Technology is a saviour for any company that has to deal with large amount of data, but in the same time any technology can introduce bugs and inoperative systems that can create problems and disappoint customers.
When the a system is not working properly, the customers complain and the support team has to deal with the complain and solve it in one way or another, but what is most important is to make the customer happy.
I have been a RAC customer for an year already.
Before the end of the membership for this year interval, with about 20 days before the end of it, I went into the app and saw a message saying that because I am a loyal customer, I can choose a reward.
From 2 options (I don't remember the second option) I chose "1 Month Free breakdown cover" as I was happy to know that I will have to pay for the next membership year, a month later than usual.
I received an email with the confirmation - here is the email content
| Congratulations, Mr Surname |
| You've now selected your FREE loyalty reward. So you can sit back, relax and enjoy even more peace of mind.Here's a quick reminder of the loyalty reward you chose. 1 Month Free breakdown cover Enjoy an extra 1 month breakdown cover on us. Keeping you covered for longer. Just to confirm, we'll add your free loyalty reward to your existing membership within the next 5 days. If you've not reached your renewal date we'll process your loyalty reward shortly after this point. You'll then receive updated membership documents confirming your reward has been added to your policy, free of charge. Once again, thank you for choosing to stay with the RAC. It's great to have you with us. |
20 days later my membership expired.
I never received the updated documentation so I forgot about it, but on the first day after my membership expired, on a Saturday, I got a notification from my bank that the Direct Debit for my renewal RAC membership didn't go through because I didn't had enough money in my bank account.
I remembered then that RAC actually gave me a "1 Month Free breakdown cover" so the payment shouldn't have been happen anyway at that time, which made me happy that I had insufficient founds in my account.
Saturday and Sunday was impossible to solve the problem with RAC support team because they don't work over the weekends. The Direct Debit didn't go through, I couldn't find any way to retry the payment, in the bank app and in RAC account, and I also didn't got my loyalty reword as promised by RAC.
This situation made me be uncovered for that weekend and I was a very unhappy RAC customer.
I was thinking at all the possible break downs that can happen exactly when you expect less and exactly when you are not covered but it was nothing I could do.
That initial feeling that made me get the cover "for the peace of mind" was exactly what it was not happening at that moment.
I had to wait until Monday to call RAC support which I did first thing in the morning!
I talked first time with a men from RAC Manchester who tried to convinced me that the "1 Month Free breakdown cover" was actually not for the membership that just ended but for the new year one.
I told him exactly what it was saying on the email and that I did the selection for the loyalty reword 20 days before my membership to end, but he didn't agree so he said he will redirect me to another team (I don't remember the name).
What he actually did was to return me to the robot where I can select again what department to reach.
So he basically got rid of me!
I called again and a support lady answered this time. I was happy to head a different person voice thinking that maybe this support agent can solve the problem faster.
In the meantime I have been told that the Direct Debit payment went trough this time so my new membership started.
This pissed me off even more because the new payment shouldn't been happen until my "1 Month Free breakdown cover" ended.
So I started to identify myself for the second time to this new support agent.
I told her the problem, as I did with the first support person, but again she tried to convince me that I didn't got a month for free for the membership that just ended but for the new one.
In the same time, the new membership didn't had the end date updated to 1 year plus 1 month for free.
It was covering still only 1 year.
After a few minutes of contradiction, this lady support agent muted her microphone and let me talk alone until I realised I was the only one talking. She stayed muted for about 10 minutes when I was just waiting. I thought that maybe she told me to "Hold on" to clarify something with one of her colleague. But it wasn't that and after about 10 minutes of waiting she closed the call.
A third agent from Bristol this time answered.
This person was much more understanding and he didn't contradict me.
He understood that 20 days before my membership to end I received a confirmation email that I will get 1 months for free and it will be added to the current membership.
He had a chat with his manager and he returned to me. He told me that because my previous membership expired he can't add the 1 months reword now to the previous membership.
I told him to cancel my current membership and then add it. I will have time 1 month to think if I still want to continue to get a RAC cover because I can also choose from the competition.
He went back to his manager and he returned with a discount.
He told me he will add a month for free to the new membership year and he will do a discount for about £60 for the new membership.
I said "OK" and I was happy with that solution provided.
But I will never forget:
More than that I was unable to redo the Direct Debit payment on Saturday morning until the problem was solved just to be covered and have peace of mind.