Which organisations have you decided never to use again after poor customer service?

[tortoisefairy]

Right I will start. The idea is name and shame and maybe these huge organisations will realise to stop using ridiculous automated telephone services and to stop ripping us off!!!!

Currys - very low level of customer service after our HP printer stopped working as it was 2 months past the warrantee date.
Handy that.
AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

That's better, especially now when I phone to complain and tell them I've written all about it on here.

White, I read your comments about JL with interest.

I had a major issue with JL when I was ordering curtains for my house. I had over £700 worth on order for 3 rooms.

They mucked it up and I only got 2 sets, with one room missing. Not only did they eventually sort out the final room with an alternative I also got a full refund! I would kick up a stink and they'll sort it out and you'll get something for your hassle.

Good luck!

WhitePeacock - try dealing with them via email, rather than on the phone. That way you have the paper trail, (as it were) and I've found them superb EVERY time i've used them (i never do anything by phone, waste of time and I don't have any record of the call)

Thanks tootles and jareth for your advice. Seeing JL so consistently praised on this thread does tempt me to reconsider, although half of brain thinks why give them any more hard-earned after so many cock-ups. I like their business model though (not to mention the fluffy towels) so will wait to see if last 'more in sorrow than in anger' email results in any decent grovelling. Paper trail makes a lot of sense!

Cotswold Company. A long saga of misery and woe regarding non-delivery of a desk. Never again.

Boots The Chemist. Always understaffed in every branch I have ever found myself in. 1 person at the till on a Saturday lunchtime in Maidstone is real disregard for customer care.

Ah yes.. Boots Opticians.. nooooooo

we had problems with the cotswold company too, very bizarre, cancelling order as the product was not good enough quality, not telling us, then sending us a broken one,???

and the white company - oh it's out of stock it'll be 6 weeks, now another two weeks, now another two weeks, now another 2 weeks. oh now it's in stock, it'll take us 6 weeks to deliver your item (why i've already waited 10 / 12 weeks, isn't that enough) 'well many of our customers wait months for their items' (said in a proud lecturing tone of voice) wtf!!! and they still charged a fortune for delivery. we can't afford them now but i wouldn't use them again.

Boots opticians - shite. Got mums glasses lenses the wrong way round. Twice. No apology just poor service.

Oh yes. Not poor customer service, but would never use Npower since the day one of their cold-callers called dh a penis on our doorstep after he'd politely said "no thanks" to switching suppliers.

BA - am always slightly worried that the staff will spit at me, they look so hacked off.
KLM - downright rude.
GLTC - just disorganised and crap.
Lloyds TSB - it's already been said.
Comet

I hereby join the John Lewis love in. They are fab.

Dixons. I went in to buy a set of digital phones (long time ago) and had a few specific questions that I wanted answered so I asked a member of staff. He looked at me, looked at the card on display and started reading out verrrry slowly When I stopped him and said yes yes I can read, but I want to know X, he said 'oh that'll be in the instructions.'
I sensed I wasn't going to get any kind of customer service from the twat, so I thought, I might as well buy it and read the instructions booklet myself (I knew this was the only place selling it in town and this was before internet ordering). I asked what their returns policy was and his withering response was 'You can't take it back just because it doesn't look good on your sideboard, you know.'

Barclaycard. I cancelled a card (years ago) and they sent me a bill for £12. I couldn't figure out what it was, so I rang up, and they said, oh it's insurance. I had taken out insurance one year and they had decided that I needed it for the next year too, neglected to tell me or charge me for it, then tried to charge me for a year's insurance cover that they claimed I'd already had. I just boggled down the phone and repeatedly asked why they hadn't told me they were charging me, then actually charged me before giving me the pleasure of the service, as is normal. The woman on the end of the line gave up eventually but it took about half an hour

eon for trying to bill us for electricity used before we even moved into the property. was sent to debt collectors. letting agents were worse than useless when we were trying to sort it out.

eon again for continuing to send us bills for a year even though we changed energy providers when we moved in and have told them repeatedly that we have changed providers.

stupid arses.

SKY TV

Bandits

My elderly parents had over the years been persuaded to upgrade and upgrade until they were on the top package - my mother doesnt really watch TV and my father mainly watches Sky News and the odd documentary and a couple of crime series - all of which are available on Freeview !!

I rang up - got all the data protection jargon - cant speak to you etc etc - eventually got my father on phone to give permission and they grudgingly spoke to me.

I cancelled all their Sky - saving them over £60 a month from their pensions and tuned in their TV for all their built-in Freeview channels. Great - but then over the months although I had already told Sky my parents were very old - not really able to deal with these things themselves - they bombarded them with letters and phone calls and 'persuaded' them to gradually go back to full package - one package at a time really - all unbeknown to me. This will have been very easy as my dad is quite easily persuaded into anything these days - they are both in their eighties and quite vulnerable I suppose.

I went ape obviously - went through all above again - and they still stalked my parents trying to wear them down again to re - subscribe. Eventually I had to cancel the DDs to Sky on parents account and got made appointee for their bank account so they couldnt re-set the DD without going through me.

I might add I had also made clear to SKY my parents didnt need any of SKY channels as they only watched a few programmes that were available on Freeview in any case. Yet still tried to re-subscribe them to alltheir services.

Dundee Windows - fitted windows in our wee flat about 10 years ago, first rain and the one in the bedroom leaked terribly - their response? The bit of the fascia that was leaking wasn't actually part of the windows and had been fitted as a goodwill gesture... The fact that it wasn't sealed at all didn't bother them. We were in middle of selling flat, were young and naive (sp?)so botched a repair and took ££ off selling price. I still swear at their vans when I see them

Halifax fir charging ridiculous bank charges (£75 sometimes more) every time DH went over his overdraft. He only earned £150 a week, so kept having to go over his overdraft again because he couldn't live off the money he was left. This went on for months. They've probably charged him thousands. I understand the need for charges, but so they actively keep someone in debt is not right.

Mothercare staff treated me like a stupid little girl because I didn't know which pram I wanted when I asked them for advice on the best one. Needless to say I took my business elsewhere and continue to do so.

British Gas for taking £600 from my account and adding some to next doors account and writing a cheque to my landlord for the rest. They were arseholes about it until I got my solicitors involved. Then they couldn't help enough

bad -

Asda online shopping - they still owe me a fortune in refunds

Royal Mail - Hate them, unreliable

good -

Amazon - never had a problem and I order a lot of stuff from them.

Sky - My sister's HD box broke down and they gave her the new Terrabyte box free of charge

Tesco- In my town we have a small one and regularly no one on the till. If you ring the help bell someone shouts 'use the self service'. They also blocked the aisle with their huge trolleys so I couldn't get past on crutches and had to go all the way round.

Ryanair, I now refuse to fly with them.
TalkTalk, beyond useless.

BA & AA I have a love-hate relationship with - cabin crew and recovery drivers always brilliant, customer services utterly appalling.

Norwich Union car insurance for taking ages to fix my car when someone drove into it, refusing to let me take it to a local garage, then cancelling the insurance on my courtesy car because I'd had it too long through their incompetence as I was on my way across the country for the weekend TO MY OWN WEDDING. Cue one proper, wailing shaking and snot meltdown. And the sodding repair didn't last.

Love HUSH, Whistles online, Amazon, and Pets at Home - everyone is SO cheerful in there!

Kleeneze - shite products and they charged me twice for the order (2nd charge a few months later). Took months of phonecalls and emails before I got any kind of response from them and then all they said was they had no record of the rep and I'd have to phone again and get put through to someone else blah blah blah. Got DSA involved and within a few days had a refund and £20 goodwill gesture.

WHSmith online - only sent half my order and part of that was wrong. Refused to send the missing part unless I reordered it (and paid for it again)and told me I'd have to exchange the incorrect part instore. Then refused to refund me for the missing part because their records showed it should have been sent in a seperate parcel (which I never got). Eventually got refunded but it was a real hassle, staff were rude and abrupt and nobody apologised.

Aviva

Someone drove into my car in July and the stupid call centre in India keep asking for the same details over and over again.

When I suggested that I put it in writing to them via email, they weren't interested.

The poor man who drove into my car is being driven demented by their inefficiency.

I shan't insure my car through them again and I will tell them why.

Another vote for PC World / Currys with the "Whatever happens" service - avoid like the plague!

They finally admitted that they have lost my computer that they took to repair, having failed at first to pick it up numerous times, and then failed to redeliver it numerous times. Words fail me; they must be losing money hand over fist with such ineptitude.

oooh, bad:

Toys'r'us, unbelievably bad really. How hard can it be for a shop to allow you to pay for something and leave? Queues everywhere, all white shirted management hiding in the office, checkout staff utterly pissed off...

Barclays, for suggesting that I get my mum and dad to sub me when I applied for a student overdraft.

whatever offshoot of British Gas came and replaced our radiators, in the most shoddy, ugly, lazy way possible, causing a leak that it took us months to find.

Local kitchen / bathroom design, planning, fitting company (you, Grand Designs of Sheffield), for starting well but then paying no attention at all to the details, making a job that could have been great into one we are still pissed off about, five years later. Have un-recommended them to numerous people locally.

Good:
John Lewis, of course,
Lakeland, of course,
and Warren Evans, those bed delivery folk who advertise in colour supplements. They were just fantastic. New bed built by them in moments, all packaging taken away with them, just excellent. And friendly too.

Interesting thread, has certainly made me reconsider shopping at Mothercare and Currys, I hate poor customer service.

BAD -

BT - for poor service and making me cry with frustration as well as overcharging me about 9 years ago now. I was so pleased when I found out I can pay my line rental to Sky instead of BT a few months ago! And now happily return the monthly letters they send me asking me to rejoin them

GOOD -

Alliance and leicester - although its santander now isn't it? A&L refunded bank charges when challenged and were very helpful.

Amazon - never had a problem, great service.

Zenith Insurance. Made a straightforward claim for a car repair unbelieveably long-winded and expensive (I had to pay for a replacement vehicle), then duplicated the claim and kept sending snotty pointless letters.

They were behind 'Swinton Insurance' on this occasion. Would urge people to check with their broker who the real insurer is. And if it's Zenith, don't touch them with a shitty stick.

For sending letters back to companies who try and reel you back in after youve dumped them for bad service - a good 'revenge' is to send their letters back without a stamp then they have to pay at other end. Ignore the Freepost envelope and Freepost address - if they enclose one - just handwrite their full address - usually on the correspondence somewhere - on any old envelope and post it without stamp - makes me smile every time I do it - also good fun to do same with unsolicited / junk mail.

Yeah I know - I do need to get out more.