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

L1011

Tesco CS are usually OK; and the contact centre in the UK seem to be programmed to just do what the customer wants. Wasn't given double the difference on a misprice (sign was covered up and the staff said it was gone) and the UK team posted me a gift card for the difference with just a pic of the receipt.

ED E

Had a similar experience. Item price rose sharply, thought it was a mistake so just queried it. Got a gift card for the value of 2x item. Turns out price was correct anyway.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

L1011

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Always. If you query at the checkout you may get it for the advertised price - you will never get the double

MOH

Good

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.

Just an update on this - wrote back to them pointing out I was still down by about 20%, plus the cost of writing to them since they had insisted I deal with their UK customer service and hadn't given me a contact email address. Told them how much I was short by in total , and asked them to refund me in euro.
Got a letter back saying they were unable to issue euro cheques, but they sent me another sterling cheque which, combined with the first one, worked out about the same as the total amount I'd spent on the shoes plus postage. (They also said their contact email address is on their website, it's not.)

So I eventually got a refund for the full amount, and they were fairly prompt about replying to letters, and didn't really argue about anything. But it took some persistence, and they could have resolved the issue a lot quicker if they'd paid a bit more attention to the original complaint. Or if the in-store manager had shown the slightest interesting in dealing with it. Would still leave me less likely to buy stuff there in future.

hundomealbarro

I am having a very bad experience with Parcel Connect. I sent a parcel with them on the 1st of June 2017 and on the 19th July, after repeated calls and emails which remained unanswered, they finally got back to me saying they can't locate it, and they still haven't come back to me with an answer. I personally would not recommend them.

dudara

Post split out from old thread and moved to Best / Worst Customer experience thread

hundomealbarro

hundomealbarro wrote: »

I am having a very bad experience with Parcel Connect. I sent a parcel with them on the 1st of June 2017 and on the 19th July, after repeated calls and emails which remained unanswered, they finally got back to me saying they can't locate it, and they still haven't come back to me with an answer. I personally would not recommend them.

Anybody could give me a few pointers on this would be greatly appreciated as problem is ongoing.
Thanks dudara for adding me.

lob020

Switched to Tesco Mobile 2 months ago,worst move I ever made.No service message on daily basis,and Customer service is hopeless.i'm paying 20 a month for the phone that's 480 Euros over 24 month contract.this phone can be purchased for less than 200 Euros SIM free.as I'm not receiving a service,that's a great mark up for Tesco.
However good their offer.do not switch to this company .in my opinion they are the worst in the country

dudara

Merged into Best / Worst Customer service thread

dudara

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

nailer54321

Well looks like we are back to boom times again, was in Harvey Norman's waiting at till with what I wanted to purchess in my hand , no body at till, person talking to friends at the side who I presumed should be at the till , keeps looking over, a few minutes pass so I put the product on the counter and begin to walk out, at this point the person rushes over and tries to take the sale, at which point I said don't bother I'll get it in DID, talked to manager on way out but again did not seem to be bothered, how does anyone go into this store, this type of customer service is a disgrace. Keep listening how shops are struggling, in my option it's down to your sales staff that you employe, went across to DID and got what I need and the sales people were excellent, Harvey Norman in Blanchardstown, needs to talk to there sales staff to ensure that they are more alert to there customers needs not just stand there ignoring the people that keep them in there jobs. Will be going to DID for the new tv that I will be buying in a few weeks time, Back to boom time people, this type of customer service was rife back then and is creeping back in again,

dudara

Post merged into best/Worst customer service thread

dudara

corks finest

Eir are in my estimation the worst of the worse, customer care actually blatantly lied to me over a 2months plus period, left me hanging on the phone for over 50min, several times, and now well over a year plus after leaving them I still receive a bill(minus one, but still a bill) contacted them again, was told that it was automatically generated, and can't do anything about it

The_Conductor

corks finest wrote: »

Eir are in my estimation the worst of the worse, customer care actually blatantly lied to me over a 2months plus period, left me hanging on the phone for over 50min, several times, and now well over a year plus after leaving them I still receive a bill(minus one, but still a bill) contacted them again, was told that it was automatically generated, and can't do anything about it

Course they sodding could.
I found the only way to deal with Eircon (and I can't be the only one who calls that useless shower of tossers that)- is to bring them to the small claims court. Even after winning 2 cases (at which they couldn't have been arsed to even send a representative)- I'm still down over a grand. At least the Mafia were honest- you knew you were going to be robbed- this shower don't even afford you that small concession............

corks finest

The_Conductor wrote: »

Course they sodding could.
I found the only way to deal with Eircon (and I can't be the only one who calls that useless shower of tossers that)- is to bring them to the small claims court. Even after winning 2 cases (at which they couldn't have been arsed to even send a representative)- I'm still down over a grand. At least the Mafia were honest- you knew you were going to be robbed- this shower don't even afford you that small concession............

Agree totally with you , I met one irk guy who actually listened, took notes, acted upon my request, and hey presto most of my queries sorted, (bar the monthly bill I receive) they just don't care, and as for the shower representing eir here, they can't solve anything

robarmstrong

Eir/Meteor are a shower of muppets.

They overcharged me by tacking on roaming charges/add-ons which they claimed I purchased myself (I asked them to query with their tech support and still didn't get an answer) so naturally a few pages back I cancelled with 'em.

Stupid thing is they admitted they owe me money but wouldn't take it off my bill, basically "give us our money then we'll give you yours" attitude off 'em.

fussyonion

EIR

My God, I have never encountered a more frustrating company to deal with before!

My usual monthly bill consists of my "bundle" which, for the past year, has been €47 (it was €52 but I was given a €5 discount for a year) and whatever calls I make, which are generally none as we don't use the phone really.

Anyway, my contract was due for renewal in October and after a very pleasant chat with the guy from the Loyalty Team in Eir, he said he'd keep my bundle the same. "Due to price increases, your bundle should be €57 per month but I'll give you a €5 discount for 1 year, so your monthly bill will be €52".
Grand.

I received October's bill soon after.
€90.
Wtf?
I looked at the breakdown.

€87 for the monthly bundle. €3 for part-period charges.
I called Eir.
Girl admitted it was an error and I actually owed €78 (I owed €40 in arrears too)

I went out that day and paid €40 (I asked the girl if I could just pay €40 for now as I was struggling a bit and she said that was fine).
So now my balance was €38.

The following week, I paid €50 off it.
So now I was in credit of €12.

A new bill comes in the post today. For €78.
I rang Eir. (Incidentally, have you heard the awful music you're forced to listen to?! Jesus Christ).

I explained the issues to the girl. She admitted she didn't understand what the problem was or why my last payment of €50 hadn't been registered.

After much to-ing and fro-ing, she said she was applying €50 to my account as an apology.

She said "You don't owe us anything this month."
Grand.

Today, I decided I'd like some confirmation that I owed nothing as all I had was an incorrect bill and I'd like some proof of what she told me.
So I messaged Eir on Twitter and explained my situation and asked for confirmation.

Woman on there says "You owe us €78".
WTF?!

I explained the situation to HER. She was adamant I owed €78.
I rang Eir AGAIN.
Another 20 mins of listening to the SAME FCUKING MUSIC.

Eventually I got through to a guy, explained my situation, he says "No you're right, you don't owe us anything."
I asked for an email to confirm this.
He said he'll email it in a few mins.
I never got the email.
I don't care.

I have three pages of notes; everyone's names I spoke to, everyone's response to me, EVERYTHING.
I am dreading next month's bill. I just KNOW there will be mistakes again and AGAIN I will have to call them up.
I hate Eir.

And I suffer from stress so this whole thing has actually made me ill; I have the worst tension headaches I have ever had and I'm so overwhelmed with anxiety and irritability over a bloody phone bill, but it's the frustration of the company getting things wrong all the time.

Xterminator

I just wanted to share my good experience with an online retailer!

recently i purchased a number of books from the book people. i am a repeat customer but i have never had to use their customer service function before.

they sent me the wrong item as part of my shipment- i ordered a hardback of the nightmare before christmas, and i got a nightmare before christmas advent calendar instead. the rest of the order was correct.

i used the Online enquiry form, on their website in the evening. by 9.16AM the next day they had responded to me. they arranged for the correct item to be shipped within 5 working days, and asked me to drop the incorrect item into a local charity shop rather than return. My follow up questions were answered swiftly. The customer service agent gave her name, and was very polite and professional.

well impressed with the swift response, and professional approach. They made a mistake, but instead of leaving me pissed off; they managed to impress me more with how they handled it for me.

CeilingFly

Should be the customer service standard you'd expect. Where I work, it would be the same, but even quicker response.

Unfortunately too many places don't adhere to this standard.

cml387

Nevertheless good service should be highlighted as it shows up the rest.
Over the last while I've been well impressed with Amazon, Yale (who replaced fully a CCTV system without quibble after it went faulty), Argos and Microsoft (Xbox problem).

As for locals, Electro City in Kilkenny replaced a tv in 24 hours (and delivered to the house what's more).

dudara

Thanks for sharing your experiences!

Merged into the Best / Worst customer service thread.

dudara

L1011

CeilingFly wrote: »

Should be the customer service standard you'd expect. Where I work, it would be the same, but even quicker response.

Unfortunately too many places don't adhere to this standard.

At this stage, the number of places with good customer care by default can almost be listed on one hand - Tesco online (not guaranteed in store), Amazon... not much else. Argos has lost their way since the takeover.

The_Conductor

L1011 wrote: »

At this stage, the number of places with good customer care by default can almost be listed on one hand - Tesco online (not guaranteed in store), Amazon... not much else. Argos has lost their way since the takeover.

Specific branches of various shops- are excellent- such as the Lidl across the road from Intel in Leixlip, Dunnes Stores in Maynooth and again in Cornelscourt and Crumlin (however, god have mercy on your soul if you ever have to deal with any of their staff in Liffey Valley), some of the Eurospars have lovely staff- others are ****holes..........

Its incredibly hit and miss ����C ííŸ

goz83

I want to give a big shout out to DID electrical for saving the day.

I got Black Friday quote for a range oven from powercity (I won't say which branch). I didn't order it right away because I needed to know a delivery date. I wont in on cyber Monday and placed the order with a delivery date for today...Saturday. I rang them at noon to ask about the delivery, as the installer had already removed the old range. There was no delivery date set and I was told there was no stock in any branch and there was at least a one week wait. I got an apology from the CS rep, but that wasn't going to solve my problem.

I phoned DID on the Malahide Road and explained to Dillon what had happened. He said that Swords had one in stock and said they would do a price match for me, saving me over €300 off their current price. Ciaran at Swords was the man to sort me out and I had the new oven collected within an hour of getting the bad news from powercity. So thanks DID

To be fair to the powercity rep who quoted me...he did try to call me on Monday evening and left a voicemail to say there would be a delay on the oven. But my phone never rang and I had no voicemail notification. I got the voicemail when I checked another voicemail earlier. That's a separate issue I am having with Virgin Media. However, I think they should have tried me again.

Berberis

Currys in Newry


Was up there Black Friday and the day before I had made a reservation for 2 Google minis for collection that day.

Dropped into Currys to collect same and although they had my reservation docket, they could not find my minis and there were no more in stock.

Waited for around 30 minutes while they checked and then the young lad got the manager, who after a while of more looking managed to source a Google home and a Google mini for me and gave me the home for the reduced mini price.

L1011

Two minor ones recently, which in the old days would really just be the norm but these days are actually better than the norm:

1: Beatport. Bought a large amount of tracks. Browser disliked downloading the lot in one go. Noticed a few were missing quite some time after their re-download window failed. Submitted a support ticket, email telling me they had re-added the downloads arrived within ten minutes. No questions asked.

2: Schuh, website was offering me delivery four days later via courier or delivery to store 10 days later - I always do to-store as you can return for refund immediately if it doesn't fit and I'm rarely at home during the day anyway

Asked if the to store date was correct via their online chat and got a pretty solid assurance that it was just done to cover for any unexpected rushes and that it should still be quicker than courier. It was. Rare to get honesty like that. Second time I've had better than expected there, was a previous case (late discovered mismatch of sizes) where most retailers would fight consumer rights and Schuh not only fixed the issue immediately but were apologetic for it.

ping pong

Don't order from fitbit!
I ordered a fitbit flex 2 directly from Fitbit on 24th November , as someone asked for it as a Christmas present.
The order stated that it would ship in 2-3 weeks.
No sign of the fitbit so I e mailed the company to be told that it would not be shipped until after Christmas.
No word from the company in advance to advise about the delay, I only found out when I e mailed the company. Looking at the reviews on Trust Pilot I am not the only one with this issue.
As a separate issue, Amazon and Argos give great customer service.

The latest Estate from sky. I rang up to cancel TV. Main reason I cancelled is I don't get much time to watch TV and the kids are happy enough with rte Junior for what little TV they watch. Got the usual offer of a better price and we will throw in this and that for free. No I'm grand. And then...

If you cancel now you won't be able to sign up for another year. So if I ring in January and ask for TV they will say sorry won't be able to do that for you until December Sure

endofrainbow

Debenhams online: ordered 2 items last week for home delivery. *Delivery will be with you by 11th December*. 2 days later the website has not been updated nor has the delivery been made.

spoke with Customer Agent, explained the issue - told me she'd ring me back. she did but told me the person she spoke with was unable to help as it was a Date Protection issue - baloney - Debenhams to Debenhams is not a 3rd party enquiry.

Asked her to call back to discover the item has gone missing. Guy will ring tomorrow to offer me a refund (or possibly) replacement. Don't fancy the chances of getting the replacement this side of Christmas.