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

dudara

CG111 wrote: »

No thanks, there's nothing I need help with. This is a complaint and I want everyone to see exactly what their service is like. I decided to post here for that very reason instead of complaining to Tesco themselves. I've wasted enough time speaking to their employees as described above.

No problems - I'll merge this into the Best/Worst Customer Service thread then, as you're not interested in taking it any further.

BTW - you should really report your issues to Tesco Head Office. They won't have a chance to fix it otherwise.

stoutykid

Thumbs up for Argos Mahon pt. Bought a number of items recently, their staff offered to help me to the car as I had my two kids with me. Managed by myself but the staff member had put two of my items into a kitchen bin I had also purchased making it easier for me to carry. Unfortunately there was residual water in the bottom of the bin and when I got home the packaging of the two other items I bought were damaged. I was concerned that there would be an issue when i went to return one of the items which wasn't suitable but the staff member on customer service was very apologetic offered to replace the other item I was keeping and refunded my money without any other questions.

SeaFields

Popped into the Auto shop in Merchants Quay, Cork city last weekend for no other reason than to browse as herself was elsewhere trying on clothes.

The young lad behind the counter approached after a couple of minutes and asked was i looking for anything in particular. I told him just browsing really. He handed my a complimentary duster for the car dash and said to give him a shout if i'd any questions.

Really top notch customer service for a small operation. Fair play to him.

Neon_Lights

Permenant TSB have gotten shocking on the Open 24 side of the house.

Capri

Good

Friend of mine back here for a shortwhile from the US, gets c.€300/week of stuff off Tesco. Every Tesco and all other shops in the city accept his Visa swipe card, but in Tesco Wicklow ? 'Manager told us not to accept it' :mad:

The_Conductor

Capri wrote: »

Friend of mine back here for a shortwhile from the US, gets c.€300/week of stuff off Tesco. Every Tesco and all other shops in the city accept his Visa swipe card, but in Tesco Wicklow ? 'Manager told us not to accept it' :mad:

Lots of places don't accept swipe credit cards anymore- they're a security risk. Tesco are far from unique in this respect. I shredded mine earlier this week- it just wasn't worth the hassle of asking whether restaurants and other places accepted them. Tell him to get a Pre-pay chip-and-pin card and to load it online from his US card- works fine.

I wouldn't complain about Tesco having this policy- any half sane business in Europe who doesn't want to be ripped off, bars the swipe cards.

Cork24

Havery Norman on the kinsale road are a hit and miss most of the time

Brought a oven before and the guy couldn't be any nicer gave me a discount aswell,

Brought a mac book before on the 0% finance and the guy was giving out to me for not taken the warranty telling me I'm a fool for not taken it out on a machine like this, I just told him under eu law we have a 2 year warranty under Irish law it more then that plus I have a degree in computer science so I should know my way around a computer.

To this day I'm fully sure he gave the laptop a few kick in the back room

The_Conductor

Cork24 wrote: »

Havery Norman on the kinsale road are a hit and miss most of the time

Brought a oven before and the guy couldn't be any nicer gave me a discount aswell,

Brought a mac book before on the 0% finance and the guy was giving out to me for not taken the warranty telling me I'm a fool for not taken it out on a machine like this, I just told him under eu law we have a 2 year warranty under Irish law it more then that plus I have a degree in computer science so I should know my way around a computer.

To this day I'm fully sure he gave the laptop a few kick in the back room

Those extended warranties- are pretty much pure cash for the companies selling them- they've been debated to death on the likes of the BBC Watchdog programme.

Btw- it doesn't really matter whether you have a degree in Comp. Sci or not (I have one too)- the Macbook is very probably the least user serviceable laptop on the market. In addition- the walled garden that iOS offers- isn't of much interest to most programmers- esp. given that Apple don't really seem to care about breaking things.........

The few experiences I have of Harvey Norman (beside the airport in Dublin) have been pretty good- with the proviso- you shouldn't go in there ever- without having done your homework first. Some of the crap their sales staff come out with is actually quite funny- you wonder whether they believe it themselves, or whether its just the spiel they've been programmed with.........

Capri

Good

The_Conductor wrote: »

Lots of places don't accept swipe credit cards anymore- they're a security risk. Tesco are far from unique in this respect. I shredded mine earlier this week- it just wasn't worth the hassle of asking whether restaurants and other places accepted them. Tell him to get a Pre-pay chip-and-pin card and to load it online from his US card- works fine.

I wouldn't complain about Tesco having this policy- any half sane business in Europe who doesn't want to be ripped off, bars the swipe cards.

Pre-pay, from o2 or ???

the groutch

Capri wrote: »

Friend of mine back here for a shortwhile from the US, gets c.€300/week of stuff off Tesco. Every Tesco and all other shops in the city accept his Visa swipe card, but in Tesco Wicklow ? 'Manager told us not to accept it' :mad:

afaik the banks are no longer refunding shops on fraudulently used swipe cards, so if card fraud was very high in that store, they might have adopted that policy to remove all risk.

The_Conductor

Capri wrote: »

Pre-pay, from o2 or ???

If hes coming from the US- the easiest and least hassle is just to take the bog standard Travelex one.

If he is getting one after he gets here- any of the Swirl cards are perfect (and you're handily supporting local jobs in Naas- the icing on the cake). The Swirl cards are the most commonly found ones here and in the UK.

L1011

The_Conductor wrote: »

Lots of places don't accept swipe credit cards anymore- they're a security risk. Tesco are far from unique in this respect. I shredded mine earlier this week- it just wasn't worth the hassle of asking whether restaurants and other places accepted them. Tell him to get a Pre-pay chip-and-pin card and to load it online from his US card- works fine.

I wouldn't complain about Tesco having this policy- any half sane business in Europe who doesn't want to be ripped off, bars the swipe cards.

Tesco Maynooth accept (or did) swipe cards with ID. But I suspect only Irish ID that they know to be genuine...

Capri

Good

MYOB wrote: »

Tesco Maynooth accept (or did) swipe cards with ID. But I suspect only Irish ID that they know to be genuine...

:P:P:P Funny story about that - they asked him for ID, and he produced my foreign driver licence (we had planned this 'test' in advance to see how much 'security' they were checking ) and they said "OK" :rolleyes::rolleyes:

Esoteric_

Lots of companies won't take a swipe card, even with ID. The company I work for used to, but had to stop accepting them a few months ago because of fraudulent use.

Similarly, in a previous company, we accepted them, as long as the card itself was signed and the signature matched the one on the customer's ID. Slight problem with that was that the customer NEVER had the back of their card signed.

It's too risky for the company. Sucks for non chip card holders, though.

L1011

Biggest volume of non-chip cards are probably the prepaid Visa/Mastercards given as presents / gift vouchers under the exemption scheme for employers. If they start being near impossible to use they'll just have to start issue them as EMV cards, cost them a few cent more.

bodhrandude

I'm quite surprised not to see Knowhow Cloud.com being discussed here It seems to be a big issue elsewhere http://www.iainsmithcoaching.co.uk/my-knowhow-livedrive-cloud-fiasco/ (I thought it would be in the PC World / Currys forum but I seen no complaints) When I got my laptop in July at PC World in Galway I was pressed to buy Knowhow Cloud. I paid a deposit for it but never bothered registering for it in the end. I kept getting annoying pop up reminders to register for the cloud storage space, so I uninstalled it in the end. Otherwise I've enjoyed my visits to PC World.

Great service from Tickets.ie I ordered a Moderat ticket for the Button Factory in the afternoon and it was delivered by post the next day by 10am.

Feeney's Cafe, Salthill - I still think they give the best value for a breakfast.

Bus Eireann - Terrible service, late buses, queue hopping and an annoying website.
The same goes for Irish Rail with a website worse than BE.

ivytwine

bodhrandude wrote: »

I'm quite surprised not to see Knowhow Cloud.com being discussed here It seems to be a big issue elsewhere http://www.iainsmithcoaching.co.uk/my-knowhow-livedrive-cloud-fiasco/ (I thought it would be in the PC World / Currys forum but I seen no complaints) When I got my laptop in July at PC World in Galway I was pressed to buy Knowhow Cloud. I paid a deposit for it but never bothered registering for it in the end. I kept getting annoying pop up reminders to register for the cloud storage space, so I uninstalled it in the end. Otherwise I've enjoyed my visits to PC World.

Great service from Tickets.ie I ordered a Moderat ticket for the Button Factory in the afternoon and it was delivered by post the next day by 10am.

Feeney's Cafe, Salthill - I still think they give the best value for a breakfast.

Bus Eireann - Terrible service, late buses, queue hopping and an annoying website.
The same goes for Irish Rail with a website worse than BE.

I'm the exact same with Knowhow, just forgot about it in the end. There's loads of other places to back up your files. I posted earlier in the thread (back around July actually!) about the excellent service I got in Curry's in Limerick. Massive thumbs up here for them

I'm actually going to stand up for IE here, I use the train a good bit and it's hardly been late in the last few years. It was late going from Kerry to Cork earlier this year because the level crossing broke down, which in fairness wasn't their fault and they constantly kept us informed of what was happening, offered us a refund on tickets, in general handled a service blip very well.

However their website isn't great, having to verify by visa EVERY time you book is infuriating, and I notice they try and link in to a savings scheme which costs €12 a month and trying to pass it off as their own. Also, the fares are extortion, highly embarrassing compared to the rest of Europe, especially seeing as the trains don't even run in large swathes of the country (well done, 1960s Ireland)! It was over ten years ago now but I remember getting a train in Portugal for around €2! When you consider what train travel can be (Japan) and how it's a very good, sustainable form of transport, it's a shame we can't do better.

But to give them credit, if you go back even ten or fifteen years (or to when the train drivers were on strike for around twenty years and there was no service at all) they've come on in leaps and bounds.

Bus Eireann, tho, they're just awful. New buses are very uncomfortable too!

Lyrical

Dell I have had a few problems over the years regarding laptops,pcs etc found their customer service to be friendly,patient and helpful.They didn't fob me off on the phone when I had a problem that they couldn't fix over the phone .My Laptop is vital for me to have for college and the technician was out the next morning to fix it as promised.

02 Twice they've rang me up with offers.I politely told them before they began if they have any offers I wont be availing of them.So get the whole spiel about this offer been the best since slice bread.Politely declined the first time I had to explain to the operator why I wasn't and he kept going on at me to avail of it became very pushy and I kept my stance till he let out a sigh and hung up.

Second time the same got told the deal said I wasn't interested kept pushing I told her I lived near an 02 store and let me think about it if I decided to go with it (which I wasn't) I'd set everything up there.She said I had to sign up on the phone this offer wasn't available in store etc etc eventually she hung up.

Eircom I rang them up when I had a problem with my modem,he made out it was the telephone cable was faulty since it was in the sitting room and connecting the modem to the phone port was causing the slow speeds.So he told me to unplug everything and plug the modem directly into the phone port however the problem still existed.So I rang them back again luckily I got a different operator who said there was a problem with these type of modems and all it needed was a firmware update after an hour and a half between phone calls etc all it took was 5 minutes to fix the problem.

Sky I dunno if I caught someone at the wrong time but I rang up to ask if I was eligible for a free sky + box as they were running an offer at the time.He came across as abrupt and rude on the phone haven't rang them since hope it was just a once off.

I was always find it funny when you ring up and how much perkier the operator voice sounds when they find out you're buying something .

Hbh28

I've been a customer of Vodafone for over 15 years, they are the only mobile provider I've ever had. However not for long because I'm moving mobile providers forthwith for the following reasons:
Deducting credit for no reasons - not a euro or two but full top ups of over 25e
You call to find out why, wait on hold for approximately 15 minutes to be told their customer service representatives can't assist you as it takes 8-12 hours got their system to update
Their customer service representatives then promise to call you to explain once their system had updated but the calls never come.
This is not a one-off, this has happened to me 3 times over the last 3 months!!!
I have sent emails to them requesting a response to my queries and surprise surprise no response!!!
I'd like to know if I'm alone in my experiences or if anyone had encountered such issues as these with Vodafone ... Please reply

Lucena

Hbh28 wrote: »

I've been a customer of Vodafone for over 15 years, they are the only mobile provider I've ever had. However not for long because I'm moving mobile providers forthwith for the following reasons:
Deducting credit for no reasons - not a euro or two but full top ups of over 25e
You call to find out why, wait on hold for approximately 15 minutes to be told their customer service representatives can't assist you as it takes 8-12 hours got their system to update
Their customer service representatives then promise to call you to explain once their system had updated but the calls never come.
This is not a one-off, this has happened to me 3 times over the last 3 months!!!
I have sent emails to them requesting a response to my queries and surprise surprise no response!!!
I'd like to know if I'm alone in my experiences or if anyone had encountered such issues as these with Vodafone ... Please reply

Have you tried the "Talk to Vodafone" page?

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

PeteK*

Woodies DIY M1 Retail Park Drogheda

Bought a plant on a stand showing a price 66% cheaper than the price on the plant.
It scanned the bigger price, I said what I saw, and they edited it without a quibble.

Not sure if the price was right or wrong. It wasn't the only plant of its kind on the stand.

Rebelheart

What on earth is going on in that store in Ballymun? Today was my fourth visit to it.
I went looking for somebody to give me advice on a product. As I had a bad experience finding somebody before, I decided to time how long it took me to encounter an IKEA employee who wasn't on a till: 13 minutes. Why is IKEA management so mean when it comes to employing the necessary number of staff? It should not be a burden to go shopping there.

On each of my four occasions I have had to endure entirely unnecessary queues at the checkout while numerous checkouts remain closed in the face of consistently large queues. In most shops in Ireland, the management will have the respect to open a closed till to facilitate customers. Today, I had a paltry five goods in my hands, totaling about €150. People in front of me had trolleys of stuff. I looked for a "10 items or fewer" till but no such thing existed. I put the five products on a nearby display and walked out in the knowledge that I can get the required products elsewhere in Dublin, and an infinitely more respectful customer service.

Are these ignored queues at checkouts and this chronic understaffing simply a case of arrogance by IKEA management in Ireland? Or is it a matter of myopic meanness with IKEA trying to be the Ryanair of the retail world?

Either way, I'm not inclined to return and will suggest alternative businesses to people who try to inveigle me into going to IKEA.

/rant over.

---

What has been your experience of the staffing levels and queues in IKEA?

ABajaninCork

Not great. But that's in the UK. The thing with the tills is the most annoying part. That was why I never went to Ikea if I could possibly help it, even though I lived a 5 minute drive from it.

I usually dash in about 11.45pm, pick up what I need and run back out again!

galwayjohn89

Good

Never had any issues with IKEA. Always found staff when needed. Queues for checkout haven't been to bad for what they are.

Phoenix3

I have to say, I find staff levels more than adequate when I factor in the low prices that Ikea trade at compared to what we had to deal with before their arrival on our land.

Chattastrophe!

Poor

I thought the whole point of IKEA was that it's meant to be pretty much self-service.

If I was looking to buy something where I knew was going to need assistance and advice from staff, IKEA is not the place I'd go. But I think it's fantastic for what it is.

I think your expectations may be too high. Their selling points are their prices and the convenience - not their customer service.

wmpdd3

I do think of it as a lidl or aldi job.

I had one of those high chairs with the faulty straps. I called 4 times they took my details but no replacement straps arrived. I then called to day I'd be retuning the high chair, they said 'fine, but it would have to be to the Belfast store!

I couldn't imagine buying a kitchen there without any help. Sofa maybe.

dan1895

Lack of staff equates to worst customer service in Ireland? They could always up their prices to support more checkout staff I suppose.

mel.b

I was in Ikea last Sat for pretty much the entire afternoon and no trouble finding staff members on the floor on several occasions. Yes, i might had had to wait a few mites while they were with someone else, but i got someone to print me out a sheet when they were all gone, help lifting a big heavy item off the shelf and someone to push my second trolley to the checkouts.

The checkouts though was another story it took me an hour from lining up to get out the door. First just the mega wait at the chechouts. Then i had to wait for someone to help me to the car with all my stuff. While waiting for him i realised i had been charged twice for several items. I asked a staff member who was manning the self service checkouts who told me i had to go to customer service for a refund. When the guy to help me to the car arrives, i told him i needed a refund first. He managed to track down a supervisor, so i didn't have to go to customer service with my massive trolley, but i'd say it took her 20min to get to me. I then had to wait again for the guy to come back to help me finally out to the car.

And sadly i am contemplating goinng back tomorrow to do it again as the billy bookcases i got are too big for the space. Unfortunatley i can't return them as i have opened the boxes so i have to fork out more money