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

andrew1977

Aer Lingus

Arrived to Heathrow Airport @ 3pm for my 4.50pm flight to Dublin with Aer Lingus, checking in my bag was offered to be moved to the 4pm flight if i fancied it... .after 3 long working days in Uk, the chance to get home earlier was like winning the lottery.
I know they cant do it all the time , but it was great to get offered it just the once.

Many thanks Aer lingus, its the little things in life which make you smile:)

TopOfTheHill

This is just a general warning - as they were selling holidays on campsites last year where there mobile homes had been removed.

Berty

Looking for a Plumber in North Tipperary, Limerick City or County

then James Collins Plumbing in Newport Tipperary is your man. He did work on my En-Suite and his workmanship, attention to detail, timekeeping, ability to tidy up after himself and just being pleasant was great. Great price as well.



087 2310229

eviltwin

Bought an Itunes card €25 euros. At home after rubbing off the foil at the back there was no number. Brought it back the next day, nice lady at CS desk told me she would have to call down the Technology manager.

Waited nearly 20 minutes which was annoying enough. By the time she got down there, another woman had reported the same problem - we were accused of having taken the number off ourselves and that we were trying to scam the store :eek: I had never seen this other woman in my life!!

No joy, she was very rude and in the end I left. Eventually got my money back a few weeks later but had to contact head office in the UK. Will never shop there again.

Clarehobo

eviltwin wrote: »

Bought an Itunes card €25 euros. At home after rubbing off the foil at the back there was no number. Brought it back the next day, nice lady at CS desk told me she would have to call down the Technology manager.

Waited nearly 20 minutes which was annoying enough. By the time she got down there, another woman had reported the same problem - we were accused of having taken the number off ourselves and that we were trying to scam the store :eek: I had never seen this other woman in my life!!

No joy, she was very rude and in the end I left. Eventually got my money back a few weeks later but had to contact head office in the UK. Will never shop there again.

That is mad - I heard about that issue 6+months ago. It's down to Apple.
No excuse for that treatment from Tescos: they should know about it as they would have had quite a few complaints by now.

joycegalway

Did you know you can be refused service in any privately
owned establishment for no reason- but it's cant be because
of your colour, sexual preferences and hundreds of other
reasons- you can be refused because the proprietor doesn't
like the look of you and he or she does not have to give a
reason anyway. What a crazy world.

FanadMan

Rant :mad:
Enterprise Car Hire Galway. A few weeks back I had booked a rental car with them. Was supposed to be collected at 9AM but there was no sign of them. Their office was only about 5 mins drive from where I was staying but Galway traffic being Galway traffic I thought I'd give them a while. 9:30 came - no car or call from them so I phoned them. Their excuse was they were waiting on the car I was supposed to get to be returned. The guy I spoke with said he'd call the people that had the car and would phone me back in a few minutes.

30 minutes later - no callback. Phoned them again and was passed to a different person - same excuse. I asked if there were no other cars available - only one and that was an automatic. I said that I wouldn't be comfortable driving automatic as it was years since I drove one last. She said that the only thing else she could do is get a car from their Mayo branch but the manager would have to authorise this as it would mean 2 people leaving to collect it and wouldn't arrive for at least 2 hours. I asked if she could get this authorised - said she'd check and would call me back shortly. Was getting a bit peed off by this stage because we had a 4 hour drive to Letterkenny ahead of us and a non-refundable hotel booking.

10:45 - no callback so I phoned them again and was now told that the people that had our car had decided to keep it another day! Was soooo damn angry by this stage that I said I'd phone back when I calmed down (never actually lost the rag with her tho )

Spoke to my friend who was gonna be travelling with me - we decided we'd risk the automatic so phoned again.......only to be told the automatic was gone!!! Hired out to someone else because I declined it which I didn't!

Eventually the manager (I think) came on the phone and said that there would be nothing more she could do. Checked again with my friend and we decided to just bus it to Letterkenny - hateful long run btw. Asked the manager if she could call Enterprise Letterkenny and book a car for us. She said no problem and would phone me back in a min or two.

Surprise surprise - no call back again. Was 11:20 at this stage and we'd have to get to the station for 12 to get the bus to Letterkenny. Phoned them again (spent so damn much on credit by this stage). To my surprise, she had a car booked for us in Letterkenny.

Booked our taxi and legged it to the station and made it in time for the bus.

Rave
Enterprise Letterkenny. Four and a half long hours later, we got to Letterkenny. There was the Enterprise guy waiting for us, with our car. Sorted the forms and payment in a few mins and as an apology, gave us a free weekend hire the next time we wanted it.

Had dealt with the Letterkenny branch a few times before and were the most friendly and courteous people you could ever meet. They are a credit to their company. Enterprise Galway on the other hand.....rude, snappy and totally unhelpful. Will never hire from them again.

Had put off writing this for a few weeks cos was so annoyed and didn't want to swear here but now feel better that have gotten that off my chest.

MrsPerry

Hi All,

I just wanted to give people the benefit of my experience with this company having recently won a small claims case against them.

I would advise anyone thinking of using this business to never pay up front and never buyonline deals with them.

I myself paid 750 for myself and a firend for laser hair removal sessions with a further 250 to be paid on the first appt. i booked my first two sessions in march for mid apr and the end of may to ensure i got the times that suited us. they cancelled the first one were unable to give us an alternative time that suited usand refused to refund my money. they then cancelled the second session and again refused to refund our money as they have a no refund policy.

I rang the NCA and they advised that it sounded like i was entitled to my money back. I tried contact the salon to speak to a manager but she avoided me completely and rrefused my calls. the staff continuely told me they never gave refunds under any circumstance. i went into the salon a number of times whent he second appt was cancelled and eventually i got lucky as the manager was at reception and could not avoid me.

she took me to a treatment room away from reception. she was extremely rude and dismissive. she said i wasnt gettin my money back under any circumstance. when i told her i would go to the small claims court she openned the door and said i could book appts but i wasnt gettin my money back. i tried emailing them a number of times in the hope of resolving the issue but to no avail.

I have since gone throught the small claims process where they tried to counterclaim but were rejected. they tried to imply they had only cancelled one appt and that we would not take a different time slot. only when i reitterated that they canceled twice did they agree to pay the claim. i am happy to say the cheque cleared today and after more then 6 months i am finally done with The Salon.

something else to note is that they are not registered under the salon on the cro website they are registered under Myerscough health and beauty limited. i had great trouble getting their manager to even provide that information which you cannot set up a claim without.

all in all i found them very difficult to deal with. i would not recommend them to anyone.

dxhound2005

Not me but a friend sent his passport for renewal by the An Post Passport Express service last Thursday and received it back this morning Tuesday. It is probably a slow time of the year for passports but I consider it very impressive anyway.

Fey!

Walsh Waste in Loughrea, Co. Galway.

This one's a bit unusual; I was cycling in to work this morning and was nearly knocked down by a bin lorry. I followed it, only to be laughed at by the driver. Incensed, I rang Walsh Waste, thinking that it was one of theirs. The lady I was talking to there was very helpful and courteous, even when we figured out that I had the wrong company (Walshes service a lot of the city, so their trucks are one of the ones you'd see the most). She was also very fast (5 minutes or so) between me ringing them and her contacting me back having checked things on their side.

Apologies to them for accusing the in the wrong, and kudos for the way they dealt with it; driver courtesy and safety is obviously something they take very seriously.

ibarelycare

MrsPerry wrote: »

Hi All,

I just wanted to give people the benefit of my experience with this company having recently won a small claims case against them.

I would advise anyone thinking of using this business to never pay up front and never buyonline deals with them.

I myself paid 750 for myself and a firend for laser hair removal sessions with a further 250 to be paid on the first appt. i booked my first two sessions in march for mid apr and the end of may to ensure i got the times that suited us. they cancelled the first one were unable to give us an alternative time that suited usand refused to refund my money. they then cancelled the second session and again refused to refund our money as they have a no refund policy.

I rang the NCA and they advised that it sounded like i was entitled to my money back. I tried contact the salon to speak to a manager but she avoided me completely and rrefused my calls. the staff continuely told me they never gave refunds under any circumstance. i went into the salon a number of times whent he second appt was cancelled and eventually i got lucky as the manager was at reception and could not avoid me.

she took me to a treatment room away from reception. she was extremely rude and dismissive. she said i wasnt gettin my money back under any circumstance. when i told her i would go to the small claims court she openned the door and said i could book appts but i wasnt gettin my money back. i tried emailing them a number of times in the hope of resolving the issue but to no avail.

I have since gone throught the small claims process where they tried to counterclaim but were rejected. they tried to imply they had only cancelled one appt and that we would not take a different time slot. only when i reitterated that they canceled twice did they agree to pay the claim. i am happy to say the cheque cleared today and after more then 6 months i am finally done with The Salon.

something else to note is that they are not registered under the salon on the cro website they are registered under Myerscough health and beauty limited. i had great trouble getting their manager to even provide that information which you cannot set up a claim without.

all in all i found them very difficult to deal with. i would not recommend them to anyone.

I'm so glad to read that you won your case against them. I've only ever heard awful reports about The Salon and their staff and manager so it's great to see them get their comeuppance.

Esoteric_

Don't even know the name of this place, but if anyone shops in the Pavilions in Swords, there's a stand near the carpark where a girl sells make up and does eyebrows?

Anyway, big thanks to her! I used to get my brows waxed in my local salon all the time, but then a couple of years ago, the girl doing them ripped skin off my brows in 5 places. Since then, my brows have been uneven, because the hair still hasn't grown back properly, so I've just been plucking and filling in (too scared to get them waxed again!).

My sister was raving about this lady in the Pavilions, so I went to her to get them waxed. Explained what had happened before, and she couldn't have been nicer. She said the hair was starting to grow back properly (yay!) and showed me a spot on her own brow where her skin was ripped off and the hair never grew back! :eek:

She shaped them in such a way that you couldn't notice that the hair was still growing back in some places, was lovely throughout, and has restored my faith in brow waxing. :pac: She even explained what she was doing when she was shaping them, and was telling me how to pluck them to keep them at the shape she made them.

Now, the parts that aren't fully grown back aren't any way noticeable, and she only charges a tenner, but spent a good 20 minutes with me!

BIG thumbs up to her!

fasttalkerchat

joycegalway wrote: »

Did you know you can be refused service in any privately
owned establishment for no reason- but it's cant be because
of your colour, sexual preferences and hundreds of other
reasons- you can be refused because the proprietor doesn't
like the look of you and he or she does not have to give a
reason anyway. What a crazy world.

I usually don't give a reason. "Sorry you're not being served here today.... Please leave"
As soon as you say, you're drunk etc. it invites a reply. I don't want a discussion just them to leave peacefully.

If someone deserves an explanation then why would I be ejecting them?

FanadMan

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

I usually don't give a reason. "Sorry you're not being served here today.... Please leave"
As soon as you say, you're drunk etc. it invites a reply. I don't want a discussion just them to leave peacefully.

If someone deserves an explanation then why would I be ejecting them?

If they need an explanation, just show them your nail-studded baseball bat that you keep under the counter

I've been that customer....young, drunk and demanding service. Thankfully I've grown up just a "little" since then lol

gugleguy

I would like to commend COPAN Rathmines Road Lr for their handling of a weirdo with too much drink on him wanted to chat up younger generation females. He was ejected in clean and efficient fashion.

Well done from gugleguy the spelling nazi - remember the spelling mistake of location on receipt for me?

MOH

Good

Worst: Vodafone (specifically, their email support).

Was out of contract 6 months ago, and they offered me a bundle of 200 calls/texts per month to extend contract for 6 months. Realised a couple of months ago this had never been applied, and I've been getting overcharged every month as a result. I've spent six weeks mailing back and forth getting slow replies to mails, a couple ignored, being asked the same questions multiple times because there's a different person replying each time, and they can't be bothered reading back through the previous mails. They only eventually agreed to pass the matter on to their accounts team last week, prompted either by one of the Vodafone reps on here who was trying to help me out, or possibly the fact that I cancelled my direct debit.



Best: Sitepoint (Australian tech publisher):
I signed up through some deals page for a free trial of their Learnable online training site, also about 6 months ago. Never got around to using it. I thought I was supposed to get a reminder mail when the trial expired, but never did, and had completely forgotten about it. I'd seen a couple of charges on statements and thought they were for something else. Only realised last week I'd been paying them $17 a month for something I never used.

As a long shot mailed them and told them the story, asked them was there any chance of a refund. Got a mail back the next morning and they said they'd refund most of the money.

RoryMurphyJnr

Worst: Eircom Eircom Eircom, every bloody time

Best: Sky Sky Sky everytime

Worztron

My father is with Smart Telecom. Recently his landline was off for all of Saturday, Sunday and a good part of Monday. The Internet was down for most of Saturday only.

My father emailed ST. They did not even have the courtesy to reply to him. They could have at least sent a generic email to all the ST customers (I later found out that it affected all ST customers). Bad form!

I have little faith in any ISP being courteous.

FanadMan

Rave for Sky. Had to phone them today to get a Sky+ box set up. The Indian guy who answered the call got it all sorted in about 5 minutes and was really friendly with it.

Worztron

Worztron wrote: »

My father is with Smart Telecom. Recently his landline was off for all of Saturday, Sunday and a good part of Monday. The Internet was down for most of Saturday only.

My father emailed ST. They did not even have the courtesy to reply to him. They could have at least sent a generic email to all the ST customers (I later found out that it affected all ST customers). Bad form!

I have little faith in any ISP being courteous.

Update: I have wronged Smart Telecom and I apologise to them. My father did after-all receive an email from a lady (I think Clare was her name) regarding the outage. He must have overlooked the email initially.

MOH

Good

Worztron wrote: »

Update: I have wronged Smart Telecom and I apologise to them. My father did after-all receive an email from a lady (I think Clare was her name) regarding the outage. He overlooked it.

Only support issue I've had with Smart is that since Digiweb took over, their support forums have been completely ignored. There's been no staff response to any posts there in months, and they're just full of spammers.

Nanazolie

BEST:

Voilà café on Baggot street lower. I always go there to grab a coffee and a scone in the morning I work from town. The staff is great, the food and coffee very good.
But this got even better this morning when I fainted, spilling my coffee all over myself and the floor. The manager helped me to my feet, gave me a glass of water and a cloth to clean myself while he made me a fresh coffee. He also gave me a plate of chocolate cake and offered to call my colleagues. Of course, I was mortified, but I was also very happy to get such a good, genuine service

isolde316

Horrible, cheating, terrible people - sold us a lemon of a car and we've been struggling with them DAILY with phone calls and emails to get them to resolve the situation. Ended up paying over 1000 EUR in repair fees for issues that <SNIP> knew were problems originally after the car became undriveable 2 hours after purchase. He then promised that while he couldn't reimburse us for repair expenses, he would purchase back the car. 6 months later, here we are with no money, and STILL no working car. DO NOT TRUST THIS MAN!!!! TAKE YOUR BUSINESS ELSEWHERE!!!!!

knucklehead6

Praise

Curry's in Liffey Valley. Not going to go into too much detail as I've already mailed Declan on the Currys forum, but a staff member helped me calm down a very upset and flustered family member, and did it in a way that didn't draw attention to the situation.

Well done that girl.

dxhound2005

I got a Christmas card posted in New York Thursday 6th early this morning Monday 10th. Good work by USPS and An Post given the time of year.

Graciefacey

Good

Have to mention Top Part motor accessories in Castlebar. I was on my way to Dublin when I realised one of my lights wasn't working, called into the shop and the guy behind the counter spent a good twenty minutes in the rain and cold trying to get the bulb out much to my mortification, two guys came to help and eventually got me back on the road with a new light fitted. Only charged me 5euro and I even got a lollipop! Thank you top part for coming to the aid of a damsel in distress on a very wet dark evening!

Xcellor

Amazon.co.uk - Best customer service. Bought a asus router 90 gbp. Had struggled to get it working stabily. Phoned them explained. Sending back tomorrow for refund. Had it for 60 days.

Fries-With-That

Late November I bought 2 Blackberry Playbooks and 2 leather effect covers on a Sunday afternoon. I didn't open them until the following weekend to download a particular app.

The app is available for the playbook but will not work without wifi, I'm outside PC WORLDs 1 week return policy and it was my mistake to purchase them without finding out that the app needed wifi on the playbook to operate.

I took them back to PC WORLD Limerick, and explained firstly to a very helpful sales assistant, she in turn spoke with a manager and then handed me over to a tech guy, that understood exactly what the issue was.

I was allowed swap the Playbooks, for 2 Nexus tablets with android(no wifi needed to run app).

Fantastic service from David, the initial sales person, sales assistant (didn't get her name) and Dave the tech guy.

I will shop here again.

Fries.

ZENER

I've had good experiences with PC World/Currys as well.

On one occasion I picked up a Solid State Drive which was on a hanger marked 99.99 euro. When I got to the till it came up as 119.99. Pointed out that the hanger on which the drive was displayed described the drive and showed 99.99.

When we went back to the display I discovered a difference in the description proving the drive was in fact 119.99 after all !! Because of the confusion the sales guy gave me the drive at 99.99.

I did acknowledge that he didn't need to do this and that I appreciated his good will gesture. A nice gesture and very much appreciated.

Airside, Swords branch.

Ken

Esoteric_

ZENER wrote: »

I've had good experiences with PC World/Currys as well.

On one occasion I picked up a Solid State Drive which was on a hanger marked 99.99 euro. When I got to the till it came up as 119.99. Pointed out that the hanger on which the drive was displayed described the drive and showed 99.99.

When we went back to the display I discovered a difference in the description proving the drive was in fact 119.99 after all !! Because of the confusion the sales guy gave me the drive at 99.99.

I did acknowledge that he didn't need to do this and that I appreciated his good will gesture. A nice gesture and very much appreciated.

Airside, Swords branch.

Ken

I also received a lot of help from a lovely sales assistant in the Airside branch the other day. Was looking for a tablet for a teenager. He told me straight up that the one I wanted wouldn't be suitable for her, and recommended other ones and was overall really helpful. He didn't push for me to buy the most expensive ones either, he picked similarly priced models that would suit her better and explained why they would.