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?

There it is folks; it's ok to be treated like less than human because "I pay your wages".

No, the point was that because sometimes a customer behaves badly, doesn't give the right to the shop workers to treat all customers badly in return. The majority of customers who are reasonable deserve to be treated reasonably in return. It's not acceptable for shop assistant to be narky to Mr B because she had a run in with Mr A earlier in the day.

BT. I had no option but to choose them as my phone/broadband provider when I moved house within the same town, as my phone number was used for my business and no other company were able to let me transfer it over.

I was promised my broadband would be up and running by the time I moved in. It wasn’t, but I’d half expected that.

The most frustrating thing was that they hadn’t transferred my number over, which was the whole point of using them, and they’d given me another number completely. It turned out this was the old number of the vets surgery which had recently closed down.

To set the scene, I moved house on my due date, but dd was born 2 days early. So I had a baby less than 48 hours old when I moved in, and throughout the day and night the phone kept ringing with people telling me about their pets’ ailments.

I was sleep deprived and recovering from the birth, and I distinctly remember screaming “I DON’T GIVE A FUCK” at one woman who’d phoned about her poorly cat at 3am .

It took months, and I mean months, to get the phone number sorted and get my internet up and running, to the point where I was given a direct number to a manager’s office in Cardiff so I didn’t have to keep going through lots of menu options to speak to a person in India who didn’t have a clue what to do. I lost so many hours of my life on the phone to them. I phoned so regularly that each of the managers in Cardiff knew my voice as soon as I said hello.

Eventually sorted, but then my internet would keep going down, and each time I’d get straight on to the managers office who would get it sorted a lot quicker than the New Delhi branch.

Many months after the initial problems, I phoned Cardiff yet again, to be told gently by the person who answered “Miss Help, you can’t keep phoning this number, this was for the initial problems you had”. My response was “I’m not phoning you because I have no friends and fancy a chat, I’m phoning because I am STILL having problems with my internet!! How about this for a deal? You make my broadband actually work properly and I won’t phone you anymore!”.

I’d rather have no internet than ever use them again.

I went through the KFC drive through, they messed up my order I had to go back, they tried to just give me what was missing but I insisted they replace the whole order (as I had it with me) it’s cold now. She replaced it & threw the bag in my face as she was so angry. It literally hit me in the face. Before I could say anything she slammed the window. I waited for a couple of mins for her to come back as I was raging mad 8 months pregnant. She never came back to the window she knew I’d of gone mad!!

Got home - food fuckin cold!

I was once asked for I. D in sainsburys for grenadine syrup!

There it is folks; it's ok to be treated like less than human because "I pay your wages".

That isn't what I said, but there are some posters on this thread who don't seem to get that you have to treat customers with respect, even the awful ones. If you can't understand that there are demanding people who you are never going to please and learn how to deal with them then you shouldn't work in a customer service role.

@KinderGurl ooooooh at 8 months I would have loved to march into the KFC and have that cow's job. I'm not one for confrontation at all usually but heavily pregnant and I would not have stood for someone throwing something at me. I hope you at least reported her?

My Parents had a a good one - they got a new phone and broadband contract (I'm not sure I can remember who with or I'd name and shame)! It was supposed to be Direct debit but instead they got a bill through. they rang up, the person on the phone set up the direct debit, and refunded the bill for the inconvenience, but the new DD set up didn't work either. This repeated for 4 months until they got them to cancel the contact so they could move to another company.

They were getting free phone and broadband, but had to make a 30 minute phone call once per month - if it were me I think I'd have stuck with it!

That isn't what I said, but there are some posters on this thread who don't seem to get that you have to treat customers with respect, even the awful ones. If you can't understand that there are demanding people who you are never going to please and learn how to deal with them then you shouldn't work in a customer service role.

Actually no retail workers have every right to not serve a rude customer or walk away from them. Just because we get paid to serve the public there is no need to take abuse of a customer at all. The customer is definitely not always right.

there are some posters on this thread who don't seem to get that you have to treat customers with respect, even the awful ones.

And customers should also remember that respect goes both ways and retail staff do not have to accept abuse from customers.

There is one customer who comes into my store and no matter what I did she would find fault with me and want to speak to my manager. After a few occasions (when co-workers had backed me up that I had done nothing wrong and still been complained about) my manager gave me permission to walk away from the counter if she comes to my checkout and get another colleague to serve her. She doesnt like it but she also doesnt make a bee line for my till anymore because she knows that I will not serve her and she cant complain about me.

I have an absolute stinker! This was a few years ago and was the TripAdvisor review I never had the guts to publish (names and areas removed as it may well have changed since)...

I have been a member of Tripadvisor for many years and reviewed a number of hotels and restaurants. Look back and you'll see I'm pretty generous - the vast majority have been 4 and 5 star. I appreciate good effort, friendly and helpful service, cleanliness and value.

So why is this review different? Well.

1. A travel cot is £10 extra. I have never experienced this in even the most budget of budget hotels (which this is not). The staff were incredulous that we were surprised at this. But hey, I could let this policy go and bring our own, if it weren't for...

1. The lack of plug in the bath in our family room, swiftly "remedied" by a plug that didn't fit. But that was ok, we borrowed one from my sister's room. Except...

1. Both rooms were tired, and neither 100% clean. Never mind, we'd speak to...

1. The manager, who was unnecessarily defensive, took my sister's asking for a discount as a "personal insult" and wished us good luck finding a cheaper room in the area. (Check out XYZ B&B for a cheaper, significantly better room in the area.) But maybe he is just very, very proud of his hotel. There was a wedding on. Maybe he was a bit stressed. And he did offer her a discount after some discussion. Anyway, we had an ok night's sleep despite some noise from the wedding, and came downstairs the next morning eagerly looking forward to...

1. Breakfast. But where was it? On check in, we'd been told to get down early as it would be very busy with the wedding. It was 7:40 and we'd been given times of 7:00-10:00. It did turn up eventually and was ok. Nothing special. Because we'd got down so early we hadn't had time to use...

1. The shower. Which, because the whole hotel had showered ahead of us, was freezing cold. Surely they should have a boiler that can serve a full hotel. Anyway, never mind - the gentleman on reception was very apologetic, offered us a discount which we accepted, and off we went.

All fine. Crappy Hotel, you're not doing great, but I'm a generous reviewer so you might still scrape 3*. If it weren't for...

1. The manager. Yes, he's back! A couple of days after we checked out, he took it upon himself to take additional money from our card without telling us he was going to do so. Because the guy on reception wasn't authorised to offer a discount. Told us "maybe things work differently in London". That we were "trying it on". I'm not a lawyer but as far as I'm aware, the law in this area is the same as the law in London. And there was only one person "trying it on" in this situation.

I have never encountered such appalling, borderline criminal customer service. Avoid this place like the plague.

I ordered a trampoline for my nieces Christmas present, it was delivered by ArrowXL. Never heard of this company would never willingly use them again!

Tracker on the website said the trampoline had been delivered, there was no package anywhere to be seen and no courtesy slip in my letterbox. Rang the company and was told that ‘A’ had signed for the trampoline. When I asked how the heck I was supposed to know who A was or where my package was, as they hadn’t left anything to tell me where it was, I got the verbal equivalent of a shrug and the suggestion that I check with my neighbours. Thankfully the trampoline turned up, a neighbour had taken it in but the lack of concern about a missing delivery was shocking.

I have a couple, or a couple I can think of off the top of my head.

1. we went for a walk down to a nice pub by the river one sumers’s evening. There was one of these outside bars, which is basically a wooden hut on decking. DP went up and ordered the drinks, but when she took out her card she accidentally dropped it, right between the slats of the decking. The person behind the bar called out the manager who said they coulddn’t he the card back as it would involve pulling up the decking. Fine, understandable, but then he looked at her and said, ‘how are you going to pay for the drinks?’ It was a couple of pints of cider and an orange juice, so not a massive round with food etc. She didn’t have any cash so he said she couldn’t have the drinks. I paid with my card, but I was a bit pissed off. It was an accident, and it wouldn’t have killed him to just give her the drinks.

1. We’d just spent 5.5 hours on a journey that should have taken 1.5 hours due to the road being closed because of an accident when we were stuck behind it. It was the day after DP’s father passed away as well, so we weren’t feeling our best. We fetched DS from after school club which I’d had to get school to put him in because we were late.

Anyway, when we got to the school we were both starving so we decided to have dinner in the pub round the corner. We ordered our meals, sausage and mash, pie and mash and fish and chips. They took 45 minutes to arrive, despite there being few other diners.

When the food arrived the sautés were burnt, the mashed potato wasn’t cooked properly and was crunchy and the pie was basically a pastry case with pieces of beef but no gravy.

We were predictably pissed off as the food wasn’t cheep, about £13 per meal. We went to the bar and very politely told the landlady we weren’t happy with the food. She said, ‘oh, that’s the chef, he’s a bit...’ Anyway she fetched the chef, who looked about 18. He stood there poking at the food and pulling a face like a petulant teenager. Apparently that is how you make a pie, pastry, meat and no gravy, and the mash was fine, it was supposed to be under cooked and crunchy. We said that we disagreed and that we both know how to make pie and mash. he just said, ‘this is bullshit’ and stormed off.

The landlady virtually threw our money at us and we walked out.

I think both the landlady and the chef departed very soon after, and on looking at trip adviser there were umpteen bad reviews about the food and the service.

Saw a hotel advertising afternoon tea for £5, tea and cake £3.50.
Went in and ordered afternoon tea. Brought us tea and a slice of cake. That’s not afternoon tea we pointed out.
Waitress and manager then both argued that was what an afternoon tea was, and couldn’t explain why it was different to tea and cake/more expensive.
After some arguing the manager came out and threw some scones at us and then proceeded to bang angrily around the seating area whilst we were eating.
Fucking weird.

[grin]@HomeEdRocks18 did you point out it Isn’t alcoholic?

Ugh.. mine was yesterday. I order some food via the food waste app Karma so everything half price. Ordered a Vietnamese baguette and spring rolls. The baguette was fine and a decent size, however the spring rolls were pathetic. They were supposedly originally £5 for 2 and were prawn and something, and the photo with it looked like regular Vietnamese spring rolls so I purchased them two of them for £2.50 per portion fair enough however, when I collected them they handed me 2x cocktail sized spring rolls ( like the ones you get in the all you can eat buffet) that were burnt. I explained that this is nothing like the photo and more over why are they selling burnt food, lady tried to make out that is how where were, after a bit of going back and forth I left as I could see she was playing silly, and basically telling me tough, so I thought hey let me bite into one as you never know.. that’s when I discovered it was veg and worst still it was inedible, you couldn’t actually chew it and the filling ( as minuscule as it was) was practically non existent, it had either been siting there for days on end and they refried it or it was made that day but kept on refrying it hence it being burnt so it all went in the bin.

Either way they were basically using a good intention food waste app to try and flog off food that was not fit for human consumption/should have been tossed out and not sure on what planet they think it is acceptable to charge £5 or even £2.50 for two cocktail size veg spring rolls, especially when that’s not what they are showing on the website.

I ended up taking pics and messaging karma and they have given me a refund but it’s the fact they even tried to sell it and stand their ground under the guise of “you get what you are given” that cheesed was off, which is true but you expect what you are given to be edible

It's been a long time since I felt hard done by by a customer service advisor or who ever, my view has been changed since being on the other side. Been a business owner for 10yrs and have just as many gripes with customers as I do with other service providers. I now figure that their are just Irritating twonks in all walks of life!!!!

You do view stuff differently mind when you've had ample experience from both sides, I do brush more off now as I can see it from both sides how flawed human behaviour is, how peoples ability to deal with stuff varies dramatically and how badly people come across even when they either not aware of it, trying hard but just getting it wrong or even just not very erm 'bright'. The later sounds mean but not sure the best way to put it. Some just don't have the skills.

Stupid carpet delivery place.

After them claiming I wasn’t in on the first delivery day (when I was) I sat looking out the window of my front room for THREE DAYS and every single day it got to 5pm and I’d get a ‘no one was in’ delivery failed notice.

On the fourth day I called repeatedly for eta updates from the driver and waited outside when he was due. I saw the van pull in far far down the road (even though there was plenty of space outside the house) and ran up to it before it could drive away.

Asked the driver wtf was going on and he basically said he thought this carpet looked too heavy for him to carry into the house by himself so he’d just been putting ‘not delivered’ every day.

I told him I’d used four days off work and he just shrugged. Asked him if he’d actually tried to carry the carpet and he just shrugged.

Anyway, he carried the carpet into the house (with a wheely trolly) and left. I put the kettle on and breathed a sigh of relief it was all over. Then I started unwrapping the packaging...

... they’d sent the wrong fucking colour.

@RedRed9- Your story just made me feel on your behalf. How infuriating. Did you notify the management? Hope you got a discount at least?

Retail workers- Whays the rudest thing a customer has done or said to you ?

Couldn't do the link but it's a current post, reading both defiantly backs up what if said in my previous post. What I will say again is that the posters in the other thread have been on both sides. Out of curiosity how many posters on here could offer up an example of their post on here flipped on its head?
I also wonder how many of those posters would deal with these situations as customers being dealt badly. I am really curious.

was carrying an Audi car fob

You lost the thread with these words, OP. Bad form. My ex had a brand new Audi and he was world class cunt!

@Elouera I made them pick it up and refund the order then went with someone else.

Such a waste of time.

@Insideimsprinting I’ve been on both sides, but I don’t post bad customer experiences on this thread because this thread is for bad customer service experiences. It does go both ways, and customer service folk getting pissed at customers telling their bad experiences is bizarre. Yes, we all know there’s shitty customers. But there is also shitty customer service employees who give bad service purely because they’re in a shit mood themselves. It’s not a personal attack against you.

Debenhams didn't send me my wedding dress. And then insisted they had, leaving me almost without on my big day Luckily Mumsnet came to the rescue!

To those of you who defend bad customer service by saying some customers are awful: just remember you are being paid to provide a service to the customer, and who do you think pays you? Yes, your employer puts the money into your bank account - but where do they get the money from? That's right - the customer, so what do you think happens when you can't be bothered to grit your teeth, smile, and try your best to deal with the situation in a pleasant manner!"

That is incredibly condescending.

@buttermilkwaffles Amazon responded to say they would not reply any further to the complaint as there was no customer account associated with my email address

They were pedantic but correct. When you use Resolver, it generates a unique Resolver email address for you. That unique email address wouldn't have been associated with your regular Amazon account.

Husband ordered some flowers for our anniversary. Showed up late and were half dead. He complained to the shop and they threatened to come to our house and put our windows in, then threatened to ring the police on us 😂 all he did was ask for a refund!