[Please note: If you are going to reply to this blog post with your own experiences of PowWow Water, be they bad or good, you might wish to read "A response to Blake Lapthorn, acting on behalf of PowWow Water"]

You might also be interested to know that it would appear Powwow Water has gone into administration

I don’t usually go as far as to rant in written form; I prefer a brief spout of verbal abuse into thin air. But there are of course exceptions to every rule and seeing as I’m now blogging, why miss an opportunity…

My office, like most, has a water cooler. I think it’s fair to say it doesn’t rank very high on the list of objects I think are important. No one talks by it, not many people even use it. But for the last 4 months it has become my arch nemesis, or more precisely, its owners have.

Our story begins back in December of ‘08. The water cooler broke, spilling water all over the floor. It wasn’t the first time it had happened, but whatever, no big deal, just ring the company (Powwow) and get them to replace it. But of course Christmas and New Year got in the way, so it took them a few weeks to come out. Eventually the cooler was replaced by a new model with the engineer commenting that the old model “did have this problem”.

“Of spilling water all over the floor?”

“Yes”

Ok, whatever, replace it with the new improved model, we’re done.

The new model works great for about 5 minutes. Then it breaks. It refuses to dispense any water, which is pretty much its only function in life. Apart from keeping the water off my floor.

Then it leaks on my floor.

So I’m back on the phone; an engineer will be with us within 48 hours. Of course no one turns up, so back on the phone again. Engineer booked, he will be with us shortly.

Two weeks later and the phone rings, it’s the Powwow Engineer.

“Yes mate, coming to fix your water cooler but your address isn’t right, I can’t find you”.

No one has ever had a problem finding us before; bills make their way to us in a timely fashion. I direct the engineer to the office. Twenty minutes pass.

“Yes mate, still can’t find you, I’ll have to leave it, other jobs to do”.

I have mates. He is not one of them. I suggest that perhaps I could put the cooler out by Junction 8 of the M40 where he might come across it, mate?

But that’s the end of it – the engineer can’t find us, it’s not fixed and a note is put on the system for someone else to come out and sort it. Presumably this time they will send someone who isn’t a complete idiot.

No one turns up for 4 weeks so I am forced to assume they are all idiots.

Bills keep arriving, we keep ringing them and informing them we want money back, we aren’t paying them a cent for a water cooler that hasn’t worked in months.

Eventually two letters arrive from Powwow. The first is a credit note for £20. The second is a bill for £30. Not getting it are they?

I’m done with water coolers at this stage, I’m having nothing more to do with it and it’s going in the bin as far as I’m concerned. Someone else takes up the case and finds similar frustration. You ring customer services, explain everything, they note it down and then promptly do nothing. Its like 3pm is frontal lobotomy time at head office (which incidentally is less than 5 miles from my HQ).

So, long story short, it’s a tale of sad customer service which reached depths of incompetence I have never before seen. No company has ever been this bad at keeping promises and meeting expectations. We’d cancel the contract, but no one comes out to collect the damn thing and we keep getting billed.

But then, light! Yesterday an engineer appeared at 9am without any due warning and replaced it. 24 hours in, it’s still working. But then today I get the final straw – in the form of a mass marketing letter from Powwow.

“Powwow is pleased to announce the launch of the most exciting website the bottled water market in the UK has ever seen”.

I sh*t you not. The most EXCITING WEBSITE EVER (for bottled water). They follow this up with more great stuff.

“This is a huge step forward in our company history… join us in supplying any good news you think would be of benefit to Powwow”

There are two really amusing parts to the site which warrant further investigation:

Mission Statement

“To provide the best Customer Experience to our customers and to monitor and manage customer relationships, ensuring the highest standards at all times”.

I’m not convinced they’ve nailed this one yet. But it’s nice to have ambition.

The Mission Statement is followed by a note from the top:

I am Robert Kitley – Chief Executive

“Customer feedback is invaluable to our business, and I would therefore welcome your thoughts about Powwow Water. Whether you just want to say “well done”, or perhaps you have an idea for us, please don’t hesitate to contact me or one of my Senior Management Team”.

I’m not one for hesitating and I’d love to talk to Bob (can I call you Bob, or would “mate” be more appropriate?) but of course, you don’t actually provide your contact details, just the general customer service line. So I ring them. It takes a fair while for anyone to respond, but a bright sounding woman answers the phone (must be pre-3pm).

“Do you have a ship-to number?” she asks

“No I’m afraid not, can I speak to Robert Kitley please?” I respond.

“Err, I’ll see what I can do”.

In all fairness to the woman, she did well. I wasn’t expecting her to know who he was, perhaps she didn’t, but she did manage to find his number and connect me.

Robert sounds suspiciously feminine when he answers. Perhaps it’s his PA. I ask to speak with Robert. It doesn’t sound promising.

“Have you spoken to Robert before?” she enquires.

“No I haven’t, but I have a letter from him here asking for my feedback, so I thought I’d drop him a quick line”.

Now she thinks I’m a total nutter.

“Maybe I can help? I deal with most enquiries” she responds.

“Well I’d prefer to speak to Robert, he asked me to get in touch on the website.”

“Can I take your number and I will see if he can call you back?”.

I see what she’s doing. I use this tactic at the office all the time, mostly for recruitment companies. Them and nutters.

I give my number and thank her for her time.

No call back yet. I’m not hopeful, this is an area in which they have been historically bad. If he calls me back, I’ll keep the cooler. Otherwise I’m fully open to suggestions on what to do with it.

Don’t hesitate to contact me (through the comments)…

***UPDATE – 16/04/09***

So, I got call back! But alas, ’twas not Bob. It was Chris, a very pleasent fellow who wondered if he could help. Nice thought, but what I really want is to speak to Bob. So the message was relayed – could Bob please get back to me?

***UPDATE 2 – 17/04/09***

Today another letter from Powwow – this time its a credit note! 50 squid back! They are getting better at this customer service lark, now if only Bob would call me…

***UPDATE 3 – 3/08/09***

We’ve had a fair few comments now from the general public showing their dissapointment at Powwow’s service, but nothing from the company itself.

Or have we….

For you see the 3 “positive” comments (there were others which I deleted) have been coming from a bunch of different names using the same IP address.  I did a quick lookup and the results weren’t exactly surprising…

If you aren’t sure what you are looking at in that image, its showing that the IP address of the person posting the comments is the same as an IP address registered to Murray White / Powwow.com. So instead of actually addressing our issues, they are wasting time posting false reports of how great they are.

What’s even funnier about this is that the practice is actually illegal.

Go POWWOW!

***UPDATE 4 – 27/08/09***

Just changed a few phrases in the blog and also removed some stuff about their website which is no longer relevant. But it is still awful.

We’re nearing 100 comments from customers, ex employees and current employees of this company and its becoming a bit of a sad, if fascinating, case. If you have had an experience with this company I would love you to add your thoughts!

***UPDATE 5 – 16/09/09***

PowWow have now taken measures to have some comments which they consider defamatory edited or removed from this website. If you have left a comment on this blog please read the following post in full:

http://www.ht2.org/ben/?p=151

You may wish to edit your comments or you may wish to direct an apology towards PowWow.

If you haven’t left a comment still go and read that post in full – this threat of legal action is the only legitimate response I have received from PowWow since posting this blog. Tells you a bit about the approach to Customer Service…

And all I wanted was a chat…!