The worst customer service in Bahrain part two

In Bahrain I experienced some of the worst customer service in the world. From Gulf Air, the National Carrier of Bahrain, always late , never an announcement or apology. BBK- long queues to pay money into the bank. NBB- no on line banking if you do not have a mobile phone. Alosra- food that goes off in a few days and when you complain they tell you to bring it back and they will exchange it. Bapco- shway shway ( slowly slowly) the Bapco way, is another example of appalling internal customer service from cancelling appointment at the hospital/dentist. They also cancelled many  Physio without letting me know many times.

The worst problem was when you had to jump through hoops and send chase emails to get expenses paid, get a new CPR card or new driving license or your pay corrected when money is deducted in error. 

My ex boss , Peter, had a theory , and after 11 years there I think he was right- it is not done deliberately. He explained that the systems are so old ( even when you make them electronic) and the schedule of authorities are so low, that no one wants to step out of line.

As Phil Gregory would say-" its the systems , not the people that are bad Neil."

Peter said that in the end you get so fed up trying to get the 5 bd you are owed that you just give up, and with 3,000 employees if they all give up on trying to reclaim 5 bd that they spent on behalf of the company, that's a lot of money saved. Maybe that's why they do it. 

The thing that annoyed me was that in most cases it was my money that I had spent, in agreement with my boss, to get a gift for my delegates, and then I could not claim it back. One example was the first year on ILM when we agreed to buy 30 gifts at 5 bd for the delegates. I spent two days buying and wrapping the gifts, in my own time, and put in an expense claim for 150 bd. Two months later ,after my vacation, I chased why I had not been reimbursed the money. Because you can only claim 50 bd at a time. Why? To avoid Fraud!  So why did they not tell me that up front? Believe it or not I had to resubmit it as three claims for 50 bd and then they paid it , three months after I spent the money!

However all of this pails into insignificance against the worst case of customer service in the world, from Batelco, the Bahrain Telephone company, and their contractor , Bnet, who now supply the network for all the phone companies in Bahrain.

Back in April 2020 , as COV 19 was spreading I was asked to work from home but told I must use the Bapco email system and Microsoft teams. This has a two stage authentication. After you sign it it dials your telephone number and you press a key to authenticate and then it will let you sign in on your computer to the Bapco system. 

My authentication was set to dial my work number but eventually I got IT reset it to my home number. The phone rang, I answered and pressed the key and then the system hung up. So I could not connect. I was told to return to my office to  work. 

I called IT and they asked me to take in my router and said it was so old it was unsafe and asked me to buy a new one. I also got a new printer as the old one had to have cartridges sent from the UK and was very expensive for daily use.

Everything worked fine but the authentication still did not work so they called Batelco and asked for a line upgrade to my line . All the paperwork was signed off on 2.4.2020 and I was told the work would be done in 10- 14 days.  On 23 April the work was still not done and so I went away for 2 weeks vacation. When I returned there was no internet at all.

On 14 May I wrote back to IT who wrote to Batelco who said they were  ready to change the line to fiber but the order was rejected as I was not contactable. I replied to say I was always contactable either at home or work and gave them the numbers .  Layla , in Bapco IT, who used  to work for Batelco, wrote again to the Enterprise account manager at Batelco who looks after the Bapco account asking them to contact me .

No one called ( I have a missed call indicator and a friend was staying in my house. I called again on 27th May to be told the work was done and I had to upgrade my router. I checked with Kevin in IT and he said if the work was done I would have a new Batelco router connected to the fiber cable .

I called on 28th May and they said the order was cancelled on 17 May as they tried to call me and I did not answer. I asked what number they called on and they said 39598256, my mobile that was stolen 5 years earlier and not one of the numbers I had given them . They apologized, said they would update their system and someone would call me on 28th May. They never did.

I chased again in 4th June, they confirmed the order was still active and that they would email the contractor my numbers and ask them to call me. I said I had been promised that 3 times in a month and no one had called. I asked to be put through to the relevant people and they said they were on a break for an hour or so as they were not answering, I asked to speak to a Manager and was asked to call 196 again as they could not transfer me , and then I was put on hold and cut off.

I explained on 11.6.2020 that they had charged me two months internet that I did not have. I went through the whole situation again and they promised to call back in an hour and fix it that weekend . They called the next day at home and said they were on the way, and finally on 12th June Bnet arrived , with a new router, connected to a fiber cable and I was at last reconnected to the Internet.

I never got the refund for 2 months without internet, and like Bapco, just gave up chasing it!

That is customer service in Bahrain. As my friend Pav in Dubai said when I first came here and complained, why bother, they wont do anything about it!

I hope the customer service in the Philippines is better!

This is the British Kabayan signing off.... Ingat Palagi and Kita kits