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.

In mothercare recently had to take my steriliser back as it was cutting out. Got a code from the supplier ready for exchange. Girl at the till took it out back and tested it and said it's fine but I need to come back with a video of it cutting out... okay so I'll stand by my steriliser and wait for it to cut out 🙄 she pretty much threw the box back at me and I said if she thinks I'm leaving without a new steriliser we are going to be here all night. Her attitude stunk and she just shrugged her shoulders and walked off. Manager came over and exchanged it straight away and I made a complaint about the previous girls attitude.

And in Asda something was bashed I was buying so I asked to exchange it. She said no and made a massive deal out of it and point blank refused to swap it over. It was unusable I didn't realise until I had paid and packing stuff in the bag. She was so rude about it and I know I had a right to change it. I just went and picked up another one and gave her the old one back and left the store.

@Egghead68 that made me laugh!

Just thought of another one. When my housemate suddenly died it was obviously very traumatic. The electricity bill was in his name and I tried to change the name but apparently it was a long process so they asked me to continue paying it until the end of the tenancy (no problem). At the end of the tenancy they realised that I had overpaid by quite a lot but they refused to refund me as the bill was in his name. His bank account was closed by then so they kept the money.

Oh, the 'trying to change bills that are in someone else's name' thing! I understand why it's necessary that it's difficult, but there must be some way of circumventing! When my XH left me, half of the bills were in his name, we were paperless so they were being emailed directly to him, I didn't know his email log in and he'd cut all ties so was presumably just deleting them.

Trying to get numbers to ring to change, reference numbers for the accounts and details of all the accounts was nearly impossible. Local council were most helpful, all the utility suppliers less so, and I STILL hold a joint account with his name on because the bank say I can't close it without his permission! (I've moved the money elsewhere, it was a bill paying account).

The system needs work.

Dunelm for me too.

Ordered a sofa, gave a timeframe of 6 weeks. 5 and a half weeks later got a phone call from their delivery company to organise delivery. Champion. Except the day before the delivery (we had already gave our old sofa away) text from the delivery company (Panther) to say it couldn’t be delivered and to rearrange. Called, spent ages on hold to be told that the sofa was “in a warehouse pulled up with other stuff” somewhere and they couldn’t give me a delivery day. The “line” was that the original delivery company they had used had gone into administration and all the items they had had been dumped into Panthers warehouses and they needed to sort through everything. Except it was Panther that rang me originally to sort it. We were without a sofa for about 12 weeks. Dunelm didn’t give a shit, we were lied to and lied to. Finally we got a delivery date! Date came and the delivery drivers were the most incompetent chimps on the planet. They couldn’t get the sofa into the living room. DP was trying to tell them to lift one end over the stairs bannister so it could pivot to go into the living room. No, they just tried to wedge it in between the door and the stairs. They damaged the sofa and the paintwork in our hall and stairs. I lost it at this point and told them to fuck off we would sort it (took maybe two minutes to for DP and my 5 foot nothing self to move). Did waive the delivery fee and offered £100 refund as a “goodwill gesture” (that term boils my piss!), however any claims for damage needed to be taken up with the delivery company. I told them no, the contract was with you not the delivery company. I tried to get in touch and send emails of the huge gouges of paint missing from the handrail etc but nothing happened with that. The sofa is lovely but would never ever buy online with Dunelm again.

Selfridges on Oxford Street.

DH and I were in London for our wedding anniversary and he’d bought me some limited edition make up (which I couldn’t get elsewhere as it had sold out) and a Tiffany necklace and he had arranged for Click and Collect. We turned up, the make up is there but no necklace. They suggest we go to the Tiffany counter to see if it’s there.

No necklace. After waiting for 45 mins and having a number of staff running around, they say it’s out of stock. My DH points out that he had an email confirming it was ready for collection. He asks for a refund- they say he has to do it online.

Not wanting to leave empty handed, we went round to a actual Tiffany shop and DH buys the same necklace for me again. Which as it happens was somehow cheaper than the same necklace in Selfridges!

We return home from our trip and then begins months of back and forth with Customer Services to try and get a refund for the necklace! We had several emails saying it would be looked in to but then nothing! I rang several times, had empty promises that it would be sorted, nothing! At one point we were told that the necklace had been collected and they wouldn’t give us a refund!

I ended up emailing and ringing daily, I used Facebook and Twitter to complain and eventually I got a call from a manager who apologised and said that though a complaint had been raised, it kept being passed between departments (between Click and Collect and Tiffany) but neither were taking responsibility. We eventually got our refund and a £50 online voucher to spend!

In total it took 8 months to get a refund!

I would never use their online shopping again.

The Cotswold Company.

Utter incompetent tossers. Ordered a piece of furniture which they failed to deliver, after not being able to supply even an approximate time of day so I had to stay in ALL DAY. The driver managed to ring in the 20 seconds I went into the garden, and left a message to say he wouldn’t be coming after all as he was ‘late’ and had decided to cancel the rest of his deliveries

Next day, customer services was unapologetic, literally couldn’t give a new date when I was able to be in to receive it, and gave zero fucks about it.

I was on the phone to them constantly and one less discreet person admitted that they’d changed delivery company and the new company was worse than useless and the place was in total meltdown with delayed/undelivered orders. After weeks of to and fro the item was finally delivered....bashing about in the van in a cardboard box with absolutely no protective padding, so was damaged. It went straight back as I refused to accept a damaged item for which I’d paid full price.

Customer services again couldn’t give a toss but after much arguing I did at least get a refund. I think they sent vouchers for about £20 which went straight in the bin. The whole process took months. Can’t believe they’re still in business (are they?).

That does sound similar to my Mothercare experience. I tried to buy some parts for a Mothercare own brand buggy. £40. Was told I couldn’t use my gift card as it has a 2 year expiry and I was out by ONE DAY. Fine, I paid with my own money, by card, for these items to be delivered to store. They would call me when they came in.

They never called and it had been 3 months. I had a traumatic EMCS, with recurrent infection, and couldn’t get to store. I called them and asked if it had come in. I called every hour for 2 days. No one ever answered. Well sometimes they did and hung up immediately after. I got through once and was told they’d look for my order. I wanted for 1hr 6mins on the phone. Then they hung up. I had screen shots of the waiting time and tweeted them. They didn’t even respond to that or to private messages.

I called the main office and was told that unless I could get to store, they wouldn’t be refunding me or looking for the items either. as Mothercare stores and Mothercare “the office” are different entities and one cannot be held accountable for the other.

So basically Mothercare robbed me of £40. No intention to ever order my items. Print that Daily Mail, I’d be happy to see it. Tottenham store.

Soak.com.
We ordered a bathroom from them. Took 6 attempts at delivery of broken items including a concrete shower tray that was smashed every single time. We ended up on first name terms with the delivery men who were apologetic each time and said that Soak were known for this. So we gave up in the end and asked for a refund. Then we had to battle for that. Never again!
Also the small independent garage that sold me a lemon of a car then wouldn't let me reject it. Had to start legal proceedings against them and had their useless car stuck on my drive for a year

Hertz. I booked a hire car with a disability adaptation (it just needs to be attached to the steering wheel and I'd take my own except you need two good hands to get them attached). I rang Hertz in addition to the online booking to check.
Got to the overseas airport at 9pm, went to get car, car doesn't have it. Go to office and the bloke is just 'we don't have them'. When I said that I'd booked it he said 'you can book a car with pink spots if you like, doesn't mean we have one'.
Hertz gave me a whole E50 for the very long journey I had that night by train involving 4 changes and never actually apologised

Just moved back to the UK. Had had my car booked in at my normal garage for months(used to drive back from abroad to use this place for services, and had bought our last 5 cars from them) for an MOT and for my headlights to be changed. Arrived, and it looked as if some fascia work was going on. Waited a while, dh went to talk to a workman, only to be told that the business had been closed the month before.

Given they had both our emails, how hard would it have been to let us know?

Asda and there baby "event" we bought a car seat from the large Asda out of our town one day while strapping the baby in the clip shattered completely so we called they said return it but it's out of town can it be sent via our local asda? Yes! Ok local Asda said no they dont sell them there but we need it to be returned so the can asses who is at fault manager said NO back to nans to uee her phone customer services says the manager is a twat go back we did manager again refuses nan put credit on our mobile so we call from the carpark customer services calls manager an idiot and rings him he refuses to refund us a penny as it's not from "his" store customer services said we need it back at the depo to asses why its failed you tit take it back we will sort the rest manager goes tits and hangs up supervisor rings manager and asks him if he likes his job manager sends someone else out to get the car seat for assessment to see if we are entitled to a refund we ring back a few weeks later car seat is missing we are entitled to nothing I went rather apocalyptic in the nicest way detailed everything they spoke to the local store the new manager gave us a gift card for our trouble

It was a carseat that had a recall on it and many people had issues but asda said we were the only ones 🤔

Mothercare were really good with me, but this was 20+ years ago. I'd bought a buggy with matching cosy toes and it ripped apart within weeks. Took it back and they couldn't replace it so replaced the entire buggy instead. Have to say I was impressed.

In terms of bad....

Child Tax Credit sent us a cheque for £2500 just before Christmas. We questioned it a dozen times and were assured, even in writing that it was correct. Banked the money, spent it on Christmas and then had a letter in the New Year saying 'you owe us £2500'.
Dh went mad with them, complained bitterly and eventually agreed to repay at £10 a month because it was their mistake.

Local Council I'd left an abusive relationship heavily pregnant and was offered a council property. Someone couldn't take me to view so I was given the key to look around myself on a Friday afternoon and told to return it on the monday morning. I had a look, decided to move in with my parents and returned the key.
Then the letters started. They claimed I'd lived in the property for a month, despite being able to prove I really hadn't. In the end I had to get solicitors involved to send them cease and desist letters. They'd broken their own policies by handing over the keys and had actually let it to someone else on the Monday so trying to charge both me, and the new tenant rent.
Eventually I had a letter with a half arsed apology for their mistake and all was well.....
Until 4 years later when it started again. Fortunately I'd kept the letter so forwarded a copy, but had to do it twice again before they eventually stopped chasing me for rent on a property I set foot in for 5 minutes.

I complained to Boots once when a staff member was unspeakably offensive to me and the response I received explained that because the member of staff in question had denied doing it they wouldn't take it any further.

Despite the fact that I had an impartial witness, a simple denial apparently counted more.

Luckily I live somewhere with a well stocked pharmacy that's actually cheaper than Boots so I don't shop in there anymore.

What a world it would be if the police and courts accepted every denial as gospel like Boots do!

Another one to say Scottish Power are a shower of shite.

Got the keys for a new property. Previous tenants had trashed the place so we couldn't move in until it was decorated which would take a month.

Called SP to register myself for the gas and electricity accounts and they gave me instructions to go to X shop and get a new card and key, gave me activation codes and told me to put £1 on, leave it in the meter for x time and then go back to the shop and pop whatever amount I want on the gas card and electric key.

I did as they said. Both prepayment meters took most of my cash "for debt" and left me with almost no credit. I called SP, they sent me back to the shop, new cards, new codes and promised a refund of my payments. So I did it again. Followed instructions exactly to a tee. Again it took my two tenners and two £1's as debt. The day after it happened again.

We went through that shit 4 or 5 times until the meter stopped taking debt and just gave me credit but by then I'd spent £80+ and hadn't received the refunds they kept assuring me I would get credited to my meters. I was in tears after my 9th or 10th phone call. I phoned a new supplier after putting up with that shit for 3 days.

It took 20 days to switch fully and despite paying £80+ for half a day of central heating and a day's worth of electricity from SP, they sent me bills for almost £200 afterwards. I called them refuting it and they agreed I owed nothing. Another bill for a slightly different amount arrived the following week. Again I called. They agreed it was wrong. Over the next year I got random bills every few weeks and eventually debt recovery threats. Each time I'd phone them and they'd agree it wasn't something I could possibly owe but they would still send me more debt collection threats. The last customer service agent I spoke to changed the amount owed to the lowest amount possible and one that SP wouldn't pursue. So my final bill arrived at 69p.

I didn't pay of course.

Years ago we had Virgin coming to install tv/phone/broadband. Annoyingly it was the day before we were flying out to a wedding so had a million things to do.

So I wait in all morning with no-one arriving. After I call them (on my mobile) they say the guy is delayed so it will be in the afternoon. Annoying but can't be helped.

So I wait in.

And wait

And wait.

No-one comes. I call again and they say he can't come so they'll do it the next day. I said they'll do it today, as we had a house sitter staying who needed tv/broad and!

At 8.30pm a guy turns up, cranky, rude dismissive. Says that he'd called and left a message so what was the problem?

I'd had no calls all day, which I showed him.

Finally it's connected and he leaves. We plug in our new phone and guess what? We've got a message!

He'd left a message on the phone that wasn't connected saying that he couldn't come and connect it..... 🤦🏻‍♀️

Geez you want like a list?!

I think customer service in Uk now is absolutely atrocious!

Just recently:

Tesco mobile. Old phone died (whole other thread on Mobile phone companies and planned obsolescence there!) I was eligible for “upgrade” anyway so ordered new phone, phone I received was faulty, to cut a VERY long story short took about 2 weeks of multiple calls, web chats and emails to get the whole mess sorted out. I did eventually get significant compensation in the form of money off next 2 bills it was THAT Bad and it ended up being dealt with by the senior manager in the exec office that covers customer service. She was appalled herself initially just at the number of calls I’d had to make then after she’d listened to the calls and read the web chats transcripts she was even more appalled. I was really shocked as I’ve been a customer for almost 10 years and previously their customer service has been excellent.

Boots - I’m housebound and need to get prescriptions delivered. They’ve recently started charging for this service which is a bit annoying but I get it. The problem was that customers like myself who can’t go and arrange/pay in store (which I suspect applies to a fair number of customers who get prescriptions delivered) have to register and pay for the scheme online, except it seems they hadn’t properly tested the new pages relating to this, didn’t have sufficient IT support in place and when the thing went live apparently it simply couldn’t cope with the demand and crashed! Now that’s annoying enough in itself but also an element of “shit happens” what pissed me off was the 1st 2 customer care people I spoke to

A didn’t know the system had crashed - why weren’t their call agents informed? By this point it was all over sm

B jumped straight to saying it must be something I was doing wrong and took a very arrogant and condescending tone!

Again eventually sorted but took about 3 days and it was cutting it very close for one of my meds which I MUST take regularly.

Sainsburys - actually had a thread on this one. They recently went bag free for online delivery, I understand why but my issues related to:

A They only told customers by email initially, I don’t know about you guys but I rarely check my email these days unless I’m expecting something it was sheer luck I even saw it, and the email didn’t even give the date when they would be starting this policy.

B I have mh issues and also have a physical disability and this policy was going to/has caused significant inconvenience/problems. I eventually spoke with their head office and they were absolutely not interested in considering making adjustments for disabled customers like slightly longer delivery time allowed, paper bags or biodegradable bags to replace the plastic ones.

I’ve since bought a few of those collapsible crates and plastic bags from amazon which I use now for deliveries, it takes longer to deal with and I feel rushed, guilty and stressed and I’m in more pain for longer after a delivery. The drivers aren’t happy either because even fit customers it’s meaning deliveries take longer but they’ve not been given extra time to do deliveries and are starting to get grief off their bosses about taking longer. Bloody ridiculous, no real thought seems to have gone into the effects this policy will/has had on customers and drivers

C I’ve already had to return several items because I live in the west of Scotland where it rains pretty much constantly and said items were soaked because not protected by bags and in paper/cardboard packaging

@icecreamconewithaflake unless you’re with virgin you’re likely still affected by BT because they still own almost all the lines. I’ve had the experience with them that I was literally able to see the junction box from my window while they were on phone telling me engineer was there now fixing according to them - nope! Not even in the vicinity! One place I lived I called BT to ENQUIRE about POSSIBLY getting a landline service with them, I decided not to in the end and never even bought a landline phone unit for that property so physically couldn’t make calls - they chased me for several years for a phone bill I’d never run up!! Never got the matter resolved affected my credit record and eventually it just dropped off that. My parents are frustratingly with them for landline and broadband, because they know the company name and won’t try others, paying way over the odds for poor often non existent service. My siblings and I have tried numerous times to persuade them to switch to no avail, I suspect they make most of their profit from customers from those like my parents, pensioners who are fearful of dealing with companies they don’t feel as familiar with for a service they don’t completely understand how the competition & service within the industry works.

@freakforhoumous I stopped using Asda for that reason among others, frequently double charging then not getting refund for AGES plus many and utterly ridiculous subs!

Many years ago I had a similar shoe story, company now defunct (hardly surprising) and I forget their name now but I never shopped with them again. I was early 20’s and in my first office job, bought some standard black low heeled court shoes and the heel broke off in less than a week. Took shoes back to the store and they initially tried to tell me it was my fault for wearing them...on pavements! Apparently they were “only fashion shoes” and were only intended to be worn on carpet/indoors! Eventually got manager to speak to who tried to get me to take conversation into back office but I held my ground and kept the conversation in the main part of the store and got a full refund. Most ridiculous excuse I have ever heard! They went bust less than a year later.

Yodel: Refused to believe my address existed. Tried to deliver multiple times to the wrong property. The wrong property owner and I are on first name terms now. We were waiting for a new kitchen hob. Yodel held onto it for 8 weeks. We sent council tax bills to prove our address existed. Still they said they had tried to deliver but our address could not be found. In the end, husband asked Yodel to deliver to his work address.

Ocado: delivery was 8 hours late. When we complained, they offered no apology or explanation.

Sky: CFs keep raising our bill. When we complain they give the hard sell, saying about all the extras we can have and would you like a Q box? On mentioning the word Virgin Media they soon back off and reduce our bill again. (We plan to leave after Christmas, it's getting too expensive).

BT: failed to tell me I was out of contract and was charging me £75 a month for Broadband and phone, except we don't use landlines but they refuse to charge for Broadband only. They got arsey when I said I was leaving. Said I was foolish and that I would come back the arrogant tosspots. Switched providers, saved £50 a month.

Local leisure centre, run by Everyone Active: In my borough, we get free swim and gym at weekends. It has to be renewed every year. I went to the leisure centre to renew them. They said I had to do it online because doing it at the centre creates queues. So I tried to renew the cards online whilst at the centre, but it kept refusing the password I had created. Then it didn't want to renew my daughter's card. Then I got locked out.

So I went back to the desk and the sullen mare on the desk sighed and said I still couldn't renew it at the centre. There was no queue. So effectively, I said, you are denying my family a perk we are entitled to? She said, you have to go to [insert leisure centre name here] which is a 45 minute bus ride away, to get your cards unblocked. I went mental, I admit it. I haven't been back since.

I have always had good service from John Lewis and IKEA though (hides behind sofa).

Does anyone remember the time EE (or they might still have been Orange at the time) switched off loads of their masts but refused to let people out of their contracts even though they had signed up on the assurance that a signal was available where they lived?

That was a pretty stellar customer services disaster all round.

British Gas for me.

This was back in about 2004, when most people had mobiles but they weren’t internet enabled and they were still very expensive. Also, this was before 0845 numbers were got rid of.

I moved into a one bed flat with this weird pre-pay meter for the gas. Every two weeks I had to buy a ticket for £7 (I think) from the local shop and feed it into the meter. I rang them in early Jan to say I was out of sync with my payments and would they check how much I owed. Oh you’re up to date, we owe you £14. Great I think.

Fast forward to April. I get my end of year bill and I apparently owe £1500. For context, I don’t even pay that much annually 15 years later in a three bed house.

I was in the middle of uni final exams. I was having to call regularly, spending £10 phone credit at a time on hold, to be told I’d be phoned back. I give you one guess how many times I was called back .

I ended up paying nearly £1000 on a credit card because I was just so stressed and upset, they kept threatening me with bailiffs. I don’t know why I didn’t ask my parents for help - probably just wanted to be independent.

I got the last £500 or so ‘written off’ only by getting the power ombudsman involved. I never got an answer to how I was able to go from
£14 in credit to £1500 in debt in less than four months in a one bed flat. I will never go back to them.

Hermes!
I sent a parcel with contents worth about £100 and took out insurance. They lost the parcel but my god trying to get through to them is almost impossible.
No call centre, their chat not function just directs you to the website and email takes forever to get a response.
It took almost 4 months to get resolved and I think only because I ended up writing to the chief exec.
I would never ever use them again

John lewis.

Bought an £85 pair of jeans last week. They have developed a hole in the seam. I've only worn them twice! I wanted to swap them but don't have a receipt and they wont do anything. So I've just got to chuck £85 jeans on the bin apparently.

Literally today Johnnie Boden and pal Daisy Brown informing me my card had been declined.

Not only had it not been declined, enough funds, my bank had no record of any attempt at a transaction from Boden at all. Fault clearly at their end.

Cheers Johnnie make me shit myself right before Xmas thanks

Ticket line- bought tickets over the phone and the concert ended up being cancelled. Got an automatic refund for the ticket price but not the £60 booking fee. They told me the terms and conditions were read to me on the phone plus I'd bought tickets from them before so knew about the fee.

Previous tickets were bought months prior and nothing about a booking fee was mentioned on the phone.

Ended up making a subject access request and requested a copy of the call recording which they said they had listened to. Subject access request came through but the call recording had been deleted - however they claimed this was their proof I'd been advised of the terms.

Spike to the ICO who wanted all the details but I gave the company one more chance. Told them the ICO wanted all the details and they miraculously offered me the refund as a goodwill gesture. Took 4 months but still stands as my greatest win.

Everest Windows are another I wouldn't touch, service was so bad we ended up getting a 25% refund on the cost of the one door and one window we had fitted.

Local bathroom showroom. The salesman said he wouldn't discuss anything to do with a new bathroom with me because I didn't have my husband with me. I walked out and purchased lovely bathroom fittings from one of their rivals.