Why I complain (and why I also make a point of praising good service)….

I know some people hate complaining and would rather quietly grumble to themselves, write the money off and move on with their life than actually challenge a company when something goes wrong. Honestly, I’m not naturally someone who enjoys confrontation either – I promise that I don’t wake up in the morning hoping for an argument. 😂

But I do think there’s a difference between being difficult and expecting fairness.

I had a really frustrating experience recently with Sky and by the end of it I genuinely felt like I was losing my mind a little bit. It started with an overcharge on my account. Not a tiny little amount that I could shrug off either, but £47 that had been incorrectly taken. I opened an online chat thinking it would be a quick fix because surely they’d just look at the account, realise the mistake and sort it out.

Nope. The first person gave me information that turned out to be completely wrong before transferring me to someone else. The second person then told me he was going on his break in ten minutes, gave me different information and transferred me again when I pointed out that what he was saying didn’t even match the statements we were both supposedly looking at. By this point I’d already had to go through security checks and ID verification multiple times because every transfer seemed to start the whole process again.

Then the next person continued the same cycle with more confusion, more incorrect information and more “we’ll just transfer you”. At one point they offered me £10 compensation while still refusing to acknowledge the actual £47 they owed me in the first place. 😩 What made it even more frustrating was that I wasn’t asking for anything complicated. I had literally typed out the exact breakdown showing where the overcharge had happened. The numbers were right there on the statements. It wasn’t hidden or unclear. They just couldn’t seem to grasp it.

After almost two hours on chat, I was absolutely furious. Not just because of the money, although obviously I wanted my money back, but because I felt trapped in one of those endless customer service loops where nobody actually takes ownership of fixing the problem. Eventually they sent me a link to formally log a complaint and honestly, that was the moment I snapped a little bit. 😂

I didn’t want to wait days for someone to “investigate” something that was blatantly obvious. I knew I was right, I knew the charge was wrong and I knew exactly how much they owed me. So I did what any angry person with internet access does these days and searched online for the CEO email address for Sky before sending an email directly to the top. 😉

I know some people will read that and think it sounds dramatic or entitled but at that point I genuinely felt like I’d exhausted every normal route available to me. And you know what happened? I got a response the very same day from the executive complaints team. Within about sixty seconds on the phone they could see exactly where the mistake had happened and within another sixty seconds it was fixed. Refund sorted. Problem solved. Done.

Which honestly made the whole thing even more frustrating because it proved that it never should have taken two hours in the first place. The thing is though, I don’t think complaining is the problem. Poor service is the problem. Incorrect billing is the problem. Making customers jump through endless hoops when the answer is sitting right there in front of you is the problem.

I’ll absolutely complain when I think something is unfair, especially when money has been taken incorrectly. We work hard for our money and I’m not willing to just quietly let companies keep it because their systems are chaotic. But equally, I always try to make a point of praising genuinely good customer service too because I know how hard those jobs can be.

If someone goes above and beyond, I’ll leave a lovely review. I’ll mention names in feedback forms and I’ll tell managers when someone has been particularly kind or helpful. I’ve emailed companies before purely to compliment staff members because I know most people only contact them when something has gone wrong. Good customer service really does stand out these days because sometimes all people want is for someone to listen properly, understand the issue and take ownership of fixing it.

The executive complaints woman at Sky wasn’t magical. She just listened, understood the problem immediately and fixed it without making me feel like I was being unreasonable for expecting my own money back. That’s why I complain when I need to. Not because I enjoy it, but because sometimes if you don’t push back, nothing gets fixed.

On the flip side of all of this though, I also go completely out of my way to praise genuinely good customer service because I know how much of a difference positive feedback can make to someone working in those roles.

Customer service jobs can be hard work. Most people contacting you are already frustrated before the conversation has even started and I imagine that can be exhausting day after day. So when someone is genuinely kind, helpful and accountable, I think it’s really important to acknowledge that as well rather than only speaking up when things go wrong.

We actually had a completely different experience recently with EON when we moved house and needed to sort out our energy supply. Straight away, the whole process felt easier because we could contact them through WhatsApp rather than sitting on hold for ages or battling through endless automated systems. It sounds like a small thing but it instantly made everything feel less stressful.

What stood out most though was the actual attitude of the people we dealt with. They were friendly, approachable and seemed to genuinely want to solve the problem rather than just move us along to the next department as quickly as possible.

During the process, they actually made a mistake themselves when booking an on-site appointment for us. But the difference between that experience and the Sky situation was huge because they owned the mistake immediately. There was no awkwardness, no defensiveness and no attempt to gloss over it or pretend it wasn’t inconvenient. They apologised properly, explained what had happened and came back to us almost straight away with a solution.

Because of the way they handled it, it honestly didn’t even become a stressful situation. We felt listened to, respected and reassured that someone was actually taking responsibility for putting things right.

I think that’s what so many companies miss when complaints escalate. Most people are actually really reasonable when they feel heard. Problems happen, systems fail and humans make mistakes sometimes. Customers usually understand that. What frustrates people is when companies refuse to acknowledge the issue, make things unnecessarily difficult or leave customers feeling like they’re fighting to be believed.

The whole experience with EON left such a positive impression on me that I not only completed the feedback survey afterwards but I also emailed the CEO directly to explain how much I appreciated the service we’d received and how refreshing it was to deal with a company that made fixing a problem feel simple rather than exhausting.

I think it’s important to do that because good customer service deserves recognition just as much as poor customer service deserves challenging. If someone takes the time to genuinely help me, make my life easier or turn a stressful situation into a positive experience then I want them to know that it mattered.

I’d love you to follow me on Twitter and it would be amazing to see you over on my Facebook page and on Instagram. If you’re interested, you can find out more about me here and while I’ve got your attention, if you’re wondering why some of my posts lately are a little bit less frugal then have a read of this post. 😉

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