Adrian Baldwin
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A near accident, a prompt complaint ... and no response from Canute Distribution

9/9/2013

6 Comments

 
Occasionally I write about excellent customer service on this site; in fact the last post was about Zinc Sports is only a few days old.

Last Friday (6th September) though I had an experience of some completely inadequate corporate behaviour that I thought I’d publicise (especially as I could have been maimed).

During my commute from Daventry to my office in Milton Keynes, I was nearly involved in a collision with a Canute Distribution articulated truck. I was shaken up at the time and once in the office, decided to share my experience with the company.

If you visit the site you will appreciate that ‘contact us’ information is limited and hard to find. In fact I ended up submitting a sales enquiry but duly referenced as a ‘complaint and near accident.’

http://www.canutegroup.com/sales-enquiries/contact/

Here’s the detail of the note which was submitted via the Canute Distribution website:

Dear Sirs,

Just thought I’d let you know that one of your HGV drivers scared the life out of me in Milton Keynes today. I was a moment/inches away from getting my car written off as your driver pulled into my lane without seeing me. I had to lean on my horn and then pray your driver’s ears were working even though his eyesight had let him down. 

Fortunately the driver did register me and then swerved back into his original lane.

The incident occurred on Portway, just off of the Northfield Roundabout (itself the first roundabout after Junction 14 on the M1 – both of us turning right) at 8:08am this morning.

Unfortunately I wasn’t in a position to get the registration plate for the truck but given that you track your vehicles, you will know who was in the vicinity at that precise time. After Portway, your truck turned right into Tongwell Street.

I was shaken and am now angry enough to write this note to you.

I’ll look forward to hearing from you.

Adrian


To give you some further insight, the driver of the truck came off the M1 and headed down towards the Northfield Roundabout in the middle lane, only to switch into a lane to turn right at the last moment before entering the roundabout. He proceeded to turn right into Portway (H5) utilising all three lanes of the roundabout before exiting on the inside lane. I was following and came off the roundabout on to the outside lane of Portway and started passing the truck.

As I was alongside the cab, the driver started to pull across into my lane...

Back to the enquiry of Canute Distribution; having taken the time to write and having outlined a serious situation, I expected a response from the company. Amazingly, despite the fact I left my mobile phone number, email address and ‘marketing manager’ job title, I received back absolutely nothing. No acknowledgement, no ‘sorry’, no ‘we’ll investigate and come back to you’.

And that, to be frank, is just appalling.

I was annoyed that my Zafira could have been written off and I could have ended up mangled or worse. To be fair though, accidents, or near misses do happen and whilst the driver wasn’t paying attention, he hadn’t intended to cause a crash.  I am however furious that a note to the company resulted in no response at all.

Perhaps this post will change the outcome.

Whilst I will happily use my site to congratulate, I’ll also use it to challenge when I need to.

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6 Comments
john
9/12/2013 01:36:34 am

Interesting account ofnear accident and one which sounds familiar. About 5/6 weeks ago, I was in the same area, coming off of the M1 northbound. It is normally suprisingly easy to get into the lane towards MK central and as usual, I got to the roundabout with an artic behind me. The lights changed and I moved off, taking the lane on the Northfield roundabout which would take me into the nearside lane of H5. I was in no particular hurry but as I went around the roundabout I realised the artic was on my outside and starting to overtake me. As we got onto H5, his cab was slightly ahead of me (maybe 6 feet). Imagine my suprise when he suddenly put on his indicator to turn left and before I had a chance to react, he started to move over meaning I had to sling the anchors on which meant the guy behind me also had to brake.The truck then went into the little industrial area leaving a few car drivers grateful for not having crunched cars.
There is no chance that he didnt know I was there, it was just sheer intimidation of the kind which made me wish I still carried aa cricket bat in the car (if you know what I mean).

Reply
Adrian Baldwin
9/12/2013 02:47:57 am

Hi John,
Thanks for your empathy - glad our respective cars/bodies remain intact.

Would you believe it, I have still had no response at all from Canute? That's damn poor in my opinion.

I was sure this post would prompt some kind of reaction but incredibly I was wrong - that's despite the tweet and a post on the company's Facebook page (which hasn't been deleted either). What is the point of this corporate having a social media presence?

Adrian

Reply
John A
10/5/2013 05:03:10 am

You will probably find that Canutes will not enter into any communications with you due to the risk that you may present a claim for damages and any communication may prejudice an outcome. O maybe they will do what they do best and sit on that great big fence that needs to be that big to take their big fat butts.

Only saying as i see it.

These views do not represent those of the management.

Reply
Tom Smith
4/7/2014 09:37:39 pm

Hi Adrian,

Not sure how i came across this post, but i'm going to chime in anyway. It appears that you need to grow a pair of balls and get over it. I could understand if you ACTUALLY had an accident, but instead you 'almost' had one! You cannot complain about something that didn't happen.
Don't be a 'whatif' man

Have a good day
Regards,
Tom

Reply
Adrian
4/7/2014 10:45:34 pm

Tom,
Thanks for your contribution. I think though that you rather miss my point. My frustration was not at 'almost' having the accident or even aimed at the truck driver; it was about the fact that the company didn't even acknowledge my complaint. I expected a better standard of corporate behaviour. Adrian

Reply
john a
4/7/2014 11:05:42 pm

Exactly what you should expect to get from any corporate body if you present the possibility of presenting ANY form of risk or claim. Remember power concedes nothing without a demand. Don't expect any more.




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