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

endofrainbow

Oxendales - a nightmare to deal with : Placed an order a few weeks ago, item arrived but was obviously incorrectly labelled/sized. I rang them immediately and the told me they would arrange collection of item and send me out correct size. Item was collected but after 5 days when there was no sign of replacement, I called and was told *oh she forgot to re-order it for you *. Card had already been debited.

Rep offered to send it by express post (at no charge to me) - it arrived 2 days later, it was AGAIN incorrectly labelled AND I was charged for express delivery plus standard delivery. All the while the original amount was pending in my bank account.

I am still waiting for the item to be collected so it will probably be another 10 days before my money is refunded.

Virtanen

Three, one of the worst companies I have ever had the mispleasure of dealing with, and apologies in advance for the rant

Bought a phone through them, which developed a fault after just over 6 months. Sent it for repair, and it was returned, but shortly afterwards the fault reappeared. I asked for a replacement, and was told they were only issued after three failed repairs. That in itself is absolutely ridiculous, if they can't fix it the first time what makes them think they'll be any more successful the second time around?

I should also point out that Fonemenders, the company they used, have since gone out of business. Whether or not that's a reflection on their quality I can't say, but it's hard to believe it's a coincidence

Anyway I sent it for repair again, and yet again the fault reoccurred after a while. Now before the fault returned, I had my phone unlocked by Three so I could move to another network. However, because I did this, they claimed that I had to pay for the 3rd repair :mad:

Now unless I'm mistaken about this, they are the vendor in this case, and the fact I had my phone unlocked by them shouldn't have made a difference? I contacted the NCA about this, but haven't received any reply from them

So instead of dealing with this lot of money-scroungers who will do anything to scrape as much money out of their customers as possible, I went direct to Sony about the issue, and were very helpful. I sent them the faulty phone last Monday, and today I received a replacement, which hopefully will remain fault-free

But Three are one of the worst companies I have ever encountered for customer service and business practices, and I would discourage anyone from having anything to do with them

Fey!

onlineweb wrote: »

Been to Mothercare a few times over the last month. I've no idea if the staff receive training but their customer service is appalling.

Has anybody had a similar experience of bad customer service?

pwurple wrote: »

Mothercare in cork is also beyond obnoxious. You feel like a pillock asking staff for any product in there... They are always superbusy chatting to eachother. They are all "that's not my area" or "dunno, might be in stock next week" or anything they can come up with to fob you off. Cannot stand their attitude.

Thankfully Mothercare in Galway is very good. The girl we usually deal with in there is consistently pleasant and efficient, and makes the trips into the shop very quick (handy when you have a toddler in tow).

Loro78

Just experienced very frustrating story with just eat.ie, too. Ordered food through their website, came up as order accepted, premises approx 10 or 15 mins drive from here. Got a call from JE.ie shortly after saying restaurant refused to deliver cos of distance, but money won't be refunded until 5 to 10 days! WTF? I'm too broke to pay out on takeaway double tonight, even if I get one half back in ten days. No good. Will never, ever use justeat.ie again, ever! First and last time I ordered through them...

Paris Hong

I think PayPal is too complicated to handle any problems . Especially , when you file a dispute for the items brought from Ebay,they will take a long time to deal with a disputation.

reddevilfan

My Sister passed on this week.... we had contacted several Undertakers for quotes to bury my Sister.

I then got a call from a family friend who said she had a number for a Funeral Director who was very reasonable.

We contacted Pat McGill from Buncloady in Wexford.....

The quote we got was €3/4000 cheaper then anywhere else. I would highly recommend him should you ever need

PM me for more Details

jonnny68

I must commend the online Adidas customer service, my order was delayed and they were very apologetic and sent me a discount code plus refunded the postage I paid and again apologised for the inconvenience.

More companies should take a leaf out of their book.

PeteK*

reddevilfan wrote: »

My Sister passed on this week.... we had contacted several Undertakers for quotes to bury my Sister.

I then got a call from a family friend who said she had a number for a Funeral Director who was very reasonable.

We contacted Pat McGill from Buncloady in Wexford.....

The quote we got was €3/4000 cheaper then anywhere else. I would highly recommend him should you ever need

PM me for more Details

Almost €4k cheaper? I'd have thought it would all cost less than that in total!

Sorry about your sister.

vandriver

Loro78 wrote: »

Just experienced very frustrating story with just eat.ie, too. Ordered food through their website, came up as order accepted, premises approx 10 or 15 mins drive from here. Got a call from JE.ie shortly after saying restaurant refused to deliver cos of distance, but money won't be refunded until 5 to 10 days! WTF? I'm too broke to pay out on takeaway double tonight, even if I get one half back in ten days. No good. Will never, ever use justeat.ie again, ever! First and last time I ordered through them...

The driver gets about 2 quid for the delivery.Would you work for half an hour for 2 quid?(2 quid less fuel of course).Also ,the restaurant has lost the driver for that amount of time while local orders may be backing up.
This isn't really in just eat's control.

The_Conductor

vandriver wrote: »

The driver gets about 2 quid for the delivery.Would you work for half an hour for 2 quid?(2 quid less fuel of course).Also ,the restaurant has lost the driver for that amount of time while local orders may be backing up.
This isn't really in just eat's control.

A 15 minute drive away?
Placing the order was being totally unreasonable imho.
While they shouldn't have accepted the order- and the refund process is too long- you were being silly placing an order from a restaurant so far away.
Justeat take a cut of the order- so the restaurant is operating on a wafer thin margin- when you factor delivery into the equation- anything out of the ordinary should be avoided.

A 15 minute drive away- sounds like a couple of miles?

vandriver

As a test,I set up a just eat account and set my area to Rathfarnham.The list of takeaways I could order from included one in Inchicore!(For out of Towners 5-7 miles and at least half an hour each way) .The question is though,who sets the delivery area?Is it just eat or the takeaway?

The_Conductor

vandriver wrote: »

As a test,I set up a just eat account and set my area to Rathfarnham.The list of takeaways I could order from included one in Inchicore!(For out of Towners 5-7 miles and at least half an hour each way) .The question is though,who sets the delivery area?Is it just eat or the takeaway?

Ditto here-

Lucan village- includes deliveries from:

Ballyfermot (several)
Cherryorchard (1)
Palmerstown (8)
Chapelizod (4)
Park West (where is Park West?) (1)
Rathcoole (2)
Leixlip (5)
Clondalkin (13)
Celbridge (3)
Inchicore (1)

In addition to a bewildering array of restaurants that actually claim to be located in Lucan or its general environs.

Depending on traffic- some of these could be over an hour away.

It claims there are 42 restaurants servicing Lucan village.......

charlie_says

UPC

Whilst the actual broadband service (the Horizon box is crap in fairness) they offer is excellent, their customer service is woeful.

They seem to not enter your details of an issue you have in their system so you have to go through it all again each time you call. Have been told conflicting things many times by their reps.

Have had to call back numerous times to get issues sorted with accounts and installation - onus is always on the customer to get things done.

I hate having to deal with them.

Three

Call center staff are terrible script <SNIP>, they can't seem to understand any issue unless it is specifically one on their script. Very frustrating to deal with.

PS I am always polite to call center staff - it's usually not their fault but poor management practices/ethos.

MOH

Good

vandriver wrote: »

The driver gets about 2 quid for the delivery.Would you work for half an hour for 2 quid?(2 quid less fuel of course).Also ,the restaurant has lost the driver for that amount of time while local orders may be backing up.
This isn't really in just eat's control.

Assuming it's either the restaurant or just-eat who sets the delivery area, the fault lies with one of them.

Plus just-eat could just pre-authorise the card and not actually deduct the amount until the restaurant has accepted the order.

That said, their T+Cs clearly highlight in red both the ordering and charging process, and the length of time refunds take. Still, that would put me off ever using them, I'd rather just deal direct with the takeaway.

L1011

Worst today: Revenue LPT "help"line (Abtran outsourcers I believe)
Best today: Revenue themselves when Abtran eventually realised that their SmartScript of "insist they're liable, demand 200 quid" didn't work.

ABajaninCork

Had two very embarrassing, but ultimately good experiences with Brennan's...

Saturday, a friend gave me two freshly caught and cooked lobsters for my tea. Had no crackers to bust the shells with. So - off I trotted to town, to see if I could get some. Found just the thing in Brennan's so I bought them. Got them home, prepared to crack open the first lobster, and the crackers fell apart in my hands! :eek:

Took them back to Brennan's yesterday who were very apologetic and immediately offered me another set. I also decided to buy a food cover (one of those net/lace things) as they were at a good price in the sale.

The crackers were fine. The food cover wasn't! Would open out fully, and wouldn't fold back either!! Of course, it had to go back, but I was very embarrassed to do so. Two items in as many days gone wrong...

Went back into the shop this morning. The assistant was charm itself and immediately offered me a replacement.

Great service, but if this goes wrong, I couldn't go back!!

clairet80

best ever customer service I ever received was in the Mill times hotel in Westport. I was at a function and my high heel broke...
this was bad, but made worse my the fact I dont drive and was thus stranded in Westport with a height differential between both feet of several inches.
I made my way to reception to call a taxi home and the wonderful receptionist asked me what shoe size i was, stating she had literally bought a new pair of shoes that evening and was not going to be wearing them after her shift was over.
I couldnt believe the trust and the good nature of that receptionist. suffice to say she got her shoes back immaculately, a card with a little tip and a box of chocolates. Amazing

lurker2000

My brother died 20 years ago. At that time my mother settled his affairs including going to our local AIB branch and officially closing his account, this involved bringing his death certificate etc and the money that was in his account was legally handed over to her.

My mother has never really got over his premature death but has kept the best side out ever since. Yesterday she received a letter from AIB addressed to my brother which she naturally opened. They are demanding €5 from him as his account was listed as overdrawn !!! Unbelievable !

They are actually chasing €5 after 20 years from someone that they should have a record of as no longer living!!!! It would cost them more in stamps/paper/time to send that letter, when you think of the write offs they have done over the last 6 years due to their lax lending during the boom times and they now chase the dead instead for a fiver....

Sam Mac

lurker2000 wrote: »

My brother died 20 years ago. At that time my mother settled his affairs including going to our local AIB branch and officially closing his account, this involved bringing his death certificate etc and the money that was in his account was legally handed over to her.

My mother has never really got over his premature death but has kept the best side out ever since. Yesterday she received a letter from AIB addressed to my brother which she naturally opened. They are demanding €5 from him as his account was listed as overdrawn !!! Unbelievable !

They are actually chasing €5 after 20 years from someone that they should have a record of as no longer living!!!! It would cost them more in stamps/paper/time to send that letter, when you think of the write offs they have done over the last 6 years due to their lax lending during the boom times and they now chase the dead instead for a fiver....

Not a very nice thing to receive, but are those letters not automatically printed/sent?

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

Littlefinger

Whoever decides on the Dunnes Money off vouchers needs their heads examined. I on average spend just over 50 euro a week there yet my money off vouchers are for €18 off when you spend 100 or more. Seriously how do they think I would ever spend over 100 when my weekly shopping is so low. And as for the reduced prices ones the only one I would actually use is for the milk. None of the others are for products I even buy there. It's nothing but a scam to get you to spend more. I thought the whole point of a value club card was to save money, but how am I going to save money when I would have to double my weekly spendings just to get some money off. I can't even throw in a nice top or pants or hell even a towel to bump it up because it has to be spent in the grocery department.

daveohdave

Littlefinger wrote: »

Seriously how do they think I would ever spend over 100 when my weekly shopping is so low.

Bulk buy non-perishables, ideally ones on offer. Isn't that what everyone does?

Littlefinger

daveohdave wrote: »

Bulk buy non-perishables, ideally ones on offer. Isn't that what everyone does?

I have enough of non - perishable items to last me about five years. Every other time the vouchers have been for 60 or 70 so was bulking up then

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Good

Littlefinger wrote: »

Whoever decides on the Dunnes Money off vouchers needs their heads examined. I on average spend just over 50 euro a week there yet my money off vouchers are for €18 off when you spend 100 or more. Seriously how do they think I would ever spend over 100 when my weekly shopping is so low. And as for the reduced prices ones the only one I would actually use is for the milk. None of the others are for products I even buy there. It's nothing but a scam to get you to spend more. I thought the whole point of a value club card was to save money, but how am I going to save money when I would have to double my weekly spendings just to get some money off. I can't even throw in a nice top or pants or hell even a towel to bump it up because it has to be spent in the grocery department.

Exactly the same here. Even with stocking up on items we don't really want the vouchers are no gain to us. It's just a ploy to try to get you to spend more. Loyalty scheme my eye!
They have all our spending habits and yet send money off vouchers for items we have never, and will never, buy. The Tesco vouchers seem much fairer - unfortunately we shop in Dunne's 90% of the time.

L1011

Littlefinger wrote: »

Whoever decides on the Dunnes Money off vouchers needs their heads examined.

They're trying to get you to increase your weekly spend, or return to your previous level if you've dropped off over time - its very much deliberate.

Littlefinger wrote: »

I thought the whole point of a value club card was to save money

No, its to get valuable information for Dunnes to data mine and sell.

Loyalty schemes are always for the benefit of the retailer, not the consumer.

athtrasna

Was in McGurk's golf last night. Couple in queue in front of me bought an expensive jacket. On the way out the door it set off the security alarm as the guy behind the counter had missed a tag in a pocket. He apologised and threw in a box of golf balls which I thought was a nice touch

gugleguy

Maplins: The ONLY Quadcopter seller who actually displays a List of Flying Precautions on the relevant shelf where the machines are stocked. No other Quadcopter dealer, large or small elsewhere in Dublin bothers to post such a notice.

boombang

Currys/PC World Jervis this lunchtime

Them: "Can I help you?"

Me: "Hi, I wanted to have a look at a Lenovo Yoga"

Them: "Sorry, they've all gone"

Me: "No problem, I'll just look at what else is here"

- drifting around I stumble upon Lenovo Yoga in about 2 minutes

daveohdave

PC World are woeful, they follow you around looking to help but then haven't a clue when you ask them anything beyond "how much".

Was it a ThinkPad or an IdeaPad you were looking for?

boombang

daveohdave wrote: »

PC World are woeful, they follow you around looking to help but then haven't a clue when you ask them anything beyond "how much".

Was it a ThinkPad or an IdeaPad you were looking for?

I just wanted to look at a 13.3 Yoga 2 rather than one of their more serious machines. I'm looking for i5 and the only have i3. However, it's grand as I only really needed to check the physical fit and finish and I'll buy online.

Regarding the shop itself, know they probably don't pay their staff much, but they had loads of staff in there and the one I spoke to clearly wasn't informed. Maybe the average customer isn't that informed either and it doesn't matter.