Most ridiculous lack of customer service you've encountered?

British Gas. Was moving out of my rented house at the end of the tenancy, so I rang them and gave them my meter reading, and asked them to send me a bill to my new address. Everything was fine, they took all my details and told me a bill would be sent out to my new address.

Next thing I hear is a few weeks later - a debt recovery company calling me asking me why I haven't paid the bill and if I can do so right now. I flat out refuse to hand my card details over to some randomer on the phone, ring British Gas and they have no record of my call from before. As far as they were concerned I just did a runner. Muppets.
 
BT / Sky Broadband.

I built a new house, had a phone line put in with BT and then took Sky Broadband.

Anyway, it was apparent there was a problem as the modem would lose sync for 5-10 minutes randomly. Tried several routers and eventually called them as I couldn't fix it my end.

They were pretty good in handling my problem and booked a BT engineer visit within a few days.

Sods law.. He comes out and "finds no problem", and says that I "may be charged a call out fee". Thankfully I wasn't as Sky could see the disconnects on the line. Their solution was to slow the line sync down to increase stability.. At which point I decline due to it being a new line and new house.

Anyway, after several calls (I'd guess 10) they agree to send another BT engineer.

Thankfully, the guy that came out is a friend. He checked some basic things, and by sheer luck "hears a noise" on the line and it's coming from the pole. Great! He tells me that the brass screw terminal on the pole is causing problems so crimps my line in a way that bypasses the pole.

Anyway, the line got better for a week then I'd get problems at specific times and knock out my service. This time I record the times and start becoming obsessed with fixing it. Turns out it is a REIN issue caused by electrical interference.

Ok, so call up sky and explain that I think I know what the problem is.. I get passed to the technical team and he is impressed with the info I give him and agrees to book a specialist Internet engineer (lol) to come out.

BT man arrives and says there's no problem but he agrees that it is likely a REIN issue, but he cannot do anything about it as he's not qualified FFS :mad:

I start Googling on how to detect, pinpoint and eliminate the issue which leads me to dig up good info. I call back the engineer I know and he comes out. We wander the neighbourhood with a portable radio and by sheer luck we find a possible source.

He gives me some info and tells me that only Sky can request the REIN specialist visit, as there's only 1 in the area and so I call Sky.. Cue explaining the story AGAIN and them asking if I'd like a reduction in speed etc at which point I said "send the engineer out.. I'll explain to him if it's easier".

They send another chap out and although it's not the REIN specialist he does know the chap and agrees to rings him. We arrange a visit that weekend as I've already taken 4. Or 5 days off work to sort it.

I'm in work one day, and my wife calls to say "the BT man is here".. I speak to him and he says he can't find anything at the time, but he will swing by one night after work and come back when it's regularly been happening..

At this point I get the electric company involved and they are amazing.. They come out and check all the lines in the area and really go all out, but the issue lies with pinpointing the source so BT need to do that.

Anyway, after a week BT never arrived and im still waiting! It's been about a yeart and although I know where it is, getting someone to come out and witness the problem got the better of me.

I was fortunate that the local village had wireless broadband installed, so I cancelled the line and told BT to do one. I even emailed their CEO and got a decent response but never actually anything that was close to a solution.
 
I cant think of to many, they are all the same, not ringing back, messing up your order, etc etc.

I had fun with carphone warehouse a few years ago when I wanted a new laptop.

signed up to talk talk which came with a free laptop, however they had run out of laptop forms should you leave your contract you have to pay for the laptop.

They made me sign a blank piece of paper lol, anyway talk talk tottaly messed up my order the line that should have been active wasnt and after about a month i threw in the towel, canceled and reinstated my virgin.(medial lol)

They came looking for the money on the laptop, needless to say i said i dont remember signing any contract for it, a few days later a english call center rang me, (first one with this company so far) and told me all they could find was a signed blank piece of paper and that the laptop was writen off. Happy days lol...

Most ridiculous customer service must be ebay for seller support. Sell a car spoiler for a hatch, some daft bird buys it then messages me wanting to return it as it diddnt fit, I look through her history and realise she had been buying parts for a saloon car so said she could return it but lose the postage costs both ways as its her mistake. She complains to ebay and wins a full refund.... SO MUCH HATE!!!
 
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eBay
I complained to them about a company not refunding me even though I sent the item back, they haven't replied... Been 6 months. Messaged them so many times
 
FH Hinds, without a doubt.

My Mum bought me a watch for Christmas, I have no idea of how much it cost with it being a present but judging by the brand and the fact my Mum isn't exactly loaded, I don't think it cost much at all.

Anyway, I was wearing it at work after returning from the Christmas holidays and the barrel was really irritating my wrist/lower hand as I was typing so decided to take the watch off. That's when I noticed that the back of the thing had massive gouges out of the back cover, as if someone had failed massively to remove the back cover and/or used the wrong tools.

I thought nothing of it as it was the rear of the watch that no one would see whilst I'm wearing it, only it completely stopped working a few weeks later. I gave it back to my Mum who took it into FH Hinds who basically treated her like crap and were pretty much insinuating that the watch wasn't faulty but had been damaged by me.

Just bought myself an Oris Williams F1 Skeleton watch from Goldsmiths who only had one in stock in their entire store base and have had it transferred to my local store. Really happy with their service and have emailed their head office to say how their staff completely exceeded my activity.
 
BT broadband support, when my line was playing up last year I had over a dozen calls to them, each time doing the same daft steps and taking between 40mins - 1.5hrs a time for them to admit it was a line fault or "problem at the exchange".

Scripts don't work if the people using them are too daft to know when to skip sections based on what a customer is telling them or the past history of a call. If I've had a faulty line 3 times in the past week there is a good chance it's faulty again, especially if I'm reporting the exact same type of issue.
 
arctine said:
BT.


Worst customer service EVER.
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Several years ago I had real issues paying them. 11 months went by, me phoning them periodically to see when they were going to bill me, usually speaking to someone incomprehensible. Resorted to writing to this telecommunication giant. Finally they sorted their **** out and produced a bill, for the lot (I did try and argue some discount for the inconvenience. After much agro they gave me a £20 credit, which never materialised). So I paid up and a month later was disconnected for non payment. Ensues a huge row, going on weeks via telephone, email and recorded post, all the time with no phone or internet. In the end I got a solicitor to write a gtfoseeyouincourt letter with photocopies of proof of correspondence/postage etc. In the end, promised compensation, which again never materialised.

Back with BT again, but only because it was the only FTTC provider. As soon as my contract is up and a suitable replacement is found I will jump ship
 
Dano said:
Overclockers, things might have changed, at least I hope so.
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Yeah, they have. Twice. From excellent to poor and then back again. The explanation given, which seems plausible, is that the business expanded more quickly than it was able to deal with well and customer service deteriorated as a result. They've since adapted to being a much bigger business and customer service has returned. You got them in their stroppy teenager period :)
 
BT - absolutely atrocious bunch of lying toe tags - took an email to their MD to get any kind of apology

Holiday Autos - Jesus wept

There is also a story I could tell about my experience buying a graphics card lead to me being told the company no longer wanted my business but I'd end up banned :P
 
A company called Novopay - NZ has just contracted all it's schools payroll to them. My other half has currently spent 45 hours and counting on hold plus many emails to them and the ministry trying to sort out the payroll for the tiny school she is principal of. Get this - there are TWO perm employees, one part time cleaner and one ex cleaner that still has not been paid... and they have not got a SINGLE one of the pay checks right - this has now been going on for over 6 weeks. In a principals survey of 1200 odd principals 80% had unresolved issues with novopay and 70% had at least one person who has not been paid at all.

I have no idea how they won the contract...
 
British Gas, Changed my Direct Debit with them. 6 Months later get a bill for £450 as i hadn't paid for my electricity!! Called them to try and understand what was going on and they said I cancelled my direct debit... I explained what really happened and said I could possibly pay that in 1 go, they got shirty and started to call me a liar. I questioned that they just called me a liar, hung up and called Offgem.

Roll forward a couple of days, nice camp sounding fellow calls me up and basically tells me I can pay in instalments on top of my standing charge for whichever amount I can afford.

Complete Balls up from them in the first place then get called a liar?? Shame on you British Gas!!

And don't get me started on Vodafone and my Blackberry Storm!!!!
 
Clarkes were pretty bad last time I was in there, rude staff and if i'm trying to buy your product at least lace the shoe up for me. Schuh were the complete opposite, very friendly/attentive staff.

Virgin Media have been a mix, there in store staff were great but other members of staff were a right ball ache.

3 have been pretty good, I was going to leave them as the signal where I lived was very hit-and-miss but it's improved and the contract I'm on is inexpensive.

[edit] A really bad one was the Aberdeen Angus Steakhouse, went there with my girlfriend and her parents, they had been regular customers there for a while but weren't told two days before it had changed hands despite booking weeks before. The steak was crap, texture was more like it had been sweated than cooked over a grill, or even in a pan, sides were tiny and a freezer job. We may have just gone to a Harvester chain. I explained to the manager that it was not acceptable, the restaurant I was cooking for served a similarly priced steak and it was of much higher quality, that probably ****ed him off. He ended up giving us a free drink but did nothing about the bill and I was shocked that for a restaurant that advertises itself as a steakhouse he couldn't even tell me where he sources his meat from. Probably Brakes.
 
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TV Licensing.

A few years ago, I was living in a company owned flat. The company paid all the bills - including the TV licence. I bought a TV at the local CO-OP electrical shop and, as usual, they took all my details etc. Anyway, a couple of weeks later I got a letter from the TV licensing people telling me they were aware I'd bought the telly and that having a telly without a licence was an offence and I could go to prison etc. etc. There was a form on the back you could fill in, which included the current licence number, if you already had a licence so you could send it to them - which I did.

A couple of weeks later I got another letter, this time even more threatening. This letter had the same form on the back so I filled it in again and also enclosed a photocopy of the existing licence with the address on it and a letter explaining the situation.

Shortly after this, I got another letter basically telling me I was public enemy number one who was only a short step away from jail and they'd be sending the heavies around to make me pay up. At this point I gave up trying to explain things and said "Bring it on".

A few weeks later, there was a knock at the door. When I answered it, it was the TV licensing "heavy". I can't remember the exact words but the gist of it was: "Despite repeated reminders, you've failed to pay up,which is an offence and if you don't pay up on the spot, you'll be in court". At this point I asked him to hold on a moment and went indoors to fetch the licence (I'd left it handy, expecting his visit). When I showed it to him, he said he had better things to do than deal with time-wasters like me and why hadn't I told them I already had a licence. By this time I'd had enough so I simply closed the door in his face.
 
Just got off the phone with T-Mobile and they were useless.
My wife has been having problems with her SGS and over the last month it's gone all wrong.
No internet and she can't even ring 150 on the phone plus going on the website and entering the number says it doesn't exist.
Even entering the T-Mobile or Orange network in the phone said it couldn't register.
I went through all this with a woman on the other end of the phone and even had her ringing my wifes mobile but she said the number isn't registered!!
I was passed to another guy who then asked the question if she was definitely on T-Mobile so I turned to Mrs Dimple and said "Are you definitely on T-Mobile?" and she said "YES, T-Mobile which stands for Talk Mobile" :D
The bloke on the other end started laughing while I nearly killed her.

(and yes there was Vodaphone things in the phone settings but she was adamant she was on T-Mobile).
 
BT for me, moved in last year, there was an existing line to the house from the pole that was dead, but it had a junction box on the wall of my house, and the cable then ran down the house and in by the front door.

I ordered a new line as I wanted a new master socket in a different location etc, so order date arrives see no BT van and get an email saying line is active here is the number etc.

So they had reactivated the line to the house, so had to spend hours on hold to speak to them, and telling them not what I ordered, and they wanted to charge me to move my master socket etc

So eventually after speaking to god knows how many foreign call center people I got my engineer and all sorted.
 
OpenToSuggestions said:
Comet - My TV died within 48 hours and they refused to swap it on the spot, fobbing me off onto the customer service hotline. Also it took me 10-15 times calling up the store (via the stupid helpline as you cannot call the store directly) to get a receipt sent to me for the new TV after they delivered it.
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Ditto. They were atrocious and actually seemed to take pleasure from it.
 
NTL back in the day, had a problem with the broadband so I called up to get it sorted to be told "We don't have you registered as a customer"..... oh really?

Also N Power, previous tenant hand paid the gas and electric for some time and owed them about £800, cue me getting tonnes of letters threatening bailiff/court action even after I called them to inform them of the situation and provided them with copies of my tenancy agreement. I then promptly left for another supplier.
 
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