Your Worst Customer Service Experience

[tomthebarncat]

By far has the worst customer service I have ever encountered. I went in last summer to buy my once in a lifetime purchase, a Chanel handbag. I had called and inquired if they would take the military VAT form, which allows me to not pay the 19% sales tax, they said yes, no problem. I go a few weeks later to pick out my bag, I had to ask for assistance, as the 3 sales ladies stood around glaring at me, but could not be bothered to provide any assistance. Fine, I can pick out my bag without your help. I got my bag, parade around the store with it, and I am on cloud nine. I go to pay for the bag and give the snobby sales lady my VAT form and Visa card. She rudely pushes the form back to me and says very loudly " The American Military is not our customer and I will not take this form". I politely stated that I had called and spoke to an associate who assured me that this was no problem. She once again, stated that this directive came from Paris and that Mr. Lagerfeld himself had signed the memo. She then says it again really loud for all to hear " The American Military is NOT CHANELS customer". I dropped the bag on the floor and told her to drop the attitude that she worked in a shop, I did this equally as loud as she was speaking. I then asked her how hard would it have been to simply say "I'm sorry that we cannot process this form". Had she not insulted the US military I would have still bought the bag and just sucked it up on the taxes. I walked out shaking my head and mutoring what a rude *itch! DH was glad because this bag was 1,100 Euros and the tax alone was 209 euros. Anyway, that is my alltime favorite rude customer service story. No, I do not own a Chanel bag and probably never will as this incident spoiled what I had thought would be the ultimate shopping experience. Boy, was I wrong!

 

[fritzerbear]

My mother and I went to Victoria's Secret to go bra shopping. I wear a 40-D and found a bra that I liked in the store. I didn't see my size, so I asked the saleslady if they had it in my size and preferred color. She went to the back of the store and came back a couple moments later and said, "No. We don't have it in a 40-D but we do have it in a 32-B. Will that work?" My mother and I just laughed and walked out.

 

[tjmw2727]

Mine is American Airlines....

I have lots of FF miles, because I have to travel too much and I"was" a loyal AA flier. I was able to book a flight for our family of 4 uisng FF miles on the AA website. The website is pretty easy to use and I had gone all the way through the process and thought I had our flights only to have it hit a glitch of some sort and loose the flights. I started over and couldn't get them so I called the customer service line.

The rep actually said, "why should I help you book a trip with ff miles when I can help people who are willing to pay for their flights?". After which even though I was patient and tried to be nice she became more rude. She told me that since I was able to use FF miles for flights 5 years ago I should consier myself lucky!

It was so bad I since cancelled my AA credit card and unless its the only option I won't fly AA anymore. My dh is using my miles for upgrades as its his companies prefered airline.

TJ

 

[rt2dz]

I do customer service evaluations, which includes but is not restricted to mystery shopping, so if I have one, I have 50,000. I’m actually taking the summer off because I’m getting a little irritated with people in general from it. Customer service people can be really, really bad. I always leave with a smile though since I KNOW that top management is reading what happened on my visits!

One that I have had very recently was not work related. We’re looking for a new house—it’s a great time to buy. Well, there were a couple of different floor plans that are pretty much in the same neighborhood we’re in now that we were/are interested in. We stop by the sales office and the consultant is showing us the spec homes they have available, knowing that we’d rather start from scratch to make sure we get the things we want, but to give us a good idea of how it looked in person since some things don’t translate well on plans.

I’m looking them over thinking various things and she asked me some question. I replied I wasn’t sure because of whatever reason. I’ve forgotten those exact details. She tells me that I could rectify that by converting a bedroom. I tell her, nicely, that I don’t want to loose a bedroom that if we did that then my kids wouldn’t each have a bedroom. She proceeds to tell me that my kids *should* be sharing a room. That she always shared a room with her sister and that is why they are still married to their original spouse—they learned to share. She was very snotty about it to. WTH!?! I told her that my kids share just fine (and they do!) and DH shared a room with BOTH his brothers, but his older brother has been divorced 3 times. I hardly doubt that giving up privacy has anything to do with lasting marriages. She continued to tell me that it is helpful in other ways to. I have nothing against kids sharing rooms, so I tell her that, and I also proceeded to tell her that if I wanted my kids to share a room, I could continue in my present house just fine. That shut her up. I needed her to show me the other house, so we continue on.

As she is showing us the next spec home, DH tells me he doesn’t like the way a couple of the rooms are designed and I agree saying they waste the square footage because so much of it isn’t usable. She then has the gall to tell us that we should learn to make-do with what is offered. DH looks at her and asks, “Isn’t that why people look for bigger homes? To get the stuff they want?” She then says that most people don’t live that way and we *shouldn’t* either. I just look at her for awhile and then say that most people we know do (and we’re talking about watching TV in the family room) and it doesn’t matter anyhow, it’s *our* house and it would need to fit *our* needs and wants. She continues to argue with me. I listen to her while DH goes to the car, I then say “thank you for your time” and walk away.

Really, is that how people sell houses? Instead of finding them something that will meet their needs/wants, you speak to them in condescending tones, insult their parenting, tell them they live wrong and try to push them into what is available? Does that work on most people? Yikes! As it stands, I went home and wrote a letter to the corporate offices. I won’t buy any houses from them anywhere after that!

 

[rt2dz]

Mine is currently w/ Xbox live. dh had 3 unauthorized charges to his cc totaling almost $100 so he calls them up and asks why he was charged for gamer points he never purchased. Well, he was told we would rec. a credit in 3-5 business days. A month later, 6 calls later and quite a few people later (in the Asian Pacific) nothing. Lastnight dh was on the phone w/ them asking for a supervisor and he kept getting switched to the next customer service rep being told he couldn't speak w/ a supervisor. After an hour he was passed to the billing supervisor who kept telling him it's been escalated and we would rec. refund in 3-5 days. LOL, dh asks him who he can talk to that has some pull to give refund now and he said there were no phone #'s of those people. I started making fun in the background saying "TELEPATHY! WOW! xbox went extreme hi-tech!" being sarcastic. I was so mad. Finally an hour and a half later dh gets off the phone, 3-5 business days we would rec. refund, he told the guy he would call him back on mon. so we can do this all over again.

I have no clue what else to do. Everytime he calls, they say the same thing over and over again. "It's been escalated, you'll rec. credit in 3-5 business days, youcant speak to anyone higher up because there are no phone numbers to call them...ect."

I'd tell them that if it isn't fixed in three days that you will be reporting the charges to your credit card as unauthorized. Back in the early 90s after I canceled AOL, they kept charging me anyhow. I kept being apologized to and told that they would fix the problem. It never happened; we went around and around for over a month. I finally told them it needed to be fixed ASAP or I would report the charges as unauthorized. Next day my credits appeared.

 

[starann]

My WORST customer service story was at Fuddruckers, a burger place. My grandfather died at home, unexpectantly, while taking a nap while my Bama when to play his lotto. She called me the nurse (not 911) and I went over and attempted CPR, 911 came and it was pointless, Poppop had died peacefully in his sleep.

All of our family (my dad, uncle, cousins) were out of town for the weekend (some at the beach, some up the mountains) so I was left to tell my grandmother that her dh of 57 years had in fact died (I sent her over to the neighbors once I got there) and had to start asking her about funeral homes and such while we waited for the coroner to come. It was a stressful day to say the least.

Finally my husband drove the 2.5 hours home from work to get our 5mo old son and me and take us home, our family cut the weekend vacations short and we went home to prepare for a family visit to the funeral home the next day. My uncle and his wife took my grandmother to their house

We lived about 6 blocks from Fuddruckers so I went up to get dinner since I was in no shape to cook. I order the food to go, they give me a pager and tell me that it will go off when my food was ready. I sat and waited and started the daunting task of calling other family to tell them the news. 45 mins go by and no food (I was one of maybe 5 customer in the whole place) ...so I go up and ask. They tell me we called your name a long time ago.....I tell them my pager never went off....they said well we called your name but you were on the phone. They were rude, No apologies. I know people are on their cell phone far too often and are rude when they did it, butI had a true reason why. I did remember the speaker gonig off and it sounded like the adults on Charlie Brown Cartoons. I take my food and go home, annoyed and upset.

I get home, in tears over the whole thing.....in reality over my Poppop dieing but the burger pushed me over the edge. My husband sees how upset I was and he goes back up to give the manager a piece of his mind. That night I write a letter to headquarters detailing the day, including that my grandfather had passed away earlier in the day and the run in both my husband and I had with the store manager and they forward it to the manager (I assume to 'fix' things) who sent me a letter and told me "Prehaps Ms. Sabo, you should just cook your burgers at home from now on."


I have never been back and my Poppop has been gone for over 4 years now.

 

[SharpMomOfTwo]

"Prehaps Ms. Sabo, you should just cook your burgers at home from now on."

OMG a written letter said that, and you didn't go back there and punch the little rat in the face?!??! You have got to be kidding me!! I would have first, knocked the guy out, and then called the corporate office and faxed them the letter MAKING SURE that "manager" lost his/her job. I mean, OMG - who do people think they are?!? Give me the number, I'll give them a call!!!

 

[rt2dz]

...who sent me a letter and told me "Prehaps Ms. Sabo, you should just cook your burgers at home from now on."

I hope you forwarded a copy of THAT letter to corporate!!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

One was with Radisson Hotels. When DH and I got married in 1992 we had booked everything with Crowne Plaza. Radisson took over the week of my wedding. NO notice, just POOF! overnight the hotel magically changed ownership. After our wedding I wrote a 3 page letter telling the GM about all of the mistakes and problems. He sent me a certificate for a free night and free dinner for 2. I was 22, it seemed like an OK thing at the time.
When we attempted to go back and use the certificate on our first anniversary the hotel wouldn't honor it because that GM was no longer there. I spoke to some stupid middle-management guy who told me he didn't HAVE a supervisor. I called Radisson Corporate, and they said that hotel was a franchise and they couldn't force the hotel to honor my certificate. They did send me another one good for Radisson corporate locations. DH and I stayed in a different one and it was a DUMP! Loud, rowdy drunks in the parking lot all night, not a very nice hotel, definitely NOT what I had in mind. There is NO WAY a business would get away with treating me like that now. Mr. Middle Management would be dealing with me in person, and if he still wouldn't behave he would be dealing with my attorney. But anyway...

A more recent one was at Macy's. I wanted to buy a Ralph Lauren shirt for DS but they didn't have his size. I took it to the desk and nicely asked the lady if she could do a store look-up and tell me if another location had his size. She said "No. That's on clearance. No other store will have it." And she walked away. I left and walked around the mall a bit. Then I went BACK. I took the shirt to the desk and I told her "I need you to look this up for me. Now." She said "You just aren't going to let it go, are you?" I just smiled at her. And what do you know? The mall right across from my house had the shirt that she was SURE they wouldn't have! Stupid woman. She is darn lucky I didn't buy anything from her, because they have to write their name on the receipt and you can go online to give feedback.

 

[sunnyday123]

I get home, in tears over the whole thing.....in reality over my Poppop dieing but the burger pushed me over the edge. My husband sees how upset I was and he goes back up to give the manager a piece of his mind. That night I write a letter to headquarters detailing the day, including that my grandfather had passed away earlier in the day and the run in both my husband and I had with the store manager and they forward it to the manager (I assume to 'fix' things) who sent me a letter and told me "Prehaps Ms. Sabo, you should just cook your burgers at home from now on."


I have never been back and my Poppop has been gone for over 4 years now.

OMG. I would have ripped the doors off that place. Then I would've taken the burgers I cooked at home and shoved them down his sarcastic throat. Then ( after someone bailed me out of jail ) I would have gone there at their busiest time, announced to everyone what happened and read the best parts of the letter.

THEN I would have forwarded a copy of the letter to my local newspaper.
And sorry for your Pop-Pop.

 

[SharpMomOfTwo]

Oh heres another one.... it was really BAD, just wierd!! I was in a local fast food place, not a chain, to order my FAVORITE EVIL - cheese fries. I was in, and the woman at the register is very obviously on some sort of narcotic. She was loud, trying to crack jokes, but wasn't making any sence, and was twitching all over the place. Thank goodness she wasn't the one handling the food!!!

 

[Beth E. (NJ)]

Here's mine -- we have Comcast cable in our house (along with comcast internet.) We wanted to switch one box for an upgraded box with DVR. DH unhooked the old one and gave it to me to take to the Comcast office after work. I drove over and as I was walking to the office -- I was literally 10 feet from the big glass door -- the security guard pushed open the door to let another man out and then he proceeded to look at me (still walking toward the door with the big cable box in hand) say "sorry' shut and lock the door in my face! I'm standing outside the glass staring at him. All I need to do is hand in this cable box for the other one. But this police officer wanna be won't let me in. He just kept looking at me and shrugging his shoulders. I was so pissed off. There was another person at the counter and it would have only taken a minute to help me.

The next night I thought about going back but I knew they would be closing. I checked their hours and then I decided to call corporate to complain. I spoke to a customer service rep who passed my call onto someone in corporate. The person at corporate was very nice. she apologized for the security guard and told me they would credit me for a full month of cable for my trouble. she also asked if it was okay for her to call me after I went back to Comcast to see if everything went okay.

So I go back to the Comcast office the night they are opened late. Same security guard -- but he was much nicer. I get up to the counter and tell the lady what I want ot do. She looks my family up in the system and tells me she can't help me because the cable is in DH's name and I'm not listed on the account. That's very odd because I've been there before and never had a problem. I told her that and her response was "well you've never been here when I was here." So I have to step aside and call DH at work so he can call Comcast and add me to the account. He calls gives them my name -- which of course takes time because their lines are busy and then they have to update the system.

Finally it goes through and the lady at the counter can bring up our account with me now listed. So finally she can give me the new cable box.

When my friend from corporate called I was sure to tell her everything that went on -- and how rude their employees were.

 

[enchantingodin]

While we're talking about Pet Peeves- mine is cashier's who do not say "THANK YOU", Drives me absolutely INSANE, I have to conciously tell myself not to say thank you after they hand me back change, because my automatic response is to say "Thank you" when someone hands me something, but I guess it's not everyones. DRIVES ME CRAZY, I think it's the rudes thing.

Do you mean specifically when someone puts money in their hand? Or just in general thanks for shopping here?

 

[enchantingodin]

People who don't put money in your hand. This drives me INSANE! It's so rude. But most of the time I just put it back on the counter like they did to me, the look I get is always priceless.

GET OFF YOUR FLIPPING CELL PHONE. QUOTE]

I AGREE with both of these. Even if I put my hand out, customers don't always put it in my hand.

As far as the cell phone goes, I've started treating it like they are in the store, too. As in, " Hey, welcome to ****, xyz is on sale, tell your friend she needs to come check out the sale! Let me know if I can help!"

But the worst is when they're on the cell, you've greeted them and are then helping someone else when you hear "EXCUSE ME, Can I get some help over here?!" And it's like, okay, now you're ready for me? Because I started helping someone else while YOU were on the phone. You'll have to give me a few minutes!

When I worked in retail (bookstore) I used to purposefully skip people in line or just walk away from the counter if someone was on their phone and not paying attention. Some would get all snarky with me and I'd say, "I'm sorry I didn't realize you were ready to check out since you were on your phone." Or, "Oh my mistake I thought since you were having such a nice conversation you wouldn't want to be interrupted."

 

[RMulieri]

Here is another story from the other side of the desk...I was a Customer service Mgr at a large grocery chain for years( before I became a RN) So here are a few doozies...1) I had a teen girl come in with a baggies holding a soaking wet with urine Pregnancy test(positive result might I add)wanting a refund because the test was faulty it showed 2 lines. 2) day after Turkey day, a woman returned a turkey carcas picked clean.Wanted a refund because it tasted "funny", So i asked why she ate it.."I had to serve my guests something". 3) My customer who bought the 36 ct box of condoms on Friday and returned them on Monday." bad weekend ,no action" he said...not kidding.I could tell you a billion others just like these.

 

[starann]

I worked in customer service at a busy electronic store and saw some doozies from the other side of the counter, but the best had to be the woman who wanted to return the big screen tv her toddler took a black sharpie marker to, she wanted to return it....yeah, when you take abrasive cleaner to the front panel it tends to get blurry and we void the warrentary!

It's amazing, when I worked there, people would get bent out of shape about walkmans and tvs....and I mean bent out of shape (talking octagons here!), which in turn would get my panties all twisted. Then I was a receptionist at a car dealership, and if you think people got all bent out of shape about a walkman, you should see how they reacted with their car....yikes. Now I am a nurse, an oncology nurse at that and all those other things are trivial. While we all work hard for our money and hate to see things break or buy something that doesn't work from the start at least for the most part we are not facing death tomorrow. My profession Sure puts things into perspective for me now (don't get me wrong, I still get my panties twisted over stupid stuff, but then I try to remind myself of how lucky I am that I have healthy children and for the most part (with a few heart and other health things) have my health and life.

 

[RMulieri]

I worked in customer service at a busy electronic store and saw some doozies from the other side of the counter, but the best had to be the woman who wanted to return the big screen tv her toddler took a black sharpie marker to, she wanted to return it....yeah, when you take abrasive cleaner to the front panel it tends to get blurry and we void the warrentary!

It's amazing, when I worked there, people would get bent out of shape about walkmans and tvs....and I mean bent out of shape (talking octagons here!), which in turn would get my panties all twisted. Then I was a receptionist at a car dealership, and if you think people got all bent out of shape about a walkman, you should see how they reacted with their car....yikes. Now I am a nurse, an oncology nurse at that and all those other things are trivial. While we all work hard for our money and hate to see things break or buy something that doesn't work from the start at least for the most part we are not facing death tomorrow. My profession Sure puts things into perspective for me now (don't get me wrong, I still get my panties twisted over stupid stuff, but then I try to remind myself of how lucky I am that I have healthy children and for the most part (with a few heart and other health things) have my health and life.

I am an Oncology RN too!

 

[eclairemom]

My mother and I went to Victoria's Secret to go bra shopping. I wear a 40-D and found a bra that I liked in the store. I didn't see my size, so I asked the saleslady if they had it in my size and preferred color. She went to the back of the store and came back a couple moments later and said, "No. We don't have it in a 40-D but we do have it in a 32-B. Will that work?" My mother and I just laughed and walked out.

You should have said Yea, I'll take two... one for each B**B

 

[eclairemom]

DH was looking for a motorcycle to save money on gas. We decided that a Honda Rebel would be a good starter bike and I started making some calls. We had seen one about an hour away from our house and was looking for a different color and something closer. I called a dealership in Richmond and the sales person said to me almost laughing "Their haven't been any available on the east coast in months". So I call 2 more dealerships and find an additional 4 bikes which makes 5 total. Two dealerships wanted $3600 delivered and one wanted $3800 delivered. We go to the dealership that quoted $3800 because I figured they would come off of $200 to make a sale and they were the closest dealer. Boy was I wrong. DH had called before we left to make sure they still had it not to make a wasted trip. We arrive at the dealership and go in and walk around and look and wait to be noticed. DH goes over and sits on the bike looks at helments still not noticed. DD and I go over to the lounge area to wait for someone to even acknowledge DH and and talk to him about the bike. DH comes over to the lounge by this time we have been there 45 minutes and we are both not happy campers. We decide to leave, just then a sales person starts to make his way over to us. DH tells him that he arrived just in time because we had been waiting too long and he almost lost a possible sale. Instead of trying to see how he could help us the next thing out of his mouth was "So your the one who called about the Rebel are you gonna be financing that?" talk about jumping the gun. I then tell him that two other dealerships were $200 less and wanted to know if they would adjust their price. His response "NO we are gonna keep it where we got it, there aren't that many out there" Alrighty then DH and I need a minute, I was so shocked at the attitude and his willingness to keep a bike rather than to reduce the price $200 then we walked out. Lucky for us there was a newly listed bike on craigslist that only had 400 miles on it so we purchased that one and saved over $1000.

 

[everylastbreath]

Do you mean specifically when someone puts money in their hand? Or just in general thanks for shopping here?

Specifically when you hand them money, isn't it an automatic response when someone hands you something to say thank you? I hand them money, they say nothing, they hand me back change, I say thank you. Manners? If they don't say "thank you" then, they are not going to say "Thanks for shopping here" that's a given. Just a sign of poor manners/upbringing. If your working with public, you should have some social skills.