Customer service horror stories

The job got easier as it went. You learn to think on your feet more quickly and how to creatively solve problems , you learn how to calibrate to the customers better, verbal cues you can use which replace body language cues.
I actually learned a lot there.
 
I wish, I wasn't legally allowed to listen to recorded phone calls unless they were my own and only with the supervision of a Supervisor or a manager.
 
Okay, here it is, my great battle with Expedia.

As the missus is a Chinese foreign national she needs visas to visit most places and they don't come cheaply or quickly, as such, we couldn't go on honeymoon after the wedding.

However, we had sketchy plans to visit South Korea, looked into it, but decided against it when the North started shelling the South. We thought again and settled on Japan. We got the visa and excitedly planned our holiday to the finest detail. We booked an excursion to Mt. Fuji, a relaxing day in a natural hot spring, and which areas to visit and in which day.

Then, a quake hit Japan. It wasn't too bad and it didn't really register with us that it might be dangerous. A few days later, the big one hit, followed by the tsunami. We were due to fly in 3 days...

The FCO said don't go to Japan if you don't have to, the Japanese embassy said don't go if you have to, friends in Japan working for Nissan were being shipped back to the UK. Expedia? They said I had to go and there was nothing they could do.

I know it sounds horrendous that I was arguing for a few thousand pounds back when people lost their homes, possessions and their lives, but when it became clear they weren't going to refund me, I asked Expedia to donate my money to the Japan relief effort. They wouldn't. This absolutely wound me up.

I spent the remaining days calling, trying to get some sort of resolution. I was told I could fly at a later date (3 days after the quake with quakes still going on and the risk of radiation leakage), I was then told I couldn't because of the class of my tickets. I was offered a flight on the 31st of April... Confused, I had to remind them at April doesn't have 31 days. Telling them that the missus couldn't get a new visa in time fell on death ears. One guy said "he didn't care!" They were not even sympathetic when I told them one of the places we were going to visit was on fire, another just had 5,000 bodies washed up...

A different guy offered me a change of destination for £3500!!! Why on earth would I do that? The Air France site stated that they were refunding people or offering flights at a later date. Armed with this information, some 20 hours before flight time, when I eventually got through to someone, I was told this didn't apply to me, even though I fell within the timescale.

In between all his my wife was calling from her work and thy offered a change if date as long as we flew by September, but thy needed to speak to me as the account holder. I called them up, the guy I spoke to said no such offer was made, I asked if he was calling my wife a liar, he did everything he could not to answer, including putting me on hold.

I was put on hold on hours on end, people outright lied to me when they said they'd come back. In the end I was on hold on four different phones at work. One girl wouldn't believe I was on hold on another line, till I put it on speaker phone and asked if it was her company's goddamn hold music???

Each time I managed to get through to someone they said they'd have to call Air France. I would tell them that they are shut, but they'd put me on hold anyway, and if they did come back they'd tell me that "Air France" was shut.

At about 8pm that night (I'd been on the phone for 13 hours at this point), I got through to a man on one line and a girl on the other, both said the Air France website said I was entitled to a refund, which was information I had known since the day before. They both claimed they couldn't understand why the previous call centre workers didn't just issue me a refund.

I made the guy say out loud I was being refunded (I was recording at this point) and to stay on the line as he emailed me. I then made the girl on the other line check that this was on their system and I waited for my email.

The email came and described the Japanese earthquake as a "calamity" which infuriated me, but I calmed down. After 3 days of calling, including a mammoth 13 hour session using 3 landlines and a mobile, I got my money back.

I will never, ever use Expedia again, they are liars, unsympathetic and scum. Okay, yes, I know they're a business and that business is to make money, but you do not treat customers in this manner.
 
When I have to deal with an Indian call centre I put on my broadest Yorkshire accent and throw in as many dialect words as I can think of. They might only be getting paid two rupees for answering my call but I make sure that they bloody well earn it.
 
Wow starting to feel my o2 thing was nothing and I should consider myself lucky. Moral of the story THOMAS COOK IT!

Chimpcheng's Fable's there is always a moral to the story.
 
Personally, I have boycotted Thomas Cook for over thirty years now after receiving the shoddiest service of my life. I never forget these things.
 
Good service I will pay more for, it's horrible to think you've wasted your hard earned money on something that isn't fit for use and idiots who are meant to help on the other end of a line are anything but helpful.

I'll sing the praises of companies, restaurants, etc. if they provide excellent customer service but I will slam you if you don't live up to expectations.

Interested parties might like to know I'm on Tripadvisor, both slagging off and waxing lyrical about various venues...
 
It was only when I went to the USA for the first time that it struck me just how truly dreadful customer service often is in the UK.

In the US, even the lowliest employee seems to understand that poor service means that the customer goes elsewhere, and ultimately that can mean no job for them any more. Over here, many employees seem to think that they are doing the customer a massive favour just by talking to them.

It's especially bad in London. I cringe when I think about the impression that foreign visitors must get of this country if they've only been down there - which sadly, far too many of them do.
 
I've noticed that too, each time I've been to America. Shop assistants bend over backwards to help you, it's the same deal in Hong Kong, except in the latter it can get a little too much, when, in the larger stores you're being constantly stopped and asked if you'd like help.

There is, however, one shop in the UK that had unbelievable customer service, at least for me. That shop is 'Travelling Man' in the Corn Exchange in Leeds. For those who don't know it's a comic shop and is the nearest to a rival 'Forbidden Planet' has. Staff there were always courteous, they insured that I got first refusal on limited edition books (variant covers and the like).

Heck, one time I was seeking out all 7 variants of "DV8" #1, one of the guys working there gave me his personal copy and picked up one of the more common covers instead for himself. Best of all? I could stay there all day talking comics.



I've never noticed it to be especially bad in London, but then I suppose whenever I'm there I'm mostly in the touristy areas, mostly...
 
Chimp... not that it directly affects you; but due to your experience with Expedia, they've lost a prospective customer with me. I won't buy a holiday with them.
 
There's a few things you need to remember about England, in regards to customer service.

1. We're unfailingly polite (almost as much so as the Japanese)
2. We're unrelentingly rude (these two are not mutually exclusive - it's perfectly possible to be absolutely polite while making someone feel like dirt on your shoe)
3. English people love to complain, and to have something to complain about - we're curmudgeons through and through and when we receive good customer service it leaves us a little lost and bewildered, with nothing to grumble about (then again, mustn't grumble)

For more, just read Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island.
 
I haven't read that in years, I used to love Bill Bryson before he got crap, very crap.

With regards to Expedia, I only used them once before in the past, and got to New York and back (with many excursions booked and tickets booked) no problem. This was why I went with them to book my Japan trip.

I tried to justify in my head that there would have been hundreds, perhaps thousands of people eager to change travel plans or worried about what was happening following the Japanese earthquake. However, it was the outright lies that really wound me up. 31st April? Come oooooon man, you can lie better than that. £3500 to change destination? Now that's a better lie.

Oh, in my rant I forgot to mention that a work friend has a girlfriend who works for a different travel agent. She told me that due to what was written on the Air France website I can ask Expedia to give me a "non refundable emd from bsp link" which is a voucher that can be used later in the year.

I have no idea what an emd from bsp link was, and I'm sure the average person doesn't either. I explained this to at least 3 different people, all of whom didn't have a clue, one of whom went away, came back (some 30 mins later) and said that they can't do that. I explained that they could as Air France said they can, I even tried to give them the name and number of the person my friend's girlfriend gave me. All of this fell on death ears.

When I finally got through to two understanding people, it was like god sent. They both told me I was right and should have been told I was getting a refund right from the start.

Here is the email the guy I spoke to hastily wrote:



Notice the "Dear Cheng" part, no "Mr" about it! Also the earthquake was described as "natural calamities". Say what??? Also I didn't get a refund back until the 12th week.

The hotel in Japan refunded me no worries and said they were still open despite the quake and, if I decided to change my mind, they will make sure I have a room. The tour operator taking us to Mt. Fuji said they fully understood my cancellation and said if they were in my position they wouldn't go to Japan either. However, if I change my mind they would offer us a discount. I LOVE the Japanese.

Expedia on the other hand tried to keep my money through lies, despite Air France offering full refunds to everyone who didn't want to fly.

My boss was nearby hearing my woes during that time (again I do understand that I am sounding horrifically mercenary for trying to get a few thousand pounds back when so many died) and the told me that she was screwed by Expedia as well.

There was a mix up at the airport, she rang through to Expedia on a pay phone and managed to get a number of someone so she can ring from the flight desk, after two hours of hanging on. When she rang from the flight desk, the person at Expedia refused to speak to the people on the flight desk saying "they weren't allowed to discuss anything with them".

Due to this and other mishaps with Expedia, it is unoffical company policy not to use them to book flights or anything else...
 
Just found a couple of consumer sites where Expedia have screwed their customers one way or another:

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/travel/expedia_air_reservations.html

http://www.expedianews.com/

Crumbs!
 
AND they pay great music like Jurassic 5 and they really know their stuff about upcoming issues and series of ANYTHING.

BTW you must be the guy who nicked the variant issues of DV8 from there. I despise you
 
Now, now, kiddie, DV8 #1 came out in 1996, you'd have been way too young to have such a book...
 
I thought you were talking about "DV8: Gods & Monsters" that was the latest limited series released by them last year!

I sadly only read limited series.
 
I've fallen out of reading comics in recent years. My £40 a week habit was starting to hurt.

Anyway, back on topic. Some of the best customer services I've received we're from comic book people. They're nothing like the stereotypical comic book guy in The Simpsons. One guy at marts I used to go to would keep back issues that he thought I would like without my asking. I would ask him if he had issue "x" of "comic book y" and he'd use his contacts to locate it for me.

Absolutely marvellous.
 
I would love to go to a good comic book store, it's not big here like in the usa! This place just looks amazing

The Big Bang Theory Season 2 Episode 20 - YouTube

Anyone know a good comic book place in central london?
 
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