer my question. I emailed them again and got the same reply.

At the end of every turn they display an advertisement which you can pay a sum of money not to view. I didn't mind closing an advertisement after every turn until they started using video advertisements some of which I was expected to view for a few minutes after every turn. The same advertisement for the TSB Bank over and over.

I saw whilst on Facebook that I could pay not to view these advertisements so I did. However the payment didn't include the advertisements on the Scrabble mobile app which continued. I emailed EA Games as it wasn't clear when I paid the money that the mobile ads wouldn't be stopped. I got the same FAQ email again. So I thought I'd call them but there was no telephone number. Not even in the FAQ.

So I've stopped playing. Hopefully others who are unhappy will too. There's a great game called Quizup on Android and IPhone so that's what I now play.

And to EA Games... my message would definitely be, and please pardon my language, FA-Q!