xline-systems
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Darren, Andy here, thanks for taking the time to reply & explain and yes I did ask .As you read through this Andy, remember that YOU asked!!
I pop by for a cuppa with James at the shop (the old shop, not where you are now) and talking with James I ask the question 'If you know anyone looking for staff put a word in for me, dont care if it's WFP or Trad, I just need to work'
James then proceeds to tell me about his franchise plans, and how he will rent me a van and system for £150 per week along with £500 of work.
Well that's a winner, I landed right back on my feet and happy days..
'I just got a few things to tweak will be ready next week' James says.
Well next week comes, I call him up 'Oh yeah, just tweaking the round will be a few days'
Disappointed but still excited, 'No problem' I say
Call up a few days later but no answer, have to leave a voice mail......
Same again the next day, and the next and on it goes.
Finally someone at the shop answers asking to take a message claiming he's not about.
Now in a position where all my money is gone and there is literally not even a can of beans in the cupboard to feed my wife so I phone my old workmate at the commercial firm and ask if he can hook me up some trad gear, he gives me a squeegee, applicator and a couple of scrims. I go next door to my neighbour and ask if I can borrow the ladder he has bolted on the wall for a couple of weeks, he obliges. From there I literally start walking the neighborhood knocking doors offering to clean there and then.... a couple of weeks later I have a battered old Bora with roof bars and rock and roll, another month passes and I put together enough to buy a van and system, cant afford factory yet so DIY will suffice.
Driving along, my phone rings, IT'S JAMES! Hello James, 'Who's this?' he asks 'Darren Green' I tell him. 'Oh sorry' he says 'miss dialed'
I ask what happened to the van and work we had shook on? He gives me some bull about how his dad (Steve) had given it to an old school chum instead.
I hang up the phone and that's pretty much the end of my relationship with X-Line, to the point that I drive an hour past them just buy squeegee rubber let alone anything of value.
Its good to know that your business is doing well now and you are back on your feet, i say this genuinely, as no one wants to see others struggling or failing in this industry (at least I would hope not).
It is disappointing to hear about your story about the window cleaning job experience you had with James, I am sure his intentions were genuine at the time, and I'm sure you would agree before this experience you would have classed him as helpful and friendly.
From an internal point of view I would say this was probably caused by a lack of communication between James, Steve and yourself.
Its difficult for me personally to comment anymore as I work for Xline Systems, which is as you know is separate to the window cleaning business.
I was keen to hear why you felt our customer service 'was beyond a joke' and if this was from your experience of purchasing products from us, then having to deal with us afterwards regarding a customer service issue, but from your explanation above this does not seem to be the case.
The original question asked was about Xline Systems, and asking for feedback about our water fed pole systems and product range, I don't think its professional or helpful if every time someone asks this type of question on this forum you respond slating us without actually explaining the reality of the situation.
Taking a conversation over a coffee about a job coming up (in a totally different company to Xline Systems, which ultimately got filled by another person), to then commenting on our customer service level bares no relation in my eyes. I also don't see how this is helpful to the guy asking the question, as presumably he wants to hear from people who probably have experience using our products, or from actually dealing with Xline Systems customers services team (even if these are positive or negative).
If for example, you had another/separate business to your window cleaning one, and me and you were talking about a job opportunity at that business for me, if for whatever reason I did not get that job and I felt like I was somehow wronged, you probably would not appreciate it if I starting trashing your other business online at any opportunity just to ruin your reputation.
I can totally understand you are probably still bitter about what happened, but I think its been a few years since this happened and I would hope you could be more understanding and less critical, or at least take the time to explain to people why you are being critical.
I do think its a shame this one instance would stop you doing business with us again, as you are local, and we have changed a lot over the last few years. It would be nice if there was a possibility of repairing the relationship and us having the opportunity to prove to you that we do have a good product line up, and that we do actually care about our customers, their feedback and their true opinions.
Its true, our customer service reputation has probably not been the best in the industry in the past, but we have made and continue to make efforts to focus on this, improve and take steps to make sure we don't have repeat issues.
Again from an internal point of view I am keen to here feedback from people who like you say have spent thousands with us on a system to only find the customer services none existent. We do always aim to answer every call, respond to every enquiry, issue or message, we have dedicated phone lines for each department and dedicated people to take those calls. We are continually taking on more staff to cope with the demand as we are growing, but yes sometimes something may slip through the net, this is not intentional and is by no means like you say us screwing people over.
We have recently called up and surveyed every one of our system customers to ask them for their feedback on their experiences dealing with us and also how they have found the equipment. The vast majority of the people we were able to speak with were positive in their comments, any negative feedback was collated and new processes have been implemented to reflect these. Again we would not be hiding from the truth or not wanting to continually improve if we were only wanting to screw people over.
I did want to take the time to reply to yours and other comments on here, (even though we have not really spent much time talking with people on here recently) I wanted to do this in part to prove that we do care about our customers and our reputation, we do want to mend any broken bridges (if thats the correct way of saying that!), and that we are willing to raise our hands when we have failed.
Hopefully you will take my reply positively and not in any way argumentative. I'm also hoping we can let bygones be bygones and move on.
Andy