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

SerialComplaint · 07-05-2008 6:45am

jennybyrne wrote: »

Ihad a problem last year with a shop,,,i actually found a consumer complaints place that specialise in consumer affairs in ireland.

http://www.tradingstandards.ie/

Hi Jenny - Forgive the cynicism, but a new poster who is busily recommending sites like tradingstandards.ie and dresses.ie might be taken with a pinch of salt by many readers unless you can give a bit more information.

What exactly did this 'consumer complaints place' do for you? It looks to me that they are a commercial organisation themselves.

Dues Bellator · 07-05-2008 10:11am

rant ; lidil no one can understand what im saying and the whole attitude of the staff stinks to high water.

rave ; game stop rathmines , my ps3 wouldnt accept discs i rang them to explain the problem ,within 45 mins i had a courier at the door with a complete new system and took away the old one , amazing then at 5;30 i got a phone call to ask was everything allright.now thats what i call customer service, i dont even think there obliged to do sush a thing .fantastic company.they will go far.

rom · 10-05-2008 6:28pm

BT - Took 5 months to install phone line and BB. On the phone for an hr, talked to eircom etc. voice contract etc. rang back 6 weeks latter only that there was no record of that I had ever ordered anything.

3 days before xmass took 400 euro from my account by mistake saying that they would only be able to pay me back in Mid Feb by cheque.

Paid for a 3MBit connection only got 1. Tech support said I should get a refund of the difference and my line was able to support 5MBit easy when he tested it. Customer service person said he shouldnt have told me that and reported him for being a nice guy.

Overcharged me loads of times. too many times

Chorus - Installer cut my sat cable. Left wires hanging down lose outside house. Very bad job.

They also started to charge me 2 euro extra a month cause I won't give them access to my bank account.

Installer in parents house jumped the wall into neighbors house without asking them. They came out. Made me look bad.

Sky - So much .... Had to tell them I was moving to the US so they would let me cancel.

Komplett: rang them up as I got a better price on a uk store. They dropped the price of my order by 30 euro. Nice

moloneyg · 12-05-2008 2:42pm

Hi all,

I just bought a washer dryer from DID Stillorgan.

I had a very informative and friendly chat with the sales guy.

Bought on Thursday Evening, new one delivered and they collected old one on Saturday, within the times they said they would do so :-)

Very quick and simple, and professional service.

rave over :-)

ergonomics · 14-05-2008 12:01am

Good - Axa Insurance. I'm a learner driver, and had less than a years driving experience when I got insured with them. I also had a claim - I was trying to practice reverse parking and misjudged and scraped the wall. To teach me a lesson about how expensive cars are my Mum didn't stop me and made me claim it on the insurance. The lady in Axa still gave me a 20% no claims discount because 'accidents happen when you're learning, and no on else was involved, and insurance is expensive enough as it is'.

Bad - Any PC World. The service is awful. They never have enough staff on. I used to work in computers so when I was buying my laptop there I knew exactly what I wanted. I had to spend at least half an hour telling the salesperson I wanted laptop X but he still kept showing me other ones.

Toto Wolfcastle · 20-05-2008 5:31pm

Rave: Ryanair

People constantly go on about how crap Ryanair is, so I thought I'd write something nice about them. I flew from Shannon to Nantes and back again over the last few days for less than 30 euro and it was great. There was none of that waiting around on the plane before it took off and after landing. The plane landed, the other passengers got off, they spent a few minutes cleaning (and it was clean) and off we went. We arrived between 10 and 20 minutes early on both flights. The pilot actually seemed happy to talk to the passengers. The flight attendants were great. Booking the tickets was also easy, and everyone was checked in quickly.

staker · 20-05-2008 5:46pm

after queuing for about 10 mins in ptsb bank i got to the counter. snobhead proceeds to lodge my money into my account with a face the back of a bus couldn't pull.
she rubberstamps the paperwork and tosses my lodgement slip back over the counter..
"you know we have an online service. if you'd fill out an application form over there and hand it back in it would save you the bother of coming to the counter" the aul bag says
"what?, and do you out of a job... hmmmmm" says i and legs it while her jaw's gathering dust from the floor
it felt fvcin brilliant!!!

wmpdd3 · 20-05-2008 10:21pm

Lodging money is the only thing i have been into the bank for in the last 5 years,
i'll be happy when they can offer quicklodge by post!

P.C. · 21-05-2008 7:17pm

ergonomics wrote: »

Good - Axa Insurance. I'm a learner driver, and had less than a years driving experience when I got insured with them. I also had a claim - I was trying to practice reverse parking and misjudged and scraped the wall. To teach me a lesson about how expensive cars are my Mum didn't stop me and made me claim it on the insurance. The lady in Axa still gave me a 20% no claims discount because 'accidents happen when you're learning, and no on else was involved, and insurance is expensive enough as it is'.

Bad - Any PC World. The service is awful. They never have enough staff on. I used to work in computers so when I was buying my laptop there I knew exactly what I wanted. I had to spend at least half an hour telling the salesperson I wanted laptop X but he still kept showing me other ones.

Have to agree with you on PC World. Was there today, and got NO service. :mad:

jonnyone · 25-05-2008 8:53pm

RANT
Couriers. Aaaaagh I am at my wits end. I could write a book about negative courier experiences. The latest in a long saga of non delivery is an item I bought in the UK (500euro impact wrench) on the 10th May via internet. The seller told me I would have my item within 48hrs, on 20th May yes 10 days later I contacted the seller to see where item was. They told me that it was dispatched on 12th May so they checked with the courier company and were told that the said courier company couldn't find me and that I didn't have a phone!
Now I am 2 miles from Midleton in Co. Cork just off the N25 and I have a landline and a mobile number both of which were on the order. Anyway I was to have been contacted last Friday to enable delivery and of course nothing. Its now 15 days into the order and no sign of my goods. Has anybody else suffered at the hands of incompetent couriers or what recourse have I?
The previous experience was with Nightline couriers who kept my goods for a week and eventually I had to track down the van and driver myself only to be verbally abused and have the package thrown at me.

Bob the Builder · 01-06-2008 2:28am

Bad experiences with Paypal. Because of Paypal, I lost €240 on the ebay buyer protection policy because of them. Never got it back. Ridiculous. Don't shop on ebay if your relying on buyer protection policies.

Vodafone, were always a pleasure to deal with imo. Well run company, expensive, but you get what you pay for. On holidays once, my phone stopped working. I used my parents phone to ring them. it cost me 79c + the price of the call. The lady went looking for an answer, and rang my dads phone back (promptly) to tell me whats was wrong, it cost me another 79c. I had no problem wasting €4 credit just to get my phone back, but instead, she refunded €5 to his phone and topped up my phone for €5 as well, as a holiday present... like zOMG! Thats just one of many positive experiences.

The mother rang Sky before as part of an offer taht shje had signed up for but never received. the guy was an absoloute pri<k. He hung up, but then my mother rang back, and got through to a woman who solved her problem, and also gave her details to complain about that member of staff. Issue was resolved by management.

Bank of Ireland: not many dealings, but very positive for the most part.

Tesco: depends really... half good, half bad.

Davy · 02-06-2008 2:49am

Ordered about 2 half weeks ago, and it never arrived, so sent an email to them today about 7pm. Got a reply at midnight asking me to confirm address, which i did at when i checked mail at 2am, then received a reply back saying they were re-sending the order. No hassle, no wait another week, no questions apart from to confirm my address. Great to have service on a Sunday as well!

kaiser soza · 04-06-2008 3:00am

The xtravision store in Talaght is run by a guy who turns down business,last year he refused to sell me games on the grounds that I trade them in,I had given his store a lot of business until then and sent complaints to the head office and to Blockbuster,I was in Talaght on Tuesday for the first time in more than a year and the same guy was still there,this time he told his staff to let me buy nine games,I had €300 to spend,has anyone ever heard of anything like this before.

Dues Bellator · 04-06-2008 10:20am

kaiser soza wrote: »

The xtravision store in Talaght is run by a guy who turns down business,last year he refused to sell me games on the grounds that I trade them in,I had given his store a lot of business until then and sent complaints to the head office and to Blockbuster,I was in Talaght on Tuesday for the first time in more than a year and the same guy was still there,this time he told his staff to let me buy nine games,I had €300 to spend,has anyone ever heard of anything like this before.

wow how weird is that, xtra vision in nutgrove is managed by a complete hitler, refuses business , bad attitude to customers and staff alike , i have emailed head office with complaints before but havnt even had the privalege of a reply, last week was the final straw my wife and i were in store on saturday with my son , my son was looking at the games and we were looking at dvds when all of a sudden i hear a commotion behind me , this ape was man handeling my son [whos a gent btw] out the door saying theres too many kids in the store , well let me tell you i lost it, i certanly dont go to spend money in stores for my family to be assaulted , after attemting to call the garda this idiot said a kind of childish sorry to my 10 year old who was as white as a sheet, so this time i called up to there head office and reported the guy,ill be going down there on saturday and if this bully is still there ill be suprised.

Davidth88 · 06-06-2008 11:45am

this ape was man handeling my son [whos a gent btw] out the door saying theres too many kids in the store , well let me tell you i lost it,

Jeez , tell us if this guy has lost his job I truly hope so......

Dues Bellator · 06-06-2008 12:52pm

Davidth88 wrote: »

Jeez , tell us if this guy has lost his job I truly hope so......

im not really into costing irish folk there jobs even if he is a obnoxious bully.

AlexBM · 07-06-2008 12:25am

almanu wrote: »

im not really into costing irish folk there jobs even if he is a obnoxious bully.

I really don't see why nationality has to come into it. That's ridiculous.

jill_valentine · 07-06-2008 12:41am

Rave
Nintendo. Ish. They never have enough people manning the phones, so you can be on hold for a long, long time. If you do get through to them though, they're lovely and quite helpful.
Dell - Good stuff, good stuff.

Rant
Apple. I used to work in a shop that sold iPods and dealt directly with their customer support system at least three times a day. Believe me, if you've gotten good service out of Apple, it was a frickin' accident.
3 - I have nothing to add that nobody's already said. They are absolutely terrible.
Eircom...

Dues Bellator · 07-06-2008 12:10pm

AlexBM wrote: »

I really don't see why nationality has to come into it. That's ridiculous.

nationality has nothing to do with it at all im just not into costing anybody there jobs ,you took my post out of context.

luckat · 07-06-2008 12:33pm

Apple: my last computer had a dicky battery but I never bothered reporting it for two years. They gave me a free one.

Lidl Cork Street: I bought lamps there and found one hard to put together. A staffer tried, then called the manager, who told me to come back tomorrow and took the lamp. Next day he'd put it together, and showed me how to do it.

:mad: Air France: Never again.

and :mad: TSB: Lovely, but so inefficient.

and :mad: Vincent's Hospital: Lovely, efficient, but icky hygiene practices including not changing rubber gloves and the paper sheets on examination couches.

AlexBM · 07-06-2008 1:20pm

almanu wrote: »

nationality has nothing to do with it at all im just not into costing anybody there jobs ,you took my post out of context.

You mentioned nationality - therefore it obviously does have something to do with it. You said you're not into costing Irish people their jobs. If he was Chinese/British/Canadian/Spanish etc, would that make it okay? And you think it's acceptable for him to work there regardless of his violence and aggression?

preilly79 · 07-06-2008 1:43pm

Ginger wrote: »

Rave: SAS. One of the guys in Dublin has to be the legend to beat all legends. Has helped me out a couple of times when I have been in need. And always with a smile. Also SAS in Oslo for sorting our hotel even when they didnt have to.

I did a little bit of work for them and I think i know who you're talking about. Yes, a legend indeed.

JCMCC99 · 11-06-2008 1:39pm

NTL and Chorus is definitely the most incompetent and poorly managed communication Company in the universe.

Prior to the Chorus acquisition, the NTL customer service desk took ages 20 minutes plus to respond to a call. The situation today is far worse although they have tracking numbers which are supposed to be responded to within 3/ 4 days by their customer service representatives.

The tracking system does not work as e-mails are not responded to at all. Mary, a worker in their Customer Services told me that they replied to an e-mail on 10th May at circa 1.30 pm. I pointed out that the last e-mail was sent at 2.30 pm on the 10th May with a tracking number issued at circa 3.30pm. When I questioned this and got no sensible reply or offer to follow up she put down the phone. No reason as there was no rudeness from me .. just asking sensible questions.

I have little option but to put a claim through the Small Claims Court in Dun Laoghaire.

Anyone have any experience on this process? experience against NTL / Chorus NTL?

Experienc & Advice welcome

Dues Bellator · 11-06-2008 2:51pm

JCMCC99 wrote: »

NTL and Chorus is definitely the most incompetent and poorly managed communication Company in the universe.

Prior to the Chorus acquisition, the NTL customer service desk took ages 20 minutes plus to respond to a call. The situation today is far worse although they have tracking numbers which are supposed to be responded to within 3/ 4 days by their customer service representatives.

The tracking system does not work as e-mails are not responded to at all. Mary, a worker in their Customer Services told me that they replied to an e-mail on 10th May at circa 1.30 pm. I pointed out that the last e-mail was sent at 2.30 pm on the 10th May with a tracking number issued at circa 3.30pm. When I questioned this and got no sensible reply or offer to follow up she put down the phone. No reason as there was no rudeness from me .. just asking sensible questions.

I have little option but to put a claim through the Small Claims Court in Dun Laoghaire.

Anyone have any experience on this process? experience against NTL / Chorus NTL?

Experienc & Advice welcome

there a complete sham, ring there broadband helpline and they give you a preimium rate number to ring, the call averages 15 mins that is 22 euro even if they cant help you.as for the rest of the service a load of b******s

Rebel021 · 11-06-2008 3:02pm

Sky a disgrace
Rang them up no channels are coming through,went through about 20mins of settings with the CC assistant no joy still no channels,we will have to sent out a engineer to fix the problem she says charged at €200.I had no choice but to agree and hung up.

After hanging up I decided to do a hardreset and plugged out everything and plugged it back in again, Sky works perfectly rang back up sky and told them that it was working again and to cancel the engineer they said ok but I was still being charged €200 as it had gone through the system....no I said I am not paying for a service that was ordered and cancelled within 5mins she says since it has gone through the system it will be automatically charged to my next bill and could not remove the charge even though no engineer will have come to my house,Ok I said I want to cancel my service now and I am also cancelling the DD payment immediately and hung up.

Rings me back instantly to inform me that the charge has been removed and they were sorry for the inconvenience,still cancelled sky purely on the grounds of money grabbing.

Clearwire
Beyond poor

Eircom
Service is good but you do win a prize if an Irish person answers the phone

Ntl slow but not bad

Vodafone,02,Meteor

All poor

Dues Bellator · 11-06-2008 3:11pm

AlexBM wrote: »

You mentioned nationality - therefore it obviously does have something to do with it. You said you're not into costing Irish people their jobs. If he was Chinese/British/Canadian/Spanish etc, would that make it okay? And you think it's acceptable for him to work there regardless of his violence and aggression?

oh god another person that wants to get there 5cents in.ok here it goes if he was polish ,chinese, ukrainian or from timbuk 2 i would have reacted the same bloody way ok.get that into your head.im in ireland he wasd an irish man hence im not going to cost an irish man his job.get a life will yea

Stella89 · 11-06-2008 9:01pm

The Bad: ****.They sold me a faulty battery which made my phone heat up like a poker in my pocket!.The guy there had the nerve to have me wait for 30 minutes and then tell me that it was a problem with my (brand new) phone!:mad::rolleyes:

The Good :Argos .Thumbs up.They always give me a refund instantly if i need to bring an item back,no third degree!:)

Fbd.ie :Always very helpful when ever i have to ring them up and ask my silly questions:p.

Hitchhiker's Guide to... · 11-06-2008 10:16pm

Stella89 wrote: »

The Good :Argos .Thumbs up.They always give me a refund instantly if i need to bring an item back,no third degree!:)

the Argos refund policy is excellent!

Zaph · 11-06-2008 11:15pm

My sister recently did an aromatherapy course, and as it was her birthday last week she asked me to get her a few things that she needs from a company called Bomar. Unfortunately their website isn't the best, you can't order directly from it, so I rang them to order some stuff that would be collected the following day. One item was a storage box for bottles of oil. My sister asked for the 36 hole box, which costs €33, but the woman told me that they didn't have it in stock. She then immediately added that she'd give me the next size up, which costs €41, for the same price. It may have only been €8 difference, but the amount is irrelevant, she made a sale and I'd be happy to buy stuff again from them, so fair play to her. And as an added bonus, they actually rounded the total bill down a little too. Why can't more companies offer this level of service?

AlexBM · 12-06-2008 10:26pm

almanu wrote: »

oh god another person that wants to get there 5cents in.ok here it goes if he was polish ,chinese, ukrainian or from timbuk 2 i would have reacted the same bloody way ok.get that into your head.im in ireland he wasd an irish man hence im not going to cost an irish man his job.get a life will yea

Wow. The immaturity of this rant speaks volumes about you. You shouldn't have mentioned nationality at all if it's apparently not an issue for you. If you would have acted 'the same bloody way' regardless of his nationality then you shouldn't have mentioned it. Simple as that. Instead of verbally attacking those that point out the xenophobic flaws in your argument.

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

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