To ask worst customer service experience

[wotwududo]

What's your worst customer service experience. Mine was with a chain car sales company. Booked to view a newish car. Got a call in the morning asking for my tea/coffee order. When I arrived, test drove the car I wasn't sure so said I'd think about it. The salesman talked me into going through the numbers. Sat down the price had gone up 2k!! I said I wouldn't need any extras. He was so condescending and rude, basically said if i didn't pay the extras they wouldn't tax the car or do any warranty. (The ad said a year free warranty) so to get the car at the advertised price I would have had to have driven it off court with no tax and no warranty. I walked we out? Anyone else?

Booked to take DD and friends to Segway experience for her birthday. Turned up early for the briefing etc to find previous session sti on. Waited half an hour for them to finish. Finally got taken to the hut to get kitted out etc when the instructor looked on his system to find our session (last one of the day) has been cancelled as the segways hadn't been charged correctly overnight but no-one thought to tell us. They tried charging them for another half an hour but it didn't work. So around an hour and half wasted plus travel time and petrol, not to mention a very upset DD. Was given a number for the manager who never apologised and it took several phone calls and emails before I got a refund plus £20 for the inconvenience. The company have since ceased trading!

Worst one very recently was Legoland. If it wasn't for the Flight Of the Sky Lion, which we went on twice, I would have been tempted to deemand a refund.

1. Tickets costs £39 each, including primary aged children (full cost is £62!) and they had the cheek to charge £8 for parking. Never had that at a theme park before.

2. Staff everywhere were disinterested and downright surly. They clearly don't motivate their staff or pay them enough.

3. Worst experience was in the Skyline? Bar. The young woman who was serving the people before us was draping herself over the till and compalining about how tired she was and how much her legs ached. They weren't serving food, so we asked for a hot chocolate to keep the children going while we had a drink. She said that she thought they did hot chocolate, but she would have to put more milk in the machine and then just stared at us. Obviously hoping that we wouldn't actually ask her to do her damn job. We cancelled the drink order and left, so I guess she got her wish. So unprofessional.

The service almost ruined the whole day as all the staff looked so miserable. Love or hate Disney, you wouldn't get that there. Legoland really needs to up it's game.

Carphone warehouse (are they still going?)
I bought a pay as you go phone from them-I didn’t sign any contract-I paid for the phone upfront
all good,kept it topped up and then it got stolen
i reported it to them so they could block the phone and the sim
they sent me a bill for £700 and refused to block anything-they claimed my phone was a contract not payg
it took months for phone calls,being called a liar and threats to take me to court
I finally had enough nc told them to find my contract-that I’d signed-and to bloody well take me to court
never heard another thing from them

radio rentals-I rented a washer from them years ago
my contract came to an end and they came and took the washer away
they carried on billing me!
I was a skint single mum and couldn’t afford to pay for nothing
it took my dad getting involved (I think it’s cos he was a man) for them to finally admit I didn’t have the damn thing anymore but they still tried to charge me

Vodafone-bunch of lying cunts-sold me a broken phone and tried to blame me
they then (somehow) used my top up card to top another number up and refused to swap it back to my phone or refund me
final straw was the customer advisor calling me ‘dumb’ on the phone
they denied it but they where on loudspeaker and my brother and aunt heard him

asos-I ordered some shoes
what arrived where the wrong style,had been worn and I had to go round the houses for a refund

Bought a faulty phone from Vodafone (upgrade under my contract but adding to the cost) and tried to return it within 1 month, which is of course the law under the Consumer Rights Act. Phoned their call centre (which is not in the UK) and they refused to let me return it, as I was outwith the 14 day cooling off period under the Consumer Credit Act. The guy on the other end of the phone got quite arsey and insisted that I had "just changed my mind because I didn't like it" and I should google the law, talked over me and then gave me a "first conduct warning"! They seem to think that your cooling off period cancels all of your consumer rights. Tried calling again and same result. Also tried with their internet online help service. Same again. I will now have to bring a small claim against them as I've bought a new phone myself and their one is stuck in a drawer and I'm not paying for it for the next 3 years.

This one was in Ireland.
Calorgass.
Family member died, attempting to switch the account to his wife's name. Absolutely shite, just kept repeating that the current account holder would have to give permission ~ bit difficult when he is dead. Apparently he should have foreseen this and changed it before he died because y'know every 40 something year old person should have a psychic flash of their own aneurysm. This was over several calls and two months and endless letters. Twats.

BT, went from a loyal customer to someone who would never use their service again, ever.
RAC, key cover. Still in the middle of a service that doesn't exist.

That’s disgusting. Where was it?

I can’t remember the company now but a power company tried to charge us over £1000 for 4 months of energy.

we were a couple with a baby and this was 9 years ago. They acknowledged that we couldn’t have used that much energy and they were baffled as to how we were being charged that.

Still tried to charge us. We refused to pay it. They chased us for a while but have now given up

We now realise that where the house had been converted into a single house and a downstairs flat, the energy was connecting both places together so they wanted us to pay for both places, not what we used.

My mils solar panels
they where in her and my fils name
fil sadly died and she rang the company to take his name off them-simple enough
they refused as they needed his signature-she explained that he was now a pile of ashes so didn’t have a hand to write with
this wasn’t good enough-they needed him to sign his name off the contract
Her brother got in touch,had a firm word with them and they finally accepted that as he’s snuffed it,he won’t be in touch with anyone and to say sorry they’ll send her a £200 Amazon voucher
to a 74 year old lady who can’t use the internet
oh and she’s still waiting for the voucher as they have told her they can’t send it until fil rings them/signs away his name on the bloody solar panels,but it’s ok as they accept he’s dead-but still need him to give the ok
his name is still on the bloody things

two and a half years this has been going on-I just wish I knew the name of the firm and the top bod of it as I really want to kick their arse into next week

What is it with these companies acknowledging someone is dead but still wanting a signature?

Are you supposed to take a ouija board with you?

Take their ashes and sign their name with the ashes?

Take the body and do a weekend at Bernie’s with them?

What?!

When I did mystery customer I went to a Brewers Fayre. Had to go to the bar to order and the staff member put through 98 portions of what I'd asked for:

He spent 10/15 minutes deleting it off the till, swearing, finding it hilarious etc, the manager asked him what was funny and then also found it hilarious... then finally he managed it-- and they'd just sold the last portion to someone who came after me.

No apologies, just hilarity.

All of this had to go into my report. If I wasn't mystery customer I would have complained but you're not allowed to!

I've got quite a few. British Gas - tried to bill by brother for gas despite the fact he lived in a flat that was all electric.

WJ King (car dealers) sold us a dangerous car and then completely denied all responsibility after it stoped at a roundabout and I nearly got taken out by an articulated lorry.

Sky - for leaving a marker on my broadband that apparently they couldn't see but every other company could.

The Drs surgery springs to mind!

I went in and said hello, but got no response, so very politely and nervously asked the receptionist on the ground floor where Dr X was, as there were lots of different floors and rooms, and I hadn’t been before.

She looked at me, completely aghast, as if I’d asked her which floor Mr Blobby was on. She didn’t say a word to me the whole time, just reached out her hand, and very abruptly pointed ‘up’ with her index finger, whilst staring me in the face, like she wanted to attack me.

Didn’t do much to calm me down for my scary procedure!

We had something similar regarding a BT engineer coming out and then lying about replacing cables, with a large bill. Refused to pay, and sent photos of obviously long ago laid cables!

I was test driving a second hand car from a Peugeot dealers when it broke down. We had to walk 2 miles back to the dealership. They phoned me the next day to ask if I was still interested in buying the car 😂

Same here with Smeg: mega expensive fridge conked out. John Lewis said go to manufacturer, they said it's up to JLP. Offered £500 repair. Ended up having to scrap it.

In the days when basic supermarket carrier bags were free; we'd brought our own bags for life but found we were one bag short on the weekly shop. I asked the operator for another basic bag as there were none on the till - she either didn't hear or ignored me - so I took one from the adjacent till where there were plenty, and got told off for 'taking it from the wrong till'.

There are lots but my main point is how the heck some people ever get employed to work directly with the public! We’ve had staggeringly rude till operators. I work on a checkout myself & wouldn’t dream of behaving like they did!
The one that sticks in my mind is when I entered a competition at a caravan park open day & the guy rang me about it. He was based at my local park, which is nice, but I’d decided that if I won I would go to another park on the opposite coast. I couldn’t believe how he spoke to me & criticised me for not choosing his park ( no doubt on commission ) but the aggression really shook me. I should have reported him.

Not as bad as some but just had the plumber my landlord sent here to look at my shower that the temperature keeps fluctuating ( have it on the coldest setting and its still boiling hot then goes freezing cold 5 mins later ) been like this for two months. Plumber arrives with the tiniest tool box i ever seen ( landlord told me he was replacing it by the way) switched it on ran it for 2 mins with his hands under the head and told me that the temperature fluctuates depending on the weather outside WTF ??? Its an electric shower for f sake. Don't talk crap i said to him. Don't be ignorant he says to me. Had to walk away from him. He changed his tune when my partner came home. Said then though doesn't fox electric showers - WTF are you doing here so ???? New plumber came today - very polite and as we suspected thermostat gone, he replaced it and now lovely shower. Nice email gone to my landlord too

About 20 years ago I hired a car from Avis car rental. At the time they offered either to pay the congestion charge for you (and charge you) or you could do it yourself. I opted for them to do it and paid the fee.

A few weeks later, got a letter from TFL saying I hadn't paid (they had originally contacted Avis who had responded by giving them my details). Contacted Avis, they said they would sort it. Contacted TFL and told them this.

A while after that I got a chaser letter, same issue and a bigger fine. Again I contacted Avis and again they said they would sort it. Contacted TFL who said that Avis just kept referring them back to me.

A while later I received a letter saying TFL were taking me to court for non-payment. At this point I paid the (now huge) fine myself. And it took me over a year to get that back from Avis, Aaargh. I have got myself stressed just thinking about it. Never use Avis.

Airbnb for me, booked a cottage well in advance for a family wedding, taking the dogs so needed to be pet friendly. Nearly 200 miles away, meeting family for lunch before the wedding in the afternoon. We were sat having lunch, 30 mins before check in I got a text to say we couldn't have the cottage due to a family emergency. Bank holiday, 3 people and dogs / no chance of getting other accommodation. Stayed for the wedding and had to drive the, almost 4 hours home.

Morrisons cafe years ago with my 7 year old son. We could see that all the pre packed sandwiches were absolutely bursting full of margarine, like way way too much. I asked if they could do us a sandwich without any margarine on and they said no. I asked why and they said they weren't allowed to sell sandwiches with no labels on, and the labels said they contained margarine. They even ended up getting the store manager to come over and further explain this to me. The door to the kitchen area was open and I could see people making sandwiches in there, slapping a brick full of marg into each one. I asked if they could just cross the margarine off the label with a pencil - I even offered to go down the stationery aisle and buy a marker pen, but no joy.

Asda.

They were having a huge push on plastic bag usage and weren't even selling bags for life. I absolutely support this, by the way. Wanted six deli items. They were on offer, 5 for £1 or something. Great I said, I'll have 6. The woman serving said yes but it's 5 for a £1. Yes, I said, but please can I have 6? I don't expect to get 6 for £1, I clarified. But I do want 6. So that'd be £1 for the 5, plus an extra 35p for the single one like it says there, so that's £1.35 for those items. No, she said, that's not how it works. It's 5 for a £1. Went through it again. She got it this time then put 5 in the bag and got out another bag for my single item. I said it's fine, I'm happy to have them in the same bag. No, she said, legally I can't do that. They print all the labels at the counter. But LEGALLY, she wasn't allowed to put 6 in the same bag. And LEGALLY she wasn't allowed to sell 6 mini spring rolls in one transaction because it was 5 for £1.

The fact that it wasn't even possible to buy a bag made this completely ridiculous.

Same store told me that LEGALLY they had to put my meat in a plastic bag (I used to work at a supermarket. I'm fairly sure this is not enshrined in law). Not allowed to even buy a bag for life but thin single use bags for meat, no problem at all.

I only shop there now if I have to.

Bought a pair of shoes from Next for a Christmas party. They were satin with a silver metal bejewelled heel.

Day after the party I noticed one of the heels was very bent. Took them back. The woman was all "ooooh this shouldn't happen, how strange". Then asked me how far I'd walked. I said I walked around and danced at the party then walked the half a mile home. "Ah" she says. "That'll be it. They're not meant to be walked in"

My reply was possibly not as polite as it could have been as I was utterly gobsmacked. I definitely laughed.

I got my refund.