Today I got a call from INEOS - which was a new experience again.
The guy which called me is named Philip. First of all, he seemed to talk in a language I never heard before. And since I do not tell my name before an unknown caller introduces himself, I was for a moment on the edge to hang up. But then I recognized the word "INEOS". Aha.
It turned out that Philip is a native African and so is his pronunciation: African English at it's hardest.
This is not an insult, on the contrary: He was very friendly and humorous, a really nice guy. Nevertheless, that was one of the hardest African pronunciation I have ever heard. He natively comes from Rwanda - or Uganda, that was unfortunately not to understand exactly.
I am actually quite fluent in English and have learned to deal with Italians, Irish, Indians and other challenges. But ok, I got a call from INEOS, after all.
He didn't know a single word of German, so of course I introduced myself in English, and bit by bit it became clear what it was all about.
I had, and this was certainly three weeks ago, asked Customer Support where you can actually order spare parts, and how you can get the spare part numbers. In my request I had also explained that I was looking for a direct sales channel without an agent that I could use from anywhere in the world.
It turned out that my request could not be processed because the ticket system needs a "problem" in the sense of a defect or error, and therefore no ticket could be created .... (and I got the stupid answer that they
"regret the incidence ... blabla ...").
The call was apparently made because I had written another, somewhat more clearly worded email to INEOS last week.
It took him a moment to understand that there was no such problem, but that I'm just looking for another grab handle for the A-pillar on the driver's side.
In fact he had apparently called my agent and asked why the handle was missing or removed from my car ....
After some back and forth I got the answer that spare parts
MUST ALWAYS be ordered ONLY FROM THE AGENT. That would be binding.
He also gave me a name for the after sales business, which I had never heard before: Leif Scholz, spelled and read back in the international alphabet
"Lima-Echo-India-Foxtrot ..."
I must emphasize once again that this was a really nice guy. But if you are not fluent in English and understand really hard dialects, you will have a hard time.
The whole thing raises -not only in terms of content- several questions:
- How can Ineos assign someone without a word of German to contact a customer in Germany who can't a priori be assumed to speak English at all?
- And even if he did, the conversation would very likely have failed from the start, given the particular communication problems. INEOS, you are really doing EVERYTHING wrong. This is unbelievable.
- On the subject of distribution channels: surely INEOS can't be serious about forcing us to go to agents for every bolt?
- On the subject of prices: I wanted to know whether INEOS sets fixed prices for spare parts, or whether the prices are set by the dealer in the manner of a lord of the manor? He could not give me an answer, and pointed me to the name "Leif Scholz".
Now we know that the answers of the support can only be as good or wrong as the people behind the support. I therefore still have the hope that direct orders are perhaps possible.
If not, then I'm
really pissed off at how we should be screwed here. And on the subject of spare part numbers and drawings came then only the reference to the dealer.
My question to you:
- what is you take on this?
- how can we build up pressure so that the agent compulsion for spare parts is cancelled?
- who knows the name Leif Scholz?
- who knows another name to which one can turn ?
I have great faith in the "democracy " of fellow enthusiasts!!
