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

Fey!

Very positive experience with hotels.com last night.

I booked a room with Holiday Inn in Barnsley for a night in June. Got the confirmation email, only to find that the dates on the booking page had switched back to May 5th without me noticing, so I had booked the wrong date. Completely my own fault for not double checking properly, and it was a non-changeable/non-refundable booking.

I rang hotels.com on their UK number and got their call centre within 5 minutes of making the original booking. All I wanted to do was change the date if possible, even if I had to pay a fee. The lady I was dealing with contacted Holiday Inn, who wouldn't allow them to make any amendments or to cancel the booking. She then asked me if I'd mind holding for a couple of minutes while she spoke to her supervisor.

She came back on to tell me that her supervisor had approved cancelling my booking and refunding me. She then looked at getting me the date I wanted, but because it was a Saturday night, Holiday Inn would only do a 2 night package, which would cost a lot more. She booked me into a smaller hotel close by (hotel/pub place by the look of it, but look nice) for the night I wanted.

The lady I dealt with was courteous, polite, and went out of her way to help me out of my own mess. If this is a sign of their usual customer service, then I certainly will recommend them to anyone in the future.

L1011

Made a vaguely similar balls-up via Expedia and had a hotel that refused to talk to me, Expedia agent in the US had it sorted in 15 minutes. Many years ago; but the big booking sites do seem to be able to swing something over the hotels at times.

endofrainbow

The lady I dealt with was courteous, polite, and went out of her way to help me out of my own mess. If this is a sign of their usual customer service, then I certainly will recommend them to anyone in the future.

I've always found UK based Customer Service to be excellent - always polite and professional - and always seem to have a solution to most problems.

jetsonx

endofrainbow wrote: »

I've always found UK based Customer Service to be excellent - always polite and professional - and always seem to have a solution to most problems.

Yes, they put other so-called "advanced" countries like the US, France and Germany to shame when it comes to customer service.

They are quick, cheerful, courteous and as you have noticed, if a difficult problem is met, they will always think outside the box to find a solution.

Even ordering £5 nut for a machine, they treat the order as if it's a £50,000 order.

One of the reasons I think that in the long-term post-Brexit UK Inc. is going to be fine.

MOH

Good

Bought a pair of shoes which pretty much fell apart in the space of seven weeks (stitching just came apart at various point around both shoes).

Brought them back to the Grafton St branch. Spent ten minutes waiting at the customer service desk for a manager, and the first words she said, before even looking at the shoes, were "I can't help you". She expressed skepticism that I'd only really worn them in and out of work, and since they hadn't had any other complaints strongly implied it was my fault. She said they'd have to be send back to the manufacturer (they were their own brand).

Got a letter the next week from UK customer service with a fairly long apology, saying that the shoes definitely weren't up to standard, and a gift card was enclosed. In sterling. Which worked out at about 80% of the value of the shoes.

Checked the UK website and the gift card amount was for the UK price (before the 20% extra they add on for Ireland). The website also clearly said the Sterling gift cards can't be used internationally.

Sent the gift card back to them pointing out that since I was in Ireland I couldn't use it, and also that the refund was based on the UK price, not the higher Irish price.

They wrote back to me saying that I could have used the card, it would be converted from Sterling at the till (despite their website saying otherwise), but that they'd issue a cheque shortly.

They've now sent me a cheque. In sterling. For the same amount as the gift card, leaving me 20% short.

At this point I'm just going to give up and lodge it. But it's been fairly farcical from a company I expected better customer service from. The in-store manager could have resolved the issue on the spot weeks ago. Or the UK customer service could have paid attention to the fact that Ireland is not actually part of the UK.
But lesson learned, got a much better pair of shoes for the same price across the road in Clarks, won't be using M+S again for anything in a hurry.

keredern

MOH wrote: »

Bought a pair of shoes which pretty much fell apart in the space of seven weeks (stitching just came apart at various point around both shoes).

Brought them back to the Grafton St branch. Spent ten minutes waiting at the customer service desk for a manager, and the first words she said, before even looking at the shoes, were "I can't help you". She expressed skepticism that I'd only really worn them in and out of work, and since they hadn't had any other complaints strongly implied it was my fault. She said they'd have to be send back to the manufacturer (they were their own brand).

Got a letter the next week from UK customer service with a fairly long apology, saying that the shoes definitely weren't up to standard, and a gift card was enclosed. In sterling. Which worked out at about 80% of the value of the shoes.

Checked the UK website and the gift card amount was for the UK price (before the 20% extra they add on for Ireland). The website also clearly said the Sterling gift cards can't be used internationally.

Sent the gift card back to them pointing out that since I was in Ireland I couldn't use it, and also that the refund was based on the UK price, not the higher Irish price.

They wrote back to me saying that I could have used the card, it would be converted from Sterling at the till (despite their website saying otherwise), but that they'd issue a cheque shortly.

They've now sent me a cheque. In sterling. For the same amount as the gift card, leaving me 20% short.

At this point I'm just going to give up and lodge it. But it's been fairly farcical from a company I expected better customer service from. The in-store manager could have resolved the issue on the spot weeks ago. Or the UK customer service could have paid attention to the fact that Ireland is not actually part of the UK.
But lesson learned, got a much better pair of shoes for the same price across the road in Clarks, won't be using M+S again for anything in a hurry.

I would absolutely not give up! You are entitled to a full refund at this point as the company has accepted that shoes were not of merchantable quality and offered you their version of a refund.

Contact Head Office again in writing and advise them you will seek a ruling through the small claims court if they fail to honour their legal responsibilities in full.

Good luck!

leroy d

Had a bad experience with Logues shoe shop Galway. A Timberland shoe which was 10 months old suddenly fell apart at the stitching. So in I popped to Logues and the sales man asked me had I a receipt. Well Timberland shoes are or were designed to last so the receipt was well gone. The sales man said there is nothing he could do. The shoes had been worn very little with Zero wear to the sole or upper.
I informed the Sales man (who gave the impression that he was the owner/manager) that I buy all my shoes and have done for over 20 years in his store, including the ones I was wearing on the day, but this meant nothing to him. I offered to buy a new pair of shoes there and then, if he would give me some discount to make up for the faulty shoe, but no. I asked him should I go to another store in the future and he responded that he did not care where I took my custom.

seagull

If you bought them on a card, then the item on the card statement can be used instead of a receipt. It might be worth trying timberland direct otherwise.

robarmstrong

Received absolute god awful service from Meteor lately. Bit of a long story here so buckle up and grab your popcorn.

I changed my billing date in the middle of April (purely because Meteor would sometimes take money out twice a month but to their credit, they'd refund it a few days later or take it off my next bill. I received a bill in May for 80+ quid, a bit unusual considering it's usually 55 but I had a lot going on, new job, new apartment, etc so I couldn't look into it as much as I'd have liked to! Fast forward to a few days ago, I receive a whopping bill of 113 euro, after changing my billing date innnnnnn April! So naturally I think - what the hell? Something cannot be right here, sure I've literally paid 80+ euro less than a month ago!

So I call in to customer service and explain that there's something funky with my last two bills that there is no hope that I've ran up pretty much 200 euro in that amount of time. (I have unlimited calls, texts and 30GB of data). Customer service tell me it's due to me changing my billing date, I'm being charged pro rata (have absolutely no recollection of being informed of this whatsoever, and even if I was informed, pro rata would be 6 weeks @ 75-85 euro at most). So I do the math and something doesn't add up, apparently I received two roaming add-ons in April to correlate with the 80 odd amount in May's bill, which is funny considering I've been in Dublin, Kildare and Wexford since April, so I'm not sure why roaming add-ons would have been placed on my account.

So I ask to speak to a supervisor, I'm popped on hold and eventually I get through to a supervisor in Credit Control who asked me a couple of questions regarding billing date, my upgrade (which occurred in February) and told me she could absolutely sort out the extremely high amount over the last two months and asked me if she could just place me on hold whilst she contacted the Loyalty team to see what else they can do for me, happy days I thought. However this unfortunately wasn't the case and after about five minutes she transferred me to Loyalty who had absolutely no idea of the background of the call and didn't even receive a heads-up from the supervisor so lo and behold, I was fobbed off from one team to another because nobody wanted to deal with an unhappy customer.

Loyalty took all my details and back story down and asked to place me on hold whilst they contacted both the CC supervisor I was speaking to & Customer Care to get this sorted for me ASAP as at this point I had just lost all patience (I worked in call centres when I was younger, I know the drill for handling unhappy customers close to 5pm) and agreed yes to be put on hold whilst they contact the two different departments.

Two minutes on hold and I'm cold-transferred right onto another unsuspecting soul in Customer Care who after listening to me rant and rave about my experience so far (I'd been passed around like a naggin of vodka at Central Bank on a Saturday night at this stage) who then told me she was getting her manager involved. She then proceeded to hammer the CC supervisor with calls and emails to get my call recording listened to (to see if I actually was informed of pro rata charges or not) and now I'm currently awaiting a call from Credit Control but the general gist thusfar is "We're really sorry we've treated you like an absolute gobsh1te and your general experience and service has been absolutely god awful, but there's nothing we can do so give us our money or we'll cut you off".

I've told them outstraight I'm not paying the full amount due to the service I've received and experience I've been subjected to (been billpay with them for well over 5 years so that's easily a couple of grand gone down the drain) and will cancel the direct debit they have on my account and I'll flat out refuse to pay a further cent (I don't live at the address where they'll send the collection agency towards and sure how will they contact me if my phone is cut off?).

I'm generally easy going and have no bother with calling into a call centres, always patient and understanding as I've been in their shoes before, but this time it's a no no, beyond a joke.

MOH

Good

robarmstrong wrote: »

I've told them outstraight I'm not paying the full amount due to the service I've received and experience I've been subjected to (been billpay with them for well over 5 years so that's easily a couple of grand gone down the drain) and will cancel the direct debit they have on my account and I'll flat out refuse to pay a further cent (I don't live at the address where they'll send the collection agency towards and sure how will they contact me if my phone is cut off?).

I'm generally easy going and have no bother with calling into a call centres, always patient and understanding as I've been in their shoes before, but this time it's a no no, beyond a joke.

They're an absolute joke.

When you're cancelling the direct debit, notify Meteor by email, also blacklist them with your bank to prevent them setting up a future direct debit (it's just a form you fill in, ask the bank). They did that to me despite the fact I told them multiple times the DD was cancelled, and I'd been paying them the correct amount I owed each month in the meantime. Three months later a new DD was initiated against my account out of the blue, I had to get it refunded.

Which reminds me, you should also be able to request a refund of the excessive DDs via your bank. If you're doing that, I'd suggest paying Meteor the correct amount you owe them manually to be on the safe side.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

robarmstrong

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

What do you mean?

L1011

robarmstrong wrote: »

What do you mean?

Leave the network and be up and running on your new one - networks can try hold on to numbers

The_Conductor

robarmstrong wrote: »

What do you mean?

Move it to another supplier so Meteor can't bollox it up for you- after you tear strips out of them.

ohnonotgmail

L1011 wrote: »

Leave the network and be up and running on your new one - networks can try hold on to numbers

The_Conductor wrote: »

Move it to another supplier so Meteor can't bollox it up for you- after you tear strips out of them.

they only received an upgrade in February so a port is probably not possible.

robarmstrong

Oh right sorry lads, bit of a brain fart there!

I've still not received a call back, to be honest I'm tempted to just cancel the DD as of right now and leave them high and dry. I work across the road from Blanch shopping centre so I might just rock into 3 or vodafone/whomever and see what they can do for me. Prices are still steep though!

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

ohnonotgmail

robarmstrong wrote: »

Oh right sorry lads, bit of a brain fart there!

I've still not received a call back, to be honest I'm tempted to just cancel the DD as of right now and leave them high and dry. I work across the road from Blanch shopping centre so I might just rock into 3 or vodafone/whomever and see what they can do for me. Prices are still steep though!

if you are currently tied into a contract then cancelling the DD will not help you. you will still owe the money. no other phone company will port you.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

robarmstrong

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

if you are currently tied into a contract then cancelling the DD will not help you. you will still owe the money. no other phone company will port you.

Don't really care about keeping the number or owing the money, not a hope would I pay up to receive that sort of service, plus I don't live at the address they have for me so the rest of my contract (runs out in Feb 2019) would be passed onto a DCA who would have no way of ever contacting me.

Fairly well deserved tbh.

ohnonotgmail

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

He has made one attempt to resolve the issue. admittedly his experience was terrible but so is the advice given to him here.

my3cents

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

If your bills aren't paid or you are still in contract your existing mobile provider doesn't have to let you port. Most if not all will lock the number so you can't port.

MOH

Good

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

if you are currently tied into a contract then cancelling the DD will not help you. you will still owe the money. no other phone company will port you.

Cancelling the direct debit, blacklisting Meteor, and seeking a refund from the bank for the overcharge, should absolutely be the first step. Otherwise they will continue to overcharge.

I'm not for moment suggesting the OP doesn't continue to manually pay the correct amount owed until the issue is resolved. But being allowed to directly debit a customer's account is a privilege granted to the company by the customer, which a customer is perfectly entitled to cancel if it's being abused. Too many companies seem to think they've an automatic entitlement to treat customer's bank accounts as they wish.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

robarmstrong

Phone bills don't affect credit rating do they? I thought defaulting on loans or the likes of car finance does.

ohnonotgmail

robarmstrong wrote: »

Phone bills don't affect credit rating do they? I thought defaulting on loans or the likes of car finance does.

if the debt is big enough they will take you to court and get a judgement. then it will affect your credit rating. Given that you are only 4 months into a 2 year contract the termination fee might well be enough to make you worth pursuing.

robarmstrong

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

if the debt is big enough they will take you to court and get a judgement. then it will affect your credit rating. Given that you are only 4 months into a 2 year contract the termination fee might well be enough to make you worth pursuing.

I swapped my tariff to the lowest (15 quid a month) and it's been put through already, so there's 17 months of 15 euro to pay, 400 quid tops?

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

my3cents

robarmstrong wrote: »

Phone bills don't affect credit rating do they? I thought defaulting on loans or the likes of car finance does.

You'll be on the Credit Insights data base which is also used by three and vodafone. https://www.meteor.ie/privacy_policy/

Credit Insights
If you are a new Customer on or after 29th November 2016 or if you are an existing Customer who enters into a new contract with eir on or after 29th November 2016 please note if you allow your account to fall into arrears by not paying your bills in full and on time, information on your payment performance may be shared with other service providers of landline, broadband and mobile services through the provision of the information to a database operated by the service providers called Credit Insights. Other providers of services who also supply information on payment performance of their customers to the Credit Insights database may check this information when you apply for their services in the future to help them assess your credit worthiness. The information shared with Credit Insights includes name, address, date of birth and account details to include account history and balance owed, and will be held on the database for 6 years from the date of the notification of the arrears.

fussyonion

Just saw on Tesco's website that Hennessey 70cl is on offer at €28 instead of the usual €35.

I was under the impression (from being told before in a Tesco store regarding a different product advertised as being on sale on their site) that these offers are exclusively online, but I popped in-store today and saw the brandy on the shelf for €35.

I decided I'd ask about the online offer. The girl wasn't aware that Tesco even had their own website (!) but she went off to check. She came back and said "You're right, it is on offer online, you can buy it for €28 so".
Happy days!

So it seems if it's on offer on their site, it's on offer in-store.