Furious cellphone customer goes up the wall

IT TAKES a certain level of frustration to spend your hardearned cash on an advert savaging a big company in an age of free-flowing social media — but that was the fate that befell cellular operator Cell C this week.

A banner appeared outside a shopping centre on Beyers Naudé Drive, one of Johannesburg’s busiest roads, bearing Cell C’s insignia, stating “The most useless service provider in SA — Cell C Sandton City”.

The advert names the franchise manager, and says his executive head “refuses to assist the customer” and, presumably for anyone wishing to verify the story, lists that manager’s cell- phone number. He could not be reached for comment.

Cell C communications head Karin Fourie said her company was aware of the banner, and was trying to resolve the dispute — but would not provide details.

This is not the first time this has happened. A client of First National Bank (FNB) was so incensed he drove around with a trailer brandishing the bank’s logo, saying “FNB’s slogan sucks . . . I asked for help. No help given.”

And in 2005, Andy Gray took out an advert in the Cape Times to voice his anger at Land Rover SA, describing how his efforts at speaking to the car company were “rather like wading through deep molasses”.

Marketing analyst Chris Moerdyk said: “The level of service, particularly at retail level, tends to border on the pathetic.

“There are a number of reasons for this — the most popular reason is that staff are not properly trained, particularly in call centres and in stores,” he said.

Moerdyk said another problem is a “dysfunctional supply chain” in consumer products, where retailers often run out of stock, and sales people tire of having to defend an untenable position, so they run away.

“Imagine the level of frustration at having to spend money to be seen . . . people don’t complain about bad service because they have nothing to do,” said Moerdyk.