What’s the worst customer service you’ve ever received?

[SuperMeerkat]

This is actually laughable as it was so bad. Today I was in NatWest as my husband is doing a Masters through his work and wanted to change his account to a student account. Anyway, we were told a 10 minute wait and after 40 we were still waiting. I enquires why this was and was told ‘they were busy’. I asked why the man couldn’t have kept us (and all the other customers) informed of the waiting time and he then put his hand up to my face, walked off and started talking to someone else. I said I hadn’t finished my query and he said ‘he didn’t have time to update people on waiting times’ despite sitting 6 feet away from everyone. Anyhow, he then yelled at me and my husband that we weren’t welcome at the branch and he was going to shut our account 😂😂 Crazy.

Definitely BT.

We had problems with our internet for over a week - arranged three engineer call-outs and we had no-one show up. Claimed they had no record of these appointments even though I had texts/emails confirming them. DH and I both missed work to wait in for engineers who never came.

Eventually someone did turn up. To be fair to him, he was very pleasant and solved the problem within an hour (their problem, not ours). I cancelled my contract as soon as it was up and running again and switched to SKY!

We got no compensation for being without internet for almost two weeks, despite proof that both of us had to miss work. I was pretty appalled and didn't really appreciate being called a liar. I'd never use them again.

Size, the shoe shop, yesterday actually.

I brought a pair of shoes last Thursday, online, at 9am in the morning. They were £160, and the money left the account immediately.

On Monday evening at 10.30pm I received an email to say they couldn’t fulfill my order. A refund would be processed in 3-5 working days, and would then take a further 3-5 working days to clear.

I didn’t think this was good enough. I couldn’t afford to spend £160 again to get these shoes from a different store, but also knew if I waited for refund (which would be about 10 working days after shoe was originally purchased) then the shoe would sell out in other stores.

Anyway called them up to complain and the lady in customer service told me they regularly oversell shoes as they don’t have a way of keeping inventory on their website. She said that’s what it is, nothing I can do. Anyway the more she spoke the more infuriated I became. She ended up hanging up on me. I googled the name of the CEO for size, found his email address, and the refund was in bank account yesterday afternoon.

I hate complaining and rarely do it, but sometimes I find people so shockingly poor at their jobs, that it just has to be done. UberEats is another pain in the arse. I don’t use them anymore

Waitrose
My mother's last Christmas on this earth.
I thought I was being clever ordering her favourite meat, a duck to be delivered on Christmas Eve. When the delivery arrived they had no duck left and had substituted a goose for which I had been charged about £60 more than a duck. I had to accept the goose which she didn't particularly enjoy, I still feel bad about it.
Considering Waitrose had about three months notice of my intention to take delivery of a duck could they not have saved one for me?

Air France.
me: X happened, therefore I am entitled to compensation.
AF - no it didn't.
Me - the captain himself came to gate and said X happened.
AF - no, it didn't.
Me - It really did, and you can verify this also by this and this. please check again.
AF - I have revied the case and don't see any reasons to reconsider.

Took the fuckers to court, and surprisingly, the 're-evaluated the case and decided I am entitled to compensation' the second they received the claim notification.

Wonderful, I am booked in Stansted mid stay in a couple of weeks.

BT

At work - came in one morning to no phone or Internet. Called BT who told me we had been disconnected due to an unpaid bill. We paid by direct debit, can’t possibly have an unpaid bill. 2 hours later they finally concede that no, we don’t owe them any money and arrange for the line to be reconnected but could take 24 hours. Next day, still no phone or internet, phone them up, repeat the above conversation, etc, etc. We were without phone or internet for 5 days in the end

Decide to cancel BT. Phone them up and sort it all out, lines transferred to new supplier, all sorted - never have to deal with the twats again.

6 months later we get a letter from BT threatening legal action for nearly £2k - phone them up - 4 torturous hours later and I discover that they hadn’t cancelled our account properly and we were still billing us. I had to pay the money, make a complaint, then get it refunded . Er, no. Got it sorted in the end, but it was so frustrating

Waitrose last Christmas.

Substituted just about every f** thing I ordered with parsnips.

I think I ended up with 8 trays of parsnips in various forms (roast, rosti, stars etc).

I haven't decided yet who to blame for this but I suspect its going to be yodel.
Ordered from an American company and could track the parcel to right before it left the states then it went quiet. I waited a good while before complaining cos it was coming from far away plus customs and whatever can hold things up. Finally I contacted the company asking where it was, they say they gave it to Yodel who say it was delivered two weeks ago! And I've to chase that myself, already now not impressed with the company itself and go to chase yodel.
Yodel, online chat were busy all day and I'd get "hung up" on if I got as far as my query. Finally someone says it's delivered and to get the delivery info email this address. I copied the address directly from the chat sent an email and it bounced back to the never ending queue and next warm body tells me they don't cover my region and would have subcontracted to fast way. Wouldn't help me contact fast way and told me to Google their number.
My tracking number is not for fast way it's for yodel so they can't help!! Have told company one it's time they sorted it cos they're suppliers are not my problem!

Scottish power whne I moved in to my flat said they had a system fault and couldnt charge me. This went on for 2 years whne I got a bill for 25k. In the end i paid £100 or so for a years electricity.

Oh I definitely have one I will never forget!!!

I went into a local independently owned outdoor clothing shop.
I worked with (indoor) animals for a few years and would need to replace my hiking style boots around every 12 months because my job gave them a bit of a beating.

I’m in the shop browsing the boots;
Owner: Do you need some help?
Me: Oh I’m just after replacing my boots that are leaky.
Owner: Which boots did you have and where did you get them?
Me: oh some karrimors I think and I got them here.
Owner: Well there’s no way they could be leaky if that’s true.
Me: Not sure why I would lie anyway I just want to buy new ones.
Owner: What is your job though?
Me: [insert job here].
Owner: Oh well it’s entirely your fault then, they aren’t made for that kind of job and it’s stupid to blame us for them leaking!
Me: Err. I didn’t blame you, I didn’t suggest the length of time was a problem. You just asked me questions and I answered. I just came to buy some boots.
Owner: Don’t speak to me like that in my own shop!!!! (Blocking my exit and yelling)
Me: I’ll spend my £80 elsewhere because you are the rudest shop owner I’ve ever met now let me out of your shop!
Owner: (still blocking the way and yelling) How dare you come in here and accuse us of something when it’s your fault!!!!
Me: LET. ME. OUT. OF. YOUR. SHOP. YOU. COMPLETE. LUNATIC!!!

🤣🤣🤣🤣 I was absolutely fucking livid when I finally got out of there it was completely bizarre.

Mamas & Papas - we bought a pushchair from them, and within a few days one of the wheels wasn’t working - it kept sticking and wouldn’t turn. We returned it to the store, to be told that the pushchair wasn’t suitable for outdoor use.

Well known US themed bowling alley. Their website froze and a transaction went through twice. Phoned them immediately and they would only issue a credit. 2 rounds of bowling for 45 quid for DSs birthday turned into a 90 quid outlay the week before pigging Xmas. I was so upset, I just couldn't afford it but begging - literally begging their customer service for a refund they wouldn't move. Forty five minutes of pleading, honestly I felt so humiliated.

I've not had the heart to use the credit even, and the planned outing was so tinged with panic at the additional money gone, me and DP I couldn't enjoy it much. Goodwill entirely gone, I won't go back.

Oh and Argos sold me a wardrobe that had a drawer too small for the casing which was only evident when assembled. Yes I could have a discount but no they couldn't collect it from the first floor.

This meant my first month following grim separation was spent painfully moving heavy boxes upstairs... assembling ... And then slowly disassembling that bloody thing to carry the massive pieces down one by one to the front door for them to gaily collect. Exhausting in every way. Now I never buy self assembly! Lesson learned there. And definitely no furniture from Argos.

British telecom, when their customer services was in India. They actually drove me to cry, tears of frustration, honestly.

My Wi-fi went down, after ducking about for four hours, yes four hours, testing the line and making me hold on whilst they did it, they sent an engineer to the house. Engineers said the problem was at the junction box.

Apparently engineer reports don't get actioned, no one reads them. So when I called two weeks later to find out what was happening, yup, they tested the line for another four hours.

It went on daily, I even have w copy of the transcript when I chatted them once and the rep said, "I don't know what to do, can you help me".

Eventually they made an appt for the second level engineers to come out, but the Wi-fi had been down for a month and it was another three weeks, so I sent a complaint in.

Lady phoned me from complaints, I explained the issue, said three weeks more wasn't ok, she said no problem, she agreed, she'd find a quicker time slot. She gave me one in a weeks time.

She then phoned me ten mins later saying she'd released my old one, and hadn't booked the new one in time, so the slot was gone, and she could only now get one in five weeks,

So yes, I complained after daily calls and chats for a month, many days spending four hours a day on the line as they tested it, becayse apparently they had to do it every time, I complained that I had to wait three weeks, and they made it five instead,

And to had insult to injury, I said I want compensation for this, at least what I've paid for the service I haven't received and the complaints lady said, sorry I don't deal with that.

Absolutely awful.

I go straight to the CEO now if I cannot get no joy from customer service I used to think it was silly and that they'd never entertain me but they've been great, Sainsbury's gave me a £30 gift card, Halfords were absolute shits and kept messing me around with my DDs bike the woman was really rude and kept telling me to wait I emailed the CEO within 15 minutes I had a £20 gift card and my bike delivered

Deliveroo have yanked my chain this week. Careless, wrong orders and small portion sizes. It's gone from being a treat to being an absolute rip off. I ordered a (what should have been a) meal that was 15 quid and it was literally three tablespoons of sauce and two of rice in a cardboard tub. Fortunately they're good at refunding promptly.

I don't use Uber either any more after the clueless drivers go round in circles on sat nav, rubbish at finding you in busy places and I don't particularly like being given feedback on how good a customer I was or was not when I've been left fuming waiting for them or gone around the bloody houses.

Ebookers/Expedia (same group) took our money for a holiday. Cancelled it two days later with no explanation and have told us it will take up to 12 weeks to get our refund. Still waiting... Never heard such rubbish.
On the other hand AO customer service is good and Boden is awesome.

Currys.

Had a dishwasher for 5 weeks before it gave off a smell of burning and blew my electrics.
Ordered another one (different model)
It took them THREE MONTHS and FIVE DELIVERY ATTEMPTS before they finally came to install it and even then it was only installed because the depot manager (who does not work for Currys) drove 45 miles after his shift ended to install it personally, after seeing the reams and reams of notes on my account about them not turning up, not installing, not removing the old one.

Hours and hours and hours of my time wasted on the phone between Currys and their delivery team, and days and days and days of wasted annual leave sitting in the house waiting for them.

BT, Curry's, British Gas, my local authority... My fave though was AA, who I'd joined over the phone, who called to ask me if I wanted to renew their extortionate breakdown cover then insisted that I wasn't the customer because they had my sex recorded as male and I am female. After a couple of minutes of him insisting I couldn't possibly be the customer, Mr Charisma barked "Why did you pretend to be a man?" at me. Er, fuck off, that was you guys, on your end, ticking the wrong fucking box, and you can fuck off now.

ASOS. Tried to buy a swimming costume. Website jammed, PayPal payment went through twice. When I emailed ASOS, they kept insisting that my email didn't match an account despite me sending screen shots of my account details, the PayPal payments, etc etc.

Every time they reply to me, it's a new person and a big standard email starting with 'sorry to hear about your recent trouble...'

I am absolutely fed up and won't order with them again.

HMV. They sold me a charger that actually exploded and went on fire, nearly killing me. I returned it and an inspection proved that it was faulty. I got exactly the cost of the charger back - not even the cost of postage - and had to go into an HMV store to pick up the gift voucher.

Ha ha @NormaBean - just in third week of chasing up Hermes - so boring. We have CCTV on our doorbell - they have kicked into gear a bit since then but apparently " lost in depot" - I am so bored of having to type in a 16 digit number but they may get bored of this before I do
( ironically I had to hold the Hermes representative on phone to answer the door - it was Fedex delivering a parcel exactly when they said they would - ha ha

Had utter farce with Virgin. They lost a payment I had made, so I received a huge bill months later.
Thought it would be simple to sort out- was I ever wrong there.
Despite sending them a copy of my bank statement showing the payment, three times in fact, they still said I was late with all payments as they had taken the next month's as the month before payment.
I ended up having to ask my bank to step in. They showed that from the start of that years contract, I had made all payments. I dont even think banks usually would do that but the woman heard them being so off on the telephone she decided to go back through all the payments.
Despite that, their heavy mob still phoned demanding over £400(!) due to late payment fees, (as they had added up each months late fees for this missing payment).
Eventually, I called their team and asked to speak straight to complaints. The woman I spoke to was really rude and dismissive wanting every bit of info all over again. I remained polite (hard work as I wanted to lose my temper after months and months over a simple issue). Eventually she agreed to put me through.
Except, she forgot to put me on hold properly.
So I could hear her calling me an "absolute fucking bitch", "a fucking dickhead moron" and that people like me should just "shut the fuck up and pay what I owe, cheapskate chav bitch".
She then picked the phone back up- she hadn't even tried to put me through- and went back to her rude but robotic crap
I was very smug to say to her that I had heard every word she had called me, as had DH as it was on speaker phone. I also reminded her that all calls are recorded.
I've never known a company swallow so quick in my life. I told her bosses in no uncertain terms I would go directly to the press if they didn't sort it out. Not only did they suddenly find the payments, they also allowed me to cancel with no fees. Before that they wanted over £400 in supposed fees and bills as well as a £250 cancellation charge.
I never had any intention of going to the press as I'm not a sad face in the Paper person, but the idea that I might made them shit themselves.
Worst company ever.

ASOS - who send endless emails telling you how sorry they are but do nothing at all to resolve the problem.

And Dell - there is a special place in hell for their cheery but utterly incompetent customer services.

Another one saying bt. So many of these stories are depressingly familiar..

I am laughing at the shoes with the soles that were just cosmetic and the pushchair that wasn't designed to be used outside. How on earth did they say that with a straight face?

TalkTalk. When my parents went into a care home as an emergency. After a few days we tried to cancel their TalkTalk usage as they wouldn't be using it. Nope they wanted to talk to my Dad, and only him as he was the account holder. I explained that he wasn't able to talk to them on the phone as not capable anymore.

In the end my brother (who has a totally different accent from my 93 year old Dad) said he was my Dad to TalkTalk on the phone. Turns out the cancellation fee was exactly the same as getting to the end of the contract (3 months fees)!

Not impressed.