Your best and worst customer service experiences [rant & praise]

i nominate boards.ie for being generally arsey. a few days back i was hit with a 14 day ban from after hours by some villiage napoleon moderator simply for calling someone a TWAT who had just referred to the irish as "stupid embarrassing fenions(his spelling)". i mean what the hell is this ? pre-1990 east germany ?

Thoie

We all complain a lot about poor customer service (and I have a few horror stories myself), but for once I'm pleased to mention two places that have great customer service, and I think these people should be recognised in this age of rotteness. Mods, apologies if this is in the wrong place, but I'm curious to hear of other people's "good" stories as well. Perhaps instead of ranting about the bad places, we just use the good places things would be easier for all of us?

1: Brabantia's UK office - I'd lost a small part and called to see where I could order a replacement. The person I spoke to was able to deal with me pleasantly and easily, with no hassle, and sent the replacement part that day by post.

2: Image Showers, Kilkenny - again, a small part broke. Just called them to ask where I could get a replacement, and a new bit is on the way.

olaola

I always recommend www.getlenses.com for contact lenses. They have great customer service - have sent me on samples free of charge (a day before a wedding) as they didn't have the full stock of my prescription in at the time to get me by. I've been using them for years now - and they have always been fabulous.

Biggins

In my local branch of Waterstones (Scotch Hall, Drogheda), I found the staff to be extremely nice and accommodating. I was trying to get a Sony E-reader at one stage.
They bent over backwards to help me and did so eventually. During the process, they kept me updated constantly.
All were very understanding and informed me of things other businesses have never done in my many, many years (of age).
Having returned many times before and after, they still greet me by name (they remembered me!) and ask right away if I look as if I am looking for something in particular, "Can we help?"

A shop/business is only as good as the staff that's within it. The Drogheda staff are a credit to the company.

(Where as Easons in the town are the opposite - they never smile, always have a sour puss on them and one/two are downright bitchy and if you disturb them, they snap at you!).

Kashkai

TP toys in the UK. I bought a combined swing and slide set off them a few years back but when we were moving house, I had to dismantle it and unfortunately I lost several of the nuts and bolts that held it together in the move. I rang TP toys and they had replacement parts (more than I needed but they said its good to have spares!) posted out to me the next day.

Free parts, no postage fees and next day delivery was excellent service imo

dudara

Threads merged

dudara

Lizzykins

Three places I was in today gave me great customer service.

1 Marks and Spencer Grafton St. Unfailingly polite and pleasant staff.

2 HMV. Grafton St Guy on the floor looking for us lost souls who are looking for albums by people they've never heard of ! Guy went off and got a couple of things on my list and offered to run up and get more things I wanted. Well done!

3 Lush in Grafton St. Exceptionally pleasant staff. Run off their feet but so friendly I was amazed. When I got home there was an extra product in my bag and a note saying Lush had put it there. And also a note saying well done on being a thoughful mum! Now I had mentioned I was shopping for my daughter.... Take a bow Lush and staff. I'll be back and I'm telling everyone to go there!

wyndham

Thoie wrote: »

We all complain a lot about poor customer service (and I have a few horror stories myself), but for once I'm pleased to mention two places that have great customer service, and I think these people should be recognised in this age of rotteness. Mods, apologies if this is in the wrong place, but I'm curious to hear of other people's "good" stories as well. Perhaps instead of ranting about the bad places, we just use the good places things would be easier for all of us?

1: Brabantia's UK office - I'd lost a small part and called to see where I could order a replacement. The person I spoke to was able to deal with me pleasantly and easily, with no hassle, and sent the replacement part that day by post.

2: Image Showers, Kilkenny - again, a small part broke. Just called them to ask where I could get a replacement, and a new bit is on the way.

+1 for Image Shower doors. Received replacement set of hinges in the post the day after calling them. Can't fault them.:)

h_baby

Brought them to court last june for the problems I've had and we won the case.

They still haven't paid up or replaced the item as they said they would

nene

lets see how many managers they can go through from feb 07 to dec 08 !!:mad:

patrickcoughlan

they never answer e mails
their tech heads cannot solve any problem but blame your comp.or OS
i am paying for ripwave plus with declared speed of 10Mbps and test thru
isposure .com show my average to be 0.32Mbps which is a thirtieth of what i am meant to be receiving

when i complain they cut my speed down so that is why it is so low now

i am going to Small claims court for a 29/30th repayment of approx 27 EURO monthly

wonder if that horse will run

worth a try

will post my experiences

Loveless

Like imagine if you went to a garage to get 30 litres of petrol and you squeezed the pump and all you got was 1 litre... and you still had to pay ~€30. Do you think anyone in the country would put up with that?!?

patrickcoughlan

well if i get case accepted will post on this thread:(

KellyG

Apple....
I have been trying to replace my ipod for over two months...
I had been in contact and advised that it was not working - still under guarentee obviously and they advised to send it back.. I have recived my ipod back twice!!!! and it still has the exact same problem!!!

Fed up at this point!

I watched the prime time special on TV last night and im glad all these companys where named and shamed ! the really dont give a toss about there customers! I work in a call center I never leave any customers in the dark as i know exactly how they feel !!!

311

TheBookPeople.co.uk

Made an order with the above site ,couple of weeks back.
Didn't recieve a tracking number but wasn't too worried about it.
Time passed on delivery date ,so I mailed them. Next day the goods arrived by anPost(thursday).

But ,to my suprise got a call(friday) on my Mobile from the site in reply to my message. Really genuine girl inquiring about the order and if everything was ok.
The Number was an English one ,very impressive service:).

dsane1

I made the mistake of shopping in the city centre last week lol.I went into shoe zone and saw a pair of slippers for 12.95euro.One girl working there and no other customers .I asked her if that was her best price and she said thats it ,so i said ok and took out a ten euro note and all my change from my pocket which came to 2.85 .I asked would that be ok as i was 10c short and she said no .Well within her rights to say no that she wants the full price but is it any wonder the shop is empty.

boopolo

So what do you expect ....

You expect the sales girl to pay it for you. She could be fired for giving you the item at 1c less.

If she was the owner/manager it would be different. There could be many reasons why the shop was empty. But I doubt not giving customers 10c off is one of them.

Mollywolly

Ordered 4 DVD's from Amazon on Wednesday 16th December - arrived today, 19th December. Not bad going considering Christmas post and all that. Well done Amazon!

Toto Wolfcastle

I was in a restaurant in Cobh today for lunch and the attitude of the staff there sucked. They acted as if it was an inconvenience to serve us, although it wasn't even hugely busy. (The waitress said it was, but compared to when they opened it wasn't busy at all. Presumably the attitude of the staff has driven people away!) It took 15 minutes for them to serve me a wrap. When we went to pay, it seemed to be even more of an inconvenience to them. They needn't worry though, as they wont be getting any more of it.

On the flip side, there is a little deli in Cobh (unfortunately I can't remember the name) and the staff there are fantastic. They are so friendly and after a few times going there they knew exactly what I wanted without me having to open my mouth. The food is fantastic. They have such a good choice. My only complaint is that I don't get to go there more often.

Big Chief

people always remember the bad over the good huh?

yet to see a "best" experience.. but then again i work in callcentre so i guess i kinda know what to expect, being transferred around is awful but ive been in the same position alot where you have someone yelling about being passed around and you literally cant help them as you have no means to do so, i would help if i could :-) but its nice to get positive experiences aswell.. but anyway

Halifax - worst customer service experience i have ever had to deal with, numerous rude call centre agents where one of them actually sniggered about the fact i didnt have a working ATM card for over 2 months after joining them.. which is borderline ridiculous from my point of view, feel free to correct me otherwise.. now i have never yelled at a call centre person until that day, and i even felt bad but the girl was quite possibly one of the most stuck up potentious rude little bit*h i have ever had the experience of dealing with..

you know i was questioning some money that was missing in my account, and one of their staff had the cheek to say to me, and i quote.. "are you sure you havent used this for gambling" ?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

my deposits into my gambling website of choice is my business and how dare someone say that?! tally of twice ive ever yelled at staff (and ive dealt with alot of companies and providers) and both halifax..


Sky - one of the worst company i have ever had to deal with.. just seems to be about 5000 dumb blondes with nail files sitting at their computer..

NewDubliner

O2 - couldn't fix a setting on their computer to unblock international calls, kept giving me the run-around from helpline to shop to online forum and back to helpline again. Wouldn't listen to my reasoning that the problem was with the account setting on their side. Insisted that my phone was the problem and as I didn't buy it from them, not supported. Even though, I'd tried the SIM in 3 other phones, including one in their shop.

Vodafone - switched over to them. Account set up and enabled in just a few hours . All features working including international....using exactly the same phone.

O2 'support'=bunch of amateurs.

Ciaran B

Game on Dawson St. Went in on Wedensday evening looking for some SuperMario Kart toys for my nephews. They didn't have the ones I wanted on the shelves so the guy and the girl on the counter went into the back to see what they had back there. They were both really friendly and helpful and didn't seem slightly bothered by the 'Dawn of The Dead' style mob shuffling around the shop trying to get their attention. They found what I wanted and I left a happy customer. High 5 for Game.

Visa. My credit card was comprimised last week. Not sure how it happened I never use it in shops. Anyway they had it canceled and a new one shipped out to me in a couple of days. Good work Visa.

Elessar

Worst, well where do I begin.

BT - Their unlimited broadband is not actually unlimited. They throttled me twice in two weeks for "overuse" and then overcharged me after a "Free" speed upgrade. I said to hell with you and I'm with a different provider now. Still haven't got my refund.

Quinn Direct - they over charged me twice and I had to complain to get a refund, twice.

Many others I cant think of right now.

Best service - that requires some thinking aswell!

Off the top of my head, I've had good customer service and decent pricing from AC cars in Dublin who have serviced my BMW a few times. Always polite and helpful and genuinely seem interested in their customers and their cars. Expensive servicing really, but in BMW terms much cheaper than a main dealer would charge.

Lowepro backpacks - I bought a camera bag by Lowepro and it didn't have those silica jel packets in it for absorbing moisture (important to keep the lenses dry!). So I emailed them and got a reply saying that the jel was not a feature of the bags but were just used for storage. The customer service guy said he would round up a few anyway and send them onto me, which he did. Fair play as it went above and beyond.

I'll post up a few more if I can think of any.

Ah-Watch

KellyG wrote: »

Apple....
I have been trying to replace my ipod for over two months...
I had been in contact and advised that it was not working - still under guarentee obviously and they advised to send it back.. I have recived my ipod back twice!!!! and it still has the exact same problem!!!

Fed up at this point!

I watched the prime time special on TV last night and im glad all these companys where named and shamed ! the really dont give a toss about there customers! I work in a call center I never leave any customers in the dark as i know exactly how they feel !!!

Apple replaced each ipod i had when I was getting problems with them-think I had 4 different ones(1st nano ones which i rather) and they replaced it with a silver one and upgraded the memory capacity, I'm happy out:L

Toto Wolfcastle

Accessorize in Mahon Point Shopping Centre, Cork.

I was in the almost empty shop earlier and I went up to pay for something. I was greeted with a 'Yeah?', after which the girl on the till turned around and shouted across the shop to another girl to fix a sign.

I felt like saying "Listen here missy, I've done the whole working in retail just after Christmas thing, and I did it in a shop that was actually busy with a smile on my face. Now stick an insincere smile on your face and tell me to have a nice day."

When I left, every time I went into another shop the security alarms sounded. This happened to me before when I bought tights in Accessorize and they didn't desensitise them properly. Last time I was in the shop I reminded them to do it properly, but I forgot to do that today.

Anyway, I was pissed off at this stage and I went in and politely told the girl who had served me that I didn't appreciate the embarrassment caused to me by her inability to do her job correctly, and that it was perhaps time to re-evaluate what she was doing. I actually felt kind of bad afterwards because I think she was in charge and I know she's probably in a worse mood now and will take it out on the other girl, who seems to be really nice.

The nice girl made sure the tights were good to go and apologised to me.

mikemac

Praise

Elverys Sports, section of Clearys Store in Dublin

Looking for a Irish rugby top and they had none but I was told to try to Suffolk St.
I'd no clue where that street is so the girl cleared it with her manager and she would collect one on her lunch and I could pick up later.

And it was a sale price too. I thought that was great service as most staff would just say "out of stock" and look blankly at you. Above and beyond!

I got her name from her nametag and wrote in a letter to management on it

mikemac

I'll add the staff in Marks & Spensors, IFSC

Staff are always friendly, apologize for delays and if you don't know where something is (they changed the layout), they'll walk with you to get it and not just point.

Dare I say most are middle-aged and very professional.
If the layout teenagers would stop chewing gum and texting their mates in my local Tesco while serving on the tills, I might include them.

Tesco Ballyfermot - store is filthy and a kip! And any suggestion I've made to management gets ignored.
Like people come in and have to hunt around for a basket but 5 people sitting on tills and not one of them would think to bring baskets to the doors.
Said it to management, I won't bother again

bop1977

Quinn direct - i have fully comp car policy with them (came with free breakdown assist). when my broke down they had a guy out to me within 1hr. after he pick it up and brought it away to be repaired i got a follow up call from the call centre about 2 hrs later to make sure everything went OK. needless to say i was impressed and when renewal time came around i got a cheaper quote elswhere (of about E40) but stayed with quinn.

handsomecake

almanu wrote: »

there a complete sham, ring there broadband helpline and they give you a preimium rate number to ring, the call averages 15 mins that is 22 euro even if they cant help you.as for the rest of the service a load of b******s

agreed nothing but grief with them.i tore some foregin lad asunder on the phone. if your going to be answering a phone in an english speaking country then learn how to speak english and learn how to do your job

doolox

Tesco is a puzzle. THe new ones, Maynooth ,Athlone golden Island etc are good and the staff are doing their bit and everything is in order but the older smaller shops can offer non existant service and long queues.
If everything is routine in a checkout you will get out quickly but if anything occurs out of the ordinary expect long delays.
I suspect that staff in the older, smaller stores are a legacy from the bad old days of Irish retail, such as Crazy Prices and Tesco's senior managment are not able to get rid of non performing staff. It could be also that the older stores are not receiving investment and feel unwanted in the greater scheme of things.
I am continously amused how often the automatic checkouts break down after hours( 10 o'clock) presumably because they cant afford tech coverage at night..............
I'd keep them operational but suspect they shut them down to avoid people buying drink on the sly after 10pm.......