Waiting for repairmen who do not
turn up is not just annoying but contributes to 56 million lost working days in
the UK every year.
According to Abbey
National’s annual research into business flexibility, not only is the average worker
wasting two days a year waiting at home for repairmen or deliveries but four
out of 10 of them never actually turn up and 44 per cent turn up late.
Worse, nearly half of
those surveyed were given no real warning of when to expect someone.
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The least reliable
involved electrical goods, with 32 per cent either late or not arriving at all,
followed by furniture at 16 per cent. The most reliable service was provided by
cable and satellite television technicians, with only 1 per cent of respondents
expressing dissatisfaction.
Abbey National’s
director of retail e-commerce, Ambrose McGinn, said, "People attach high
value to time, so it is very surprising that today’s businesses are not
learning lessons about how they can make their customers’ lives easier."
