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

Senna

In my experience the worst are;
1.Payal. Leave you on hold for hours and wont answer emails that are in anyway complicated.
2.Dell. Complete morons, lost my order, i reordered, they canceled my order, they couldn't tell me way.
3.Currys. Local shop changed to Currys and now they keep sending me bills for something i paid for in the shop.
4.Sky. Make up reasons not to turn off your movies or whatever crap. I phoned up a couple of days later and the fella (must be the only intelligent member of staff) was able to do everything i asked their and then. Asked him why this couldn't be done 2 days ago, he couldn't answer that one, it wasn't even the end of my billing month.
5.Quinn Direct. Gave me a quote on a car i was think of buying. Just by chance i phone again to confirm quote, only to be told, we don't quote that type of car, the first quote was a mistake.

I seriously dread phoning any company if i have a problem, you just know its not going to be nice and easy and sorted out at the end of the call.
What your experiences?

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

I don't remember any ones I experience, but when I worked in a call center I was pretty terrible.

Morlar

I have dealt with ntl before and also indian call centres but right now I reckon its . . . .microsoft ! 'Download this 1mb update to media player', fine ok. The 1mb update is in actually a hefty download and not an update to media player but a new version of media player instead which they dont tell you.

Try to open the new version and get 'Microsoft needs to verify your version of windows - please click ok for microsoft to verify your version of windows is legitimate' This also is something they conveniently dont mention when you get the media player update notice.

I am installing vlplayer instead. Not looking to get into a whole debate with some idiot lefthanded ms fanboy but they really dont understand the concept of customer service imo. 'Please click here so we can verify your not a liar or we will keep a component of your operating system disabled'. Yep cheers.

Jesus Wept

NTL are fúcking dreadful. Shower of Bastards Ted.

Karoma

Belkin: I had the misfortune of dealing with a clueless idiot that ignored pretty much every bit of information given over several emails, despite repeated clarification(Using Basic English after a while just in case it was something lost in translation). She tried to close the case off when the problem was clearly unresolved. Then, closed the case off after I explained that it was not even near resolved. So many emails later... got nowhere. Damn their crap hardware. Damn their 'service'.

Canon Promotions: I haven't the foggiest why they have a website or email address; they ignore them.




PayPal: I only had one dealing with them, several years ago and found them very efficient. Luck of the draw, etc?
Dell: cold-called me at work to push me into buying "insurance" (It's actually an extended warranty) - I got a rude and aggressive salesdick.

Morlar

*/shakes fist & adds names to enemies list

Ruu_Old

Called Paypal last year sometime and found them easy to deal with.
Dell: too many incidents to go through, communication very poor.
Esatclear: Some of you remember the No-Limits saga and a few of us who received the 'spirit of the service' cut off letter.:mad: My problems with them continued for sometime after that. They went on 'the list' when they called me in the middle of a holiday to inform me that they hadn't been withdrawing the money from my bank account (where direct debit had been setup) a year or so after my service and now wanted payment in full.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

that letter took away my innocence.

Senna

Forgot about Microsoft, they are just a bunch of tossers. Have you tried their 'live chat with a support professional', obviously some poor cnut trying to talk to 20 people at the same time. treats you live a complete moron, 'did you try pressing escape, that the small button at the top left of your keyboard with Ecs on it', REALLY i thought that was the Electric Super Charger button.

tman

NTL are fairly bad alright, spent 40 minutes trying to get through to them, then had to talk to three different people before I found someone who had a clue. (that was to do with them sending me a warning letter for going over their "download" limit, when in fact the figure they quoted was my combined download and upload)

Other than that, I've been fairly lucky... the next worst was having to wait an hour for a call to Eircock to get answered.

I'm fairly pissed off with the Halo 3 limited edition fiasco... feckers took a month to send out a replacement copy, and only returned the game disc. (Not that I was going to bother my hole watching the bonus material... but it would have been nice to have.)
Can't be arsed complaining about that though

condra

ISPs:
Irish Broadband

Grub joints:
Abrekabra (Phibsboro)
Mc Donalds (Phibsboro)

Pubs - drink
The s**thole beside powerscourt, BA MITZU or whatever it isn't called.

Pubs - bouncers
Mc Gowans, Phibsboro
Botanic House, Glasnevin
Pal Joeys, Temple Bar

Retail Outlets
Jean Scene, Omni Park
PC World, Blanch

thefinalstage

Senna wrote: »

Forgot about Microsoft, they are just a bunch of tossers. Have you tried their 'live chat with a support professional', obviously some poor cnut trying to talk to 20 people at the same time. treats you live a complete moron, 'did you try pressing escape, that the small button at the top left of your keyboard with Ecs on it', REALLY i thought that was the Electric Super Charger button.

Now, you can't blame the pleb. You would be surprised how many people don't know where the esc key is.

spurious

Eircom, though thankfully I no longer have to deal with them.

luckat

Maplins - lovely when you buy stuff; the other side of the coin if you return it as faulty. I bought a 50-DVD stack the last time I dealt with them, some years ago now (used to go in there a lot before this) and when they didn't work on my Mac I brought them back. They claimed they worked on a staffer's Mac, therefore weren't faulty, and refused to give me my €30 back! (The stack had cost €50; I was not asking to be repaid for the coasters already made.)

Palm - sent my TX back for repair and left the stylus still slotted in. They sent it back without the stylus, and refused point blank to return it, pointing out that one of their many emails had said to take off the cover and stylus and take out any cards. Eventually after weeks of phone calls and emails they sent back my stylus (much nicer than the kind you can buy separately) "as a goodwill gesture".

However, the next time I sent the TX in for repair, I'd left a 1GB expansion card inside, and when I emailed them to ask for it back, I told them that there was an old Avengers episode on it with my dad playing a villain. They pulled out all the stops to try to find it. Didn't find it, but they were nice about it, and sent me another 1GB card in its place.

Mad policy, though, not returning styli and expansion cards and even covers belonging to customers! They mustn't want customers!

HarryD

Paypal - Crap customer service. I applied for an ebay item refund under buyer protection policy and website said I was not covered. But then got an email stating I was.
Buyer protection policy is terrible. I've been burned so many times with it.
BTireland - On hold for several hours then told the call centre is closed.
Budpest - Public service here in general (shops/restaurants) is the worst I've experienced. Makes the Irish tax/postal system seem golden.

Cabaal

In order of amount of hassel I had
BT - Awful billing problems, quickly got them sorted by e-mailing directors (twice!)
Eircom - ASwful billing issues, couldn't get the install/billing address right for a line
Sky - Billing issues, useless support
Local Hotel who couldn't even get the year right for a wedding despite being told it 5 times!

Agent Smith

IQON: If ever there was a Reason not to buy one of there pc's, there customer service is it.

jor el

Chorus - 'nuff said.

BT - 12 months of inability to set up a direct debit and then threatening me when no payment received. 6 months of continued billing then after service was canceled. Thankfully they had screwed up the direct debit so were unable to take my money.

Tesco - if buying anything electronics wise, don't shop here. TVs, computers, laptops, games consoles etc. Any problems and they just shrug their responsibilities and tell you to contact the manufacturer.

Vodafone - Liars told me my broken phone would be replaced after the 3rd repair attempt. They then returned the same broken phone to me and told me they couldn't find a problem so I wasn't due a replacement. Bye-bye Vodafone.

I'm sure there are more that I can't think of right now.

sgt.bilko

can i take it that no one has ever shopped in Power City?

this wonderful company was named & shamed on Q102 by the director of consumer affairs when talking about customer service or lack thereof ! :mad:

arybvtcw0eolkf

On a much more local level.

My local Spar.

No one speaks English in it. Its fustrating to shop in, local children won't go near it for the same reasons and if something is behind the counter and not on the shelves forget about asking for it.

Other than that I'd have to say SMART telecom, dreadful.

Colonel Sanders

spurious wrote: »

Eircom, though thankfully I no longer have to deal with them.

+1. the second the phoneline was connected (only took 12 months+, numerous phonecalls, them telling me numerous lies, me threatening to take the to every trade body i could etc etc ...it'd take an hour to type the full horror story) I went elsewhere.

EDIT: I don't take back what I said above but how could I leave out Air France? Another long story but their customer service manager laughed at me in CDG airport when i said I was gonna complain about her and the reply i recieved from my complaint smacked of 'f*ck off'. Also add in any semi state or public body.

podge018

ntl

foggy_lad

For PC - has to be dell ordered 2nd pc in 6months and they have sent wrong monitor yet again and customer care are not much help

isp - Clearwire then irish broadband

mobiles - has to be Three:eek:

landline -eircom and then smart

prendy

has to be NTL for me aswelll absolutly shocking.

kenco

Colonel Sanders wrote: »

+1. the second the phoneline was connected (only took 12 months+, numerous phonecalls, them telling me numerous lies, me threatening to take the to every trade body i could etc etc ...it'd take an hour to type the full horror story) I went elsewhere.

EDIT: I don't take back what I said above but how could I leave out Air France? Another long story but their customer service manager laughed at me in CDG airport when i said I was gonna complain about her and the reply i recieved from my complaint smacked of 'f*ck off'. Also add in any semi state or public body.

+1 Air France
Had a complete PITA trip with them to Paris last year. They messed up the tickets and told me to collect them at check in (were they there, oh no....)
Then on the way back another big issue which I wont go into but when I called on my return they told me there was a 6 mth waitng time for a response to customer complaints (i.e. F Off)

sobaga

prendy wrote: »

has to be NTL for me aswelll absolutly shocking.

Agree completely, NTL is the worst.
And the second place goes to DELL - they are unbelievable! It is a long story though, so I won't go into detail here...

Colonel Sanders

kenco wrote: »

+1 Air France
Had a complete PITA trip with them to Paris last year. They messed up the tickets and told me to collect them at check in (were they there, oh no....)
Then on the way back another big issue which I wont go into but when I called on my return they told me there was a 6 mth waitng time for a response to customer complaints (i.e. F Off)

I was told in CDG that my flights shouldn't have been sold to me as the connection only had an hour between flights (despite ringing their customer care number 3 times and being told it was 'ample time' and in any case they'd use mini bus transfers from plane to plane if there was any delay). Was then told by 3 people in CDG that I shouldn't have been sold them, they then refused to change my flight home (again with an hour between changes) eventho they all agreed it was too short a time and I shouldn't have been sold the tickets. They also refused to let me make a phone call whwn I missed my departure which is against air passenger rights. All the above (and more) mentioned in my complaint letter, I recieved a reply but it ignored just about every question i asked them.

If I was to type the whole story i'd need an hour!!!

galah

Eircom...

(the witch in "Faults" had the cheek to tell me in a patronising tone that my phone was broken, and the solution would be to get a new phone - when the actual problem was that THEY registered my phone with the wrong exchange.... It took them 3 weeks, three technicians, and 17 complaints to sort this out...).

And a close second would be NTL (too many stories to tell)

Followed by O2 (I actually had a phone call from the "customer service" department after I changed to Meteor - and that person got really cranky and angry with me because the reason I changed providers was crappy customer service...which proved my point...)

MOH

Good

NTL, Iarnrod Eireann worst by a long way.

Also Eircom, Carphone Warehouse.

Colonel Sanders

galah wrote: »

Followed by O2

you just reminded me, i senttheir customer services a mail about 2 months ago asking about different prce plans, still no reply.

Just thinking, I mailed 2 branches of First Active and their head customer service dept about 6 months back to enquire about their e saver account and am also still waiting.

311

Ericom ,possibly the most inneficient company in the world.

Brutally over staffed where they're not needed and understaffed where they are.

Potential-Monke

I rang bus eireann to complain a bus one day, the person who answered first of all snorted at me, and thehn said that if i didn't have the bus number there was nothing they could do and hung up... Didn't even give me a chance to give the bus number... Usless tw@s

Nightwish

Iarnród Eireann - I made numerous complaints about late trains, no room, drunk and abusive passengers, and I once got assaulted on a train, and I only ever got 1 response, which was a free one way ticket to Dublin.

Dell - Impossible to get someone who speaks English, and who I can understand. A total rip off for residuals.

Beacon Hotel - Rude unresponsive staff when I complained about noise in the hotel. So rude in fact myself and my boyfriend drove home at 2am.

Pretty much all government departments.

BeansMeansHynes

EIRCOM - Without a shadow of a doubt the worst customer service ever. I think eircom deserves a thread of its own. I have had so many problems with them. The make my blood boil. I would rather stick needles in my eyes than ring eircom. Thank God I do not have to deal with them any more.

Followed closely by Chorus..

jaggiebunnet

Chorus and BT Ireland are miles ahead of anyone else I have had to deal with.

Funnily enough I never ever had a problem with Eircom and was even considering going back because BT Ireland are so bad.

High&Low

NTL - I happily went 2/3 weeks without tv while waiting for sky, when I moved house a couple of years ago. I actually removed the NTL cable from my house.

Eircom... but its pretty difficult to contact BT also, so probably makes fck all difference moving.

Irish Broadband... If you have a problem with them, (and if you have IBB you will have a problem) don't expect it to get fixed.

If customer service is bad and there is an alternative, move...

Sam Vimes

Senna wrote: »

Forgot about Microsoft, they are just a bunch of tossers. Have you tried their 'live chat with a support professional', obviously some poor cnut trying to talk to 20 people at the same time. treats you live a complete moron, 'did you try pressing escape, that the small button at the top left of your keyboard with Ecs on it', REALLY i thought that was the Electric Super Charger button.

to be fair, they have to treat you like a moron because they don't know who you are and the chances are the person they're talking to is a moron and they can't assume you know anything

luckat wrote: »

Maplins - lovely when you buy stuff; the other side of the coin if you return it as faulty. I bought a 50-DVD stack the last time I dealt with them, some years ago now (used to go in there a lot before this) and when they didn't work on my Mac I brought them back. They claimed they worked on a staffer's Mac, therefore weren't faulty, and refused to give me my €30 back! (The stack had cost €50; I was not asking to be repaid for the coasters already made.)

they can't give you half a refund. the price is on the till and they can't change it. if you bought any faulty product and returned it you'd be required to have all the bits.

luckat wrote: »

Mad policy, though, not returning styli and expansion cards and even covers belonging to customers! They mustn't want customers!

this is true. i worked there. i don't know what the other stores are like but the manager in my one is a nut job

MOH wrote: »

Carphone Warehouse.

what happened to you there?

kerash

BT IRELAND :mad:The worst customer service i've ever experienced. I thought eircom were bad until i swiched to bt last November, I NEVER received a correct bill, i was overcharged every time, i changed back to eircom! and it's still not resolved, over a year later, they are only out to rip customers off, any one who signs up with them is asking for trouble.

Also i had a problem with my PC, sent it back to MEDION, who couldnt get a motherboard for 3 months, and wouldnt send my pc back to me. When they finally agree, i wait a week and it still has not arrived, i call them only to find out they had gotten the part the day after i called and it was fixed. They assured all my data was still on the machine. Guess what, when i get it back, its restored to factory settings and all data is wiped. What a fantastic service........

Davidth88

The coffee place in Manor Mills Maynooth.

I have given up going there because the staff are downright rude TBH. It happened to me on a number of occasions

( and no I don't go back there ever )

ChuckProphet

NTL, EIRCOM. D.I.D. :eek:

Blisterman

Sky.
I signed up for broadband, along with my TV. They installed the TV, but as the modem hadn't arrived, not the broadband.
I never got the modem, and the broadband was never installed. When I called up, and they tried to reorder me a modem, and arrange the broadband, their system wouldn't let them.
I kept getting transferred from department to department. I had to explain the situation to everyon, each time. I kept getting cut off. At one point they said they'd call me back, and they never did.
When i finally got through to a person, who knew what the hell they were doing, and knew that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the account, the system still wouldn't let them order it, and there was no way to override it.

I spent months trying to get this broadband connected. Eventually, I just gave up, and ordered broadband from a different provider.
And throughout all of this, I was being billed for the broadband, they wouldn't connect for me.
So, yes, stay the hell away from Sky Broadband.

snowydot

Imagine - Been waiting 10 months for a refund which they agree they owe me. If its still not sorted after Christmas I'm going to submit a claim to the small claims court. Their product ie broadband and phone isn't bad but the customer service is awful.

RxQueen

vodafone.. ignorant fcuks

foggy_lad

sky spin you around on the phone from department to another until your dizzy and they offer introduce a friend which is impossible to claim!

carphone warehouse seems staffed by people who dont want you in store unless you are buying a phone and earning them commission if you have any problem or are entitled to a refund they turn ignorant and argumentative

Adagiodiva

Newbridge Silverware- my mom bought me a beautiful necklace and bracelet from one of thier recent collections- in their showrooms in Newbridge- 3 months later the stones fall out of the pieces (these were €100 and €60 respectively) I brought the pieces back to their factory where they were kept for 4 weeks without any contact (being checked by quality control) before I finally got to talk to someone who told me that I would need proof that they were bought in that store as they didn't deal with jewellery bought from Newbridge Silverware stockists- hello!! I live in Newbridge!! I'm not going to go to Dublin to buy the jewellery. (my poor mom is going through her credit card receipts and statements to try and get the details) PLUS I wasn't even looking for a refund just someone who could fix the pieces- asked to speak to a supervisor- and got no response and then requested to talk to the MD and was told by his PA that he would not be dealing with the issue. A joke!!

Iaranroid Eireann- don't get me started on them. late trains, employees laughing at you, cancelled trains, the crazy pricing of tickets (it's dearer to go to Newbridge than it is to go to Carlow???) - absolutely no accountability, I'm glad I stopped commuting this year.

ESB- OMG!! bought a new apartment and was trying to get the electicity account activated and turned on when they informed me that my apartment didn't exist?? Five very long calls later (and I was nice and very patient to everyone) I got a nice guy on the phone who was very helpful and we finally got me sorted but I mean it took...hours!

MBNA- tried to cancel my payment protection- a complete waste of money and was passed around to higher and higher persons who threatened what would happen if I did get rid of the protection...what if I got fired?? What if I became ill??? PAyment protection covers you for the minimum payment something like once.....I just had to keep repeating...I want to cancel my payment protection until 40 mins later it was done. I know that they work on comimssion so they try to sell you loans, more credit and payment protections when they get you on the phone an extremely wreckless attitude which could see alot of people get themselves into severe financial difficulty very easily.

Anyhow...there's my 2 cents...

blah

Hello Thread,
You're just what I'm looking for.
I've moved into a shared house which means me taking over a couple of bills (BT and Sky). Also the boiler broke down so that means dealing with British Gas.

Defendant#1: Sky :mad:
Wanted to take over responsibility for the bill, call centre was ok, not too long of a wait, but the bill needed to be paid, as we were overdue and our packages had been deactived (Movies etc). Unfortunately, the act of paying over the phone, while reactiving the TV packages, managed to kill out Sky Broadband connection. 3 calls and 2 days later and they're fobbing me off with "wait until midnight".
Verdict: Guilty of Crimes against Internet Access
Sentence: 10 Years watching Sky Movies, where the only thing on is "Batman & Robin".

Defendant #2: British Gas :mad: :mad:
We need a part for the boiler. The engineer insisted that the office would send out a printed quote in the post. The Call centre insisted that engineers carried printers with them and printed off quotes on the spot. They sent the engineer back to us. He told us the call centre was wrong. Rang call centre. Call centre told us engineer was wrong. Eventually gave out stink to the call centre, got put through to someone more senior who wanted to send out an engineer, I told them to make sure it was a different guy. When this guy arrived, he had the printed quote in his hand. Finally.
Verdict:Guilty of "Infinite Customer Service Loop"
Sentence: Life Imprisonment in a freezing cold cell with a broken boiler and no hot water.

Defendant #3: BT :mad: :mad: :mad:
Rang 6 weeks ago, to take over the BT bill. They needed to disconnect the old customer and create a new account and new connection for me, as a new customer. Half way through the questions for the credit check, I get cut off. Ring again, wait, they say they have to start the whole process over again. When that's done I wait, and get 3 calls over the course of the week, where they ask me my address, again and again and again, for the credit check. After that I hear nothing for a month. So I ring them, (and this is where is starts getting painful) For an hour (and for £10 mobile call charges) they pass me around, keep me on hold and finally call me back to tell me I need an engineer to come out, so I tell them to forget it. Call back the next day wait/get transferred/cut off twice/wait some more, for 2 hours, it turns out they've connected the account to the wrong apartment, I don't need an engineer and it will be connected to the correct apartment the today (I'm not holding my breath). I'm not even angry any more. I've lost my will to care. Every time they transfer you to a new department you have to explain your story to them from the beginning. And you've been on hold so long you can't remember why you were transferred there. Or what department you were transferred from? The worst company I have ever dealt with. Ever. A soul destroying experience.
Verdict: Guilty of making a man wish he could pull his own eyelids off with a glowing white hot pliers rather than call BT again.
Sentence: An eternity spent navigating the BT call centre menus and talking to an infinite number of departments and operators who are forever polite but never do anything but listen to your tale of woe and transfer you to another deparment.

That feels so much better to let that all out.

Barlow07

Cabaal wrote: »

In order of amount of hassel I had
BT - Awful billing problems, quickly got them sorted by e-mailing directors (twice!)
Eircom - ASwful billing issues, couldn't get the install/billing address right for a line
Sky - Billing issues, useless support
Local Hotel who couldn't even get the year right for a wedding despite being told it 5 times!

maybe you where just un-lucky, but to have a problem with three companys and all billing issue's, Are you sure your not fault for even one?

Dinarius

Have to add my tuppence worth re Air France.

Went with them to London City this weekend.

They lost our bag. Then found it. Then said it would be on the next flight to London on Friday. It wasn't.

They then said it would be on the first flight on Saturday morning. Actually, it was extremely helpful DAA baggage people that told us that.

When we called Air France on Saturday to see where the bag was they told us they didn't know. So, my wife called DAA Baggage and they said that the Air France captain wouldn't allow the bag on the plane.

As a result, my wife, who had intended travelling onwards by train to Brussels had to fly back to Dublin with me. Our bag was with DAA Baggage when we returned, not with Air France needless to say.

Throughout our dealings with them on the phone, the arrogance and insouciance was classic French. Basically, they didn't give a damn. Like most of that country, they're on the industrial scale social welfare gravy train, so why bother?

Sarkozy has his work cut out. I don't envy him one bit.

D.

ps. I have to say though that the flight is flying as it used to be. Free newspapers, free tea/coffee/mineral water and free cakes and biscuits. Plus, you get to land in London's best airport. But, erm, City Jet are running the service for them. So, that explains it then...........

opr

Eircom. Its beyond belief how rude and ignorant they get away with being.

Opr

Fenster

Esat Clear: I was one of those who got a "spirit of service" letter.

Eircom: They initially refused to allow me to subscribe to their broadband service as I was a "noted heavy user." It took legal threats on my part before they relented.

NTL: I had consistent quality of service issues that they refused to investigate.

Las Vegas Locksmiths: When my wife and I needed car keys cut they charged us double the quoted price, did irreparable damage to the car, immediately threatened to sue us when they discovered our bad review of their company, and maintained that the only way to resolve the issue was for us to pay them - even after they agreed that they had acted inappropriately and had agreed to take the key back from us.

Grawns

Blisterman wrote: »

Sky.
I signed up for broadband, along with my TV. They installed the TV, but as the modem hadn't arrived, not the broadband.
I never got the modem, and the broadband was never installed. When I called up, and they tried to reorder me a modem, and arrange the broadband, their system wouldn't let them.
I kept getting transferred from department to department. I had to explain the situation to everyon, each time. I kept getting cut off. At one point they said they'd call me back, and they never did.
When i finally got through to a person, who knew what the hell they were doing, and knew that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the account, the system still wouldn't let them order it, and there was no way to override it.

I spent months trying to get this broadband connected. Eventually, I just gave up, and ordered broadband from a different provider.
And throughout all of this, I was being billed for the broadband, they wouldn't connect for me.
So, yes, stay the hell away from Sky Broadband.

SKY are the biggest douches in the universe. I spent 6 months on the phone to them over billing problems. I also sent emails, faxes, registered letters. The customer service people ( some poor twats in India mostly) are not empowered to do squat. They keep you on hold and sometimes just cut you off cause they can't deal with your problem. I've been promised callbacks that never happened and everytime I thought I was getting somewhere I wouId arrive back at the beginning.

In the end we went our seperate ways. Trouble is I miss Sky plus