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

bbb...

SASHA Auto Galway - they try and rip you off every time you go in. Wnet to get a brake pipe made up expecting it to cost about €15 they tried to charge me €40.. ended up paying €20 after a rant.
The other 2 times I have been in they have also tried to overcharge me... needless to say I will not be going back-in and strongly recommend everyone else not to bother.
In my opinion BAD CUSTOMER SERVICES AND RIP-OFF MERCHANTS.

i71jskz5xu42pb

I think I see your problem

bbb... wrote: »

The other 2 times I have been in they have also tried to overcharge me...

yet

bbb... wrote: »

Went to get a brake pipe made up....

Seriously?

Capri

Good

bbb... wrote: »

SASHA Auto Galway - they try and rip you off every time you go in. Wnet to get a brake pipe made up expecting it to cost about €15 they tried to charge me €40.. ended up paying €20 after a rant.
The other 2 times I have been in they have also tried to overcharge me... needless to say I will not be going back-in and strongly recommend everyone else not to bother.
In my opinion BAD CUSTOMER SERVICES AND RIP-OFF MERCHANTS.

SASHA - maybe the name gives a hint In some parts of the world they expect you to haggle over pricing, maybe some of them work there
I presume its a flexi brake pipe, check the price with Consort or Ashgrove in Dublin to see how much more Sasha are charging you :eek:

Ken.

Good

A huge praise for Vodafone and especially their rep on boards Darren. I got my daughter a Vodafone phone for her 13th birthday in January because her friends are all Vodafone and she wanted to free call them. There was a problem after a month whereby she wasn't getting the free calls after topping up.

Rang Vodafone and they refunded €10 and tried to sort it. Brought the matter to Darren on here and in 2 days he has sorted the problem and refunded €40.

pedroeibar1

Group motto – “Customer service is at the heart of everything we do.”

Really? I tried several times to spend about €1,000 with Pixmania over the last week but failed, miserably. I’d hate to think what would happen if I had a problem and needed to return anything to them.

I ordered (1) a Nikon d5100 & kit and later ordered (2) a negative scanner. Order 1 is processed, credit card is authorised, but it seems Pixmania wait before they debit an account. A debit should be processed within 24 hours and because Pixmania did not do this, the bank cancelled the authorization. Days later I learn this, I explain the debit issue to Pixmania, go through the whole process again and the same thing happens. On the third time (I know:o) my bank locked my card because they regarded what was going on as ‘suspicious activity.’ So last Monday I ordered the Nikon & kit from Amazon and it is already shipped!

For order 2 (the scanner) I used a different credit card to avoid any screw-ups over the card. Three days later I get the following :
Thank you for placing an order on PIXmania.com. Folllowing checks by our Order Validation Department, we regret to inform you that we are unable to process your order. We are happy to answer any questions you may have regarding this matter. Thank you for your understanding. We hope to see you again soon on Pixmania.com. Best Regards,James Felix Customer Service Director
Now the allowable credit on that card is about 100 times the price of the scanner so I phone the Pixmania service centre (Irish number) and get an efficient guy who tells me that the Validation Dept closes at 3.30 (15.30),:eek: nothing he can do and he will get them to call me tomorrow. Yep, France closes at 4.30 their time, 3.30 Irish/UK time. This is the online business that wants to be the biggest, etc., etc,

So who are they? Pixmania is a subsidiary of Fotovista, which is 90% owned by DSG, the new name for the owner of Dixons, PC World and Currys. That group had a name change because it had a disastrous series of results and had to raise cash to survive; it had to slash store numbers, staff count and overheads. Business was so bad that many suppliers would only sell to them on a cash basis. The reasons for the losses were simple – they had not kept up with customer needs, and staff are often not qualified to help customers buy electronics products. Their shares, valued at 180 pence in 2007, dropped to 9 pence last January (growth was a negative 8% for the critical Christmas period of 2011) and today are about 20p. Now you know why.

MagicMarker

Do yourself a favour and stay away from them, do a search on here and you'll find out why.

Salty

OkayWhatever wrote: »

I was in Schuh in Jervis S.C a few weeks ago returning some converse.!

I went in and had to wait at the counter for about 7minutes, with about 4 members of staff walking in and out of the door beside the counter, looking at me and ignoring me.

A member of staff then came to me and asked me and I said I wanted to return them. He said that he would go and get somebody to do it and he walked away and no sight of him again.

Waited and waited. About 2 other members of staff came over to me, they didn't know how to do it and the girl who apparently did, seemed like she didn't have a clue so it took ages!!

Left the store feeling so frustrated and annoyed, Office from now on I think :P

I know this post is from ages ago:P But I just had to quote and make a point about it. I work in Schuh, and often get strange looks from people when I don't jump on till to put through their purchase. Some people can even get ratty, especially when they want to return something. The thing is, not everyone is trained on till, and it's not something you can just figure out, you need a specific password:P There could be 8 staff on the floor, but only 2 of them might be till trained, and when it's really busy it can be hard! Just something to know next time any of you find yourselves frustrated and standing there:P


To stay on-topic, one of the best experiences I had with customer service was at the MAC counter in BT in Cork. I had bought their Studio Fix Fluid and used it for a week. However, I had a bad allergic reaction to it and broke out in a horrible rash (which took nearly 3 weeks to fully disappear:().

I didn't have a job at the time, so having spent nearly 40 euro on a foundation that reacted so badly with my skin, I decided I'd chance bringing it back. I spoke with the manager, and they refunded me all of my money, even though the product was opened and used for a week. I thought it was very decent on their behalf, they really were very nice and sympathised with my situation...I looked like serious crap!:P

wmpdd3

The thing is, not everyone is trained on till, and it's not something you can just figure out, you need a specific password There could be 8 staff on the floor, but only 2 of them might be till trained, and when it's really busy it can be hard! Just something to know next time any of you find yourselves frustrated and standing there

i work in a supermarket, if all staff were not trained on tills and didnt jump on when there was a queue, there would be a riot.

Salty

wmpdd3 wrote: »

i work in a supermarket, if all staff were not trained on tills and didnt jump on when there was a queue, there would be a riot.

Schuh isn't a supermarket, and only 2 people can serve on tills at one time anyway.

The_Conductor

_meehan_ wrote: »

Schuh isn't a supermarket, and only 2 people can serve on tills at one time anyway.

So three quarters of the staff aren't trained?
Sorry- it just seems like a ridiculous way to run a shop to me........

Salty

smccarrick wrote: »

So three quarters of the staff aren't trained?
Sorry- it just seems like a ridiculous way to run a shop to me........

No, actually. There's 30 people employed in the branch I work in. Most of them are till trained, but you actually have to be put down on the roster as being on the till for a particular shift. It depends on the day of the week and the time of day too, obviously some are busier than other. Sometimes it's busier than anticipated and that's when everyone is under pressure and customers end up waiting longer than usual. Normally, they're served immediately. It's hard to explain unless you actually work there.

Besides, it's very rare that people are left there for more than 2 or 3 minutes at most. It's well known that Schuh are a good company to deal with, both instore and online. Hardly "ridiculously" run as you say.

The_Conductor

_meehan_ wrote: »

No, actually. There's 30 people employed in the branch I work in. Most of them are till trained, but you actually have to be put down on the roster as being on the till for a particular shift. It depends on the day of the week and the time of day too, obviously some are busier than other. Sometimes it's busier than anticipated and that's when everyone is under pressure and customers end up waiting longer than usual. Normally, they're served immediately. It's hard to explain unless you actually work there.

Besides, it's very rare that people are left there for more than 2 or 3 minutes at most. It's well known that Schuh are a good company to deal with, both instore and online. Hardly "ridiculously" run as you say.

I've walked out of two different Schuh stores (Liffey Valley and Dundrum) as no-one was at the till to accept my payment in a timely manner. My money is hard earned- as is everyones- and I've normally two small children with very short attention spans with me- if you make me hang around at all- I politely leave my purchase on the counter and leave. I also left Boots Liffey Valley at lunchtime today- for precisely the same reason. I love Schuh products- and I normally buy our Aptimel in Boots because its cheaper than elsewhere- but if you put any impediment in my path- I'm out of there.......

With respect of my prospective purchase of Schuh sandals- I've gone online and found a nice store who are a competitor of Schuh- Fluchos from Spain- and ordered a pair from them instead, as a personal protest (and I love Fluchos too- but rarely buy them as they're really expensive).

If you make people hang around- they will walk. It doesn't matter that you have a wonderful product- you are falling down if you don't make the effort to accommodate your customers to the fullest extent possible.

Time- and price- along with a decent product and a nice experience- are all factors- any one of which will sour a customer's perception of a particular shop or brand. Hanging around at a till with two very unhappy children (who do not like your lighting!!!) - is a deal breaker for me.

the groutch

with any business it's all about striking a balance between staff on the floor and on the tills.
if you have everyone going onto tills every time a small queue develops, you can end up with shelves not getting adequately filled, or nobody on the floor to assist customers.

Salty

It's unfortunate that you were kept waiting like that tbh. It doesn't happen very often where I work, (I'm outside of Dublin). You're a little unlucky I suppose! I see what you're saying!

jimoc

_meehan_ wrote: »

I know this post is from ages ago:P But I just had to quote and make a point about it. I work in Schuh, and often get strange looks from people when I don't jump on till to put through their purchase. Some people can even get ratty, especially when they want to return something. The thing is, not everyone is trained on till, and it's not something you can just figure out, you need a specific password:P There could be 8 staff on the floor, but only 2 of them might be till trained, and when it's really busy it can be hard! Just something to know next time any of you find yourselves frustrated and standing there:P

Perhaps not everyone is trained on the till and thats a very valid thing that can happen, but how hard is it to train someone to say, "I'll just get someone who can assist you" and then actually DO that?
There is few things more irritating in a store then staff members just walking past you and saying nothing, it doesn't take that much effort to say that.

Salty

jimoc wrote: »

Perhaps not everyone is trained on the till and thats a very valid thing that can happen, but how hard is it to train someone to say, "I'll just get someone who can assist you" and then actually DO that?
There is few things more irritating in a store then staff members just walking past you and saying nothing, it doesn't take that much effort to say that.

I actually always do that, though I can't speak for everyone. If I'm serving a customer and I put there shoes behind the till, I tell them that I'll send someone out onto the till to help them. There will always be people who won't bother. It's not a lack of training, just laziness of some people! That said, it is the responsibility of the person assisting the customer to tell them this. We all have our own customers to take care of and keep informed etc. Unfortunately, some aren't as thorough as others.

PureCosmic

The Good:
ASOS - they just have a fantastic turnaround time, helpful staff and make online shopping a breeze

The Bad:
Littlewoods Ireland - they always seem to mess with the orders in electronics and furniture. One time, I ordered a wardrobe and they delivered a door! Their customer service varies, if you are able to get in touch with the right people they can be helpful, but it is a hit and miss.

The Ugly: :mad:
A boutique in Longford in Dublin St. (that I shall not name): bullied to buy, false advertising, hidden charges that came up after my card had been charged, and when I complained face to face and through letters they ignored all communications. Never back AGAIN.

Thwip!

hdowney wrote: »

same here. my stuff came before i was expecting it. delighted

agree with you there, i got my full order around 3 weeks before it was due

don't you just love it when your stuff arrives before even the estimated dispatch date:cool:

lazygal

I want to praise Mothercare. Both the stores and online service. Ordered from them recently on the advice of staff in store (better deal online!) and the stuff came within two days. Excellent service all around.


No points to Smyths, Mamas and Papas and Toymaster, all of whom had no service in evidence when I visited the stores. Not one person even acknowledged my presence or offered any help whatsoever.

DublinWriter

lazygal wrote: »

I want to praise Mothercare. Both the stores and online service. Ordered from them recently on the advice of staff in store (better deal online!) and the stuff came within two days. Excellent service all around.

No points to Smyths, Mamas and Papas and Toymaster, all of whom had no service in evidence when I visited the stores. Not one person even acknowledged my presence or offered any help whatsoever.

...which is odd, we had the exact opposite experience. Mothercare woeful (on several purchases, not just one) and M&P very good, even when exchanging stuff bought from the Belfast branch where we lost the receipt.

OldNotWIse

Littlewoods Ireland. I registered with them a while ago and in the 10-15 calls to them since my DOB that I quoted has always been accepted...until this morning it was magically incorrect. When I queried why it was accepted before I was told, "I cannot answer that as I didn't take the call". They said I would have to send reg letter to inform them of my (supposed) change in birth date and when I asked how I would be reimbursed for the cost incurred they said...wait for it...I would need to request a refund for my postage...by post! I sent the letter with my name and address and "new" DOB and in my haste, I forgot to include my account number. I called to enquire if this was necessary and was told they could not deal with queries on my account until the DOB had been rectified - :mad: :mad: :mad:

lazygal

DublinWriter wrote: »

...which is odd, we had the exact opposite experience. Mothercare woeful (on several purchases, not just one) and M&P very good, even when exchanging stuff bought from the Belfast branch where we lost the receipt.

I had a pain with Mamas and Papas a while back, delivery information was like a state secret! I guess it comes down to staffing on the day, which is always the major variable in retail!

gerryhorse31

On march 8th 2012 I signed up with eircom to get 8mb NG broadband and homephone setup in my new house, however since then I've received nothing whatsoever except a bill and fair enough its for line rental since that was activated an hour after I ordered it online. So far I've made a couple of calls to try get the matter sorted but so far I've received silly answers like its been looked into and we'll call once its sorted etc... my question is has anyone else any experience of the same type of thing and if so who did you call or what did you do to get it resolved. I'm basically stuck with this shower no because you'd have to pay up front to cancel the contract which is ridiculous considering so far we've received absolutely nothing from them. A disgraceful experience so far.

Apple_Mc

UPC!!!!!!!!!!!!
In the process of canceling their service - I moved over to try and get my phone, BB and TV at a cheaper price! Worse mistake ever. Took ages for my service to go live with UPC resulted in being double billed by my previous provider and UPC. Broadband speeds are not up to 25mb I've had two technicians in my apararment and two replacement modems and still only sync at 3mb - 5 mb on a good day! The television looses signal at least 3 times a week - I live in Dublin city centre! Worse part is I have had my landline number for 10 years but for some reason unknown UPC will not release it and now I am stuck with a temporary number UPC never told me when I moved over that if I ever wanted to leave I would loose my number!

I am dealing with Vodafone now who are working really hard to get my number back. They explained the process that the service is on a different platform and they are pushing UPC for my number but as there is pressure on UPC they will continue to take the piss! Thank god I have somebody willing to look after this for me without having to sit on the phone all day - Kudos to Vodafone.

Hopefully I will be sorted soon and UPC free!

:mad:
My resolution last year was to keep a better eye on cash, so stopped using bank account/cards in favour of cash where possible - helps manage the budget, just a personal preference.. and it's working for me.

I cancelled Direct Debits, including Airtricity & paid into post office every week. Never missed a week!

In February I got a bank statement on the account I used to pay my bills out of showing that I had racked up 52Euro in charges for unpaid direct debits to Airtricity who had tried to take 'funds' 7 times.

Then checked my Airtricity account online, which I hadn't previously, and discovered they were also adding charges for unpaid direct debits!

When I got on to Airtricity they were so unhelpful - told me I hadn't cancelled the direct debit and wanted proof. The attitude was apalling! I gave them the date I phoned them but had called on a prepay mobile so asked them to check their system as the person had definitely said they made a note on the system.

Several phone calls and unanswered emails later, I'm no further on, as they say there is no record of my call on their system. However, they did exactly the same thing again in March! Oh, and the amount outstanding that was attracting bank charges and unpaid penalties of 15.50 each time they looked for payment? 1.77:eek:

To add insult to injury they've just billed me for a deposit of 300 as I am no longer a DD customer.

Worst customer service bar none imo. Byebye Airtricity

watna

Apple_Mc wrote: »

UPC!!!!!!!!!!!!
In the process of canceling their service - I moved over to try and get my phone, BB and TV at a cheaper price! Worse mistake ever. Took ages for my service to go live with UPC resulted in being double billed by my previous provider and UPC. Broadband speeds are not up to 25mb I've had two technicians in my apararment and two replacement modems and still only sync at 3mb - 5 mb on a good day! The television looses signal at least 3 times a week - I live in Dublin city centre! Worse part is I have had my landline number for 10 years but for some reason unknown UPC will not release it and now I am stuck with a temporary number UPC never told me when I moved over that if I ever wanted to leave I would loose my number!

I am dealing with Vodafone now who are working really hard to get my number back. They explained the process that the service is on a different platform and they are pushing UPC for my number but as there is pressure on UPC they will continue to take the piss! Thank god I have somebody willing to look after this for me without having to sit on the phone all day - Kudos to Vodafone.

Hopefully I will be sorted soon and UPC free!

I'm moving back to Ireland in a few months and once we get a house we will need to get set up with broadband/phone/TV etc. After reading all the UPC posts in this thread, there is no way I will be signing up for their service.

The_Conductor

I don't often do this- but I'd like to stand up for UPC.
I've probably had residential broadband of one type or another for longer than anyone in this thread (since 1996)- and have gone through 7 different service providers over the past 15 years.

Eircom decided I was a business because no residential customer could want a 2Mb ISDN line (as it was at the time) and without so much as discussing it with me withdrew over 2k from my bank account. It was only when I got a court date that they returned the money- but with no cognisance of the several hundred pounds (yes, it was before the Euro) I had spent, or the significant amount of time I took off work.

BT- their customer service people were nice- but very obviously not talking to their service engineers- it took me a forthnight to have a line repaired- because I was the only one who complained- the fact that there was no-one downstream of me on the line doesn't appear to have entered anyone's head.

Esat- promised the earth, the moon and the stars- but ultimately failed to deliver. When it worked- it was good- if anything went wrong- you were on your own.

Magnet- I'm not going to even discuss my dealings with these people. It was such a relief that my contract was void as they were ultimately unable to provide the service they sold me.

Wimax from Imagine- you'd imagine that in the Dublin area you'd at least get better than dialup speeds- but no........ Also- Monasterevin/Kildangan was a signal blackspot.

Vodafone 3G and o2 3G- Tubercurry Co. Sligo (yes, I do get around). I had to drive up the nearby Knocknashee mountain to read my e-mail. It was a pleasant drive, don't get me wrong- but hardly a satisfactory connection.

UPC- patchy as hell until I got fibre to the door- however I have a serious piece of networking kit from them, a free upgrade to a 50Mb connection- and unlimited phone calls to 16 named countries for 61.50 a month. If something does go wrong- you do need a backup- and the way they promise to be there in the morning or the afternoon- without giving a time- is annoying as hell- but when they get the kinks ironed out- it really is a spectacular service.

The vodafone customer service guys are the easiest to deal with- but they have offered me services they were unable to provide several times. I actually ended up with a court date against Eircom before they returned money they had unilaterly withdrawn from my account (one of the managers read the story of my woes with them here on boards back in 2001- and decided it had to be sorted). Everyone else- well, their service proved less than they claimed.

I have to admit over the past 10 years I've had over 20 callouts by UPC engineers- and downtime when it does happen- is usually at the most inconvenient times possible- but no other company in the country provides a broadband service that can compete with theirs. When its working- its the most brilliant service you can imagine- when it doesn't its the pits. All-in-all, they will keep tackling a problem until they have it resolved- regardless of how long it takes- and give you free services for a set period of time to make up for any downtime.

I am now in the process of setting up broadband for my father-in-law and am exploring On Wave satellite broadband (for Kildangan, Co. Kildare). I'll let you know how that goes.

hdowney

susiespark wrote: »

:mad:
My resolution last year was to keep a better eye on cash, so stopped using bank account/cards in favour of cash where possible - helps manage the budget, just a personal preference.. and it's working for me.

I cancelled Direct Debits, including Airtricity & paid into post office every week. Never missed a week!

In February I got a bank statement on the account I used to pay my bills out of showing that I had racked up 52Euro in charges for unpaid direct debits to Airtricity who had tried to take 'funds' 7 times.

Then checked my Airtricity account online, which I hadn't previously, and discovered they were also adding charges for unpaid direct debits!

When I got on to Airtricity they were so unhelpful - told me I hadn't cancelled the direct debit and wanted proof. The attitude was apalling! I gave them the date I phoned them but had called on a prepay mobile so asked them to check their system as the person had definitely said they made a note on the system.

Several phone calls and unanswered emails later, I'm no further on, as they say there is no record of my call on their system. However, they did exactly the same thing again in March! Oh, and the amount outstanding that was attracting bank charges and unpaid penalties of 15.50 each time they looked for payment? 1.77:eek:

To add insult to injury they've just billed me for a deposit of 300 as I am no longer a DD customer.

Worst customer service bar none imo. Byebye Airtricity

i just wanted to point out, re the charges the bank levied for the unpaid dds, you should be able to get them to remove them, as since i presume you went into the bank to cancel the dds and spoke to someone, they should have a record on file of the date you cancelled. therefore how can they charge you for unpaid ones after this date?

Colibri

Been with Three now for 2 months. Always had coverage and connection issues, and last week when I was using 3G, I was constantly being redirected to a page telling me to top up. Rang up customer service, to a deadpan Indian accent who couldn't understand me. He told me he'd 'escalate the issue'.

Rang again 24 hours later to another agent telling me that I had the issue noted on my account and the technical team were working on it, and told me to wait 24 hours for a response.

With no luck, I rang about 30 hours later. This time I was transferred to some department with the rudest woman I've ever spoken to on the phone. She basically told me straight out that I was wrong, I didn't top up to avail of the offer of free internet (even though I had 11 euro credit and topped up only two weeks prior), and that I had no note in my account.


Now I haven't recieved a single message since 8pm yesterday, with no settings changed. Fúck these guys, I'm moving operator.

OldNotWIse

OldNotWIse wrote: »

Littlewoods Ireland. I registered with them a while ago and in the 10-15 calls to them since my DOB that I quoted has always been accepted...until this morning it was magically incorrect. When I queried why it was accepted before I was told, "I cannot answer that as I didn't take the call". They said I would have to send reg letter to inform them of my (supposed) change in birth date and when I asked how I would be reimbursed for the cost incurred they said...wait for it...I would need to request a refund for my postage...by post! I sent the letter with my name and address and "new" DOB and in my haste, I forgot to include my account number. I called to enquire if this was necessary and was told they could not deal with queries on my account until the DOB had been rectified - :mad: :mad: :mad:

Update: they emailed me this afternoon to say that I will not be able to order anything else from the site until I send them an original passport or driver's license! Do they really think I am going to put my passport in the post? I think I'll cancel my account...