Best/Worst of Customer Service

[Surmuck]

A thread like this was mildly successful on another forum I used to be a part of, so I guess I'll give it as shot here.

I think everyone has a customer service horror story to tell, where you've been bounced around from person to person and then been given some totally bullshit answer after hours on the phone. A thread like this was mildly successful on another forum I used to be a part of, so I guess I'll give it as shot here.

What's your customer service horror story?  :dead:

On the flip side, has anyone ever been immensely pleased with their customer service experiences?  :shock:

Share n' stuff.

 

[Venetia]

on the good side, a month ago I went to publix. I was lookin for lo mein noodles to make some stir fry, and needed a specific kind, the kind that's precooked in water (they taste better than the dried ones typically in the ethnic food aisles). I knew super target had it but I didn't want to make 2 stops.

anyway I asked this girl where it was. she turned out to be brand new (like, it was her 2nd week), which made me feel bad, but instead of her just telling me she didn't know, she went all around the store, asking people, and even let me keep shopping while she looked. After asking like 10 people, she and a guy from the deli found a package similar to what I needed, except it was tofu. Then she offered to call around to other stores for me.

I was so hugely impressed I told her manager how awesome she was. Even though I didn't get my noodles from there, I walked away happy because someone gave a shit.

 

[FlippyD]

I've never had too much trouble with customer service, and I don't know why. I have however had mostly favorable and downright charitable cases of customer service. For example, back when I was playing Pokemon blue (it had just come out, everyone was playing it, etc) I was starting to have problems with my save game data, the game simply wouldn't save. I called up Nintendo customer service and they were on the line immediately (didn't have to listen to their waiting music for more than a minute, which was classical Mario music if I remember correctly.) The guy on the other line made some suggestions, and after a while it seemed like nothing would work.

Normally this is the part where you send in your hardware and the guys look at it and either send you another broken "refurbished" system or ship you back your same system without fixing it, but the Nintendo guy said they'd just send me a new GBC. One week later I get a brand-spanking new GBC in the mail, along with a new mint in the box copy of Pokemon blue and I didn't have to do anything!

Microsoft on the other hand owed me 20 credits for a broken pre-paid card, and after many tries and multiple "good" codes that didn't work they just gave me an extension to my gold account for 3 months. Not what I wanted but not bad either.

The worst customer service was with my college, of whom I wanted to use a native american scholarship I was granted. However the college waited too long to send the confirmation info back to the tribe and so I was denied and now have to pay them $100 a month to pay back the $6,000+ debt I owe them for my goddamn degree because their slow ass bitches. And unfortunately I can't do anything about it. It's obviously a case of incompetence and not contempt, but when I brought that up with my registrar she seemed genuinely apologetic and have been extremely amicable about the whole situation, even letting me payback 2-3 months of overdue bills from time to time without adding late charges.

 

[Ellie]

I waited for a whole hour in PC World waiting to buy a £300 computer; the sales staff just didn't give a shit and ignored me and my dad when we asked them for help.

"I'd like to buy a laptop. I have muchos cashos."
"Can't you see we're on our lunch break!?"

 

[moog]

I waited for a whole hour in PC World waiting to buy a £300 computer; the sales staff just didn't give a shit and ignored me and my dad when we asked them for help.

"I'd like to buy a laptop. I have muchos cashos."
"Can't you see we're on our lunch break!?"

This happens everytime I walk into a Circuit City. Glad those fuckers are going out of buisness.

 

[Perihelion]

I've actually had really good experiences with HP's online tech support chat. I've never had to wait longer than a few minutes to talk to someone, and then the conversations go like this:

Me: Hi, <part> is broken. I've tried this, this, and this; nothing works.
Indian guy: Okay, we'll send you another one. Can I get your address?

And then new parts show up at my house in a couple days. They even let me install easy things like new keyboards myself without having to take it to a store. It's fantastic and really painless. The laptop itself is kind of a piece of shit (things keep breaking), but at least the tech support is good. :x

 

[alexis]

this really isn't costumer service but it's a costumer being a huge bitch to my service so i'll proceed!!
basically some lady told me to go to hell because i asked for her drivers license to process a check
wanna know what's great? the bitch wasn't even there
i was talking to her on her daughter-in-law's cell phone.

the nerve of some people ugh.

 

[Despain]

I waited for a whole hour in PC World waiting to buy a £300 computer; the sales staff just didn't give a shit and ignored me and my dad when we asked them for help.

"I'd like to buy a laptop. I have muchos cashos."
"Can't you see we're on our lunch break!?"

well if they're on their lunch break you can't blame them for not wanting to deal with you. dont be a faggot.

 

[Despain]

this really isn't costumer service but it's a costumer being a huge bitch to my service so i'll proceed!!
basically some lady told me to go to hell because i asked for her drivers license to process a check
wanna know what's great? the bitch wasn't even there
i was talking to her on her daughter-in-law's cell phone.

that's mild you have a long way to go before you can tell bad customer stories.

 

[Kav]

I waited for a whole hour in PC World waiting to buy a £300 computer; the sales staff just didn't give a shit and ignored me and my dad when we asked them for help.

"I'd like to buy a laptop. I have muchos cashos."
"Can't you see we're on our lunch break!?"

well if they're on their lunch break you can't blame them for not wanting to deal with you. dont be a faggot.

he's british

 

[Ellie]

1, all the sales staff shouldn't be on their lunch break at the same time then
2, I'd have thought anyone would want to take 5 minutes out of their lunch break to take £300 off some poor sucker who could have got the same laptop for £100 less on the net

 

[Despain]

1, all the sales staff shouldn't be on their lunch break at the same time then

they don't usually control when they go on break. if you don't like it talk to the store manager who times these. also i can guarantee that it was not everybody who was on break at the same time.

2, I'd have thought anyone would want to take 5 minutes out of their lunch break to take £300 off some poor sucker who could have got the same laptop for £100 less on the net

not if they don't work comission?? (which they dont)

 

[Ellie]

Did I touch a nerve or something? :x

I've only ever had good service at Chiquitos (it's a mexican restaurant, the bills are usually £80-£100 for four people though unfortunately); the staff are generally friendly and one even refused a tip the other day. Our food was slightly late (they said it'd be about 20 mins and it toom 25) so they gave us our starter for free.

 

[Despain]

i've never had bad customer service and never will because i'm not a dick to them and they have no reason to be a dick to me.

 

[$t3v0]

Streamline hosting-

Contacted them at least 12 times saying "DO NOT RENEW MY HOSTING" as I had downtime for well over 3 days and they repeatidly keep sending me emails asking for payments. It's like talking to a fucking brick.

 

[Calibre]

Pretty much every ISP Ive ever called.  You just get some Indians guy on the line (30 minutes after you've been paying a premium rate the whole time) that then kindly tell you it's a problem your end and hang up.  If you're lucky they guide you through resetting your router by unplugging it and plugging it back in.  When you finally persist that a technician should come round, he turns up (2 weeks later) and takes a quick look, phones the ISP and they fix it their end. 

I went 2 months without internet in my university house and they had no interest in deducing that from our fee.

 

[$t3v0]

Calibre YES! I had a a funny moment the other week chasing up virgin media. I was on hold for about 20 minutes then some VERY foreign guy answered with a simple "hello?" .... I was like hey and he asked me for my account number. I didn't know it so (like i always do) I asked if i could answer my other details such as bank details or address/name etc and he just hung up.

At the end of the day these guys have a screen with a step by step process infront of them. If they don't get a valid response to fit screen 1 and they can't click next, god knows what happens to their brain!

 

[Venetia]

when i worked in retail:

- Some guy personally showed me his recent liver surgery scars and pointed out the places of infection. why? because i had copied some litigation for him. p.s. HE DID IT ON TWO OCCASIONS

- once i was copying a stack of papers for a manuscript and saw there was red gunk on some of the pages, i thought it was strange. then the customer picked them up and i said, "hey, I couldn't copy the ones with the red stains on them very well." and the lady was like, "oh, i forgot he bled all over those."

- once a lady's shipment of business cards came in late and she actually put a GYPSY CURSE on me over the phone, after screaming at the top of her lungs for 10 minutes. i hung up on her and got in trouble until she came in and "talked" to the manager, then he came to me and apologized because apparently she'd screamed at and cursed him too

- one lady sat there and kept repeating about how i was a stupid ass bitch while i was cutting her cardstock, for absolutely no reason. even while i was ringing her up for the service, she was like, "whatever, fucking dumbass cunt"

- one lady threatened to sue me after she herself pried open the doors at opening time and tripped over the security rail that i was in the middle of putting up. however she said, "well its a good thing you were nice to me! i was gonna sue your pants off" ......sigh

- one guy threatened to gun me down in the parking lot after i told him i had to give him store credit for returning an opened pack of CD's, missing one CD, with no receipt. we actually had to call the police over that one

i have more, dont worry
(and this is coming from someone who'd won awards for her amazing customer service)

 

[Justice]

2, I'd have thought anyone would want to take 5 minutes out of their lunch break to take £300 off some poor sucker who could have got the same laptop for £100 less on the net

have you ever had a job? breaks are the only thing to look forward to in the work day and they are so fleetingly brief that you cherish every second of it. no one wants to help a poor sucker because no one cares, they're only there for the money, especially if they work in retail

which is why i don't get fussed about customer service, as i can imagine myself in their position, and like them i also wouldn't care

 

[Venetia]

once i was in best buy and i wanted to buy a ps2 (this was in like 2002. first i had to wander all over the store to get someone to get it out of lockup for me, then eventually I gave up and went to customer service. They called someone over, who took me to the display. I said, "no, I know where the DISPLAY is, I want a SYSTEM now." and he says "oh ok wait here." So I wait like 15-20 minutes. And yes it was that long, I was watching the clock on my cell.

Then eventually I saw some employee dude in the CD area, on some listening station terminal or whatever. So I wandered over and explained that I was waiting for a PS2 from lockup for 20 minutes and I was just hoping he could mosie back there and see if they guy's dead or something.

I waited for a second, then I realized he wasn't listening to me, despite the fact that I was standing RIGHT next to him AND he'd acknowledged me. Then he says something weird and I walk around the terminal he's at and see he's flirting with some girl. So then I say, "Um, I'm sorry to bother you, but I can't find anyone else, and" and then he turned to me and rolled his eyes and sighed at me, glancing at his little skank as if to say, "OH BOY HERE I GO AGAIN".

So I explain my situation AGAIN, and he goes, "that's not MY department, but WHATEVER." then he paces off to lockup in the back. I didn't know whether to stay put or follow, so I just kind of shuffled in place.

Like 10 minutes later, I hear, "Hey LADY???", and, turning around, I see the first guy standing at customer service, and the second guy acting all pissed off looking at me. I went over and the first guy said, "I've been waiting here for you!!!"

I say, "You told me to stay there and wait for you to come back!"

and he goes, "No I didn't! Well whatever, here it is." and the two skipped off.

I asked to speak to a manager, but the cust. service girl said he was on break. Jesus tapdancing christ I was so fucking pissed off I never went to that Best Buy ever again. I instead decided to go to one like 15 miles further away :/ Assholes

Though I've never really had a GOOD electronics store experience, that was the worst electronics store experience.