Dear all,
I am the interlibrary loans librarian at SPRU at the University of Sussex and a
colleague of Annette's. She posted the Hays DX gripe about invoices on my behalf
whilst she was posting her gripe about PO Box's and lost items.

I would like to thank everyone who responded, especially Pat who took the time to
phone me and give me the contact no. of the complaints department. My complaints echo
all of those I have been reading about, especially Sian's case bellow. Although the
situation is clearly unacceptable and a waste of everyone's time, after speaking to
over 9 different people in 5 different departments at Hays, I too have had no joy.
I have suggested that a letter is sent to all Hays customers alerting librarians who
may not be on this list to this widespread and recurrent problem, appologising for
any inconvenience, and perhaps suggesting that they are trying to rectify the
problem. I have to admit that I'm not sure whether the customer services department
actually understood the extent of frustration and annoyance caused, or even if they
will actually follow my recommendation.

The man at customer services also seemed keen to correct me on the detail that the
invoices were not actually outsources, so much as generated by another department in
another county!

The staff at credit control appear neither to understand that there is a widespread
problem, so I also pointed out to customer services that they might like to let their
staff know...again, I'm not sure that this message got through :(

The staff at credit control seemed to think that it was out of the question to send a
copy of the invoices as a matter of course, to those customers experiencing
difficulties, so that they would no-longer have to phone up every single month (upon
receipt of the overdue statement) to request a copy.

Despite my frustration, I do take comfort that many librarians are in the same
situation, and that I am not being persecuted.

I hope that the spies at Hays see the lists collective dissatisfaction and pull their
finger out before we all lose the will to live, or start sending books back via the
Royal mail!!!

Amira Driscoll
SPRU Library
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9RF

-- Begin original message --

> From:         "Phelps, Sian" <[log in to unmask]>
> Date:         Tue, 16 Jul 2002 15:16:46 +0100
> Subject: Re: HAYS DX Transport Scheme
> To:           [log in to unmask]
> Reply-To:     "For interlibrary-loan and document supply services."
> <[log in to unmask]>
>
> Annette
>
> Here at Imperial College at Wye (Wye College as was)I have been having a
> long & painful debate about invoices with people at Hays DX over the last
> few weeks. Our invoices get dropped off by our courier, but when we go
> through quiet periods we don't ask him to call more than once a week, & when
> he does come he seems to be given invoices/statements/threatening letters to
> hand over in a batch, some a month or more overdue. Also, we often get
> overdues without ever having had the original invoices. Fortunately they are
> for small amounts, but I end up spending ages trying to match up the
> reference numbers on statements to see whether I've paid or not.
>
> I have asked & asked to have the invoices &c posted to us. For some reason
> this seems to be an incredibly outlandish request. As far as I can see it
> would save me & them time, & they would get their money without endless
> 'phone calls & duplicate invoices.
>
> Last week, after being transferred to the third person I've spoken to about
> this, I was asked to send a fax outlining the problems so that our account
> manager could take it up with someone higher. I was told that there had been
> other complaints, & given the details about financial services was
> outsourced. I am hoping he will come back to me on this, but I'm not holding
> my breath - I will chase again after a while.
>
> I still don't see why they can't just post the bills to me. In fact one of
> the customer services people I spoke to assured me they were posted & if I
> hadn't had an invoice for June to call back. Needless to say I didn't & they
> had to fax it to me...
>
> If I get any useful response I will keep you posted!
>
> Sian Phelps
> Assistant Librarian
> Kempe Centre
> Imperial College at Wye
> Wye, Ashford
> Kent TN25 5AH
>
> Tel 020 759 42911
> Fax 020 759 42929
> E-mail [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Annette Moore [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 15 July 2002 13:32
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: HAYS DX Transport Scheme
>
>
> At the University of Sussex we have been using HAYS DX transport scheme
> since the closure of the LASER Transport scheme in September last year.
> Inititally we were quite pleased with the service having received full
> doucmentation and information about the service and having a "dedicated
> customer support representative" to ring if there was a problem.
> However....when ever we do have a problem, our representative has left
> or moved to another section and our call gets passed from one person to
> another.  One of the main concerns lately has been the late arrival or
> non-arrival of our monthly invoice.  When I do the monthly statistics at
> the end of each month, I often have to ring HAYS DX to ASK for the
> invoice so I can include the postal figure in our monthly statistics!
> Have any other libraries found this problem with HAYS?
>
>
> Another problem has been the delivery of PO BOX items through HAYS DX.
> Several University Libraries have a PO BOX number in their address which
> we didn't think was a problem, until recently we sent an item addressed
> to a University with a PO Box through HAYS and the item never arrived.
> When I contacted HAYS about this they said that they do not deliver to
> PO BOX numbers but just pass the item onto the GPO.  Several
> conversations later with HAYS DX, it appears they do deliver to some PO
> Boxes, but not to others - what concerned me was that they didn't return
> the item to us if they were unable to deliver. According to their
> description of service for Undeliverable items - they say that if they
> are unable to deliver items due to "insufficient address information"
> the local Service Centre will contact the customer via Customer
> Services. This situation is ongoing with HAYS but has given rise to
> concern.  Again, can I ask if other libraries have had problems with
> deliveries to PO Boxes or do you not use HAYS DX for PO Box numbers?
>
> Annette Moore
>
>
> Annette Moore
> Interlibrary Requests
> University of Sussex Library
> University of Sussex
> Brighton, BN1 9QL
>
> Email: [log in to unmask]
> Telephone: 01273 678162
> Fax: 01273 678441
>

-- End original message --