Your best and worst customer service experiences [rant & praise]

gerboy167 · 23-08-2014 3:28pm

An example of everything that is wrong with customer service. I left my iPhone in because for no reason the screen wouldnt light up 2 Saturdays ago. Shop assisstant took details, booked repair, and said it would be sent on Monday probably back on Thursday. Got email from repair company on Tuesday quoting what it would cost to fix 259 euro, not covered by warranty as <it was> damaged. It was not. I paid anyway and replied within one hour. No sign of phone on Thursday or Friday so rang repair people after no reply to <my> email. Only then did they look to see that yes i had replied. I was told that as it was an iPhone it would be replaced rather than fixed so it would be back by Thursday week at latest. Guess what, still no sign of phone, no answer from repair company. Three shop dont want to know. I rang them six times and they promised to ring me back twice but never did. Three customer care, won't answer or reply to emails , its just crap customer care. I will be moving my account when contract is up.

Rucking_Fetard · 23-08-2014 3:35pm

gerboy167 wrote: »

An example of everything that is wrong with customer service, Left my i phone in because for no reason the screen wouldnt light up 2 saturdats ago.Shop assisstant took details booked repair said it would be sent on monday probably back on thursday,got e mail from repair company on tuesday quoting what it would cost to fix 259 euro not covered by warrantu as danaged it was not, paid anyway and replied within one hour. no sign of phone on thursday friday so rang repair people after no reply to e mail, only then did they look to see that yes i had replied was told that as it was an i phone it would be replaced rather than fixed so would be back by Thursday week at latest guess what still no sign of phone no answer from repair company , three shop dont want to know rang them six times promised to ring me back twice never did three customer care wont answer or reply to emails , its just crap customer care will be moving my account when contract is up.

They have a Forum on Boards here. If you want to try it.

gerboy167 · 23-08-2014 7:48pm

thanks ill post there

languagenerd · 23-08-2014 8:20pm

Luas customer care. Still no proper response to an email I sent over 2 weeks ago (other than a "we're looking into it, we'll reply eventually, leave us alone" message when I followed up on it). I know two other people who've waited weeks for any response from them too. :mad:

PeteK* · 23-08-2014 8:59pm

languagenerd wrote: »

Luas customer care. Still no proper response to an email I sent over 2 weeks ago (other than a "we're looking into it, we'll reply eventually, leave us alone" message when I followed up on it). I know two other people who've waited weeks for any response from them too. :mad:

Just phone them.

Steviemoyne · 27-08-2014 1:08pm

Getting some terrible support at the moment from yahoo.

Keep being asked every time I log in to change my password, I'll change my bloody password when I decide. Emailed support asking for ways to stop being prompted for a password change and I'm on my 5th different support rep who is also giving me useless support articles instead of providing a resolution to being pestered.

I want a resolution not the run around

. I think it's time for me to switch email provider.

Michael D Not Higgins · 27-08-2014 1:10pm

Steviemoyne wrote: »

Getting some terrible support at the moment from yahoo.

Keep being asked every time I log in to change my password, I'll change my bloody password when I decide. Emailed support asking for ways to stop being prompted for a password change and I'm on my 5th different support rep who is also giving me useless support articles instead of providing a resolution to being pestered.

I want a resolution not the run around . I think it's time for me to switch email provider.

What happens if you change your password then change it back again? Or is it still asking after changing the password?

Steviemoyne · 27-08-2014 1:11pm

Michael D Not Higgins wrote: »

What happens if you change your password then change it back again? Or is it still asking after changing the password?

System is set up in such a way that it won't let you create passwords that are similar to those you already used (I think, at least that's what happened the last time I "gave in" to the prompt).

Michael D Not Higgins · 27-08-2014 1:14pm

Steviemoyne wrote: »

System is set up in such a way that it won't let you create passwords that are similar to those you already used (I think, at least that's what happened the last time I "gave in" to the prompt).

Ah okay, I know I've encountered that on corporate email accounts (my company has a policy of changing every two months and you can't use the same password as the last 5 or something like that), but haven't seen it on internet accounts, although being honest I've only ever changed my password a couple of times.

Cunning Alias · 27-08-2014 1:23pm

Rant: M&S in Dundrum. Most of the coat/jacket ranges had no size small available yet loads of XL+ sizes. When I asked about small stock for one or two I had researched and was ready to buy I was told they could order one in and I could come back 3-4 days later.

Praise: Next in Dundrum. Staff went out of there way to help me find a jacket that seemed to only appear on a manikin. They didnt have it in my size but found one in another store. Contacted them for me and reserved it.

Guess where I will be going first in the future.

PinkFly · 27-08-2014 1:26pm

I don't get it?? M&S offered to order your size in?? What more did you want when they didn't have it in stock?

Michael D Not Higgins · 27-08-2014 1:28pm

PinkFly wrote: »

I don't get it?? M&S offered to order your size in?? What more did you want when they didn't have it in stock?

Did they even ask if they could check another shop for their size? I've often asked (mainly in shoe shops) for them to check another nearby branch for my size with no hassle. Sometimes they offer to do this, sometimes you need to ask.

AlmightyCushion · 27-08-2014 3:22pm

Michael D Not Higgins wrote: »

Did they even ask if they could check another shop for their size? I've often asked (mainly in shoe shops) for them to check another nearby branch for my size with no hassle. Sometimes they offer to do this, sometimes you need to ask.

Maybe they did and there was none. Or maybe they don't have that option on their system. If you wanted them to check why didn't you ask?

Cunning Alias · 27-08-2014 3:29pm

PinkFly wrote: »

I don't get it?? M&S offered to order your size in?? What more did you want when they didn't have it in stock?

To check another store. I would imagine integrated stock databases would be commonplace in large name chains at this stage. I was simply told that all the stock they had was on the floor (which seems kinda strange in itself for a store that size). Staff member just didn't seem bothered.

Suppose I should have just asked. Either way Next was a much better experience.

allybhoy · 27-08-2014 3:37pm

Missus was due an upgrade early this year with O2, she went into carphone warehouse, she had an android handset and isnt the most technical, I told her to just make sure she got another android handset that she liked as she was used to android and liked it. She told this to the girl at the counter and for some reason she gave her a Nokia Lumia 520 (non android). the girl in the shop opened the box and took the handset out and showed her and neglected to tell her it was not an android handset, my missus not knownig anything about phones or that it was a different OS, said yes thats fine, ill take it my husband can set it up for me later etc etc. She didnt show her a demo model that they had in teh shop or anything but actually opened up the box in front of my wife.

Wife arrrived home with the phone asking me to set it up told her it was a windows phone not android, after she explained what happened, I immediately told her to go back down to the shop and change it. When she arrived down to the shop later that day the assistant had clocked off, after much discussion the manager told her she couldnt change it for another handset as the box had been opened and she agreed to it etc etc.The manager said that the shop assistant claimed that she hadnt requested android only even though she had. She rang me, I went down to the shop with her and argued with the manager for nearly 20 minutes that it was the assistant who opened the box not my missus, asked them to check CCTV etc, said it wasnt working. Bear in mind, the shop assistant opened the box to show her the dimensions and layout of handset, never powered it on so the box, headphones, battery were still sealed, only the seal on the box was broken. We also suspect that somebody had returned the 520 and the box had been opened prior to all this, however we couldnt prove this. Sent several emails to carphone warehouse however they stuck to the story in the shop, wouldnt take the phone, wouldnt provide store credit etc. Needless to say we wont be using that company again

MOH · 27-08-2014 5:36pm

Good

CarphoneWarehouse are a nightmare to deal with. At one point I was with Meteor PAYG, was due for an upgrade and went into CPW in Blackrock to be told that Meteor didn't do PAYG upgrades, then proceed to try to just sell me a new phone. They stuck to that despite me going back with a printout from the Meteor website with details of exactly what the upgrade benefit was (basically, more call credit) - they insisted they were right, Meteor were wrong.
Even an email from Meteor customer care confirming I was right didn't sway them.
Ended up waiting until I got a chance to go to a Meteor store where there was no problem whatsoever.

I really got the impression they try to sell whatever they're making the highest margin/commission on, regardless of what the customer actually wants or asks for. And they're not going to let facts get in their way.

EwEw · 29-08-2014 2:38pm

I've recently had quite an odd experience with Bank of Ireland. My boyfriend and I both have accounts with them, and haven't had any problems, except a few odd texts from their visa security, which I think were triggered by online purchases.
But this time, they blocked my boyfriend's card without letting him know. We were on a road trip to Scotland, where we used our cards several times to book hotels or pay for KFC, Costa, etc. When we got home, the boyfriend went to buy something online, but found his card wasn't working, so he rang Bank of Ireland, and found out that by using his card over in Scotland to pay with pounds, some kind of a fraud pattern was triggered on his account, and his card was now blocked. This was the day his wages came in, and with a blocked card, he couldn't access it in any way, as the card wouldn't even work in an ATM. Now, to be fair to Bank of Ireland, they did apologize and admitted that this was their system's screw up. As they couldn't "unblock" the current card, he had to wait for a new one until he would have access to his money, so they said he could go into a branch near where he works to withdraw the money, but his working hours wouldn't allow for it. Thankfully, I still had access to my account and my card didn't get blocked (oddly enough), so we were fine, but we easily could have been 100% broke after coming home from a holiday, simply because BOI thinks that paying for a Travelodge and some KFC could mean fraud!

L1011 · 29-08-2014 3:47pm

Bank of Ireland's velocity checks are horribly unreliable from experience of having my card locked/call to query after doing such horrors as using it in Dublin Airport then Cardiff a whole two hours later; Dublin Airport then Bratislava four hours later. I'm not quite sure they've heard of planes yet.

keithclancy · 01-09-2014 2:45pm

Flew last week with Aer Lingus from Amsterdam to Cork

Boarding was fine
Flight was on time
Staff were nice

Cabin Baggage lockers were full and was told I would have to place it all the way down the back of the plane effectively meaning I would have to wait until everyone got off.

Jammed it under the seat in front instead, it was a bit uncomfortable but I was willing to put up with it rather than wait after landing, people seemed to be carrying on way over their allowance.

Flew with Ryanair from Dublin to Eindhoven yesterday

Boarding was fine
Flight landed on time
Staff were nice

Plenty of room for bags, boarding was easier than the Ryanair flight as people were seperated into Priority and Non Priority depending on where they were sitting on the plane.

Flight left slightly late but made up for it with a tail wind.

They didn't play that on time landing thing either.

brianblaze · 09-09-2014 1:55pm

allybhoy wrote: »

Missus was due an upgrade early this year with O2, she went into carphone warehouse, she had an android handset and isnt the most technical, I told her to just make sure she got another android handset that she liked as she was used to android and liked it. She told this to the girl at the counter and for some reason she gave her a Nokia Lumia 520 (non android). the girl in the shop opened the box and took the handset out and showed her and neglected to tell her it was not an android handset, my missus not knownig anything about phones or that it was a different OS, said yes thats fine, ill take it my husband can set it up for me later etc etc. She didnt show her a demo model that they had in teh shop or anything but actually opened up the box in front of my wife.

Wife arrrived home with the phone asking me to set it up told her it was a windows phone not android, after she explained what happened, I immediately told her to go back down to the shop and change it. When she arrived down to the shop later that day the assistant had clocked off, after much discussion the manager told her she couldnt change it for another handset as the box had been opened and she agreed to it etc etc.The manager said that the shop assistant claimed that she hadnt requested android only even though she had. She rang me, I went down to the shop with her and argued with the manager for nearly 20 minutes that it was the assistant who opened the box not my missus, asked them to check CCTV etc, said it wasnt working. Bear in mind, the shop assistant opened the box to show her the dimensions and layout of handset, never powered it on so the box, headphones, battery were still sealed, only the seal on the box was broken. We also suspect that somebody had returned the 520 and the box had been opened prior to all this, however we couldnt prove this. Sent several emails to carphone warehouse however they stuck to the story in the shop, wouldnt take the phone, wouldnt provide store credit etc. Needless to say we wont be using that company again

Go into the store, tell them to search the IMEI history. (Former employee some years back, but, I can from memory tell you all they need to do is: Press Q, E then scan the barcode!! Will give you history of handset from delivery to Carphone to the purchase.

Ramshackled · 12-09-2014 12:17pm

first time naming and shaming a company on the internet but found this experience utterly terrible, as spiderman says "the only way evil can triumph is if good men do nothing".. maybe it was churchill, I'm not sure but this is my attempt at a stand.

so heres the sequence of events.

went into PC world in Jervis with the sole purpose of buying a computer so got the attention of a sales assistant.

found a computer, the sales assistant said, yea we got that in stock, 3 in fact. went out the back came back with an opened box and said this was the only one she could find.. i asked since the box is opened could I not get a discount, she said no, I said fair enough. she sealed it then with sticky tape

went home opened it up, spent a good while trying to connect the battery as I thought it has to fit as there was only 1 battery in the box and I didnt want to go back into PC world telling them they gave me the wrong battery only to find out it was my mistake, anyway made dam sure it wasnt me been dumb and had to go back in with it.

heres my issue here. That resulted in me loosing roughly 2 hours of my time plus parking, plus tolls and all the hassle on top of that, plus writing this thread

. so I went back in and said, whats the policy on reimbursing customers for time lost and expence incurred due to a mistake on their side? they said they dont give any vouchers or credit, period but here, have an apology. lovely

I am not naming names here as I realise that this is coming from the top down but I really think this position is disgracful, not expecting much, just some token gesture. A tenner voucher I would have been happy with. A customer's time should be valued, it clearly was not in this case, a company like this should be punished by customers shopping elsewhere, so I would strongly suggest avoiding PC world for your laptop needs, I will for sure.

endacl · 12-09-2014 12:19pm

Jaysus. It's like 911 all over again.

ThisRegard · 12-09-2014 12:21pm

If you bought in Dublin, there's PC Worlds either side of the city so you could have avoided paying tolls. Carrickmines, Liffey Valley and Blanchardstown also have free parking.

o1s1n · 12-09-2014 12:21pm

PC World are not responsible for how far away you live from their shop.

Boulevardier · 12-09-2014 12:23pm

You do not seem to have been treated unfairly or rudely, nor were you ripped off.

This seems to be a case of carelessness by the sales assistant.

An apology and maybe free batteries would probably be about right.

ben.schlomo · 12-09-2014 12:45pm

Ramshackled wrote: »

first time naming and shaming a company on the internet but found this experience utterly terrible, as spiderman says "the only way evil can triumph is if good men do nothing".. maybe it was churchill, I'm not sure but this is my attempt at a stand.

so heres the sequence of events.

went into PC world in Jervis with the sole purpose of buying a computer so got the attention of a sales assistant.

found a computer, the sales assistant said, yea we got that in stock, 3 in fact. went out the back came back with an opened box and said this was the only one she could find.. i asked since the box is opened could I not get a discount, she said no, I said fair enough. she sealed it then with sticky tape

went home opened it up, spent a good while trying to connect the battery as I thought it has to fit as there was only 1 battery in the box and I didnt want to go back into PC world telling them they gave me the wrong battery only to find out it was my mistake, anyway made dam sure it wasnt me been dumb and had to go back in with it.

heres my issue here. That resulted in me loosing roughly 2 hours of my time plus parking, plus tolls and all the hassle on top of that, plus writing this thread . so I went back in and said, whats the policy on reimbursing customers for time lost and expence incurred due to a mistake on their side? they said they dont give any vouchers or credit, period but here, have an apology. lovely

I am not naming names here as I realise that this is coming from the top down but I really think this position is disgracful, not expecting much, just some token gesture. A tenner voucher I would have been happy with. A customer's time should be valued, it clearly was not in this case, a company like this should be punished by customers shopping elsewhere, so I would strongly suggest avoiding PC world for your laptop needs, I will for sure.

Jaysus someone call the police!

keithclancy · 12-09-2014 1:04pm

Ramshackled wrote: »

first time naming and shaming a company on the internet but found this experience utterly terrible, as spiderman says "the only way evil can triumph is if good men do nothing".. maybe it was churchill, I'm not sure but this is my attempt at a stand.

so heres the sequence of events.

went into PC world in Jervis with the sole purpose of buying a computer so got the attention of a sales assistant.

found a computer, the sales assistant said, yea we got that in stock, 3 in fact. went out the back came back with an opened box and said this was the only one she could find.. i asked since the box is opened could I not get a discount, she said no, I said fair enough. she sealed it then with sticky tape

went home opened it up, spent a good while trying to connect the battery as I thought it has to fit as there was only 1 battery in the box and I didnt want to go back into PC world telling them they gave me the wrong battery only to find out it was my mistake, anyway made dam sure it wasnt me been dumb and had to go back in with it.

heres my issue here. That resulted in me loosing roughly 2 hours of my time plus parking, plus tolls and all the hassle on top of that, plus writing this thread . so I went back in and said, whats the policy on reimbursing customers for time lost and expence incurred due to a mistake on their side? they said they dont give any vouchers or credit, period but here, have an apology. lovely

I am not naming names here as I realise that this is coming from the top down but I really think this position is disgracful, not expecting much, just some token gesture. A tenner voucher I would have been happy with. A customer's time should be valued, it clearly was not in this case, a company like this should be punished by customers shopping elsewhere, so I would strongly suggest avoiding PC world for your laptop needs, I will for sure.

I don't know any retailer that reimburses for travel costs.

FFS .. What if I went back into PC World and said I had to get a flight back to sort it out

endacl · 12-09-2014 1:10pm

keithclancy wrote: »

I don't know any retailer that reimburses for travel costs.

FFS .. What if I went back into PC World and said I had to get a flight back to sort it out

I would have phoned them to sort it out. Maybe the OP doesn't have a phone?

o1s1n · 12-09-2014 1:16pm

endacl wrote: »

I would have phoned them to sort it out. Maybe the OP doesn't have a phone?

And how is the OP's lack of a phone anything to do with PC World?

Rucking_Fetard · 12-09-2014 1:35pm

Shouldnt have bought an open box. Damn well shouldnt have paid full whack for open box.

Your best and worst customer service experiences [rant & praise]

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