The worst service you've ever received?

Should have gone for the toyota instead.
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Thing is, From actually owning a 2nd hand Toyota, (LC80 4.2TD) I do not really understand how such items even exist! They are so frelling (You know which TV shows I likle then! ;) )good I cannot actually understand why anybody would ever want to sell one once they have one in their possession in the first place! (I guess I am grateful for other peoples incomprehensible behaviour, cos I would never be able to afford one othewise!)! :confused:
 
I left EDF energy last year to move to Npower.

Npower were supposed to sent my opening meter reading to EDF to close the account.


Turns out they didn't, six months later we get a threatening letter saying if we don't pay 350 quid they'll send the debt collection guys round

Npower can go poke it!
 
Dis86 said:
Mine was in a Chiquito's 'restaurant'. Went in, waited 5 mins for a table even though the place was half empty. Waited another 20 mins for waiter to take order. 1 hour later, no food. A few people had come in after us and managed to get served, i even noticed the table next to us came in 25 mins after we did and ordered the same thing as us and got served.
Called a waiter over to ask wtf was going on. Waiter tried to argue and say the people next to us had come in only 20 mins after us. I explained he was missing the point...demanded to speak to the manager. Manager shows up (by this point still don't have my food) and apologises explaining that one of their chefs had walked out and so they were running behind. I pointed out that still didn't explain why people that had come in quite some time after me had been served and I hadn't.
Manager disappears to the kitchens. 20 mins later food arrives. It's the wrong stuff. Waiter again tries to argue except fortunately they print a receipt when you order which I rammed in his face.
Another 20 mins later correct food arrives. Eat it, go to pay and manager offers 10% discount. I tell him for that insult he can go get ****** and walk out without paying. Not strictly the right thing to do but tough.
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I might be making this up, but I am sure there is a precedent that allows you to pay exactly what you think the meal is worth!

Quick google brings this up..

Poor restaurant food quality
If the problem is the quality of the food rather than the service and it is so poor as to be a breach of contract, again you are entitled to reduce the bill or refuse to pay. However, if you are going to do this you need to tell the waiter at the time the food is served or if you first taste it. The restaurant is entitled to have the opportunity of putting good the problem.
Paying 'under protest'
If you do not like making a fuss or you are with a party and do not want to upset the atmosphere, you can always pay 'under protest' and write on the back of the bill that you are doing so. This gives you the chance of claiming against the restaurant at a later date. Usually only worth it if you are with a big party.
Free meals
It is a criminal offence on your part to go into a restaurant and order a meal with the intention of not paying for it. Restaurants often wrongly believe this means you have to pay for a meal whatever the circumstances. This is not the case. So long as you have a genuine reason for not paying and you leave your name and address, you have not acted in any way dishonestly.
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robgmun said:
That's rare as I have had the need to return stuff to Amazon all the time and it's been perfect every single time
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I've had problems with a 'marketplace' seller on Amazon before. Ended up having to go through their complaints procedure to get a refund as the company in question had sent me the wrong item and even after I posted it back they refused to refund me saying they never received it.

Items bought from Amazon themselves on the other hand, no problems ever with refund/replacements.
 
BT when setting up a line for a business (and transferring an existing number)

Complete nightmare from beginning to end. In 3 weeks went without a phone, not even call direct, for 6 days. Nearly killed the business off before it started and, ironically, trying to speak to them was a pain in the arse.
 
Halfmad said:
BT broadband, when we first moved house we had a huge number of issues with it cutting out constantly due to line noise, they constantly blamed internal wiring. After 30+calls to indian call centres, 3 home hubs and 9 engineer visits (including checking the cabling in the house 3 times) they finally found a fault at the exchange.

I must have wasted well over 40 hours + on the phone, following pointless scripts and resetting my home hub to default over and over again. One of the calls lasted over 2 hours.
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Same for me. BT are terrible. I've also had a 2 hour call which solved nothing.
 
Customer service is why places like Comet go to the wall and John Lewis thrive.

I have too many examples of poor customer service to list but the only company that I never managed to get a resolution with was O2. So much so that if they were the only telecoms company left, I would opt for using two empty beans cans and a length of string.
 
DPD

trying to get the 'free' nintendo wii i was entitled to delivered on my contract phone became a bigger quest than a zelda mission.
 
Nothing really comes to mind personally but I saw an awesome customer service fail and subsequent customer breakdown while waiting at the Delta terminal of JFK.

Basically they completely changed the gate that a couple of planes were departing from to one where you needed to get a transit bus to, without actually announcing anything. Fortunately I noticed and arrived at the gate transit where a sign was up saying a bus would come every 20 minutes - OK cool bro no worries I've got 2 hours to get there.

Lady goes up to the terminal and say "Hey I've been waiting about 30 minutes, it is really important that I get this plane (one that leaves in about 90 minutes) as I have a business meeting for one day only"

Customer service "Ok, the bus should be here shortly and it's only a 10 minute ride, just take a seat"

30 minutes pass.

Lady: "Hi, I'm a little concerned as you said the bus would be here?

C/S: "Don't worry it'll be right here, just take a seat"

30 minutes pass

Lady: "Ok I'm really starting to worry now, I MUST get this flight - is there another way I can get to the gate?"

C/S: "Don't worry it'll be right here, it's on its way"

15 minutes pass

Lady (starting to rage): "OK this is ridiculous, the buses are supposed to come every 20 minutes, it has been almost 2 hours and you keep telling me it's on its way. I MUST GET THIS FLIGHT IT IS VERY IMPORTANT"

C/S: (looking more disinterested): "Hold on ma'am the bus will be here shortly"

The next 15 minutes are spent with Lady getting more and more frantic, asking to speak to supervisors, managers - gets nothing other than a blank face from the C/S person. Starting to stamp feet, scream and shout that they are incompetent, useless and she has been waiting for almost 2 hours and you keep telling me the bus will be here shortly FUUUUUUUU

Sign then changes to show her flight has departed - she goes absolutely nuclear at the attendants who just say "Sorry there's nothing we can do", no alternative flight offers, refunds, nothing :D

Then the bus turns up and her rage-face is incredible - it was pretty entertaining although a little worrying for me as I only got to my gate about 15 minutes before departure.

Delta really are a POS :p
 
Santander, just rude and difficult to get a straight answer out of, only needed the account for a few months but no it took a month to open then I got quizzed every week what it was for on the phone. Then they had the cheek to sell my details to several life insurance policies...

O2 annoy me just because you can't pay off less than a quid of a final owed balance online, so they owe me 83p.

Southern electric tried to bill me and a mate £330 for gas used between june and november, turned out our meter reading (and the one they then took) were less than the moving in meter reading, still had to pay £20 and another £20 for the phone calls to that incompetent waste of space.

Virgin media managed to not listen at all to our new address/phone number in 3 house moves. Bit of a pain when no internet is found for all that time.

Worst for me was waiting for a competitor of here to send me an mp3 player in 2005, paid £30, took 3 months to send it! Even then they weren't in any way apologetic other than "yeah you're 16 what are you going to do about it".... Shop some where else I say.
 
GT Interactive (computer games publisher, now gone out of business, AJAHAHHAHAHAH **** you :D)

I bought Unreal for PC 15 years ago, it would crash on startup on my computer. Phoned up their support line (0870 natch) for 20mins, gave up waiting. Tried again later, after over an HOUR on hold some french girl finally answered, and I had to be transferred as she couldn't help me - another 20min wait to speak to somebody.

After all that, they told me that it was a known issue with Cyrix cpus that could only be fixed by a patch. I asked if they could send me it on a disk, which they refused. They said my options were to:
a) Find somebody with the internet to download it (I didn't know anyone with the internet)
b) Wait for it to appear on a magazine cover disk (yeah, cos that's gonna be really easy to find out.....)

In the end my approach was twofold:
1) I wrote to PC Zone, who published my letter and put the patch on a coverdisk for me, but that took at least a couple of months due to lead times
2) In the meantime I went to a net cafe and downloaded it onto floppy disks. This took a while as the net cafe connection was a (shared) ISDN line.

I know in the modern age, having to download a software patch doesn't seem like a big deal but back then the majority of people did not have an internet connection at home (in fact I'd literally never used the internet). I was not best pleased to spend £30 on a game and find it didn't work, then waste about 2hrs on premium rate phonecalls only to then have to go and spend £5/hr in a net cafe to get it working.
 
Argos on a few occasions. Ordered goods that were in stock on the website and then had to wait months for delivery.
 
HangTime said:
GT Interactive (computer games publisher, now gone out of business, AJAHAHHAHAHAH **** you :D)

I bought Unreal for PC 15 years ago, it would crash on startup on my computer. Phoned up their support line (0870 natch) for 20mins, gave up waiting. Tried again later, after over an HOUR on hold some french girl finally answered, and I had to be transferred as she couldn't help me - another 20min wait to speak to somebody.

After all that, they told me that it was a known issue with Cyrix cpus that could only be fixed by a patch. I asked if they could send me it on a disk, which they refused. They said my options were to:
a) Find somebody with the internet to download it (I didn't know anyone with the internet)
b) Wait for it to appear on a magazine cover disk (yeah, cos that's gonna be really easy to find out.....)

In the end my approach was twofold:
1) I wrote to PC Zone, who published my letter and put the patch on a coverdisk for me, but that took at least a couple of months due to lead times
2) In the meantime I went to a net cafe and downloaded it onto floppy disks. This took a while as the net cafe connection was a (shared) ISDN line.

I know in the modern age, having to download a software patch doesn't seem like a big deal but back then the majority of people did not have an internet connection at home (in fact I'd literally never used the internet). I was not best pleased to spend £30 on a game and find it didn't work, then waste about 2hrs on premium rate phonecalls only to then have to go and spend £5/hr in a net cafe to get it working.
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I was playing driver tonight. Holy mother of God that game can be frustrating!
 
To lighten the mood of the thread a bit. I've had absolutely fantastic customer service from both Logitech and EVGA. Brilliant RMA service, I only buy EVGA cards now
 
Mark A said:
Argos on a few occasions. Ordered goods that were in stock on the website and then had to wait months for delivery.
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I once got an item from Argos. Got it home and it was faulty. Took it back and they hadn't got one in stock and none at nearby stores but they'd have one delivered to the store in 2 days and text me when it arrived. I didn't mind this as I worked across the road and didn't need it immediately so it was no big deal.

2 days later I get a text from them. The item is in stock and reserved, just need to take the number to CS desk. So I go in on my break, they bring the item and the box looks very similar so I ask them to open and inspect it.

Guess what, it's the faulty item I took back. Their excuse was that the fault ticket 'must have fallen off so a member of staff put it back on the shelf and re-entered it on the stock listing'. My reply to that is that I know they have a specific caged area for returns so that was nonsense.

I ended up calling their HQ and after a few words regarding the standards of their staff training they delivered the item to my house along with vouchers to the value of the item I bought, which got spent on cheap camping equipment as festival season was coming up. :)
 
Steam digital sales. God knows why people praise them as they are scum. Bought a new game, they don't do many demos anymore. Had problems with it and support never replied. Tried to get a refund and no joy.

Customer service is non existent and if you do a credit card charge back they ban your whole account. How is that even legal? Remove the game for sure, but ban access to all other titles that you paid for?! How on earth can they get away with that?! If you did a charge back against a brick and mortars shop in town, they wouldn't come round your house and take away anything else you may have paid for in the past!
 
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