your worst customer service experience?

[choate]

The thread about Razer products made me think of this but I was curious as to other "nightmare" experiences. I've worked in banks as a personal banker, a call center and understand things happen but some are just plain awful so I thought I'd share mine that happened about two years ago but it takes the cake.

THE worst experience I've ever had with any customer service hands down. I switched from ATT to Verizon and noticed my data use was much higher and something on my phone was constantly trying to upload and wouldn't stop and draining my battery. Called them, they got me to Tech. Very rude person after a 20 min hold said restart my phone and she was going to end the call. So I ask that fixes it? and she says I don't know but since you are on the phone it ends our call. Fine I restarted it but wasn't happy already. It did Nothing. Called back the next day, and got the exact same thing which I told them I've done this once already but we did it again. It did nothing. So 3rd call, and the guy says let me get you to Tech and I'm like no can you look at my account notes, I've already done this same thing twice. He looks, says oh Mr. Choate I see that, I'm so sorry your phone must be defective, you need to go into the store where you bought it for a warrenty claim and new phone.

I'm thinking ok whatever so I go into Best Buy, they tell me I need to see the Samsung Rep so I waited for that, then when I get the Rep to look over my phone she says there is nothing wrong with your phone, your Verizon Cloud is continuously trying to upload your contacts, failing and trying again and again thus burning up your data. She disabled Verizon Cloud and enabled Google Cloud so I called Verizon back to ask for a refund on my data overage. Why they couldn't look into their Cloud is beyond me, the Samsung Rep fixed that for me. They obliged for a data overage refund, but also instructed me to turn off mobile data when I don't want it to be used and avoid future unsuspecting data charges so I did that.

Then, all of a sudden I couldn't get or send picture messages or videos when on Wifi which I was told I don't need mobile data to do so I again called back Verizon and explained the situation now. They said I needed Tech, on hold with Tech, did a phone restart (yes again), it didn't fix it and still couldn't receive pics so I had to call back again and they tried once again to get me to Tech, then said I needed to go in the store for a new phone under warranty. I almost completely lost it at this point and did go off on them explaining I have already done all of this, multiple times! After an hour hold to get an "engineer" he comes on and explains in 45 seconds if you don't have your mobile data enabled, you won't be able to receive pics and videos even at home on Wifi since you don't have Wifi with Verizon. It was as simple as that but I wasted almost an entire Saturday dealing with it. I've never had any data or other pic sending issues since either. The end. What's your worst story dealing with Customer Service?

 

[DHG1078]

@13COBRA doesn't send me cars for free.

Worst one recently was groupon banned me and threatened further action if I continued to try to buy stuff from them, for trying to buy something from them.

 

[03Sssnake]

@13COBRA doesn't send me cars for free.

Worst one recently was groupon banned me and threatened further action if I continued to try to buy stuff from them, for trying to buy something from them.

I am still waiting on my 95 Escort GT track car.

 

[Skitzerman]

That's pretty bad. I'm beginning to think that there is only a small percentage of people that really know what the **** is going on. The agg you went through is a lot more than I could handle.

 

[Brutal Metal]

Publix deli pretty much every visit.

 

[Buckwheat 1]

Dunkin' Dounuts basically every day. Got an ice coffee a couple weeks ago. "Would you like a hot cup" I say sure and then he whacks me for .27 cents for the cup.

 

[DHG1078]

Dunkin' Dounuts basically every day. Got an ice coffee a couple weeks ago. "Would you like a hot cup" I say sure and then he whacks me for .27 cents for the cup.

What is a hot cup? or did they put your ice coffee in the foam cups for hot drinks?

 

[Buckwheat 1]

What is a hot cup? or did they put your ice coffee in the foam cups for hot drinks?

Yes, The ice coffee comes in a plastic cup. People ask for a second insulated hot cup to keep it cold.

 

[DJAMiller]

Comcast is by FAR the absolute worst company I have ever dealt with. I'm stuck with Comcast where I live, I've vowed to never use them again once I move though. I literally can't even put my frustration with Comcast into words...

 

[Screw-Rice]

I've had a few but one of the most aggravating was from Xfinity. New house and get them lined up to install service on move in day.

Move in day, guy shows up 2 hours early while I'm trying to move in a fridge and haven't unloaded the TV or modem. Told him he needs to come back in the window I arranged. He never comes back. Call later that day and say I need to wait a few days for reschedule.

Different guy shows up four days later, install goes fine, had to run it to the junction a few houses down. Scheduled bury crew for the next week to bury the line. 3 weeks later bury crew just strolls into my yard, found them when I came home. They trenched through my yard and irrigation like idiots. Exposed a bunch of rocks, dirt and destroyed my grass. Didn't notice until after when they just up and left. Which made it really fun with an 8 week old puppy trying to eat everything.

Turn on the TV and these morons managed to cut the line somewhere while burying. Call to complain, and they tell me it'll be a week to get a tech out. At this point I'm pissed, text the installer (he left me his number if I had issues) and he had to run a new line the next day, while I repaired my irrigation.

Once that was functioning again, call retentions to demand a credit for the damage to my yard and shitty job they did. After arguing for an hour they gave me a $100 credit. Couple months later I remember about it, and after looking never saw any credit. Called again, this time I was told it was pending and should be approved within a week. Sounds like BS.

So I call again the next day, and the agent slips that the investigator denied the claim after their inspection. I asked what inspector, they explained someone came out to verify the damage, found no problems. This sent me through the roof, asked them how this took place when I have a locked gate (threw lock on after bury crew) and cameras at my house. Just repeated the inspector denied the claim. Mind you the agent the day before said it was pending, when it was obviously denied.

Go to retentions again, after an hour on hold, explained all the issues as she went through the notes and re explained all the run around. At this point, she straight up hangs up on me. Called back and after another hold got an agent that told me that was too bad and nothing they could do. Before this experience, they were typically halfway decent when it came to service.

Still stuck with these morons as my only option is DSL at 25MB and not going back to what amounts to string and tin cups.

 

[Tom's_03SVT]

Back in 2003 when the Iraq war kicked off I went to a subway restaurant near the base in my uniform. The pimple faced 18 yr old kid making the sandwiches at the time refused me service because "he didn't support the military or the war". I asked to see the manager and he fired the kid on the spot and bought me lunch.

 

[Booky]

The wife and I closed her account for Time Warner Cable/Internet and I opened a new account with Spectrum (because Spectrum bought out TWC).

Everything sounded good on the phone and they were sending me the new equipment (DVR and modem/router).

A week goes by and No new equipment showing up. I call Spectrum and they said there was a mistake and I needed to go to the "local" store and pick the equipment up myself. The closest store is 40 minutes away.

So I make the 40 minute drive to the store after work and they give me the new equipment. I get home, hook it all up. The modem/router works but the DVR does not work. The lights would not even come on.

So I make the 40 minute drive to the store the next day after work again, turn in the broken DVR, tell them they have to test the new DVR before I leave, it lights up and I am off to go hook it up at home.
I get home, hook it up, it lights up, but no channels.

I sit on the phone with Spectrum for about an hour before they realize I did not get the correct DVR for my package. I told them send out a Tech. as I am not making that trip again.

I also asked them why our email account was no longer working. They told me that in order for them to transfer the email account (which I use for everything) we (the wife and I both) need to go to the "local" store and fill out a request form in order to transfer the email account from my wife's TWC account to my Spectrum account. I asked if there was any other way to do this and they told me No.

That Saturday, the wife and I made the 40 minute drive to the Spectrum store and asked to fill out the form. The Spectrum store employees, including the manager had no idea what the hell I was talking about.
I actually had to call Spectrum, put my phone on speaker, and have the Spectrum phone person explain what was needed to the store manager.
The manager told the Spectrum tech. that they had no such forms.
The manager finally had wife and I fill out an old outdated TWC form and the store faxed it to the Spectrum main office.

The tech showed up that week and hooked up the correct DVR so we could now watch TV again.

So the only thing that was still not working was our email. I called a couple times, asking for tier 3 people to talk to as nobody knew what the hell I was talking about. Finally, I got a guy who could get the email account transfered and working. He told me that the wife and I had to go to a "local" store and fill out a form.
I informed him that we already did that and it was faxed to the main office by the manager of the local store.
He did some checking and there was nothing documenting this.

Luckily, I asked for the form after they faxed it, so I had the original at home with me, just in case something like this happened.
I took the form to work, scanned it into a PDF form and sent it to the tech. by email. As soon as he received the email, he got our email account up and running.

So it ended up being about 3 weeks of pure frustration just to make the switch from TWC to Spectrum. FML

 

[DHG1078]

And these are the companies lobbying for net neutrality change.

 

[Snake Pliskin]

BEWARE LOWES WARRANTIES.

We picked up a new Samsung washer and dryer in June. We thought it wise to add the 5 year major appliance warranty because our machines get a workout. The washer was recalled by Samsung 6 months after we bought it and the process was for us to go buy a new one just like it and Lowes would bring the new one and return the recalled one. Which they did and we are still waiting on our refund from Samsung. The trouble started when we contacted lowes about transferring the remaining 4.5 years left on the 5 year warranty to the replacement washer.The bottom line is that they will absolutely not do this. The warranty was a bundled package for both appliances thus a prorated refund would also remove the warranty from the dryer and render it ineligible for warranty because it was > 30 days from when it was purchased. So basically the warranty on washer no longer exists which equates to a prorated loss of roughly $90.00 to me. I would have to buy a new 5 year warranty for the replacement washer. Shady business practice IMO. They did offer me a $25 sorry we pissed you off gift card. The thing that bothers me the most is Lowes refusal to simply make this right. I know it's not impossible. So despite the fact that I always liked shopping there and have spent well in excess of $20k at that store over the past 15 years I am forced to fire them in favor of Home Depot. All this for roughly 90-25= $65. I hope they have a good time with that $65 they took from me. I was set to buy from there forever.
This issue was not with the Greer location. It was with Lowes corporation.
So I would recommend :
- Shop somewhere other than Lowes
- Don't bundle package warranties on appliances or other large purchase.
- Remember customer service is still important even after they have your'e money.
- Read reviews and good luck with whomever you choose to do business with in the future.

 

[jeffh81]

Kid in drive thru window at starbucks mocked me over the intercom. He then screwed up my drink and ran off for 5 minutes with my drink and money. At this point i stuck my head in the window looking for him and the other workers saw me and got him over there. He apologized and i told him "i was tired of playing games with him and make my coffee". At that point he mumbles something and got another worker to correct it and gives it to me.
I had been in line for a total of 30 minutes and lost my patience and yelled " you are an ignorant ass fool and thats why you cant even make a coffee right"

 

[DHG1078]

Kid in drive thru window at starbucks mocked me over the intercom

Clearly we are missing a huge part of the story.

 

[BigPoppa]

Pretty much any fast food restaurant.

Due to our busy schedules, we get a lot of takeout and it seems more often than not, they screw up the order (happened again last night).

Then they want you to drive back so they can fix it. I told my wife next time they say that, tell them to drive it out to us instead since we shouldn't have to waste our money on gas for their mistake and tell them if that is unsatisfactory, we can just dispute the charge with our bank and the whole transaction will be reversed.

I actually had that happen with Wal-Mart. We bought some meat to cook for dinner and when we got home and opened the package, the meat smelled rancid. Obviously it was one of those deals where it got left on a shelf or up at the front and they put it back in the meat case (yes, that happens more than you realize).

When I took the meat back and asked for a refund, they refused. Having been grossed out, I didn't want to exchange it for more meat from their questionable meat market. They wouldn't refund the 10 bucks, so I called Bank of America and disputed the charge. BoA doesn't separate out part of a transaction, so they reversed the entire charge of about $200 in groceries we had bought. Sorry Wal-Mart, should have read your card processing agreement. $200 in lost product for $10 in no sale.

It was after that I realized to pay for everything with my debit card as they have great consumer protection.

 

[jeffh81]

Clearly we are missing a huge part of the story.

Sorry. I am slow when ordering my drinks to make sure i get it right. The little bastard repeated it back to me like i was mentally slow

 

[DHG1078]

Pretty much any fast food restaurant.

Due to our busy schedules, we get a lot of takeout and it seems more often than not, they screw up the order (happened again last night).

Then they want you to drive back so they can fix it. I told my wife next time they say that, tell them to drive it out to us instead since we shouldn't have to waste our money on gas for their mistake and tell them if that is unsatisfactory, we can just dispute the charge with our bank and the whole transaction will be reversed.

I don't think any fast food place that doesn't do delivery has insurance covering employees to drive around. I could be mistaken but its a big liability. Most of the day they usually have skeleton crews as well.

When I managed fast food, I couldn't leave the expediting counter. Kids just don't know how to pay attention. I swear, it only takes one second of stepping away from the counter before it falls apart.

 

[Buckwheat 1]

Sorry. I am slow when ordering my drinks to make sure i get it right. The little bastard repeated it back to me like i was mentally slow

At a couple of the Dunkin's. They repeat your coffee order back to you wrong on purpose. Some times more that 3 times. More than once I have said "**** you" and just went to a different location.