Peter Renwick of Irish Boiler Services I Love You…

Last post you may have seen that I was impressed by young Peter Renwick of Irish Boiler Services – good customer service was my conclusion. Now let me tell you that this young man has that golden touch. So much so that I wasn’t entirely convinced that his actual technical work would be up to much – I mean, if the guy was so good at customer service could he also be a good engineer/technician?

Let me tell you a little story:
Year 2000 we gutted our new house and got a new plumbing system installed.
Year 2000 we discovered that the plumbing was, em, crap.
Years 2000 – 2008 we stuggled along… by late 2007 I could only ever have either a lukewarm shower or a shower with rotten pressure. I was miserable.
Years 2002 – 2006 we spent a small fortune replacing parts in the gas central heating boiler that had been destroyed by the leaking pipes. That fortune went to boiler repair men (Robert loved the name the Gas Man so much that he insisted on using them).
Last week when the boiler went puff the Gas Man didn’t answer his phone (for what is a fairly large company, a bit below par to still have the out of office hours message on the phone up to 9.45). I rang two other companies found in the golden pages. Company 1 told me it was unlikely that an engineer would be able to ring me back to make an appointment or discuss anything with me until after lunch and I’d be better to try someone else (hallo???). Company 2 – nice gentleman answered the phone, discussed the issues and told me that Peter would call me back within a half hour to see if he could help. Peter rang me back within a half hour and after discussing said he’d pop over in his lunch hour to see could he help.

Over he popped, took a look, hoped that a simple fuse change would work and re-arranged a few things for the afternoon to go find one and come back. Came back (with his brother Barry, an electrician) and discovered it didn’t actually help. We had a confab. He treated me like a human being, had great pride in his work, but offered to help however it was going to work best for us.

He gave me quotes for a) patching up the old boiler and repairing the pipe work (and I would have had a serious problem paying him as little as he was asking for) and b) replacing the pipework and the boiler with one that he could personally stand over. He said if we wanted to do a) we could get it done on Friday, but he’d reallly recommend b) and would need to give over all of Monday for it.

Tempting as it was to go with the Friday option – it’s a little chilly without central heating and limited hot water – we went for b). I trusted him as a professional – but still wondered if he could possibly also be as good technically as he was with customer service.

Peter and Barry came when they said they would on Monday morning, laid straight into fitting the new boiler in an impossible space. All done with great attitude, attention to detail, pride in their work and humanity. This evening, I came home pretty tired and a bit cold from getting tomorrows conference finalised – went to take a shower, stood under it and had to turn the heat setting down for the first time in 12 months and I’m telling you – I said out loud – Peter Renwick, I love you.

You got the point eh? He was there when I needed him (well, his company was). He treated me like an intelligent human being. He came over to me in his lunch hour and then re-arranged a few things to try and help. He was straight and honest. He did what he said he’d do. He even made sure to clean up all the debris and dust! He was human… And he was every bit as good technically as he was with customer service. If you need a plumber or a boiler man, I wholeheartedly recommend Irish Boiler Services. They don’t have a website, but you’ll get them on:

(01)2164396

(087)4183758

Tell them Sarah Says that they’re brilliant.

Thank You Times Two

So nice to be able to say thank you for a really good experience with not just one but two companies this week:

1. Kimpton Hotels – last year we booked to stay in one of their hotels in San Francisco – looked lovely, fantastic reviews on TripAdvisor. Booked a smoking room. Went about our business and the day before leaving lovely Las Vegas for SF checked up on the room. Found they had become a no smoking property. Rang them to confirm, and cancel. They had changed to being a non smoking property on the 1st of May, but had not contacted customers who had booked a smoking room, or even told us at the time of booking (March) that this was happening.

They did have a good ruse of sending emails to suggest that you upgrade your room – I got two of them between booking and arriving – so they had systems in place to be able to identify potential upgradees. Anyhow, upshot was that they refused to refund the first night fee as I only managed to cancel 20 hours in advance. I phoned and emailed and received a really unpleasant email back from the hotel marketing representative. The amount was debited from my card. Without taking them to court, I wasn’t going to get the 250 bucks back. Instead, I put it down to experience and tried to forget about it. grrr….

Then a week or so ago I received a cheery newsletter from Kimpton Hotels. I got a bit mad so I wrote back asking them to immediately unsusbscribe me -  I do blush when I read what I wrote (it was late at the end of a looong day) “You might consider not sending e-marketing to people who are already totally turned off you. I would never stay at a kimpton hotel after your money grabbing treatment of us last year”

Fair play to them – they got back within a couple of days and said they’d remove me, but could I please let them know what had happened… So I forwarded the e-mail thread, thinking I’d get more of the same. To my total astonishment I didn’t! I got a lovely e-mail from their director of operations, apologising unreservedly for how we had been treated. He said the charges would be reversed immediately and offered a complimentary stay if we’d give them another chance.

That’s good customer service.

Number 2: Our central heating blew up on Tuesday night – thank heavens it’s spring! I called three separate companies, only one came back to make an appointment within an hour. Peter from Irish Boiler Services arrived when he said he would, checked out the boiler, re-arranged his day to come back to try and put a fix in place. And made me feel like I was a valuable customer. He didn’t manage to fix it yet so we’re still a little chilly, but I feel he’ll do a great job.

That’s good customer service.

Doing Business Differently…

The UCD Quinn School of Business are hosting what looks like a very interesting public dialogue. Renegade builder Mick Wallace (is there any other type?) will be in conversation with journalist Sara Burke on the topic of “How well do ethical, political or moral obligations combine with business?  Can we do business ‘differently’? You may remember Mick Wallace from his No to Nice banner debacle, or if you’re into football, then he may be more familiar to you from that.

I’m looking forward to going along to thank Maeve Houlihan for the lovely basket of chocolate she sent to our office after we finished up the ILPC Conference with her. I mentioned Maeve before, as even before she sent more chocolate than one small office could eat over to us, she was high up in my list of people I’d love to work with again. Looking forward to meeting her finally on the 24th April.

This event is being jointly organized by the Equality Studies Centre within UCD’s School of Social Justice, and UCD Quinn School of Business collaborating through the UCD Egalitarian World Initiative – for more info see http://www.ucd.ie/ewi/