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

calahans

Went in to buy a kettle. Picked one out and paid. Then gave the salesman my old leaking one. He looked at it and said that he can return it and give me credit as it was a current one and would be under guarantee. Didnt even buy it there. He had to do a refund and just charged me the difference.

Well impressed with the staff!

manutd

Sky Ireland Call Centre inb Cork are the f**king worst customer services i ever delt with. Was beening pasted from one person to anothetr and back to the same one again.

When the phone bill came out, i got a heartattack over the cost of it.

When I switched from Perlico, they continued charging me. It took a while to get them to stop.

Then they claimed that I had service with them for the disputed period. When I proved my case, they offered to refund some transactions but not others. I finally, over a matter of months, proved my case with them, got the half hearted apology and a promise of a cheque by Oct 9th. Needless to say, it never arrived, and they've completely ignored all emails sent since.

I've just opened a complaint with Comreg. I am sure that the staff are instructed to stonewall complainants in the belief that they will give up eventually. I bet a lot of folks do give up. I wish I could pursue them for compensation for the hours I've spent chasing the refund.

DublinWriter

Deleted User wrote: »

When I switched from Perlico, they continued charging me. It took a while to get them to stop.

There's been at least two Joe Duffy shows to date dealing exclusively with irate ex-Perlico customers, the last with a very contrite MD promising to completely overhall their billing procedures.

When I hear the word 'Perlico' the phrase 'ten-foot-barge-pole' always springs to mind.

dempcee

Definitely my worst experience ever. I have worked in the real estate business for several years and can tell a lot about bad read estate agents. The experience I had with MTS was personal though and I am just shocked to my bones at how terrible their customer support and literally everything is.

I rented an apartment in June 08 for 3 months, then extended the contract for another few months. They were not exactly bad at taking the money off me, but when my rental contract ended in January the nightmare started.

First I didn't get them to arrange a viewing to check whether the room was ok or to take the keys off me. They asked me to put it in an envelope and place it in the estate's management office. I never got a confirmation as to whether or not the key was received, they couldn't tell me they said, all they said was that they don't store information like that on their computers. Fair enough, I thought, if they were missing the key they probably would get in touch. I just wanted to get it all sorted but I thought that wasn't a big deal.

It took me 9 months of phone calls to get any information about my deposit ("we only deal with deposits on Fridays", "only XYZ deals with deposits and she doesn't work Fridays", "my boss says I cannot give you any information about this matter but honestly you should take legal action -> coming from their employees!) and, obviously, their favourite:

the owner still owes us your deposit and because he hasn't paid it back to us we will not give it to you!

What would that have to do with anything? I paid it to them, they have to pay it back, right?

I was busy the last month so I stopped my weekly calls and thought feck it, the money's just gone, I'll deal with it when I have a bit more time. They did not ring me back once. At some stage I started to wonder why they would not just put my number in their phone to forever even ignore my calls

But then today I rang again (feeling lucky I guess) to be informed that they stopped dealing with the entire apartment block a month ago. They didn't even inform me about that, although obviously it stopped their responsibility over dealing with me.

So yer one said that another agency took over the apartment block and that I need to deal with them to get my money. I rang the other agency and they sounded somewhat promising. I still have the receipt for the other place and will see what happens next. But just some advise, never ever rent anything off them!

Lollipops23

Had the bus journey from hell on saturday, driver made a song and dance about giving me the refund of a fare(i'd accidently put too much in) and when I rang the bell to get off, opened the doors and kept going. At this point I freaked out and asked him to let me off NOW, he said "it'll stop when it stops". I told him he was an ignorant b****x, and he told me I was being ignorant:eek:

Now,it being Halloween, if I'd been locked or something I'd have let it slide. But I was perfectly sober. He freaked the crap out of me, and humiliated me.

Rang around the garages earlier, got told the bus belonged to 3 different ones!Finaaly got the right one, very nice guy gave me the details for their manager. She was very effecient, got all the details of what happened ansd agreed that it was awful behaviour. Impressed with the staff at Phibsboro garage, just not that one driver.:D

missym

Hi,
I just want to let people know the ordeal of getting good customer service in PC World.
I availed of an offer in PC world last weekend. I bought an Acer emachine laptop for 280 EUR. The offer ended on monday 2nd november. I brought the laptop home, got it set up. All working fine. The next day (Monday 2nd Nov) I turn it on and all I get is a black screen with something about not being able to start up on the screen. I cant remember exactly what it said, I don't know a lot about computers so I didn't understand what it meant.

The next day I go back to PC world - an hours journey - to exchange the laptop. I had to bring the laptop to the Tech Guys who served me after a 30 minute wait!! They told me it was an unexplained hardware problem and they would exchange it for me.This was fine until they tell me the laptop I bought was sold out. The Tech Guy brought me down to the sales man who sold the laptop to me and this is where the fun started.

He told me that because the offer was over I would have to buy a laptop at full price. This was irrelevant anyway because even with the discount the laptops in store would still be more than 280 EUR. I told the salesman that it wasn't fair to expect me to pay at full price for something I only bought because it was good value etcetc he went to talk to his manager and came back with the great(?) news that I can have the offer which was 20% off laptops I think. Anyway even with this I would have to add money to it. He was very pushy at this stage and started doing figures for certain laptops, laptops costing 800 EUR and upwards. My patience was not at its best at this stage and I said to the sales man that I bought a laptop here on Sunday, It is not my fault there is a hardware problem and it is not my fault that they are out of stock.I should be entitled to a laptop. I told him I had to travel an hour to get here etc He disappeared for a while and he came back with an advent laptop for me. He knocked 120 EUR off it so I got it for 280 EUR.

This process took an hour and a half. It was very stressful and while I am happy to have a laptop, I left the store feeling exhausted and shaky. I am a laid back, non-confrontational person so this was not pleasant for me. I definitely will not be shopping in PC world again. I posted this to let people know if you stand your ground with this crowd you might actually get some customer service.

missym

missym wrote: »

Hi,
I don't know a lot about computers.

From my experience neither does PC World staff.

sdanseo

I've never ever had problems with PC World customer service per se, their knowledge ain't great but then I am an enthusiast and fairly well up on the technology so that's a fairly high bar for my pinion to be based on.

My one issue is that none of them are ever Irish so they can be hard to understand - then again in my experience the foreign lads are usually more knowledgeable and helpful and actually seem to care which is pretty well worth the language barrier it comes with.

dudara

Merged into best/worst customer service thread.

dudara

Sleipnir

NTL for me.

Called to cancel T.V. but not broadband.
Said that's fine but to confirm by email.
Sent Email which stated very clearly; cancel my T.V. do not cancel broadband
NTL cancel broadband, but not T.V.

A sound chap on boards who works for NTL sorted me out though.

the_syco

henrik51 wrote: »

i never complain,even when i should,is it an irish thing?

Yup.

dempcee wrote: »

but honestly you should take legal action -> coming from their employees!) and, obviously, their favourite:

the owner still owes us your deposit and because he hasn't paid it back to us we will not give it to you!

What would that have to do with anything? I paid it to them, they have to pay it back, right?

Yup. Take the f**kers to the small claims court, and get your deposit back that way.

manutd

Currys Ireland, no fcuking Irish website same as PC World Ireland, how can thay not get a full Irish website???

PC World Ireland
Currys Ireland

warm24

irsh broadband or 'imagine' if you will, dont have an accounts department,

what they do have is an outdoor portaloo, in the portaloo irish broadband placed a ham sandwich and a bottle of vodka, then the just waited until a hobo walked in, when he did irishbroadband slamed the door shut locking the alcoholic hobo inside,
there was'nt much light inside so it was hard for him to see, even harder as he was old and had catteracts on hes eyes, but he strained his eyes until he saw in front of him an
abacus,a majik marker and a mobile phone, the number of that phone can be found on your imagine {irishbroadband} bill, under the heading... accounts.

Further to my earlier post
http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=62755635&postcount=874

I received a cheque in the mail this morning for the full amount due to me, a little over 2 weeks after getting comreg involved. I'd been looking for the same refund for nearly 5 months, so I doubt it's a coincidence. I know they are often called "toothless", but I've no doubt that they resolved my situation, after I had failed to get satisfaction.

Kudos to Comreg.

therecklessone

Acer.

Bought a laptop in early October, tried to register for the Windows 7 upgrade only to be told my serial number was already in use.

Two weeks of e-mail back and forth and they just stopped answering my questions.

First phone call takes nearly 30mins where I have to talk their staff through the registration process before they'll accept there is a problem. I'm told it will take 5 working days to resolve, but I should be able to use the s/n after that. I'm sceptical, but pushed for time so I take his word.

A week and a bit later I try to register and get the same error.

Call back, have to talk another jobsworth through the same process, eventually he tells me there's a problem with the serial number. Well fúcking duh! Do you think I'm ringing for the good of my health? Problem will be passed on to escalation team and will be resolved inside 48hrs. I ask when can I expect a call back? "We don't have the ability to call out, you have to call us" I'm told. I explain that I've spent the entire day trying to get through and that is not good enough, he says he'll ask them to try and call me.

They don't.

Ring back on Thursday and ask to speak to a supervisor. Usual bullsh1t apologies, the escalation team will be in touch by close of business Friday.

No call.

Off now to tear someone a new asshole.

Four Acer machines bought by me or my family in the last few years, here is an object lesson in how to lose a good customer.

Caoimh37

hi...just wanted to inform people that vodafone dont give a **** about customer service...I ordered phone and internet over a month ago...only to get a phone line hooked up and two modems in the posts but no internet!...i then rang and complained that my internet is not working to which i was told i would be contacted back again in 48hrs...never heard fro them again....a week later i ring again and get put on hold for 20mins and then get told that someone has to look into it and get back to me......5 hrs later i get a call saying

" that they are not sure what happened but that my order for the internet part of my purchase has just gone tru this morning and that it could take anywhere up to 21 days again to have the internet hooked up"

nearly 2 months to get internet in the 21st century....I know the country is going down the tubes but this is incredible

safe to say i canceled all!....they dont have a clue in VODAFONE what they are doing sales/tech/customer care dont have a breeze what the other section is doing!

And to top it, all i got was I'M Sorry and we'll have to improve and can you post the modems back.................not likely!!!!!!!!!!!! jokers

Davy

Not sure if you know its here, but their is now a Vodafone forum on boards as of a few weeks ago. Probably to late for you now though, you've been burned

Fey!

It's bad that the OPs internet service is so bad that it's taken them since registering in January 2007 to their first post in November 2009!

That's a fierce slow connection.

penexpers

Caoimh37 wrote: »

" that they are not sure what happened but that my order for the internet part of my purchase has just gone tru this morning and that it could take anywhere up to 21 days again to have the internet hooked up"

This is really eircom's doing - vodafone have to wait for eircom to activate the broadband on the line. It can take up to 21 days, but in reality it usually takes less.

therecklessone

therecklessone wrote: »

Acer.

Bought a laptop in early October, tried to register for the Windows 7 upgrade only to be told my serial number was already in use.

Two weeks of e-mail back and forth and they just stopped answering my questions.

First phone call takes nearly 30mins where I have to talk their staff through the registration process before they'll accept there is a problem. I'm told it will take 5 working days to resolve, but I should be able to use the s/n after that. I'm sceptical, but pushed for time so I take his word.

A week and a bit later I try to register and get the same error.

Call back, have to talk another jobsworth through the same process, eventually he tells me there's a problem with the serial number. Well fúcking duh! Do you think I'm ringing for the good of my health? Problem will be passed on to escalation team and will be resolved inside 48hrs. I ask when can I expect a call back? "We don't have the ability to call out, you have to call us" I'm told. I explain that I've spent the entire day trying to get through and that is not good enough, he says he'll ask them to try and call me.

They don't.

Ring back on Thursday and ask to speak to a supervisor. Usual bullsh1t apologies, the escalation team will be in touch by close of business Friday.

No call.

Off now to tear someone a new asshole.

Four Acer machines bought by me or my family in the last few years, here is an object lesson in how to lose a good customer.

Update:

Rang India again, told "we have e-mailed mentor media [3rd party site handling upgrades] and not received a reply yet, we'll call you when we have news"

No you won't you lying little toad. I refuse to accept the answer and ask to speak to somebody from customer complaints. He puts me through to the wrong person who in turn puts me through to the escalation team. Not who I wanted , but perhaps they'll do. She explains in plain English (helped by it being her native tongue) what has happened, tells me this happens quite regularly and that she'll try to get news to me by the end of the day. She promises a call before 8pm when she's due to finish work.

No call.

Lying cúnts one and all.

dudara

Vodafone thread merged into Best/worst customer service thread.

As other posters have suggested, you may want to consider swinging by the Vodafone forum here on Boards.

dudara

cardol

Budpest - Public service here in general (shops/restaurants) is the worst I've experienced. Makes the Irish tax/postal system seem golden.

Road Tax in Ireland = 4 times higher than UK and roads still dreadful
Post Office - mail takes 12 days to arrive from UK. Why?
Bord Gais - costs are through the roof and I'm still freezing:(
AIB - asked staff to print out list of my DD and told there weren't any on my account:eek:. Ahem, I had 7!!! Have since changed to Halifax:D

And on a completely different note: why doesn't anyone know how to use a roundabout? I take my life in my hands every time I get in my car:eek:

Lollipops23

cardol wrote: »

Post Office - mail takes 12 days to arrive from UK. Why?

right now there's a strike on with Royal Mail, it's delaying post by quite a bit.

SerialComplaint

Fair play to House of Fraser for replacing a leaking kettle that is 2-3 years old with a new model today.

glynn888

had a phone line fault yesterday , i am a perlico home phone customer , phone only no broadband , verified that line was actually faulty 0 volts on line socket. rang pelico to report same, they have serious staff training problems.
1. cs operator told me i would have to call eircomm to report fault,it took a bit of explaining to convince her that it was their problem.
2.when she finally gave in . i asked her to divert my calls to a mobile , she then proceeded to tell me how perform the task from my faulty landline !.
3. Gave up on her and asked to speak to a supervisor , after another episode finally got the fault reported and calls diverted
4.what is strange in this time of high unemployment that these companies employ people who are totally inept , there must be armies of decent irish people who would love to do this job properly
5.any one know of any decent phone service providers with cs based here who employ people you can talk to, ?

cardol

glynn888 wrote: »

had a phone line fault yesterday , i am a perlico home phone customer , phone only no broadband , verified that line was actually faulty 0 volts on line socket. rang pelico to report same, they have serious staff training problems.
1. cs operator told me i would have to call eircomm to report fault,it took a bit of explaining to convince her that it was their problem.
2.when she finally gave in . i asked her to divert my calls to a mobile , she then proceeded to tell me how perform the task from my faulty landline !.
3. Gave up on her and asked to speak to a supervisor , after another episode finally got the fault reported and calls diverted
4.what is strange in this time of high unemployment that these companies employ people who are totally inept , there must be armies of decent irish people who would love to do this job properly
5.any one know of any decent phone service providers with cs based here who employ people you can talk to, ?

:)Nope:)

Dublinman12

Has anyone experienced 3G Mobile broadband?.

Awful and rude customer service which is based guess where?....India,
we were due to pay a bill of 15 euro and due to unforeseen circmtances there was a death in the family.

The phone rings at the funeral,It was the collections dept in 3G about the bill. I apologised and explained that i was at a funeral and would transfer the money later that day.

The response I got, was along the lines of "No, you'll pay now!, what are your details etc", Needless to say, i settled the bill and closed the account later that day. The customer service we had recieved previous to that was awful and cost you a fortune to call them.

I would strongly reccomend you stay far clear of 3G.

ellablue

`Just wanted to let you know that I have never been treated so badly in all my life. The service is appauling im this place and people shoiud avoid at all costs

Run_to_da_hills

You were hung out to dry :pac: