Letter: Next customer services? No thanks…
Wednesday 18th May 2011, 9:51AM BST.
Letter: Today I went to our Next store in the Pride Hill Shopping Centre looking for a particular child’s nightdress.
I wasn’t successful but a rather pretty pyjama set was put aside for me just in case I could not find elsewhere what I was looking for.
I was successful Marks & Spencer and Mothercare, therefore I wanted to let Next know that I wouldn’t be needing the set that had been put aside for me.
However, by this time I was rather tired and thought I would phone them when I got home rather than returning to the store in person.
And now it comes. . . wait for it.
The entry in the local telephone directory says “Next Retail Ltd, Unit 9, Upper Mall, Pride Hill Shopping Centre, Shrewsbury… 0844 8445391″.
I dialled this number and was connected to someone in India.
The Indian voice couldn’t understand what I wanted, and after repeating my request I was told he did not have the number.
I was furious.
What a devious practice to increase the cost of a local call.
Has the world gone mad or is it just me not understanding modern business methods?
I am certainly not accepting it and shall pursue the matter if I can find the address for Next’s head office.
Hopefully it is in the UK.
Mrs I Barnes
Shrewsbury
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Search Next company hierarchy off the internet and fire a furious letter off to the company chairman. He’ll light his cigar with it but don’t forget to tell him/them you have sent copies to your MP and any relevant government departments, Which magazine, etc etc..
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Shop small and shop local next time, very few of the national chains give a damn about your need to call them, they care even less about the thousands of jobs pulled from the UK and sent abroad. Sadly our council seems determined to push under small retailers in favour of chain stores with bright lights, flashy adverts and the money to overdevelop any greenfield site of their choosing.
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‘Shop small and local’……………and pay twice the price!
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I take it Mrs I Barnes isn’t web savvy at all. She should have looked at say no to 0870 which gives direct numbers for those frustrated with national phone codes. As far as Telephone directories go, I cannot be bothered with them as they are never up to date.
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Not all Non Geographic Numbers (NGNs) terminate on physical phone lines. These days, many are purely Voice over IP (VoIP) so there is no alternative landline number.
In any case, that wouldn’t help to find a direct number for the Shrewsbury store. It’s feasible (or rather highly likely) that Next stores don’t have phone lines or phones in the traditional sense; there would be no point in this day and age, when their phones can simply be SIP extensions (IP-telephony term, analogous to a traditional phone extension), routed over their data network (the same one that carries their email, EPOS data, etc.), with no external DDI number to reach them.
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What?
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Well that will help an old lady who knows little about the web, call centres, 0844 numbers etc!!
I know more than enough to get by but your post could win an award
Have to say i knew nothing about the ‘Say No To 0870′ website but now i do and having looked at it i will use it every time i’m given a faceless 0844 or 0870 number.
PS the Say No To 0870 website lists a Shrewsbury number for the Meole Brace store (but not Pride Hill)
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Try looking at SAYNOTO870 they give alternative numbers looking at the number you gave they have a 01743 number
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Why bother doing anything about it? its a pointless moan.
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Spot on Andrew, its just a waste of effort her writing it and me reading it. I’ll never get that time back!
I have reserved an item from Next in Pride Hill in the past but had the forethought to ask for the phone number then.
This really is a pointless whine!
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Because some people have too much time on their hands. Not enough to walk the 4-5 minutes between M&S and Next though!
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Would Mrs Barnes have been so irate if the person she spoke to was in any of the British regions with strong dialects, and had equal difficulty understanding her? I accept the need to be able to contact a local store by traditional use of a telephone, but this sniffs of something else to me, and not just the cost of the call.
Call me cynical but I doubt very much whether a letter to the Shropshire Star would have been penned were it not for the Indian element to this complaint.
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It’s a shame that the store should offer such good service, but that it should be undermined by the remote and ineffective nature of the company’s “customer service” department. You need to write to:
Lord Wolfson of Aspley Guise
Chief Executive
Next plc
Desford Road
Enderby
Leicester
LE19 4AT
Be polite and constructive, and be sure to mark the envelope “Private and Confidential”
If you want to confirm this info, visit http://www.nextplc.co.uk
Go for it! I’d be surprised if you don’t receive a positive response because it is very fair criticism as far as I’m concerned.
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what a moan and over reaction, they seem to have done everything they can to help you, putting the item aside, they cant legislate for your laziness in not going back to the store to cancel the item.
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That number is for customer service in terms of the business as a whole, such as filing a complaint or seeking information.
If you actually go to the store locator on the official next website, you will find the local store number.
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