The LPT Helpline! (warning rant)

I've pre-registered for a one off payment, and was happy enough with using the site. However I realised I didn't get an email or any acknowledgment. (i'm doing this at the moment for my mother which is why it came to mind).

Anyway I rang the LPT helpline yesterday, and despite having my PPSN, PIN and Property ID, the guy got my name wrong, and gave me details of a property that is not mine and a valuation. We cleared that up.

So I asked him was it protocol to send any email after registering. He replied that he didn't know as it was just a general information line. I pointed out that this was general information, whereas he'd given me specific information about a property that I didn't know in a complete stranger's name. He replied he still didn't know. So I calmly asked if he could enquire. No, he wasn't 'empowered'.

Now, I wouldn't normally overreact but I had been an hour on the phone about my dad's medical card. So when he asked if he could help with anything else, I lost it and said 'I doubt it, you've been no help in this'. Hung up. AND HE RANG BACK through my caller id and said he felt violated and bullied!

I have not gone back to the LPT online facility since I registered about 3 weeks ago other than to check to see was it set up a few days later but from what I remember when setting up my payment by SDA for multiple properties I had to give my email address and there was a tick box facility to request an email acknowledgement. I checked my LPT online facility a few days later and I could see that it was showing as set up. I got an email almost immediately showing that I had it set up and I could print it off if I wished

AND HE RANG BACK through my caller id and said he felt violated and bullied!!!

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You should have told him you felt intimidated...and that your privacy was being violated.

It was very cheeky of him to ring you back.

So when he asked if he could help with anything else, I lost it and said 'I doubt it, you've been no help in this'. Hung up.

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I occasionally find myself apologising to someone in a call centre after losing the head with them in frustration. They are often just repeating what they are told. They don't set the policy, although it's very odd if he can't make that enquiry for you. The correct thing to do would have been to ask for his supervisor.

Brendan

Brendan, I have found from experience that outsourced call centres for government departments can do absolutely nothing as they have no authority to do anything.

A prime example is the medical card line. It is outsourced and no one there can make any decisions at all. It might as well not exist.

I did ask for his supervisor which is where the 'I'm not empowered' comment came from.

My point was I was asking a general query (as to if acknowledgements are sent) to which he replied that it was a general information line and so couldn't help.

Surely a GENERAL query can be responded to by a GENERAL information line? And I'd already gotten SPECIFIC (wrong) information?

tough job in a call centre

amtc said:

I did ask for his supervisor which is where the 'I'm not empowered' comment came from.

My point was I was asking a general query (as to if acknowledgements are sent) to which he replied that it was a general information line and so couldn't help.

Surely a GENERAL query can be responded to by a GENERAL information line? And I'd already gotten SPECIFIC (wrong) information?

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Sounds like he didn't know the answer to your query, that he wasn't going to acknowledge this to you and wasn't going to be bothered asking anyone else in his office either to see if he could help you with your query.

To answer your query, there is an email box in the LPT, mine was there from last year, but you have to tick another box, to trigger it to send you an email. When the guys were designing this they said, what's the most complicated way to do this to frustrate people so that they ring our helpdesk with stupid questions that we cannot answer because we have not sat down at a computer and pretended to be the customer and see how we get on with the system.

And the general help desk was of no help to me either, I got passed to the 'head office' helpdesk. As far as I can work out there are two sets of helpdesks and there are loads of people in both.

In my case with a very nice girl, we both figured out how she could 'fix' the system for me. Which she did by deleting units that should not have been in there.

Re "I had been an hour on the phone about my dad's medical card. So when he asked if he could help with anything else, I lost it and said 'I doubt it, you've been no help in this'. Hung up."

Sounds to me like you were frustrated as a result of the medical card call, but you took it out on someone from the LPT helpline?!