Hellopeter - your opinion?

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luxe

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Hi,

What's your opinion of companies who do or don't reply to complaints on hellopeter.com?

Does it affect your choices to see that companies do or don't reply to complaints? Is hellopeter.com for people who cant google a helpline number, or is it a valuable source of information for a frustrated consumer?

Is hellopeter.com catering for lazy complainers or is this something the consumers need?
 
I won't use that site.

As far as I'm concerned it's blackmailing companies to have to pay to respond to their customers.

Every time I have had a problem, I have had it resolved by speaking to the company directly.
 
Pooky - I must say I agree with you. Interested to hear if anyone else feels differently?
 
I think one should ignore the comments if there is one or two. But if there are 10's or 100's of complaints or positive feedbacks then a trend emerges
 
I hardly ever use it, but it's useful to checkup on companies before purchasing.

Although, for example Takealot messed up the delivery dates. Phone the call centre, agent cannot help me. Request for a manager/supervisor. Agent stated that a manager will call me back. 45 minutes later, no call. I log a complaint on Hellopeter. 10 minutes later I receive my phone call from the Complaints manager who sorts me out. So yes, it does have its uses.

Also, I have seen alot of companies respond via the facebook plugin.
 
It serves a purpose. Unfortunately Peter Cheales has adopted an approach that serves mostly in his interests, but that's neither here nor there I suppose. It does serve add value for a customer and if used correctly, can add value to a company...
 
ever try complaining about Hellopeter on hellopeter - they'll shut you down in minutes.

Glorified extortion. Worse is customers who abuse this to get their way.

Eg. we had a guy who bought the wrong item. He pops a complaint on hellopeter, never once bothering to inform us that he wants to swop it out, just assumes we are going to give him a runabout.

Deal with *******s like this on a regular basis. Heck many a time we have a customer walk into our store saying **** like "you better give me a good deal or i'll report you on hellopeter" - "if this does not fit my car, i'll report you to hellopeter"

I'm all for public naming and shaming, but if folks dont even attempt to contact the company, then in this case the customer is NOT always right. More so when they use HP to threaten and get things to an unfair advantage.

lol, should create GoodbyeJoe type website to name and shame difficult customers.

Then you get these nitpickers - the types who expect a fast food joint to provide Micheline star restaurant service.
 
It resulted in positive results for me on 3 occasions after I had several telephone and email conversations with the companies involved and had no luck with them.

I also have posted a couple of positive comments.
 
naeem said:
I'm all for public naming and shaming, but if folks dont even attempt to contact the company, then in this case the customer is NOT always right. More so when they use HP to threaten and get things to an unfair advantage.
Click to expand...

I totally agree, but then again, customer service in general is appalling in South Africa, which may have created the notion to use HP as a weapon and not allow a fair chance to companies to demonstrate its capabilities.

I have had my fair share of grievances with the larger companies such as MTN, being a prime example. Going through the correct channels has allowed me access to competent individuals within the company which I now always deal with for any queries that do crop up from time to time with acceptable turnaround times and matters being laid to rest.

Demanding people resorting to using HP as some sort of threat mechanism when queries / issues do arise is not acceptable though. GoodbyeJoe sounds like an awesome idea :D

It should also be in one's nature to give compliment's when a company does perform on HP - Karma and all that ;)
 
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I agree with naeem people are arseholes. They should give the company a chance before complaining on hellopeter.

No need to read company responses but the site is useful to gauge the reputation of a company before buying from them. Too many complaints means you shoul buy elsewhere.
 
I have used it and got the results I wanted from a cell provider after I tried everything else.

I have seen lots of abuse and unreasonable things going on though.
 
try this.

when reading customer complaints, click on the customers name and see their history of complaints/compliments. Should give a nice indication if the person has a legit grievance or is a serial complainer.

One time actually had a guy tell me "yeah i complain for everything with all companies, and they give me lots of stuff for free"
 
Yeah, Hellopeter is not a site I really like to use but about 2 years ago I got fed up with 8ta at Greenstone (that blonde woman there is (was?) really a ... not as helpful as she can be :erm: ), logged a complaint on Hellopeter and head office resolved my problem withing a couple of hours. So it has it's uses.
 
Use Twitter as an extension to your customer service channel. I think HP does not honestly reflect an objective view - you will hardly ever have people who take the time to pass on a compliment. Most complaints which turned into compliments could have been resolved if the user had contacted the company in the first place (or if the company used their customer service channels appropriately).
 
I use it as a last resort if all other attempts to resolve the issue with the company self has failed. Mostly use it on the banks though because I'd rather have the issue resolved than change provider. For most other issues, after failing to get it resolved, I just switch providers.
 
I dont use Hellopeter until the last resort or if I feel I;m being stonewalled by an idiot employee.

I used it successfully in a huge issue I was having with Citroen. I complained to the DP and his attitude was tough shlt, I complain to head office and it got forwarded to the DP who shrugged it off.
HelloPeter helped bypass the feedback loop.

Overall however I find there are way too many idiots who abuse it.
 
i think some companies are ignoring this site now. it's become a waste of time quite honestly. but i would say that it does help for those who want to see what smaller business is a no no.
 
I think the site has helped many clients and businesses over the years which is a big positive, at least there is an online option for us to use.
Perhaps the site needs an upgrade, MyADSL (MyBroadband) for instance has moved along with the times since it started over 10 years ago.

I have used Hellopeter a few times and had positive results with my Bank who was taking me for granted and standard responses when I made comment about a local fast food franchise.
What Hellopeter does not allow is an ongoing set of responses back and forth, while at first I thought it a nuisance as I would really like to make further input, my experience with forums like MyBroadband has enforced my notion that too many responses back and forth leads to trolling and unnecessary rehashing of the same content but with a different spin, in other words saying the same thing in different ways, you never reach conclusion.
 
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