In February 2006 I had to write to the chairman of British Telecom Sir Christopher Bland. I rent a handset from BT which went on the blink. BT came round and sorted out the problem and then tried to stiff me with a bill for £134.38
The problems leading up to my letter were vexatious to put it mildly but once the chairman’s office got hold of things my problem disappeared. It is amusing looking back that with a telecommunications giant like BT it was not a phone call or an email but a seemingly old fashioned form of communication; the letter that achieved the desired result.
“Furthermore your negligent service is such that in spite of all my efforts no-one has contacted me orally or in writing, apart from computerised reminders from your robotic, lacklustre and useless administrative machinery…………..The only crumb of amusement I can draw from BT’s shoddy and shameful behaviour are a couple of lines from Dr Johnson’s ‘Vanity of Human Wishes’, that would appear to reflect BT’s customer care policy:
Where then shall hope and fear their objects find?
Must dull suspense corrupt the stagnant mind?
Must helpless man in ignorance sedate
Run darkling down the torrent of his fate?”
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