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.

Can I say Boots has the most amazing customer services! I've twice had new buggys from them when they failed through manufacturing faults within the 1st year!

Stunning and much appreciated!

BAD: Lloyds TSB (utterly useless)

GOOD: First Direct (straight through to a helpful person when you phone)

Sainsburys online (delivery guys always pleasant to deal with)

More good votes for John Lewis, Waitrose & Lakeland

I have just remembered PJ Heaven (I think they are a small company). The chap I spoke to when I first ordered from them was so helpful & meant I got the right size pyjamas first time rather than having to return wrong ones! V good quality too.

Sainsburys online, bloody useless with obnoxious customer services.

O2, Barclay card. @~@~&^$%"£$% words dont describe how i feel about these two!

student finance UK (I mean honestly how can you exist one week and not 2 months later?!)TBH the last person i spoke may just have fixed the issue. am awaiting success.

As I started this thread just want to update on the level of excellent customer service I have received from Currys since I started! Basically I had given up the ghost with it all and decided to write the printer off and never use them again BUT they have just phoned me and told me to take the printer into local store and have it replaced for free!!

I tell you what....thanks Mumsnet!!!! All hail the power of negative PR!!!

Ohhh I feel all powerful now...

British Gas. Just could not seem to understand that there could be more than one flat in a block with the same main door. 4 years on, flat sold, they still call on my mobile trying to get back money for someone else's flat. sigh.

on the plus side, the Yorkshire Building Society have always been fantastic. Speak to real person almost straight away, they call back when they say they will with answers, and even give you their own extensions so you can speak to the SAME person to resolve any issues. Swoon. Had mortgage with them for over 10 years very happy.

RAC
Pilling Volvo
Virgin Media
Halifax
Skipton Building Society

John Lewis!

i ordered loads of baby/house gear when i was pregnant. the delivery oik rang my mobile demanding to know where i was....

Delivery oik: i have been trying to deliver to you for days!!!

me: well i've not had a card and i was ta home yesterday. but...i am at work down the road i could walk back in ten mins

DO: where are you working...i must bring the stuff there

me: yes but then i'll have to carry it home. i am 6 months pregnant.

DO: WHERE ARE YOU AT WORK?

me: i am pregnant (giving up) how haevy is the package? will i be able to lift it?

DO: oh yes, its just a light bag.

me: ok well bring it to

when he arrived he dumped a HUGE heavy bag/boxes in my work reception. i said something like 'i cant lift that!!' he shouted at me and demanded i sign his clipboard. i know i know i shouldnt have. in the end i just ordered a taxi to take me and the gear the less than half a mile home as i was scared to lift it.

when i got homw (fuming) i rang their cs and the poor girl i spoke to was mortified and sent me a £20 gift voucher, which was sweet but would have been meanignless if i'd lost the baby

im still furious about this and really expected more from JL

I forgot to mention Iberia, now merging with BA, so little hope of improvement.

Abbey of course.

Philips.

On the good side:

Hornet Computer Supplies had an incorrectly listed ink cartridge and sent me a replacement straight away, no fuss.

Auckland Airport fast tracking families with children and providing free tea and coffee in the baggage hall.

The Baby Farm

Comet have mostly been good, but recently Stevenage Comet wouldn't order a replacement kettle until I brought the old one back, so I'd have to make 2 trips. Fortunately Hatfield had one in stock and we were going that way.

Pizza Express, they refused to bring some hot water to heat babyDD's food when we were weaning. Apparently it's a 'health & safety' issue.Although the waitress in question had just brought 2 large cup and saucers with hot water and tea bags for out drinks! We were regulars but have never been back. DD is 4 now. I too think Lakeland is fantastic.

ODDLY
john lewis garden and beach furniture has NO guarantee.
odd that
swindling gets

Datel - many years ago I bought a multi-bank memory card for my Playstation 1, cost over twice the price of a single bank one, it didn't work, the shop wouldn't take it back as I'd had it over a week I got my brother to look at it, turned out it was a single bank one in a multi-bank ones case, I phoned Datel to complain I got an ear full of rubbish about how they didn't make them anymore so couldn't releace it and they had chucked the blueprints away so wouldn't know how to fix it, when I mentioned EU law to them they put the phone down on me.

Santander

any problem you have with anything there is no customer service in branch they point you towards a phone normally next to the inside cash machine that you can contact customer service on, of course you will never use the in branch phone and let other customers over hear your account number, phone banking code and other details that they ask for every time you ring em, so you have to go home and pay over the odds to phone em up and then they send you round half a dozen departments for at least 5 mins to get lots of money out of you or fob you off with some rubbish about the account auto correcting itself in a few days so a few days later when nothing has changed you have to phone em again.

Plus the cash machines are rubbish, it's a game of luck getting money out of them, sometime they work, sometimes they look like they work but don't give you money and worst of all sometimes they dont give you money but take money out of your account anyway.

plus they are the only bank I know where the staff walk up and open the cash machines while you are in the middle of using it, without saying anything.

BAD - Homebase. Spent £160 in there the other day.

A few days later, we received a parking fine through the post. They wanted us to pay them £95 as we'd parked there for 116 minutes, and there was a 90 minute limit.

I've shopped in that branch for ten years and had never noticed a sign.

Had to go back to the store with my receipt to get them to cancel the charge. Said to the customer services woman that I didn't think that 90 minutes was long enough as it was such a big store and got cats bum mouth.

BAD - B&Q. The staff are just a joke in our local branches. Example of a typical conversation:

DH: Have you got any other widths of pine shelving?

B&Q Employee: We don't sell pine shelving.

DH: That's pine shelving there. Next to you. You're leaning on it. Do you have it in any other widths?

B&Q Employee: (unabashed) Er... we've got... (reads label on shelf) 2mx0.4m.

DH: Yes, but it comes in different sizes. You just read me the size on that one.

B&Q Employee: That's definitely all we've got.

DH: (Gives up)

I must say I've been in mothercare (Ealing) a few times and never had any problems with em, I admit I've not had to return anything, but the staff seem nice and polite, I guess it depends on the branch.

Can I bump this - ive just had to go through to sky sales because their customer services line is "out of order" I held on for 20 minutes while a recorded message tried to sell me products got through only to have to wait another 5 minutes while they transferred me.

This year I have also fallen out with BT and Wickes - both apalling customer service

British Gas. Couldn't get hot water despite having a brand new boiler. Called out engineer to sort it out and got charged £200 for him tweaking some settings on the boiler and the loft hot tank. It was a NEW boiler and the paperwork said we had Homecare 200 for free too, which covers hot water - but INCREDIBLY rude and unpleasant man in call centre just said tough you have to pay.

Googled British Gas complaints afterwards and found hundreds of pages.

Grrrr.

Oh and I second Mothercare - never have what I want in stock and staff are hopeless - but inevitably end up using them anyway, through gritted teeth.

Halfords - refuse to shop there. 2 different branches...appalling customer service in both. In service centre - bloke couldn't be bothered to stop gossiping with his mate...but did immediately for another man who came straight up to the till. My female cloak of invisibility worked wonders that day. And the knob ends on 2 seperate times who just could not be arsed to sell me a car seat - 'well...there's that one...or that one ' - and 'they're all standard nowadays don't need to bother trying them out in your car...you can if you want though, but there's no point ' Gah....hate them.

spot the pattern

clarks shops - went in with 2 kids and 2 adults, one per child, so we could get their feet measured a bit quicker, my mum paying for one pair of shoes and me for the other. some tw*t in the massive queue pointed out they were related, so we weren't allowed to do that as it's against their policy! what kind of idiot policy is that?? not been back

lloyds bank - ask for your opinion on how they can improve just so they can disagree with you - duh

BT once asked us for a £1000 (yes, not £100) deposit before they'd let us have a landline!we 'haggled' to £500 then a year later they'd lost it!

Haven Holidays - awful all round. didn't fix the toilet lock that actually locked you in the toilet (had to be unscrewed from outside) for a week - great when you've got toddlers who don't understand the meaning of 'don't close the door' aaargh