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?

Hilary’s blinds. I had asked for a guy to come quote for a single blind in one room and then an entire conservatory. I live in a fairly hard to get to place (think off the mainland) but still able to drive there via a bridge.

He turned up and told me how he said to his colleague, “oh you’re lucky you didn’t get asked to do this quote, it’s a nightmare and probably not worth it” He then spent ten minutes condescending me, put his hand up in a stop ✋ signal when I spoke, told me “I don’t give quotes I give PRICES” at me when I asked what his quote was for the small window (not sure what the difference is but anyway). He quoted me a ridiculous price, way over the top and said it was barely worth his time for two hundred quid.

I realised he only thought I wanted a single wi die doing and didn’t know about the huge conservatory I was going to ask to be done.

I had great pleasure throwing him out and subsequently cancelling the appointment my mum had made to get her home done too a week later. We both used a much better competitor. They lost thousands because of that twat.

The funeral director, following my father's death, asked my mother how deep she wanted the hole? when she asked why that was relevant he said "well if you will be going in with him one day, will we dig it deeper".

Second place went to a tiny bakery cafe in St Just, Cornwall. I went in with 8 year old DD and we were the only customers. The man serving was stood at the counter chatting to his friend. After waiting about 15mins for him to come over I started to wonder if I was expected to order at the counter. I politely approached him and said "excuse me do I order here" and he yelled at me "Can't you see, I'm talking to my friend you f...ing ignorant cow, get out". We fled with him and his mate laughing.
It was actually really frightening.

I'm sorry 💐
A few months after my sister died her mobile beeped. It had been sitting on the mantel, switched off, since she died. It was a message from the provider saying that as it had been some time since she sent a message did she feel she ought to connect with a loved one.
That broke my parents.

Sky, trying to set up internet in our new home. ‘Nuff said.

British gas. I bought a new apartment which was converted from an old nursing home. My apartment was number 1. No problem setting up my gas and electricity with someone (it wasn't British gas) using the reference numbers on the meters. I received a (huge) bill from British Gas with meter numbers that were not mine with the address of the nursing home - I assume I got them as my apartment was number 1. Phoned many times to say the meter doesn't exist any more and stop sending letters - I naively gave them my name during the first call and they added my name to the bills after that. After a year of letters threatening to cut me off - please do it doesn't exist!!! I contacted ofgem who sorted it out within a few weeks.

When they asked my name they also asked for my previous address (my mum and dad's). Again I naively gave it to them not thinking anything of it - it was my first home and was very young - and my mum and dad's energy supply was switched to British gas. My parents were fuming with them and it took them ages to sort it out. Neither of us have ever used British gas since.

ex-dinner lady

I can put up with bad customer service, just assuming they are having a bad day. But what I can't tolerate is when staff stand around without serving you, such as a pub or wine bar.

Once in Cardiff we went to a cocktail bar with beds in, were at the bar about 15 minutes with the girls just ignoring us before we left.

(u)nite energy
what a company!
I switched over to them as they claimed to be 100% green energy (about 17 years ago)
we lived in a 3 bed house and on a prepayment meter I was paying about £10-15 a week with edf
3 weeks after switching I got a bill for 3k!
I rang them and explained I hadn’t used 3k of energy in that time-it was impossible
they told me I had and I had to pay it
we went back and forth for months-the bill getting bigger and bigger,so I complained to the ombudsman and they took their side-I owed the money
i went back to edf and to,d (u)nite to shove their bill-take me to court-I had my paperwork and there was no way I was using 1k a week (i would have been willing to pay for what I did use)
never heard another thing from them-in fact I don’t think they are still going

my parents moved into their flat in 1971 and went with bt as my mother wanted a phone line
they billed my dad 5k for 6 weeks of use (even my mother can’t make that many calls!)
oddly they did the same to my uncle at the same time-they got together,rang them and bt said they both owed it-and wouldn’t listen
my dad lost it with them after weeks of this and threatened to wrap the phone line round their neck
my uncle had to calm him down
they did end up wiping both debts in the end but my dad refuses to use them and my uncle was the same until the day he died

John Lewis!
▪️Delivered a new tumble dryer to my old address THREE TIMES despite phoning me the day before each delivery to double check the delivery address...
I used a local euronics dealer instead
▪️Ordered some Xmas gifts and they arrived (late) and I just put the box away.
When I opened the box to wrap the gifts instead of legs and books I had sports Bras abs Supergas! Customer service couldn't have cared less.
▪️bought some expensive towels for ky new bathroom. They are somehow actually water repellant. It's baffling.
NEVER AGAIN!!!!

The funeral director, following my father's death, asked my mother how deep she wanted the hole? when she asked why that was relevant he said "well if you will be going in with him one day, will we dig it deeper".

He may not have phrased it well, but you can buy double plots for couples. They usually cost more though.

Yes, this is a normal question- FIL's grave was a bit deeper than normal to accommodate MIL as well when the time came. Sounds as if he expressed it poorly though!

Sainsbury's, SOOO many times over the years! In different stores too, do they deliberately hire rude people?

1. Checkout woman going VERY slowly, more interested in chatting. Woman behind me (pensioner) worried she will miss her bus. Offer to let her go in front but she says it's ok, asks the checkout woman if she could go a little faster, there's just one bus out and one bus back to her village a day. The woman glares at her, then starts scanning my stuff in deliberate slow motion!

2. When they first introduced chip and pin cards a checkout woman TWICE snatched my card from my hand as she didn't like customers inserting the card themselves. Complained the second time and never saw her in there again.

3. Really chatty guy on checkout who couldn't multitask, had to stop and ask me about every purchase. After a bit I apologised and said I was going to be late to collect my children so didn't really have the time to chat. He huffed and said he was going as fast as he could.

4. Had a woman refuse to give me the face value of some milk tokens as she thought I was cheating the system by getting 2 four pinters instead of 7 one pinters, I wasn't entitled to that extra pint despite the price being the same! She held up the queue, loudly berated me in front of the other customers, then called the supervisor over who told her to just do it and apologised to me.

HSBC:

Woman tried to block the joint account when I mentioned I had separated from my husband. Said it was the law. I argued it was the only money we had and it would leave us destitute. She said she had been in banking for 20 years and she HAD to do it as either of us could empty the account. I said we were aware of this and we were willing to take that risk. She still insisted so I demanded to see what law it was. She went off, spoke to a superior then came back saying it wasn't the law, just recommended. I declined. I wonder how many people she left without access to their funds over those 20 years!

CarpetRight.

The person doing the measuring turned up over an hour late. I’d given up at this point so when she phoned saying I hadn’t heard the door I did say, “Well, I was expecting you an hour ago, I assumed you weren’t coming…”

Anyway, she measured. All good.

Phoned them the next day. Arranged to go up at a certain time to pick out the floors.

We rock up at the agreed time. They ignored us. We picked out our floors and stood by the counter ready to book and pay. They ignore us.

There’s one assistant putting sale stickers and two others having a chat. They can all see us.

We left. Was clearly some kind of carpet related power trip where we’re supposed to be grateful for their attention.

They called us a bit later. Asked if we were coming up to pick out our floors. I explained the above.

He then asks if we’d like to come up then.

No. No, we don’t.

Just tell us from day one that you don’t like our vibe and don’t want to sell us floors. Why fuck about with the being late/ignoring us bullshit.

Seriously.

The Irish Passport Office in Dublin. Despite calling hundreds of times a day (I have call logs to prove it) and constantly trying the webchat, never managed to get through to anyone. I ended up having to email anyone I thought could help, including the Taoiseach‘s office, it took the intervention of the office of the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs to get any assistance. 12 weeks after acknowledging the receipt of my youngest daughter’s passport application, I got an email to say they cannot contact the signatory on the application form and I will have to resubmit the forms. They had no trouble contacting the signatory when processing mine and my older child’s passports, which came within a week of submission, the same date I submitted for my youngest dd!
The complete lack of accountability is staggering!!!

A relative had their bank account frozen because a random solicitor had contacted them about the death of their client. The bank didn’t check the full name, address or date of birth before freezing the wrong account. She went into her local branch because her cards and online banking weren’t working, and was told they had been notified that she was dead.

When I was ordering blinds a man came round measured up etc and I said yes I will have them and he said "we need permission from the decision maker of the house" I said yes that's me and he said no we need your husbands permission.

It was Hilary's blinds

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

Although I did have the opposite (but equally unhelpful) experience with the AA. On phoning them to say DH had died and could they please transfer the account into my sole name they said that only 'Bereavement Support' could deal with my request. This specialist department usually got in touch within 28 days. Given that I was having to do a lot of distance driving and simply wanted to check that I had breakdown cover, I was unimpressed. Neither, it has to be said, had I ever thought to use the AA as a source of bereavement support. As it happens it didn't take 28 days to sort this out. Six months later and completely out of the blue "Bereavement Support" phoned up and after 5 minutes of being woefully sorry for my loss, I got a word in edgeways and pointed out that I'd cancelled the contract months back.

Card factory yesterday!!!!

I have a neurological disorder that's very recently started effecting my speech. It's quite obvious by looking at me that I'm disabled. I have a visible tremor and I walk with sticks. I had to ask a member of staff if she "could please reach me a large blue gift bag down please". Granted it took me a little longer to utter that sentence and it came out quite slurred but she actually huffed and replied while rolling her hands in a hurry up motion "just point at which one!!!" Really short with me. It's really upset me and I will complain but I just turned and walked right out in tears

Debenhams, at the moment trying to return a faulty dress that is unwearable, so far I’ve been offered said dress with a 50% discount. It is unusable and unwearable!!

TalkTalk. I had just moved into a flat and tried to get a line put in. Date that they had said it would go live comes and goes and there is no internet. Called them and they said but we can see you using it. I said I'm not otherwise why would I call you.
Eventually they sent someone round who figured out that there had been a crosswire issue and a neighbour had been cut off from their account and set up with ours. All gets sorted.
A year later I get a letter, we are sorry that you want to cancel your contract, here is the cut off date, and the fees for leaving early. I phoned and said no, not leaving, but there is a crossed wire issue with this other flat in my block, perhaps it is them - note they were not TalkTalk customers.
This happened about 5 times over the next couple of years until one day the line was cut. They had not given me warning this time. It was still the same issue with the other flat! And they charged me for cancelling the contract. I said but I hadn't cancelled!
They refused to even discuss it with me. I spent hours trying to sort it out. Eventually a senior manager said I only had to pay £70, at which point I gave up and paid.
Next day phoned another company and not only did they give us a very cheap rate for unlimited fibre internet, but they also gave us a mobile data thing to use with unlimited data until the line could be set up, some six weeks later. The difference in the customer service was astounding. The lady I spoke to from the new company was so helpful and really made me feel like she wanted to help!!

😂😂😂

That is scary I might start doing that.

BT in 2004/5. Internet equipment which they stuffed up and took months to sort out.

I've had a few corkers over the years- Virgin trying to charge us for remaining 4 months of a contract- we had been with them 7 years and were moving- we would have been happy to continue but Virgin were not in area we were moving to -- their view was we were breaking a contract (which stated portability) - my view is they should be flexible because of our longevity as a customer and they were unable to supply at new address.

Estate agent in Posh bit of Oxford who we let a nice house from unfurnished-- 8 days before due to move in they till us it wAs a mistake and it has to be furnished- by then we had no choice but to take it as removals booked and notice given - so we ended up with a £320 a month storage bill on top for a year , decor that was not at all my taste and then moved elsewhere.