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 entered a draw to win a holiday on a static caravan site ( they were promoting the caravans & obviously hoping to sell some as well as get people to fill in their details). A few days after, I got a call from a guy at the park. I made the mistake of asking about other parks I could stay at if I won - he was so rude & aggressive, saying I should stay at my local park & why did I want to go anywhere else! The rules of the draw stated you could stay at any of the parks in Cornwall. I really wish I’d reported him for his attitude as it left me quite shaken.
Often bewildered how some people ever get a job dealing with the public in the first place. Everyone has bad days but honestly, there are staff in some of my local shops that are so bloody miserable it puts you right off! Oh & then there were the ignorant waiters who spoke more or less exclusively to DH - we never went back to that restaurant even though the food was good.

I got called by a representative for I think it was Scottish gas? He calls and asks to speak with my husband. I say, sorry this is my phone, I'm his wife, unsure what's happened. Can I ask who is calling and I'll ask him to call you back....
Yes, I'm calling from electric company (I'm almost sure it was Scottish gas!) Your husband enquired online about changing suppliers...
Sorry, let me stop you there, were not changing suppliers right now. I'm sorry to (have wasted your time- didnt even make it's way out of my mouth before he cut me off to say the next thing)
You arent able to make that decision, give me his number and I will arrange the move directly with him.
At which point my tone changed, and I explained not too pleasantly that the gas and electric bill was in my name, and my name only, so my husband is the one who does not have the ability to make that decision and I am most definitely not changing suppliers right now.

He then says, so explain to me why you are against leaving your current supplier.

No thank you very much. I have already said no.

I put the phone down.

He calls back and tells me that he requires an answer if I wont commit to using them.

I then had to explain that when he called I was against changing supplier, but the tone of his call essentially meant that even if i intended to change, it wouldn't be with anyone who allowed their staff to speak to potential customers in that way.

3 are horrific. Had too many problems with them to count.
We had a phone not delivered to us, DPD were eventually found to be lying about delivering it to a neighbour- which was honestly just brilliant.
They refused to help us but dutifully took the money for the phone and the bill. Both of which we weren't able to use because they were not delivered to us (delivery was signed for by "our neighbours" some 35miles away from our house, an hour later he was outside neighbours house taking photos of their front door)

They then delivered a wrong phone (2nd contract) and when we tried to sort it, they gave us a goodwill gesture of £20, when we complained were out of pocket by that amount each month due to their problem, they told us to go to the financial ombudsmen service.
That night we put in a complaint with the financial ombudsman, and I sorted out a new contract for DD on 02. They're a dream to deal with.

@NK493efc93X1277dd3d6d4
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!

That’s probably true. What we’re doing that you couldn’t get to the til before closing time? How irritating for the staff that they had to hang around waiting for you to leisurely finish browsing

Yodel. I have to deal a lot with all the delivery companies and they’re all great apart from Yodel. They’re complete bastards. I’d ordered some lamps. They gave me a date and tracking number. I waited in and the estimated delivery time came and went. When I checked the website they said they’d been and my property was inaccessible. Absolute crap. Phoned and complained. They said it would be with me the next day. Waited in again and exactly the same thing happened. Phoned and complained again and again they said definitely the next day. On the third day the lamps were delivered by two delivery men. No problems until I looked out of the window and saw one of them pissing into the bushes outside my house! I couldn’t believe it! I complained and they apologised but nothing was done (not sure what they could have done really but anyway). Last week I had to wait for them to pick something up. Had another tracking number. No one turned up. I checked online and the driver had said I wasn’t in and had left a card. Bullshit. Had to wait in again two days later and nothing happened. They are just a waste of time. If I order something and see the courier is Yodel my heart sinks

Lone time ago. Bought a laptop from Dixons (Yes, I know!). Turned out to be faulty so took it back for refund/replacement. This was only 3 days since I bought it.
Manager was having none of it. Told me to deal with manufacturer direct (Taiwan based). I argued but was getting nowhere. So I left the store and went to speak to a friend at his work.
He came back to Dixons with me and I tried again. Manager stuck to his mantra of it being my responsibility to deal with manufacturer direct.
My friend told the manager he was wrong. Manager was getting irate and shouted that my friend knew nothing.
His face was a picture as my friend put his Trading Standards ID on the counter!
I got a full refund. I also did my happy dance when that branch closed down.

When we moved into our new place, we went to buy carpet for the first time. Walked into Tapi Carpets and chose the carpet we wanted, explaned it was a 2 bed flat we needed carpet throughout. The guy asked if it was empty or they needed to move the furniture about and my Dh said "oh no its a new council place so it's completely bare and we have 3 weeks to move in so we wanted to do carpets on finance to get them straight in" the sales man said "let me stop you. A council place? Finance? Hmm are you sure you can afford it?" and stuck "mate" on the end too. I swear that's the closest I've ever seen DH to hitting someone. He said "I'll have you know, mate, my wife and I have both worked our entire lives and do to this day. But that and how we pay for our carpets has got sweet fuck all to do with you." grabbed the buggy and walked out.

In the end we went to scs where we bought a sofa and carpets on finance with no judgement. They were also shit though. Sofa didn't arrive on time and carpet had spikes sticking up all around the outside. It was awful. Took them months to even acknowledge a problem and in the end it made me so stressed I came out in psoriasis on my face.

Howdens
I bought an expensive kitchen through my builder (normal for Howdens) and it was delivered to my home. Builder turned psycho and did a runner. I've since has the kitchen installed by another builder. There's things missing and there's a mess up with the sizes of cupboards, they're too big at the end, so upper and lower cabinets need to be 100mm smaller.
I've told Howdens about the builder and our issues but they have just said you can give us back the two cupboards and we'll credit the builder, then you need to buy new ones. Can't we just swap - no
This was measured at site by one of your kitchen designers - so it's kind of her fault - no ... he got shouty at this point and wouldn't do it - so had to pay a further £235 on extra cabinets
To add to this the design on their kitchen website so the builders could build it had been switched off, they could still see it and printed 1 copy for us and thst was it, no reopening our designs for kitchen fitter to see online just 1 piece of paper that could get lost or damaged easily
Never using Howdens again

Virgin.

Morrisons.

ASDA - told to 'Fuck off' by a member of staff. I'll come back with details but this will remind me.

I was in McDonalds once on Boxing Day, queues everywhere. We had been waiting for ages when I noticed the young girl who had been dealing with the line I was in was now on the customer side of the McCafe counter. I assumed she was on a break and had been replaced by someone else, but no, she had just walked off and left us! When our complaints were finally heard another worker explained that it was her break time, then told us to push in front of the line beside ours - who had been waiting equally long. I didn't go back there for ages, and I thought the woman behind me was going to explode.

I've also been in a line at a local supermarket when the cashier has slammed down a Closed sign and told those of us behind the person they were attending to at the time to go to another cashier. That stopped once they got a new manager!

Local pizzaria- went to collect our phone order. I drove, so OH could run out of car to collect. He returns sometime later saying they'd only deal with me! OH had paid, then realised the order was wrong. Manager accused me of ordering the wrong thing on the phone, then claimed she couldn't give a refund, because the till would be out at the end of the night, and she didn't know how to open it

A different pizza place- saw the pizza maker stuffing his face with pepperoni & cheese (licking fingers) while making pizzas. Advised a manager, but instead of manager speaking to the staff member, said it was MY job to reprimand the staff member and 'he never believes me when we get customer complaints about him'

My puppy died at the vets from anaphylactic shock due to a bee sting. The vets sent a condolence card with wildflower seeds enclosed for me to plant a memory garden and ‘encourage bees’.

Nationwide - had to involve the financial ombudsman who discovered that no one was dealing with the problem I had. The customer service staff had told me to go into a branch. When I reported back that the branch couldn't help and it had to be them they decided to say I had abused them on the phone. As soon as I pointed out I had recorded all my phone calls with them and they were welcome to have a copy, they went silent.

Frankie and Benny's - the service was so poor it was comical. The waiting staff spent their time looking busy e.g. filling up ketchup bottles, hiding behind the bar, staring at the food ready to be served, rather than serving customers. We watched other customers sit down, wait then get up and leave. Those who managed to get food not being able to get their bill so getting up, starting to walk out before being given their bill.

Being an Audi driver doesn’t eliminate you from the realms of shoplifting.
Carrying a Audi key fob only makes you feel superior.

I went shopping in my local mini Asda for a few items. I bought more than I’d intended and so bought a 10p carrier bag.

I scanned my items and once paid loaded up my bag on the scanning table bit.

Unknown to me my scanner started up again and scanned through the carrier bag. I didn't notice the beep or screen as other machines were beeping and my bag covered the screen.

I took a couple of steps away from the till to hear a young man shout agressively ‘you've not paid for that’ near top of his voice.

We had a discussion about this, showed him my till receipt etc. I was quite shocked at what had happened and his manner. Neither of knew why machine had started up again, especially as I’d not pressed the start button. ( turns out you don't need to)

‘That’s ok then’ and I was free to leave. So somewhat shocked I went home.

As I got home I realised it wasn’t ‘ok’ so went back. I thought that his behaviour was out of order, that there are better ways of dealing with a possible non payment problem and that his manner if directed at more vulnerable customers would be quite wrong and damaging.

So I went back to see the manager. ‘Was it Michael’ Whilst I’m a regular I’m not on fist name terms. Turned out it was. Her manner suggested it wasn’t his first time. She was very pleasant, offered me a gift card. I just wanted it sorting for others in the future.

They didn't know why my till had started up again and why it has a start button when it does it automatically anyway. (I worked it out myself)

It took a few weeks before I felt happy to go and shop there again. I always get a paper receipt now.

I was in McDonalds once on Boxing Day, queues everywhere. We had been waiting for ages when I noticed the young girl who had been dealing with the line I was in was now on the customer side of the McCafe counter. I assumed she was on a break and had been replaced by someone else, but no, she had just walked off and left us! When our complaints were finally heard another worker explained that it was her break time

She's allowed to have a break, for goodness sake. It's unreasonable to expect people to work shifts of indefinite length just because a place is busy.

Can’t remember which co., but it was quite a well known one. Ordered by phone and paid extra for next day delivery, since we were going away soon. Was asked to confirm phone number, in case of problems.

Waited in the whole of next day for delivery - item didn’t arrive.

Phoned them next morning - ‘Oh, it was out of stock.’
So why TF didn’t you phone and let me know, then, instead of having me wait in the entire day?

Oh, sorry.

I made a stiff written complaint, which was well worth the effort, since they sent me £30 of vouchers.

If I’m carrying a car fob with no bag or anywhere to pocket anything I’m a lot less likely to shoplift a small bottle of protein shake than a teenage boy with his hood up walking around with his backpack open. I said Audi to emphasise the fact I’d have no need to steal a £1.60 protein shake, not a boast

We boycotted Currys years ago. Their extended warranties are complete con.

I ordered some bedding from next. I collected it. Opened it when I got home to find it was the wrong bedding. The sticker with the code was correct on the item but the bedding was incorrect.

I called them and they apologised and ordered a replacement. I mentioned that as the code is correct, is it possible that it had been labelled incorrectly and that there might be a batch in the warehouse that had been labelled incorrectly and the same thing could happen with the new order.

I was assured that this would not happen and was a one off.

I picked the bedding up. Opened it at home and it's the wrong bedding.

So I called up again. They apologised and ordered another set to my home address. Again I mentioned that there could be a batch at the warehouse labelled incorrectly. Suggested that they call the warehouse and check. Again was assured that this wouldn't be the case.

The bedding was delivered by Hermes. (Who hid it in my back garden and it took hours to find it)
Opened it and it was incorrect.
Not only that but it had a sticker on it that had been written on. It said that the code didn't match the bedding. The bedding was incorrect and that it had been delivered to a different customer and was returned as it was the wrong bedding.

I was not best pleased. I didn't bother calling them. So I wrote an email detailing my experience. As I had ordered it using my Nextpay card it was treated as a financial complaint. Therefore, it could progress to the FOS if I was not satisfied.

The complaint was handled well. It took 3 weeks for the bedding to be sent out to me as all the sets in the warehouse were incorrect.

I did get the bedding for free as part of the complaint resolution. The bedding was £75.

Rosebel, not sure how what I said comes across as ‘blaming the cashier’. She was the only person I had a conversation with in the store and not like a manager was wondering around. I’m hardly going to confront a burly, man who has been following me around as a lone woman and looked angry at my presence alone. I politely said I understood why but it really puts me off. And it’s Lidl not Waitrose they need to back off a bit. Small store too so security guard could easily see everything from one spot but was just using intimidation tactics following people around. Maybe he should be on the doors of a nightclub if he wants to act like that.

Another security guard one, potentially the worst. Security guard on the McDonald’s in our town centre as there’s been a lot of incidents with teenagers outside and in the store. 2pm in the afternoon on a Saturday. He refused to let anyone in without ID and was heavily manhandling 10-12 year olds that were just trying to get some food, weren’t causing any trouble. Many adults around shouting at him to stop touching the children. I recorded it and he refused to show me his badge. Very nasty man. I used to work in that store when I was younger so I messaged the manager and I believe the guard lost his job. Way too many in small stores that have a ‘nightclub door’ mentality.

At Rome Airport recently. I was taken aside for my hands to be swabbed for explosives. The female security guard took the swab and then shrugged and walked off never to be seen again. Another man came over, spoke to a colleague in rapid Italian. He then shouted at me “where is your bag?” I took him over to my bag on the security bag and he pushed my DH out of the way! Took a cursory look in my bag, swabbed it. Then more shrugging and he just walked off looking disappointed that he hadn’t found a terrorist!

I presumed I was free to go so off we went! Really weird. I am aware that their job is security but why do some of these guards act so rudely and unpleasantly?

Fast food outlets and airport security and immigration, par for the course.
Got stuck in an Immigration queue in Miami airport, we watched the next queue laughing and joking with their officer, ours made you feel like you were going straight to jail.

I should add that when I've had someone in a shop/customer services go out of their way, be helpful, resolved the issue etc, I often write to head office/management and complimented them.

I had a couple of issues with pierced earrings (which I know are excempt from refund due to Health&Safety but if they are not fit for purpose this does not apply)

I bought some silver studs from Claires - realised when I put them in that there was a sharp rough spike on the post (not the end) that made my ear bleed . I've had my ears pierced as a teen (so 40 years ago) they are pretty robust and fibrous .

Anyway went to Claires with offending items (and got the no refund-earrings reply)

Then it was "You need to send them to the Head Office"

No my contract is with the shop .
Sale of Goods Act
Fit for purpose (or not as the case may be)

A queue was building up. The earrings were bandied from A-B , I was not backing down. I was not going to send them myself and I was not going to leave without my £.

Eventually (and I would've stood there until it was resolved) it was refunded.
Only so they could deal with the queue of eagerly waiting customers .

Similar in Argos -
A stone came out of a pair of quite ££ gold studs . Wore them once . I let a queue build (I was not loud or aggressive in either case ) just kept repeating Sale of Goods Act/ Not fit for purpose over rides the no refund , my contract is with this store . I will see the Manager now .

I buy my earrings from QVC , they will allow returns even if the customer just changes their mind .

Hotpoint- awful experience. We had an engineer out to mend our fridge freezer (not the first time). This cost over £100. It clearly wasn't fixed as the same issue arose again after after a week. They sent out another engineer who said we needed several new parts. These were placed on order. They sent out various emails over the summer saying the parts were out of stock but still on order. (Yes this went on over the summer and we were without a fridge freezer for months and months). After 5 months I decided that I really had to understand what exactly was going on and phoned them again. The lady I spoke to said she had no idea why I had been told that these parts were on order and that they were actually obsolete. Hotpoint then had the cheek to try and sell me a replacement fridge freezer. To put it in context, the one which was obsolete was only 4 years old - not exactly environmentally friendly.