Your worst customer service experiences?

[SpottySausageDog]

I found a thread on this from last hear but didn’t want to resurrect it with my own stories. I’ve worked in customer service myself a few times so know the standards that are expected which makes me more shocked when I have awful experiences! Name changed as some are local independent places.

1. In a local pub a few years back enjoying a pint with a friend. Two of our old friends came stumbling in and insisted on buying us more drinks even though ours were pretty much full. They ordered £20 worth of drinks. Funnily enough when it came to paying their card was declined and when asked what they were going to do about payment they legged it. Pints were already pulled so the arse of a landlady looked to us for payment. Threatened to call the police on us if we didn’t pay so I ended up footing the bill. It was 30 minutes before closing time so we couldn’t even drink them. Looking back I should have just told her to get a grip! We weren’t even at the bar when the drinks were being ordered. She should have called the police and shown them the cctv of the guys actually ordering the drinks. Still makes me seethe to this day! Never stepped foot in that place again.

2. KFC - well renowned for being painfully slow and always fucking orders up. My partner and I ordered a ‘boneless dipping banquet’. I like the dips it comes with, especially the buttermilk garlic mayo. When we got the food we checked it and asked about the dips. The woman behind the till said ‘we’ve not got the holders for them’. Meaning the cardboard strip with holes in for the dips. I said ‘well have you got the dips’. She said yes and looked at me completely gone out. I asked ‘can we just have the dips then please’ and she responded with ‘no sorry they come in the holder and we don’t have any of those’. I gave up and walked out as it was late at night and I would have lost my shit😂

3. NHS and LA - particularly midwifery services. Pregnant with my second child. Self referral by phone call in my area. Phone line always in use when I was free to call so tried for a whole week to book when I found out at 11 weeks (irregular periods, heavily documented on my medical records). I had to resort to emailing the leisure centre in which they’re based to get them to put me through to the midwives over email. I got an email from an ‘@midwifebasename.com’ address and I responded giving them my info. Never got a response so I went for a private scan and saw a private midwife for my first appointment. I finally managed to get an NHS appointment for 20 weeks (thought I was 23 because of irregular periods and incorrect dating on private scan). Midwife denied all knowledge of there even being an email system at their base and pretended as if the woman I spoke to didn’t exist. I showed her the email, my private scan and that data from my private midwife appointment. She still referred me to social services straight away (they are instructed to do so if you come in after 23 weeks as it’s seen as ‘concealing the pregnancy’) and I’m still currently going through the legal complaints side as they have put me through so much stress. So glad I have plenty of evidence against them. Funnily enough I’ve been having 3 weekly growth scans at the hospital so they can cover their own arses if anything goes wrong. Baby is growing perfectly and there are no obvious issues but they’re still insisting on them. SS have also messed me around in the process. Woman who came out to see me arranged a second home visit which my partner had to take unpaid time off work for as he couldn’t be present the first time. Luckily it was done over text. She never turned up, no reason or apology given. We have CCTV so it can be easily proved. I got an unannounced visit the other week because it had been passed on. She didn’t even log the appointment or any of the info I gave her at her first visit and she is on long term sick. It was escalated to child protection because they thought I was refusing visits. Absolute fucking shambles. Luckily there is no child in danger! Will be taking it up with my MP soon so he can address any failures in their system.

What’s everyone else’s worst/most bizarre experiences?

I’m also struggling with a car dealer at the moment. Rang to arrange to look at a car last weekend. Salesman asked for a holding deposit and like a twat I paid it. Assured me that it would be refundable should we not buy the car. We duly turned up at the weekend and looked at the car but in the end Dh decided against it so I checked that the deposit was refundable and he repeated that it was, in front of my dh. Needless to say not had a thing back yet and they’ve not answered any of my emails. Got a sinking feeling that I’ve lost £250. I don’t think I’ve legally got a leg to stand on but he said it was refundable and I took him at his word. I’m hoping I’ll be disproved but I doubt it.

When our local Woolworths closed the site was taken over by one of those "sells everything" shops.

I was in a couple of times , the staff follow people. .

I was buying glue , picked up two to compare , one member of staff took one pack out of my hand and returned it to the display ! Like I was going to steal it

I put them back, walked out , never to return.

@nancy75 definitely not us! We were sat down at a table, friends walked in absolutely out of it and insisted they get us drinks with theirs. They went to the bar while we remained at our table with almost full pints. 4 pints and some shots poured. Card declined and they bolted so landlady bullied/intimidated us into paying as were only 22 at the time. Realistically she shouldn’t have poured a single drop of alcohol until the payment had been made so it was her problem to rectify IMO. Whole pub was covered by CCTV so she could have easily involved the police for non payment for the people who actually ordered the drinks if she wanted. She just took advantage of our young age and kind nature. If it happened to me now I’d laugh and tell them to sort it out themselves. We didn’t even ask for the drinks!

ArrowXL delivery service.

If you know, YOU KNOW. Kept me waiting 1.5 months for a 5 day delivery. Awful company. I’ve seen so many complaints about this company.

We didn’t even drink any of the alcohol after we were forced to pay for it either as it was very close to closing time and we already had our own drinks. If we had gone up to the bar with our friends and started drinking the drinks before payment was taken then I’d understand but it was pure bully behaviour and abuse of power in that situation

Car phone warehouse back in 2008 - I rang to complain that my phone wasn't working properly when I had just bought it and I wanted to return it. The guy proceeded to compare my phone to a McDonald's 99p burger (which was 99p back then) telling me that "if I went to McDonald's and got a burger and then ate a bit I wouldn't be able to return it" I laughed at him and told him how stupid of a comparison that was considering it was an electronic and that I could in fact return something faulty.
He put the phone down on me and then rang me back on withheld and told me he was going to come and find me and kill me in the most sinister voice ever and then put the phone down again.

I made a complaint to carphone warehouse and LO and behold they couldn't find a record of someone calling me - well no they wouldn't as he'd obviously called me back on his personal number.

Sky. Literally the worst. No broadband for a year really - worked and then would get so slow it was unusable. Every time we’d call it would be fixed for about two weeks. In the end we threatened to go with virgin media and suddenly they can upgrade us to free fibre optic broadband, and give us a free super fast modem and provide an engineer to be out and set it all up they day.

Went to PC world recently and bought a £20 printer. Woman tried to sell me an insurance for £10 but I declined and she said ‘well if it breaks don’t come crying back to us because we’ll send you right back out that door’

On the flip side - Vodafone provided me excellent customer service about two years ago. Went to apply for a mortgage and saw on credit that four years prior I had defaulted on a mobile contract (I cancelled direct debit after cancelling contract not realising I hadn’t paid final bill but I did as soon as I realised). Anyway I rang them up and explained and they removed the default off my credit file for me as a gesture of goodwill. No difficulties, no passing me from department to department, just accepted I had made an error, and did it.
Without that I wouldn’t have got the mortgage so I am eternally grateful.

70isaLimitNotaTarget your story has just reminded me of my local Lidl. It’s in a fairly ‘rough’ area where drug users congregate and school children also pop in on the way home so they’ve got a burly security guard on the door. Depending on what I’m wearing he will follow me around the store. I’m quite into my vintage labelled clothing like Adidas and Nike. Say if I’m wearing an Adidas tshirt and some leggings with trainers I get followed. If I’m wearing a dress and a fur coat I don’t even get glanced at. It’s very judgemental tbh but oh well.

I’d had a long day at work and had just finished at the gym. I popped in to buy a protein shake and of course was dressed in Adidas/Nike sweats and trainers. He kept following me around the almost empty store and it was quite obvious so I made a point of walking around very very slowly stopping to look at things I didn’t even want to buy. When I got to the till I politely said to the cashier ‘I understand you have had problems with shoplifting but having security following me around because of the way I’m dressed is hideous stereotyping and really puts me off coming into the store’. Poor girl looked so shocked she didn’t even know what to say. I didn’t even have a bag or pockets and was carrying an Audi car fob!

Horrific moving experience with Clockwork the ones based on Sheffield, guy turns up at my new house and first thing out of his mouth was "where's the nearest shop so I can buy a sandwich"'he and his college were delivering my furniture which had been I storage for just a week due to an international move. He used my new scissors to pry open wooden crated pictures, had no tools at all, had left 1/5 of my delivery in storage in Wembley and told me to check my house for it when I complained to his company that several large furniture items were missing. Think sideboard..... they were found in original depot he swore he had taken an inventory or everything. They piled boxes haphazard in front of cupboards wardrobes etc so you couldn't unpack easily. Smoked in my kitchen. Tried to get out of the second day or moving and unpacking saying they weren't being paid when I had paid for a two day unpack and delivery. Dropped three boxes that contained glasses and plates then said it was normal moving breakages, were without doubt absolutely horrific.
When I complained their regional sales person told me he didn't want to patronize me by sending flowers to apologize but didn't actually apologize!!
Do not touch with a Barge pole!!!!! Honestly worst experience of my life trying to move with them. Sent company a complaint letter which they never bothered responding to.

Also, this one was two days ago. I went to a local garden centre - it’s quite posh but sells lovely cakes.

Anyway, they have a limited breakfast menu, had a look but didn’t fancy much. At the bottom it says ‘Toast - £2.50, extra items £1.00(beans, mushrooms, tomato)’

I order beans on toast and they charge me £7. I said isn’t it £3.50 and the manager said no, it is £7, as it’s on the same parr as poached egg on toast. I pointed out the sign to which she argued that it was £3.50 for toast, with beans but I’d ordered beans on toast which was £7. I said I wasn’t paying £7 for beans on toast or toast with beans and she said did let me have them but was obviously not happy!

Sky - I complained a couple of years ago that my internet kept dropping, particularly in the morning.
The person in the other end of the phone kept telling me 'no problem' we will look into it.
He had no explanation for what was going on, but kept telling me no problem.
Well, it was to me....
I pointed out that I don't want an internet service that was unreliable. He kept saying the same.
The upshot was that he still kept saying 'no problem'.
I am no longer a Sky customer.

Car dealer, we arranged a no commitment to buy test drive. He really did the hard sell. We had our then 4 year old in the back and he turned to him and said 'what do you think of Mummy and Daddy's new car?' Not terrible but I was pissed off that he dragged a child into it. We didn't buy that car but did get the same model elsewhere.

Spotty I didn't even think about them sizing me up as a glue sniffer till much later .
Woolies closed years ago ( IIRC over 10 years) I'm in my 50s now

I was buying clear glue for plastic or wood or something and wanted to check the area coverage ,glue one side/two sides

Nope , it was wrenched out of my grasping litttle glue sniffery hand !( And I resisted the temptation to throw the other one but I did flounce )

Oh my, almost forgot BA, cancelled second leg of my journey while I was in the air on the first flight. Luggage went awol for two weeks,'we were delayed 7 hours on my birthday for new flight and they insisted it was normal process lied that first flight was cancelled when I pressed them with flight app data showing flight left early they reused to communicate with me. This was the second chance as they had bumped us as a family on a flight six months before and only let my husband travel as there wasn't enough room. Husband had a row to himself and the flight was not full. They were just awkward. Never again.

My mum died in hospital, and 2 weeks later my dad got a letter addressed to her asking about her stay .... 😡

I always get ignored in department stores when I try to get attention to make a purchase because I generally look like a scarecrow. On the odd occasion I am smart it's totally different.

Currys sold me a cheap shop soiled laptop which turned out to have been used in the store for months & contained employees pay details!

Laura Ashley I was in the shop at closing time yet they still told me a that it was too late for me to buy an item and that I need to come back the following day. They alleged the tills physically shut down at 5.30!

First Direct - I've had a joint account in my married name for 14 years now. 9 months ago First Direct decided to change the name on my account to my maiden name without asking or telling me. 7 months of chasing later and they send me a letter stating this was a new policy.
TBH I'm both disappointed horrified at this treatment as I had held First Direct in higher esteem than the other banks. Unfortunately they are just the same!

Same here *bakedbeansontoast.
Browns of Chester staff ignore me and a Boots make up saleswoman once did a 360 turn when she saw me coming. Yet they're very attentive when I go in with my hair up and make up on.
Makes no difference, I'm not going to buy from either any more.

I once ordered a meal kit trial delivery from a famous company. Chose an evening delivery slot to make sure that I would be home. The time came and went, nothing arrived. I called them to check (was worried about food going off) and was told that my package was delivered around lunchtime and was left with a concierge. That was weird because we had no concierge. We we living in a block of flats but not a posh one, more like a gentrified housing estate No coherent explanation why delivery time was changed. After I demanded to know where my package was they checked with the courier and told me that apparently there is a small house in our courtyard and this is where the concierge was. Of course in reality there was nothing of the sort there, the only building in our courtyard was the bin shed. In the end they sent the actual courier back to me so he could explain where he found that non-existent concierge and how I could get my package from them. He arrived and started mumbling about some lady who always takes packages and that he had other deliveries so he left mine with her too. He didn't know the lady's name or address, so no idea how to find her. Only after he left I remembered that there was a caretaker on the estate whom I only met once when we just moved there. Found her number on the info board and indeed my soggy defrosted box was with her... Needless to say, I cancelled the meal kit.

Very minor but recently got some (big chain) fast food takeaway, where you also get free food via the receipt next time.

Got home - missing food and no receipt.
Emailed CS expecting a simple resolution.

They wrote back and sniffily told me they couldn't help with any proof of purchase, and a tone that clearly suggested they thought I was trying it on.

My bloody-mindedness kicked in and I ended up with vouchers for more than my loss, but also a shitty feeling towards them because it was always their error and they could have sorted it immediately.

I was at the browsing Estate Agents stage of finding a house in an area I had just moved to (temporarily renting). This was before Rightmove was a thing. I was interested in a house and, not knowing the town very well, started to ask the woman on the floor "Is this area on a bus route into town?" However, she cut me off after 'area' and snapped "we can't give opinions on areas." I walked out.

And yes to pp mentioning the Post Office.

I am so sick of them trying to unnecessarily upsell expensive services.

I asked for a cheap second class service. She kept demanding to know what was in it and pushing special delivery (as in, "you HAVE to tell me what it is or I won't serve you!")

I politely refused and said it was low value and confirmed it was fine to mail. She triumphantly called her supervisor over, expecting her to back up the no service threat.

Supervisor and I had a pleasant chat where I confirmed same as above, and she bemusedly told her colleagues to do it just as I had requested. If looks could kill...

Why did you blame the cashier? It's not her fault security followed you, you should have said something to him.

So nobody with an Audi has ever stolen anything??

I work in the NHS, I phoned a consultant with a question re work that I was doing for him, he asked who I was, then proceeded to tell me to speak to 'someone at my own level' and hung up on me.

On the flip side, I went into a Greggs that I had never been into before the other week. They were the happiest staff going! All smiles and chatty to customers and each other. I came out feeling happy that I'd gone in there. Happy workforce = happy customers

Ordered a wrap-type meal for delivery from a restaurant but it arrived without a wrap. When I rang the guy accused me of lying and hung up on me. I was so shocked, I didn't try to call again.