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Question of the Day – Customer Service

By JLP | November 6, 2006

In light of my last post…

What’s the WORST customer service you have ever received? How did you react to the situation?

Topics: Miscellaneous | 13 Comments »


13 Responses to “Question of the Day – Customer Service”

  1. MoneyFwd Says:
    November 6th, 2006 at 10:43 am

    We used to order from Pizza Hut and every time we would offer to give them directions and tell them to call us if they couldn’t find the house (because they couldn’t find it the first time we figured it would make life easier). Every time we would have to call after 45 minutes to an hour and they would eventually get us our food an hour and a half later, and they would always give it to us for free to make up for their mistake.

  2. Ry Says:
    November 6th, 2006 at 11:24 am

    It wasn’t my experience but merely an observation. Yesterday as my girlfriend and I were in a shoe store, there were two employees walking the floor and one (I assume was the manager) manning the cash register. One of the guys had a sucker in his mouth and kept it in his mouth while helping customers. I’m glad I didn’t ask for his assistance because I could hardly understand what he was mumbling helping other people. The other guy had his bluetooth earpiece for his cell phone stuck in his ear. I wonder if he would have actually answered had he received a call. He could have at least put it away as it just looks tacky while at work. As I was leaving I then figured out why they had a “Now Hiring” sign on the door

  3. John Wilks Says:
    November 6th, 2006 at 11:33 am

    This isnt really a customer service problem, just a service problem. I once ordered some McChickens. When I got them home I noticed they were microwaved and rubbery. I didn’t even know they had regular microwaves at McDonald’s

  4. WearyTraveler Says:
    November 6th, 2006 at 12:52 pm

    We went to a Virginia balloon festival a little while ago. I was interested in signing up for Costco and when I saw they had a booth there, we went to the booth to sign up. When we got there, the salesman (booth attendee) was busy chatting with a couple of ladies about the weather etc… Nothing to do with the purpose of the booth – which was signing up new customers. We waited several minutes, patiently waiting for the salesman to turn his attention to or acknowledge the prospective new members standing in front of him. He didn’t notice us until we started walking away. When he called after us, I told him I’d take my business elsewhere, which I did.
    I know that sales people have to have the gift of gab. They need to talk to people. But they also need to acknowledge others when they’re trying to ply their wares.

  5. WearyTraveler Says:
    November 6th, 2006 at 1:03 pm

    Another customer service sore spot that I have is calling customer service and having the customer service representative unable to speak English or speak clearly.

    I’m all for equal opportunity, but anyone that’s supposed to help customers over the phone should speak clearly and understand English. Is that too much to ask? I’ve even had to ask for someone else, or for their supervisor. If I’m going to spend my money on a product I should at least be helped when I have a problem or question about it. Customer service is going downhill…

    Whenever I finish working with someone that was clear and understandable, I always compliment them and thank them for speaking clearly and understandably. I’ve often asked to talk to their supervisor and explained to the supervisor that as a customer, I appreciate that they hired that rep and that he / she was easily understood.

  6. Dimes Says:
    November 6th, 2006 at 1:08 pm

    The worst experience had to have been when we ordered our landline. We had to do it online because we didn’t have a phone, and somehow it was messed up. Our $35/month basic service was over $180 the first month. I called Verizon, they realized we’d been double billed for almost everything, triple billed for the rest, and revised the amount due (lowered the bill by $100). The next month brought about a similar bill, except this one had LATE FEES from the amount that had been “corrected” on the first bill. Another call got $50 off the bill and an assurance this wouldn’t happen again. The next month it was over by $20, I called back AGAIN, finally talked to someone who knew what had happened (evidently there was a billing glitch in online ordering the week we’d ordered service), corrected the problem at its source, and we haven’t had any problems since. I’ll still never put them in my auto-pay rotation. There is no trust for Verizon in this house.

  7. samerwriter Says:
    November 6th, 2006 at 1:12 pm

    The worst customer service I’ve ever had happens every time I walk inside a Home Depot.

    Everytime I go there, I start mentally formulating a letter to Home Depot Headquarters about how far they’ve slid in the 8 years I’ve been a customer.

  8. Evie Says:
    November 6th, 2006 at 1:21 pm

    I order clothing online (I’m tall and store generally don’t carry my size outside of the catalog/internet, if at all). I was returnings some items that I had purchased with a online discount. The women at the customer service desk had NO idea how to handle a return and the discount really threw her for a loop. I ended up having to explain to her how to do the return. She didn’t believe me and wanted to ask someone else to double check that she was right. So, I had to wait for another customer service person to be available to tell the women helping me that I was right, and she was wrong.

    The result: I no longer shop from that retailer. Returns shouldn’t be a 30 minute process.

  9. Foobarista Says:
    November 6th, 2006 at 2:14 pm

    Not the worst, but the funniest: I walked into a Fry’s Electronics a few years ago and ask where the Red Hat Linux retail packs are. The salesdroid asks whether it runs on Windows or Mac!

  10. sam Says:
    November 6th, 2006 at 2:41 pm

    My wife recently had a bad experience at a Hancock Fabric store. She had gone in looking for some fabric to match a table runner (whatever that is). Later on she couldn’t find the table runner, and thought she had left it at the store. She went back in to check (while I sat in the car). After about 20 minutes she came back out fuming. She had been ignored, passed back and forth between employees, and treated rudely, and could never get anyone to actually check the store lost and found for the runner. This was fairly early on a Saturday morning and they weren’t that busy. Hancock lost her as a customer.

  11. Jonathan Says:
    November 6th, 2006 at 2:54 pm

    I’ve never really had a horrible experience myself. Maybe I put off a “don’t screw with me” vibe or something, lol.

    My mom has had some bad ones though. One time she was ordering a pizza and picking it up in-store. They got the order wrong, and my mom didn’t want to pay for the wrong pizza. Well, apparently the pizza people got really upset about this and started making personal insults at my mom. Very poor service.

  12. Michael Says:
    November 6th, 2006 at 4:16 pm

    Two experiences – I can laugh now:

    I rear-ended someone with my station wagon in Asheville, NC, which caused a lot of front-end damage. The bodywork was done and I was told by the repair shop what day the car would be painted. I came by the shop that afternoon soon after the painting was done. I was told I could walk into the paint booth to “take a look and see what you think”. I did so, and found that the front end of the car had been painted the wrong shade of white. Then I found a small collection of beer bottles in the back of the paint booth. The “technician” was drunk on the job, was fired, and I got the entire car repainted for free.

    I had a room at a Holiday Inn in Newport News, VA. on a work trip. The morning I was supposed to start a major project at the Navy shipyard, I got out of bed to take a shower, and – no hot water. No hot water in the sink, either. I called the front desk, they apologized for the problem, and told me they could give me a different room (in another building). I took all of my luggage on a cart, rolled it to the front desk, exchanged keys for the new room, and rolled the cart to my new temporary address. I put the key in the door, opened the door, and woke up a couple sleeping in a king size bed after a undeniable night of debauchery (based on the appearance of the rest of the room, certain “artifacts”, etc.). I backed out quickly just as the couple became aware of my shadow in the doorway. Not a great start to the trip. Got another (empty) room out of it and a lot of drink tickets for the hotel bar.

  13. John Boy Says:
    November 8th, 2006 at 2:36 pm

    My wife and I were at the local train station, waiting for the train to a far away downtown. It was a very cold winter morning, she was seven months pregnant, and craving a burger and shake before nine am…we went into the depot grill and pub. A blowzy fat blonde woman begind the bar who was yakking with another Little Debbies Fan over the bar diffidently waved us over to a window table, and said, “I’ll get to you,” while shooting my Spanish spouse a look that could have killed with daggers. It was cold at the window seat…I asked could we sit near the fire, since my pregnant wife needed to keep warm…the slob said the tables were all reserved for ‘regulars.’ I told her, my wife needs a burger and hot chocolate, could we get that to go? “Sorry, plumb out of to go boxes.”

    Moments later, with no placemats, silverware, napkins or even another excuse, she personally seated some rather hard looking old ladies with great ceremony at a warm snug table near the fire…they ordered coffee, nothing else.

    The slob went back to yakking with the other drab, blah, blah, blah. I walked over to her, and she motioned to the window, and said, “this is life or death.” They were squawking about some alleged shortcoming of Hillary Clinton, whose congressional district is almost a thousand miles away…..I kid you not!

    We waited another five minutes, with no other lavish patrons coming in to take a seat or a table, then I told my wife we clearly weren’t appreciated or even welcome, and should take our business elsewhere. So, even thoug it wass a cold 75 yeard walk to the little retail mall catty corner from the station, we left. Destination: a littel privately owned coffee house that serves an express breakfast and sanwich line including burgers….(they took pity on my wife and cooked her burger to order)….on the way out, the slob objected, and said, “People can’t just come in here and sit. Drives away business.I was going to take care of you in a bit!”

    My reply was, “you are totally correct. You let us sit for more than ten minutes without even any consideration or courtesy. You rudely glared at my wife, and then seated some coffee drinkers where we asked to sit, leaving the other four tables in that cozy nook also open for alleged reservations. And, yes, we are AFRAID you WILL further take care of us. I deal with hundreds of area residents each month, and if they ask, I’ll let them know how you decided to treat a sweet mother to be on a frosty day.” She actually swore at us and shouted some ethnic epithets…none of which were relevant, my wife is European–SPANISH, not Central or South American. She dresses, talks, and comports herself as an upper class woman, which is true for her…we had to repeat our trip last Monday, almost fifteen months later…this dive looked fairly empty, both departing and returning at peak hours. Guess other people have had less than cheery experiences with them, too. We hope someone who is actually a welcoming and serious business person takes over once this Dirty Duck dive fails, as it surely seems to be doing.

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