Over a month ago my 95 year old grandmother and I made a trip into London to attend a whiskey blending experience run by Chivas Regal. Both of us have a great love for whiskey and so we were both looking forward to the event. Unfortunately though, the event was cancelled less than 2 hours before the start time via an email, the email gave no reason for the cancellation but did offer to refund the tickets.

Of course, both of us were disappointed that the event had been cancelled but also in the way it had been handled. And so a quick email off to Chivas Regal resulted in an email correspondence for the next three weeks. It tuned out that they had not sold enough tickets to the event and so decided to cancel at the last minute. Now I won't bore you with the details of the following emails but they certainly were not responsive to my very politely worded emails. Anyway we arrived at an agreeable solution three weeks ago in which they were going to send some bottles of whiskey as compensation for the inconvenience and costs that we incurred. 

Two weeks ago, two bottles of whiskey arrived one for both my grandmother and myself. However upon opening the box we found that one of the bottles was missing its protective seal and that on later inspection the cap had been removed and then replaced. I don't know about you but neither my grandmother or myself are prepared to consume a product that has been opened before it arrived to us as we have no idea what would have happened to it before or how long it would have been opened. And so another email exchange happened with Chivas Regal where I explained the situation and I was promptly told that there was nothing to worry about and this happens a lot of the time as they open bottles in advance for their events and return what's left to the warehouse. Again I replied with our concerns. This was over two weeks ago and despite asking for a response I have now been given the silent treatment.

So this brings me to my original question, are big businesses incapable of providing excellent customer service? My experience over the last month with Chivas Regal would certainly point in that direction - after all who gives their customer who has a fair complaint the cold shoulder? Equally who would send out an already opened product without any warning - especially when it is provided to try and please an unhappy customer as a way of compensation? 

Maybe it is just bad luck but then have you ever tried to contact BT or British Gas about an issue? Are there any large organisations out there that provide excellent customer service? I would love to hear your thoughts.