How long do you hold a grudge against online / offline retailers?

Forever. It's not a principle if it's easy. That said, my **** List is currently only BT, Talk Talk, n-Power and anything owned or started by Rupert Murdoch.
 
A local bike shop i live 2 mins walk from. I went in there and paid a deposit on a Thule bike rack which after weeks of excuses never arrived. Apparently it was at the other store but when i finally gave them an ultimatum they ended up buying it from another local shop :rolleyes: 6 years later i have never stepped foot in there.
 
Many many many years ago the nearest PC World to me in Stoke was in Manchester.
I rang up to see if they had got a certain graphics card and Ben said 'Yes'.
I told him I was coming from Stoke and it would take me an hour so could he make sure he put my name on one for when I got there, he agreed.
I arrived, asked for Ben and he told me they hadn't got one but he could sell me something else.

A couple of years later (still the 90s) we had our own PC World in Stoke and I wanted a Canon LIDE 200 scanner (!).
Simon the Manager confirmed he was looking at a pile of them so I arrived there in heavy traffic only to be told they hadn't got any.
That was the last time I bought anything from PC World.
 
Not many grudges but BT is one of those for me. Had a shocking issue dealing with them back around 2012. Oh, and Spark Energy along with the Letting Agent. Basically stitched up on an introductory expensive tariff that couldn't be switched for a period and then Spark blocked me from switching twice. It was a "backhander tariff" where obviously the letting agent was getting a kickback. Was basically double the price of other tariffs. Spark then tried to keep me as a customer by offering a "special price", which probably would have been competitive but by then they could have been cheaper for all I cared - I told them to stick their special price.
One final one. Vodafone stores I'd not deal with again either. Just sort it out online, renewals, purchases etc. Vodafone actually told me that (call or process online) although that was back in 2008 so maybe the stores are much better these days. Vodafone gave a refund and reduced tariff for quite a while as compensation for hassle, although it took a long complaint letter.
 
Forever.

I've not been messed around too many times. But then again, it's also literally been years since I bought anything new from an online store or high street store. So I've not given anyone the chance to screw me around. I've also been really lucky with the items I have bought in the past. Nothing ever goes wrong. But then again, my research is exhaustive before buying.

I did buy a new TV in 2017 from a local large NZ retailer on a Boxing Day sale that was 'due in stock any day now'.

Yep, of course it was. I did get it 3 weeks later and a store voucher after causing a huge scene with them. They did offer my money back but it was such a great deal that I didn't want the refund.

So, I'll still buy from them in the future, but only if I can walk out with the item THAT DAY.

I used to have epic battles with ISPs and would leave them in a heartbeat.

These days I won't engage in arguments anymore with companies with poor service. I simply leave. I do NOT sign up to anything that locks me into a contract. If your 'service' comes in the form of a 12 or 24 month contract, GTFO. I'm not wasting my sanity suffering your dirt for 12 months before I can leave. My gym brought in a 12 month contract thing towards the end of last year. It's a decent gym and I've been going there for years. I simply cancelled my DD, said goodbye to the owner, bought weights and a bench and now train at home.

So in short, I actively make sure I don't place any risk on myself where I have to waste time arguing the toss with poor service providers.
 
It's great to hear people say BT, at some points I questioned my sanity dealing with them 10+ years ago. I think they've improved since but I'll certainly never forget it.
 
Naff8000 said:
It's great to hear people say BT, at some points I questioned my sanity dealing with them 10+ years ago. I think they've improved since but I'll certainly never forget it.
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Oh god, they are a nightmare. They constantly deny problems, threaten you with callout charges, never fix the problems... I will never use BT again after the headaches they gave me. :mad:

Moved to another provider at the time and everything got sorted - they even forced OpenReach to run new copper (which they had to redo because the first attempt was a guitar string across my window!).
 
One thing I didn't add while thinking about it.

My beef isn't so much with retailers as I practically never buy anything new. Or anything at all. So I have very low or no risk. My irritations tend to be with products. I have zero product loyalty and would leave in a heartbeat if I sense a drop in quality or a product change for the worse.

Some recent (last 12 months or so) would be;

- Changed my washing powder brand. Been using this specific brand since I moved to NZ as I like the price. However, they must've changed their packaging supplier as suddenly that strip you pull to open it started breaking when tearing it open, necessitating me to finish cutting it open with a knife. I used up what I had and changed the brand. I'll never use that brand again.

- The instant coffee I used to drink 'improved' their formula. This one I looked up online. They moved operations from Germany to Indonesia, cheapened the ingredients making it taste like the Ashes of Mordor and claimed it to be 'improved'. The outcry online made me chuckle. Not a problem. I went out and bought as much of the older formula stock that was still around. And I'll never go back to that brand again.

- milk brand I (used to) buy. Must've changed package supplier as the bottle strip suddenly kept breaking when opening it. Brand = Cancelled.

- Girlfriend bought a new coffee holder thing where you need a post doctoral to open it. You had to push it down, twist the top slightly left and then twist right to open. When I finally managed to open it, I poured all the coffee in there in a cereal bowl to use from, crushed the coffee holder underfoot so it didn't 'accidentally' made its way back into my life via the girlfriend. Simple darling, I like things simple. If a 5yo can't use it first time trying, I'm not remotely interested.

- changed my shower gel brand. The scent changed. Or should I say 'improved'. = in the garbage bin. Don't care if it gets 'de-improved' back to original. I'm gone.

- Podcast app. Can't remember the name now. Suddenly had updates every day and app started getting progressively worse and crashing. Uninstalled. Can't even remember the name now. Won't ever go back anyway.

Next up on my **** list would probably be my index investment supplier. They kept tweaking their user interface. That I can just about grin and take. Suddenly they've also turned a flavor of SJW. I know there was an outcry against them from the adults that use their service. I emailed them and simply stated that I'm happy to stay with them if they continue to be a financial services provider. If they want to be a political party, I'll withdraw my very substantial funds from them and move and never go back. Something must've worked as they quickly shut up with that NPC trash.

I know there's heaps more. Just can't think of them right now.
 
B and Q security guard accused me of stealing a tin of spray paint, after proving him wrong at the exit of the store, walked out and back in to the customer care till, demanded a refund for stuff i'd bought and never used them until twenty years later!
 
Its not a shop but a brand. Roccat, first and last purchase circa 2008. Dreadful products! No end of issues.
 
I got accused of shop lifting in a local supermarket.. a self scanning supermarket. Midway around the store not even near the checkout area.
I've not been back for 6 months.
 
Depends. I'll never use Plumbnation, Tweaks Cycles and a few others ever again.
BT used to be up there as well but I've since gone back as they're the only ones don't FTTP at the minute. Hopefully as soon as my initial 24b months is up I'll swap to Sky who I have always had good service from.
Can't think of any more of the top of my head.
 
Mr.Cookie said:
B and Q security guard accused me of stealing a tin of spray paint, after proving him wrong at the exit of the store, walked out and back in to the customer care till, demanded a refund for stuff i'd bought and never used them until twenty years later!
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I'd gone into B&Q on my run home in the 90s and asked an assistant if I could try and get something in my backpack, if not I'd come back later.
He watched me try and I said I'll have to come back in my car.
Outside I got stopped by security for attempted theft but then spotted the assistant who vouched for me.
Security then said 'I don't want to see you in this store again' and I just said try and stop me because I've done nothing wrong.
Sadly I have to use the place and I went back later and bought the item.
 
Naff8000 said:
It's great to hear people say BT, at some points I questioned my sanity dealing with them 10+ years ago. I think they've improved since but I'll certainly never forget it.
Click to expand...
Adding to what I've already said on BT, I helped parents to check their online account yesterday. They seem to be on a tariff that is no longer offered and I'll be damned if I could easily find the particulars of what'd they're being charged, details of the tariff etc. I'd have thought these days it would be just "one click" to see all this stuff, a page that shows everything specific to the tariff a customer is on. I did find a link to a tariff PDF's but was useless, couldn't find the exact tariff my parents are on. They can easily do this but I suspect choose not to so try to hide the tariff particulars
Probably as bad as they ever were imo :D
 
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Long winded rant coming up about Carphone Warehouse, purely because they were completely incompetent when I briefly worked for them.

I was part of Phones 4 U when it went bust, Carphone offered me a job within a few days with the availability to start in the next month or so. Brilliant I thought, a few weeks off and then straight back into to work with minimal loss.

First they told me the wrong store I'd be at (there were 3 in my town, I eventually ended up inside a Currys store), then they gave the wrong start date (started getting calls from my manager about being AWOL whilst abroad), then when I did finally start they couldn't get me set up on the tills properly, so I couldn't sell anything in my name despite having a target to hit.

First month goes by, no paycheck. Apparently it was a massive blunder with them hiring too many people at once and the payroll got screwed. I was assured I'd get two months worth of wages next month. But I was now on the till system and was doing pretty decent.

Second month (now Christmas), no paycheck. Massively annoyed at this point, I was on the phone to HR every odd day for an update as my managers were useless and couldn't really care. Again issued with a massive apology and my new pay date would be the middle of January including all the commission from previous months. They also transferred a couple of hundred quid just before new year.

Middle of January rolls around, no paycheck. I'm fuming and to top it off both managers are away on holiday and I'm on my own as other people are off sick or just skiving. I finally get through to somebody at HR who knows what they're doing, he starts asking me for certain staff numbers which I should be able to see on my till system profile, except that I don't have anything. It turns out I was never set up properly as a new employee and that nothing was being recorded against my name, be that time sheets, sales, commission. I phoned my manager and told them that if it wasn't sorted today then I'm gone, she replied "You just need to chill out now, it will get sorted eventually. If you don't like that then you know where the door is".

So I took her advice, I locked up, gave the shop keys to the Currys manager and went home. I found myself a new job the same day and started the week after. I'd made complaints to HR against both them and my store managers and told them I was going to seek legal advice. A few weeks later I eventually received the money that I was owed, so luckily never had to go down the legal route. My managers also called a couple of times apologizing, the girl clearly on loudspeaker trying to get me change what I had said, I basically told her to do one. A friend who worked there later told me she quit weeks later as she was going to be sacked anyway due to a number of complaints against her.

Fast forward about 8 months, I'm happy in a new job in IT after getting out of retail. I check my bank and suddenly I've been paid a full wage by Carphone! I phone them up wondering what's happened and they still had me down as working full time? I explained what had happened and they apologized, assured me it wouldn't happen again and to just talk with the bank about reversing the payment.

This happened 2 more times :D. I was literally arguing with somebody over the phone at one point telling them I hadn't worked there for nearly a year, with them arguing back that I must have done as my time-sheets had been completed! It was truly bizarre.

Anyway there was one major positive, they never took my staff discount away so I still get 40% off my phone bills several years later :D
 
I was scammed by Scan about 16 years ago, refusing to RMA a 2 month old GeForce 4200 Ti which displayed graphics bugs and would crash in multiple computers.

I haven't shopped with them since, neither have my friends.

No regrets either.

Fortunately now I would just claim the money back on my credit card - but still, more then happy to do business with OCUK :)

G-MAN2004 said:
I used to buy from MyProtein for years, until one day my order never arrived and I had to unfortunately deal with their utterly atrocious customer service which largely consisted of automatic replies and prerecorded messages on the phone that never got me anywhere. It took over a month to get my money back. Never again.
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I had something similar to this.

Order didn't arrive (long customer). Insisted I fill out a form (which I did), sign and return. Then I got a return stating I need to add each product item number (instead of the order number I added). It got a bit silly, took days to get replies and they weren't helpful.

In the end, as above, I just went online to Amex - disputed the transaction. In return, they deleted my MP account (very upset as you can tell).
 
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