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

Otis_taylor2

e-travel has to be the worst in terms of customer service. I cancelled a flight with etravel in November and have not yet received my refund.
I contacted them several times and they said to just email them the issue and they 'would reply'. NO REPLY after 6 months.

Otis_taylor2

PeteK* wrote: »

You're in Dublin (so it says) and they're in Dublin. Go say hi.

Oh I will, I was really busy so had no time at all to go behind it, but finally free at last. I'll be going with a shotgun

hardanro

gusroo86 wrote: »

Virgin media without a doubt

Terrible customer service, am waiting on a call back from the 22nd of March, have spent at least 8hours onto their Philippines call centre chasing it up and have lodged complaints about complaints at this stage, advised I should be contacted in 48hrs still nothing. I have talked to maybe 15-20 ppl through various methods in the last mnt. In the interim if you don't pay your bill ( the only leverage you think you may have) they just cut your service. You have to wait for them to contact you regarding complaints I'm waiting nearly a mnt now and have lodges 4.

Regarding my experience to date with VM. I have experienced difficulty in logging a complaint on the 8th of April the customer service agent infact refused to take my complaint initially and said I had to do it online, the online method also proved difficult with 'page not found' etc., staff speak poor English which doesn't help.Refusal to escalate call to senior member of staff or manager was another area that proved onerous, refusal to issue a complaint case number has also happened,

VM should be aware at this stage the number of similar complaints especially on online forums even customers have went to the lengths of uploading conversations online on YouTube. VM should be ashamed.

I guess there in the business of frustrating there customers into accepting. You are constantly passed from one department to the next when you ring. It has improved impossible to talk to anyone in authority. Even tough they essentially break the terms of the contract you can't walk away as you could be blacklisted from a credit rating perspective from their incompetence, once something is out of the norm, ie a problem, there is no way out of it it seems, you keep having to pay and hope they fix it!

From my experience, the only channel working with Virgin Media/UPC was writing on boards.ie Talk To forums. Everything else: talking on the phone, writing mails, writing messages on their site - was like talking to a wall.

tringle

I closed a credit card account with AIB over 4 years ago, the account was completely cleared, nothing owed by either side. Anyway for a year I got statements saying the balance was €0 and could I please pay. I eventually called them saying the account was closed and nothing owing. They apologised and said the statements were sent in error. So now I get regular statements from them that are totally blank, one every 3 months for the past 3 years :rolleyes:


I had a run in with a junior manager in LIDL, she was being very officious and just wouldn't listen to me. Most of the staff in our local branch are lovely and I went in one day a little distracted after a phone call from my daughter. I was picking up emergency supplies and left my card in the machine. Didn't realise it and went and got my daughter who decided we also needed cash, that's when I discovered card was still in LIDL. Charged down to LIDL in car, pushed past all customers to the till I was at and cashier recognised me straight away and said card was in the office. She got up to get it but junior manager said she would do it, however she continued to serve her customers. I tried to explain my rush but she just cut me off. We told her the name on the card and eventually she went and got it...but it took 3 trips to the office to get my card. Then she wanted ID from me, this was in my purse in the car. I had to go and get it, when I came back she made me wait while she dealt with someone else. Then she discovered my card wasn't signed and refused to give it to me until I signed it and she checked the signature was the same as on my driving license. It took about 15 minutes, not much time in most days but the reason for my hurry and what I tried to explain to her was that my daughter was in labour in the car and we where rushing to the maternity hospital. Baby was delivered by emergency section 2 hours later.
I know procedures must be followed to ensure cards are only given to correct person but every other staff member could verify who I was and that it was my card. She gets the "evil eye" from me now when I see her.:mad:

tringle

Was in IKEA last week, I had already stopped and shopped at a garden centre and another superstore so car was already jam packed when I got there. Did a huge amount of shopping and struggled out to the car and realised I had to take EVERYTHING out and repack ( I even had the seats flattened). Anyway a small female staff member just on her way into work stopped and offered to help, I said I was fine but she checked a few times with me before she went into work.

SuperS54

tringle wrote: »

I closed a credit card account with AIB over 4 years ago, the account was completely cleared, nothing owed by either side. Anyway for a year I got statements saying the balance was €0 and could I please pay. I eventually called them saying the account was closed and nothing owing. They apologised and said the statements were sent in error. So now I get regular statements from them that are totally blank, one every 3 months for the past 3 years :rolleyes:


I had a run in with a junior manager in LIDL, she was being very officious and just wouldn't listen to me. Most of the staff in our local branch are lovely and I went in one day a little distracted after a phone call from my daughter. I was picking up emergency supplies and left my card in the machine. Didn't realise it and went and got my daughter who decided we also needed cash, that's when I discovered card was still in LIDL. Charged down to LIDL in car, pushed past all customers to the till I was at and cashier recognised me straight away and said card was in the office. She got up to get it but junior manager said she would do it, however she continued to serve her customers. I tried to explain my rush but she just cut me off. We told her the name on the card and eventually she went and got it...but it took 3 trips to the office to get my card. Then she wanted ID from me, this was in my purse in the car. I had to go and get it, when I came back she made me wait while she dealt with someone else. Then she discovered my card wasn't signed and refused to give it to me until I signed it and she checked the signature was the same as on my driving license. It took about 15 minutes, not much time in most days but the reason for my hurry and what I tried to explain to her was that my daughter was in labour in the car and we where rushing to the maternity hospital. Baby was delivered by emergency section 2 hours later.
I know procedures must be followed to ensure cards are only given to correct person but every other staff member could verify who I was and that it was my card. She gets the "evil eye" from me now when I see her.:mad:

Sounds like a rude customer ignoring queues and other customers as they felt their needs were more important than everyone elses. Who on earth goes shopping before collecting their daughter who is seemingly in advanced labour and then decides it more important to huff around in Lidl looking for their card back rather than getting to a hospital?!

endofrainbow

tringle wrote: »

I closed a credit card account with AIB over 4 years ago, the account was completely cleared, nothing owed by either side. Anyway for a year I got statements saying the balance was €0 and could I please pay. I eventually called them saying the account was closed and nothing owing. They apologised and said the statements were sent in error. So now I get regular statements from them that are totally blank, one every 3 months for the past 3 years :rolleyes:


I had a run in with a junior manager in LIDL, she was being very officious and just wouldn't listen to me. Most of the staff in our local branch are lovely and I went in one day a little distracted after a phone call from my daughter. I was picking up emergency supplies and left my card in the machine. Didn't realise it and went and got my daughter who decided we also needed cash, that's when I discovered card was still in LIDL. Charged down to LIDL in car, pushed past all customers to the till I was at and cashier recognised me straight away and said card was in the office. She got up to get it but junior manager said she would do it, however she continued to serve her customers. I tried to explain my rush but she just cut me off. We told her the name on the card and eventually she went and got it...but it took 3 trips to the office to get my card. Then she wanted ID from me, this was in my purse in the car. I had to go and get it, when I came back she made me wait while she dealt with someone else. Then she discovered my card wasn't signed and refused to give it to me until I signed it and she checked the signature was the same as on my driving license. It took about 15 minutes, not much time in most days but the reason for my hurry and what I tried to explain to her was that my daughter was in labour in the car and we where rushing to the maternity hospital. Baby was delivered by emergency section 2 hours later.
I know procedures must be followed to ensure cards are only given to correct person but every other staff member could verify who I was and that it was my card. She gets the "evil eye" from me now when I see her.:mad:

Classic case of DYNKWIA - your card was unsigned and the *officious* Junior Manager was following procedures. Pushing past all the customers is very rude and if I had been her, I probably would have continued serving the customers who were already in line.

PeteK*

endofrainbow wrote: »

Classic case of DYNKWIA - your card was unsigned and the *officious* Junior Manager was following procedures. Pushing past all the customers is very rude and if I had been her, I probably would have continued serving the customers who were already in line.

If you're following procedures for a card that isn't signed then Lidl shouldn't have accepted that card as payment? I'd imagine that's how it would go.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

firestarter51

tringle wrote: »

I closed a credit card account with AIB over 4 years ago, the account was completely cleared, nothing owed by either side. Anyway for a year I got statements saying the balance was €0 and could I please pay. I eventually called them saying the account was closed and nothing owing. They apologised and said the statements were sent in error. So now I get regular statements from them that are totally blank, one every 3 months for the past 3 years :rolleyes:


I had a run in with a junior manager in LIDL, she was being very officious and just wouldn't listen to me. Most of the staff in our local branch are lovely and I went in one day a little distracted after a phone call from my daughter. I was picking up emergency supplies and left my card in the machine. Didn't realise it and went and got my daughter who decided we also needed cash, that's when I discovered card was still in LIDL. Charged down to LIDL in car, pushed past all customers to the till I was at and cashier recognised me straight away and said card was in the office. She got up to get it but junior manager said she would do it, however she continued to serve her customers. I tried to explain my rush but she just cut me off. We told her the name on the card and eventually she went and got it...but it took 3 trips to the office to get my card. Then she wanted ID from me, this was in my purse in the car. I had to go and get it, when I came back she made me wait while she dealt with someone else. Then she discovered my card wasn't signed and refused to give it to me until I signed it and she checked the signature was the same as on my driving license. It took about 15 minutes, not much time in most days but the reason for my hurry and what I tried to explain to her was that my daughter was in labour in the car and we where rushing to the maternity hospital. Baby was delivered by emergency section 2 hours later.
I know procedures must be followed to ensure cards are only given to correct person but every other staff member could verify who I was and that it was my card. She gets the "evil eye" from me now when I see her.:mad:

i would have done the exact same as the manager, why is your need more important than the other customers, you left the card behind and they followed protocol

Nekyggub

I am at a loss to figure out how to work a B and Q web site. Special offer prices are in Euros, then what you want is in sterling. No wonder the stores are half empty. Badly managed stores, overpriced, often nobody can answer if your problem is anyway technical. The little apron thingy is to give you the customer the impression that ' You are now talking to an expert' whereas I'm not sure some of the poor things can read or write. Should have gone to SPEC SAVERS. Do they do lawn mowers ?

Moved to Consumer issues, may be more suited here.

Penny Tration

Tesco:

Had a somewhat "serious" complaint, and got in touch with them through their contact form.

I can't praise the lady in CS enough. She updated me every 24 hours (the issue dragged on for a month), and when the store manager ignored her calls, she got head office involved. Issue was resolved and we were given vouchers as a goodwill gesture.

She was on the ball. the frequency of emails from her was impressive. Nice to see good communication with customers.

Virtanen

Walkers Crisps:

Won a t-shirt in a competition over 4 months ago, and am still waiting for it. Emails just do not get responded to, and phone calls just go to the general customer support person, who knows nothing and has to email someone else

After promises that it would arrive in 10 days - and after that a follow-up email saying they lost my address - still nothing

And not so much as a packet of crisps offered as an apology :rolleyes:

the groutch

usually posting on their Facebook/Twitter pages gets their attention.

5rtytry56

Supermacs "Level 1" (There is only one level with the train platforms ) Heuston Station.

Got what I asked for: Fizzy drink with no ice, as well as fresh chips and tasty chicken burger: busy but well managed.

The young lads working in Homebase at Nutgrove were friendly and helpful - thank you very much guys

subpar

Virgin Media call centre in Manilla is a complete head wrecker . Many of the customer service agents have very poor conversational English and appear to be working from a series of stock scripted responses.

I have complained about this twice in the last 12 months but it would appear that VM are prepared to tolerate a significant level of customer dis- satisfaction with the Manilla call centre due perhaps to the cost savings of operating in such a low wage economy.

Ruff says flaherty

The worst customer service experience I have ever had. I will never set foot in their store and again and will recommend that family and friends do likewise. I bought a couch from them on the June 25th for €1200. It arrived on the 28th of June. Just after it had been delivered I noticed that it had a hole in one of the arms. I rang them and reported this straight away. What has gone on since then I can only describe as an absolute disgrace. I have had to ring them off my own bat so many times I have genuinely lost count after being fobbed off that one of their "customer service" agents would call me back with the next steps. I found out then that they sub-contract out repairs, so I then proceeded into a game of phone tag with this company until I eventually tied them down to come and inspect the hole 6 weeks after my first call. He arrived one Tuesday morning at 8.00am (randomly- he was meant to call me a few hours beforehand) Luckily I was off work for a couple of weeks, so he came and had a look. His recommendation was to replace the cloth on the arm as the hole was too big to just repair. He said he would order the material and gave a time frame of 2 weeks for this to arrive and to be installed. Surprisingly, after this was when things started to get really bad. Numerous calls into clueless "customer service" agent after clueless "customer service" agent led to ,at one stage, them telling me that the material had been posted to my apartment. Something that I never agreed to as it wouldnt fit in my letter box and I would be at work. Turns out, it had never been posted anywhere. So they then ordered it and said it would be delivered to their store, where the technician would pick it up before going to my place to install the magical material that I was starting to think had come from the pelt of some endangered animal. After more calls to Harvey Norman and more fobbing off (they love the "we will call you back tomorrow with an update" line, which never actually happens) I have eventually got a date of 17 days from now when the technician will be out to repair the arm. This will be a couple of days shy of 3 months since I first flagged the issue. Nice one Harvey. Keep well clear would be my advice. If something goes wrong, you will be in deep do do.

Winterlong

Ruff says flaherty wrote: »

T Keep well clear would be my advice. If something goes wrong, you will be in deep do do.

They really do not know how to handle customers when things go wrong. It's not worth the gamble dealing with them. Terrible company.

Galadriel

Ruff says flaherty wrote: »

The worst customer service experience I have ever had. I will never set foot in their store and again and will recommend that family and friends do likewise. I bought a couch from them on the June 25th for €1200. It arrived on the 28th of June. Just after it had been delivered I noticed that it had a hole in one of the arms. I rang them and reported this straight away. What has gone on since then I can only describe as an absolute disgrace. I have had to ring them off my own bat so many times I have genuinely lost count after being fobbed off that one of their "customer service" agents would call me back with the next steps. I found out then that they sub-contract out repairs, so I then proceeded into a game of phone tag with this company until I eventually tied them down to come and inspect the hole 6 weeks after my first call. He arrived one Tuesday morning at 8.00am (randomly- he was meant to call me a few hours beforehand) Luckily I was off work for a couple of weeks, so he came and had a look. His recommendation was to replace the cloth on the arm as the hole was too big to just repair. He said he would order the material and gave a time frame of 2 weeks for this to arrive and to be installed. Surprisingly, after this was when things started to get really bad. Numerous calls into clueless "customer service" agent after clueless "customer service" agent led to ,at one stage, them telling me that the material had been posted to my apartment. Something that I never agreed to as it wouldnt fit in my letter box and I would be at work. Turns out, it had never been posted anywhere. So they then ordered it and said it would be delivered to their store, where the technician would pick it up before going to my place to install the magical material that I was starting to think had come from the pelt of some endangered animal. After more calls to Harvey Norman and more fobbing off (they love the "we will call you back tomorrow with an update" line, which never actually happens) I have eventually got a date of 17 days from now when the technician will be out to repair the arm. This will be a couple of days shy of 3 months since I first flagged the issue. Nice one Harvey. Keep well clear would be my advice. If something goes wrong, you will be in deep do do.

I would stop contacting them, 3 months is madness when you purchased a new couch, file a case with the small claims court.

dudara

Posts moved to Best / Worst Customer Service thread

dudara

Ruff says flaherty

Galadriel wrote: »

I would stop contacting them, 3 months is madness when you purchased a new couch, file a case with the small claims court.

At this stage I just want to get it fixed and out of the way. I would never write about something like this ,but it was absolute disgrace. Rude little upstarts on the phone as well. Will genuinely never set foot in Harvey Norman again. Its a rip off anyway

L1011

Brand new pair of Superdry boxers split at the seam as I was putting them on. Still decided that that level of skin contact wouldn't be something the shop would want to handle... bought in one of their own stores.

Contacted their web store customer care, who are refunding the full price (was a twinpack) and clearly don't want the boxers back. Wanted a photo of the damage and the receipt (which I amazingly still had - over full recycle bin the last few weeks). More than I was expecting.

Kevin111

This company has the worst company service ever. Was mis sold sky, meant to have ultra hd at agreed price. When I get it. There none. Have ring up and then told I would have to pay more. Agent sold it to me with this included, was totally mis sold to me. Was expecting ultra hd then told I don't have that package after ur sales agent made it clear to me more then once that I have all this. . Over 5 days I tryed to sort this problem with ye, enough time for this, but still no, could not get anywhere only goin around in circles, a fortune on a phone bill ringing up ,in the end I had to cancel. The hassle and experience of all this is made me never want to get sky again. I will never recommend to friends or family again. My question is I paid a insulation fee of 60€ , I now want this refunded back to me because I was wrongfully sold the product,a eingeer is meant to collect the box but I think before I give that back I will have to get my refund

Kings Inns or bust

Kevin111 wrote: »

This company has the worst company service ever. Was mis sold sky, meant to have ultra hd at agreed price. When I get it. There none. Have ring up and then told I would have to pay more. Agent sold it to me with this included, was totally mis sold to me. Was expecting ultra hd then told I don't have that package after ur sales agent made it clear to me more then once that I have all this. . Over 5 days I tryed to sort this problem with ye, enough time for this, but still no, could not get anywhere only goin around in circles, a fortune on a phone bill ringing up ,in the end I had to cancel. The hassle and experience of all this is made me never want to get sky again. I will never recommend to friends or family again. My question is I paid a insulation fee of 60€ , I now want this refunded back to me because I was wrongfully sold the product,a eingeer is meant to collect the box but I think before I give that back I will have to get my refund

It's a really stupid set up, I came a cropper myself.

The 2TB box can do UHD but you need to have extra rooms and be paying the sub to get UHD. The extra boxes can't do UHD. What fecking genius came up with that product link is beyond me!

To be fair their talk to forum here seems to get rave reviews. Did you try that?

Edit: I see you did with the trusty copy and paste :pac:

FanadMan

Kevin111 wrote: »

This company has the worst company service ever. Was mis sold sky, meant to have ultra hd at agreed price. When I get it. There none. Have ring up and then told I would have to pay more. Agent sold it to me with this included, was totally mis sold to me. Was expecting ultra hd then told I don't have that package after ur sales agent made it clear to me more then once that I have all this. . Over 5 days I tryed to sort this problem with ye, enough time for this, but still no, could not get anywhere only goin around in circles, a fortune on a phone bill ringing up ,in the end I had to cancel. The hassle and experience of all this is made me never want to get sky again. I will never recommend to friends or family again. My question is I paid a insulation fee of 60€ , I now want this refunded back to me because I was wrongfully sold the product,a eingeer is meant to collect the box but I think before I give that back I will have to get my refund

Can you not request a copy of all calls under Freedom of Information. Think it costs something like €6 (Kings Inns or bust should have info on the details).

So if the sales rep promised you UHD at a certain price and then you get billed something different and you have a copy of the call, you have them over a barrel.

hairyslug

Surprisingly enough I found Eir great, from the install to issues I've created myself to faulty equipment, everything has been organised or fixed in what I would consider a very quick turn around.

Also have to throw in 7 Star takeaway in Gorey, very friendly staff.

I've had nothing but problems with Electric Ireland, from moving house to closing a deceased parents account, they made things as difficult as possible.

corks finest

Senna wrote: »

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?

Eir,without doubt,the rudest,most inept,shower of dysfunctional bastards created,spoke to up to 30 plus customer care(no care)pol,over a 16 day period,total of 26/30 hours on phone,plus eir chat,left hanging on phone 3 times for over one hour plus,then call dropped,wouldn't buy any eir product ever,ever again

cathy01

corks finest wrote: »

Eir,without doubt,the rudest,most inept,shower of dysfunctional bastards created,spoke to up to 30 plus customer care(no care)pol,over a 16 day period,total of 26/30 hours on phone,plus eir chat,left hanging on phone 3 times for over one hour plus,then call dropped,wouldn't buy any eir product ever,ever again

Rang eir yesterday.Total tool.Though he out me in mute but he didn't. I Could hear him giving out about me.So wish I could talk to a manager there.