Just had a parcel non-delivery...
...French chronopost. Said our address was incomplete or incorrect. Balls, Google Map knows exactly where it is as it was written. Anyway, got an SMS inviting me to call a number. Had a weird code so I looked up a very useful site that gives the real equivalent to premium rate calls.
Answered by a machine with a list of options, none of them being "WhereTF is my parcel?". So I waited, spoke nothing, pressed nothing. After three rounds of automated menus, it decided to pass me on to customer services.
Ring, ring, ring... (in French) "Thank you for calling, we anticipate answering your call in about twelve minutes".
The entire call, because they couldn't be bothered to try to find out where our address was, was about 16 minutes.
For this reason, I will not use Chronopost again. A 24hr delivery took 48h and 16 minutes on the phone (10 of which waiting to speak to somebody). Normal "Colissimo" takes around 48-72 hours and our post woman knows us, so...
As Harry says, UK call centres are only a tiny part of the picture. Between you and me I don't care if the person taking my call is in the same country, or even on the same planet, so long as they are prompt, efficient, and get the problem sorted. That's what matters to customers.
I don't need it in 24 hours when the regular post van "colissimo" takes 48ish.