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

jonnyg

Bt is the worst ever broadband provider, take the advantage of coverage and that they do the contract and connections over the phone and not advise or inform about any other hidden costs when you change your subscription, or your plan...get overcharged and fees over fees a pure and simple joke so watch out

maggy_thatcher

Two recent examples - one of great customer service, one of pretty terrible.

Wednesday in Tescos (Clare Hall) - bought a multi-pack of rashers. Price on packet "reduced from €7.98 to €4.98". Went to till, and was charged €7.98. Went over to the customer service desk with receipt and rashers, and was promptly refunded the full €7.98 (with apologies) and given the rashers for free.

Last week in Smyths (Jervis St) toys - Found a toy, most of which were priced on them €32.99, but two of them had €27.99 on them. I put one of the ones for €27.99 at the back of the shelf with the intention of coming back and getting it after taking a look in a few other shops. Came back 5 mins later and grabbed one of the €27.99 ones. Went to the till and was charged €32.99. When I pointed at the sticker, they said "oh that's a mistake, it's €32.99". So I decided to decline my purchase and went to leave the store. At this point two security guards pinned me up against the wall and accused me of swapping price-tags. After demanding my name (which I refused to give), they threatened to arrest me (which I knew legally they couldn't do). Trying to explain anything was met with "I don't care", offering to show them the other toy priced at €27.99 that was up on the top shelf where I couldn't reach was met with "I don't care". After 5 minutes they told me to leave and never come back again. Needless to say I didn't!

riskydisco

Have a had pretty bad experiences with Digiweb. They 'supply' my land-line and broadband service.. that is, they supply it intermittently. I've lost count of the amount of times that I've had to reset the modem in order to get the internet and phone working again. Sometimes neither my phone nor internet work for days on end and then when I ring them up to find out what's going on I get no word of an apology, no hint at any sort of compensation for the inconvenience, no nothing! I then go to the time and effort of writing a long letter detailing all my grievances only to get no reply. Then I try posting it again (registered!) with an additional set of complaints and unresolved issues and low and behold; two weeks later when I ring them up to find out why I haven't got a reply they tell me they received no correspondance from me at all!

Obviously the usual scene of having to wait on the mobile phone for 45 minutes before I get somebody in customer-service to answer the call applies.

Davidth88

Maggy

If what you are saying is fully true , ie you are not embellishing this to make a point ( which I am not accusing you of ) , then this is not bad service it is assult !

YOU should have phoned the Gards and had these bullies done . There is no way they can ' pin you against a wall ' .

maggy_thatcher

Davidth88 wrote: »

Maggy

If what you are saying is fully true , ie you are not embellishing this to make a point ( which I am not accusing you of ) , then this is not bad service it is assult !

YOU should have phoned the Gards and had these bullies done . There is no way they can ' pin you against a wall ' .

Yes, I realised that afterwards, but at the time, after they let me go, I just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible...by the time I had calmed down enough to think things through rationally I was at home and just resolved to never shop there again.

new=user

Praise from me. When pregnant was shopping for pregnancy clothes. Lovely lady in evans told me to just buy bigger size clothes with elasticated waists and that they were better quality that other brands pregnancy wear. She was beyond helpful. Went through all pants in store to find ones that had good stretch in them. And she was right, they lasted for whole pregnancy (they in attic now for next time).

Also was in there recently with a friend who was looking for jeans. There was an offer on you got two pairs for 40 and they were 30 each. My friend wanted one blue and one black. They didn't have black in fit she wanted so girl said she would keep blue for her until they got the black in. Friend heard nothing from them and figured had been forgotten about. But weeks later, girl rang her from store said she had been checking there stock every week for her and finally they got the one she wanted in and would she keep it for her. When i heard i couldn't believe it. In these times of appalling service by some stores they should def be praised!

enfeild

I always wear George Webb shoes so when one wears out I use another one from a different pair. So eventually I ended up with two shoes needing new soles. I headed off to the new cobbler in a town near me. Can you repair these for me please? I says. Of course I can, then he ignores me and starts talking to someone in the shop. When will they be ready I ask? Eventually he tuns to me and says when do you want them? Tuesday if thats ok, says I. Call tuesday then and ignores me again. Do you want my name says I. No says he, I'll remember you then he takes my shoes and drops them on the floor and ignores me again.
Do you know something?...... I never went back for them. His loss.
Have you a any similar stories where you got bad service and came out good in the end?
Regards.
Tom.

MysticalSoul

So, you let him keep your shoes :eek:. If I was as put out as that, I would have asked for them back, to take my service elsewhere.

enfeild

You miss the point, I wear the same type of shoes all the time so have spares, lefts and rights. He done a job for nothing because I would not go back for more abuse and all I lost was a worn out pair of shoes.
Regards.
Tom.

smelltheglove

I like tog et my own back too, I went into a shop not so long ago and 2 girls on checkouts were busy yapping to a floor guy. I stood there struggling with plants and my 2 yr old and said'excuse me which till should i go to' and one says to the other 'I'm cashing up what about you' the other answers saying' just waiting on so and so to sort me out'. So I'm still standing there waiting and they get talking again.

I walked over to the customer service desk where the customer service girl was standing with the manager and said 'could you please take for these as the girls there are busy chatting and have not answred me when I asked which till was open, I guess they must have more important things to do', the cs girl apologises profusely and the manager walks over and loses the rag, I walk out happy.

MagicMarker

enfeild wrote: »

You miss the point, I wear the same type of shoes all the time so have spares, lefts and rights

I can't decide if you're a genius or just really really weird.

Cabaal

I don't see how its revenge, you were stupid enough to leave your shoes with him

MunsterCycling

Maybe the shoes smell really really bad?

dudara

Threads merged

Darragh29

spurious wrote: »

Eircom, though thankfully I no longer have to deal with them.

+1, Many a landline has been ripped off the wall and drop kicked across the room after spending 20 minutes listening to the robot, trying to get around him so that you can get talking to someone who can actually help you with your problem. The management team that inflicted that automatic robotic system on a country of customers should be lined up and shot.

Mollywolly

I have two lots of praise to give today.

First gold star goes to a fella called Richard at Dulux in Cork. I rang to get a few bits for a paintpod that the husband and myself managed to sc**w up at the weekend. He listened to my tale of woe (very long story and won't go into here) and the result was a replacement free of charge collected from my local hardware store yesterday, even though I couldn't find my receipt. All this arranged in 15 minutes - just goes to show what can be achieved with someone who knows what they are doing

Second gold star goes to MemoryC/Go Beyond in Celbridge. Ordered a Garmin off them around lunchtime yesterday and delivered this morning at 9.10am. Perfect.

Don't you just love it when things go right

DublinWriter

Mollywolly wrote: »

I rang to get a few bits for a paintpod that the husband and myself managed to sc**w up at the weekend...

Please don't tell me you fell for one of those over-priced yokes?...no wonder he was falling over himself.

Mollywolly

DublinWriter wrote: »

Please don't tell me you fell for one of those over-priced yokes?...no wonder he was falling over himself.

If it had been up to me we would never have bought the thing in the first place and then when it wouldn't work I wanted to throw it in the bin! Unfortunately, I'm married to a man who has to have every gadget under the sun - crappy or not - and that's why there was a replacement. He would have sulked for days if he didn't have his new toy to play with. In all fairness though, we used it yesterday and it worked well enough to earn a reprieve

Trevor451

I think that nintendo customer support are the best, I had no wait times and the guy on the phone was nice to me . The worst phone support has to be eircom, I was calling them up to ask why the internet was not working and the guy on the phone was rude and mean :mad:

dcukhunter

I know UPC get a lot of negitive comments but I have to give them a star this time. After having some trouble with the box the last couple of weeks and thinking it was just the new card they were on about I waited untill I got it. I got the crd and changed it still nothing rang them up Friday evening and arranged for someone to call Monday. When I said I worked nights she said they would get them to call first thing in the morning which they did. They also said they would cridit my account for 1 month without me even asking for anything. Thumbs up this time the girl that answered was very nice and helpful lets hope it stays that way.

chocciebutton

worse service at the moment has to be Indesit, the Dublin office is now closed, all the people redundant, Call Centre now in the UK, they speak a different language! Can't give an answer, OR SPELL MY ADDRESS, which has caused numerous problems, regarding engineers getting lost, because they can't be bothered asking ow to spell the address.

SaintHubbins

With regards to Eircom, I find that if you want to get through to a human directly and bypass the robot just start making weird sounds on the phone, and it's like robot cannot compute and puts you through. It worked for me!

NTL are bad - I wanted to disconnect my telly a couple of years ago and was asked incredulously what was I going to do for entertainment. I said read a ****ing book or do something less mindless. Also, when I cracked and actually was going to get cable back in after a couple of years, my first appointment the guy didn't turn up and the second one said that he couldn't drill the wall without my landlord's written permission. Could they not have asked on the phone whether the place was rented or not rather than wasting 2 of my mornings? I will never pay for t.v. again and am actually getting rid of my portable this year rather than give rte a cent for the ****e they produce. Online streaming sites are the way to go, although I do expect rte to extend the license to computers as well at some stage, the shower of bastards!

I find AIB and Hibernian very easy to deal with and have never had any problems with them.

KTRIC

SaintHubbins wrote: »

I find AIB and Hibernian very easy to deal with and have never had any problems with them.

I had the pleasure of calling AIB 24 Hour banking last night and I mean that in the most sincerest way. The girl on the phone was pleasent and very knowledable.

Well done AIB

deepriver

I have to say I have found the FBD call centre to be pretty much the best one I have ever dealt with, staff are always helpful, cheery and efficient...

I find civil service and semi states pretty good to, PAYE helpline, ESB & Bord Gais

Private sector... Meteor are pretty good, if not a little slow, but always friendly

NTL has to be by far the worst, althouth there is probably a gazillion threads to that effect...

most calls involve the following:surly person answers your call after ten minutes waiting, transfered to another department mid sentance, next department dont know who you are ask for account details, then transfer you to another department who transfer you back to the original who then ask for your account details again, then you hang up and repeat process next day until you pay them what ever money they want just so ou dont have to call the centre again

Rebel021

I'm going to add Eircom and 3V.ie as awful
3V ussed to be good at the start but all I get now are Indian call centres with poor english.

kdoher

Have to agree eirocm is the worst call centre EVER.... Rang complaints centre 4 weeks ago and asked to be put through to a supervisor.. The agent started roaring down the phone telling me i didnt have a clue which department i needed to speak 2... She would not let me speak and transferred me to the wrong department... 2 weeks later i had still not recieved a calll back from the supervisor ( even though i did ring twice a day to see was she free to take a call) So i then to contact ComReg.. Surprise Surprise I got a phone calll within 24hrs after... Their agents are rude unhelpful and should not be allowed to treat customers that way..

deepriver

that reminds 3 mobile have the Indian outsourced call centre and are pretty awful... its like a Fawlty Towers sketch between Basil and Manuel everytime you ring

- DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?
- say again sir
- ARGGHHHH

deepriver

deepriver wrote: »

that reminds 3 mobile have the Indian outsourced call centre and are pretty awful... its like a Fawlty Towers sketch between Basil and Manuel everytime you ring

- DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?
- say again sir
- ARGGHHHH

or a phonejacker sketch, take your pick!

bcirl03

NTL \ UPC - a joke, need I say more.

Cabaal

I don't call call centers very often, from my experrience however Three gets my vote,
they moved their support to India around the time I was canceling my billpay service with them.

Glad I did