Your Worst Customer Service Experience?

[JFSikora]

Just curious to hear some of your stories about horrid customer service. Does not matter if it was from Apple, AT&T, Sprint, etc... anything goes. A while back I posted a experience I had in a local AT&T store in another thread but here is the replay:

Just wanted to share my latest visit to a local AT&T store... AVOID the ORLAND PARK IL store at all costs ladies and gentleman. And if any of you think I am off base please let me know. Hopefully more of you will be on my side rather than against me on this one.

Here is my email to corporate - says it all.

Hello, I would just like to let you know about a incident I had in one of your corporate stores [Orland Park, IL (708) 460-6633] on November 11th, 2008. I purchased the HTC Fuze from the store and once I got to my car to open the box I noticed it was already open. The box contained no booklets, the phones battery cover was off the phone in the bottom of the box with scuff marks all over it, it had two separate batteries - one being a motorola battery, and the phone itself looked like it was a poorly taken care of phone. After seeing this I went right back into the store where I was greeted by the manager. I politely asked for a unopened box since I was paying $500.00 for a "new" phone. He then went on to tell me that the phone I did receive was new and that they just got that in. Not only is that insulting to me, especially when I am paying good money for a new device but for the manager to try to pass that phone off as a new device is just flat out pitiful. I really could not believe what I was hearing so I then asked him to give me a new phone or I would like a full refund. He blankly stared at me with no response, I then proceeded to my car to get my receipt for the refund. When I came back the manager was no where to be found and another worker told me they would go get me a new one, which she did. The bottom line is I'm not looking for anything, I would just like you to know what kind of person is running your Orland Park IL store. Before this happened I'd be more than happy to tell people to get AT&T service and now after this it is kind of hard to do that. One thing for sure is I will let people know to avoid that particular store. Thank you for your time. It is much appreciated.

Can anyone top that?

[Duvi]

Nope... I get great CS. If I don't, it's just me trying to pull a fast one.

[JFSikora]

Originally Posted by Duvi

Nope... I get great CS. If I don't, it's just me trying to pull a fast one.

Consider yourself lucky.

[llofte]

I had a bad experience at the Apple Store in Santa Rosa, CA.

After my dad surprised me with my 1st gen 8g iPhone, I went to Apple to buy a case for it. I chose some crappy skin case that wasn't very snug. It collected dust under it very easily and was showing signs of scratching the metal around the glass. When I purchased it, I asked the guy if I could return it if I hated it and he said that was fine as long as it was within x number of days. He did not say anything about keeping the box and neither did the reciept that Apple emailed to me. It didn't take long for me to realize how horrible the case was. Unfortunately, my husband had actually decided to clean (wtf?) and threw away my packaging. I showed up with the case in perfect condition and my reciept to return it. The manager basically laughed at me for not having the packaging and told me I couldn't return it. I explained to him that the case was actually damaging my iPhone and that I was interested in purchasing a different case that was twice as much. He said that's fine, but I couldn't return the crappy one, but I was more than welcome to purchase the better one. I threw a fit, lol. He gave me some bull crap about how he was just going to have to throw the case in the garbage if he accepted the return and that he'd get in big trouble. I seriously fought (loudly) with this guy for 20 minutes right by the cash register. When I asked him for his supervisor's phone number he snatched the case from my hand and proceeded to do the return. Customers in line were appauled at the manager and told him so and "congratulated" me for not giving up. I may be little and look like I'm 15, but I'm stubborn as can be! I will win.

[Duvi]

Originally Posted by Bad Ash

Consider yourself lucky.

Consider myself using my "I'm a manager" clout. Hehe.

[zukir02]

Originally Posted by llofte

I had a bad experience at the Apple Store in Santa Rosa, CA.

After my dad surprised me with my 1st gen 8g iPhone, I went to Apple to buy a case for it. I chose some crappy skin case that wasn't very snug. It collected dust under it very easily and was showing signs of scratching the metal around the glass. When I purchased it, I asked the guy if I could return it if I hated it and he said that was fine as long as it was within x number of days. He did not say anything about keeping the box and neither did the reciept that Apple emailed to me. It didn't take long for me to realize how horrible the case was. Unfortunately, my husband had actually decided to clean (wtf?) and threw away my packaging. I showed up with the case in perfect condition and my reciept to return it. The manager basically laughed at me for not having the packaging and told me I couldn't return it. I explained to him that the case was actually damaging my iPhone and that I was interested in purchasing a different case that was twice as much. He said that's fine, but I couldn't return the crappy one, but I was more than welcome to purchase the better one. I threw a fit, lol. He gave me some bull crap about how he was just going to have to throw the case in the garbage if he accepted the return and that he'd get in big trouble. I seriously fought (loudly) with this guy for 20 minutes right by the cash register. When I asked him for his supervisor's phone number he snatched the case from my hand and proceeded to do the return. Customers in line were appauled at the manager and told him so and "congratulated" me for not giving up. I may be little and look like I'm 15, but I'm stubborn as can be! I will win.

Way to stick to your guns.

[JFSikora]

Originally Posted by Duvi

Consider myself using my "I'm a manager" clout. Hehe.

That's fine for your employer but what about other companies...

[Duvi]

Originally Posted by Bad Ash

That's fine for your employer but what about other companies...

I use the same with all companies... Sprint ended up giving me just under $3000 worth of credits in less than two months.

I've believe that the way you speak to someone will yield the positive or negative results.

[Rene Ritchie]

I called Palm directly to buy a Treo 680 which had a "music pack" with it at the time. I placed my order, Treo 680 arrived, no music pack. I called Palm, they said they'd fix it asap. Nothing happened. I called back, was promised they'd fix it asap. Nothing happened.

I called again and was transferred to a manager who now said I was ineligible. I explained salesman and 2 reps had said I would get it, and if nothing else, they should keep their word. He said offer was over, they didn't have any left. Again I pressed them to simply keep their word. He said he'd get back to me. He didn't. I called again. He promised to get back to me again. He didn't.

I called again and a different manager came on who said the first manager never existed and that my ref/case# never existed. I went ape$#it and began posting on TreoCentral, DIGG, everywhere I could.

Apparently, some people online saw it and called Palm to ask about it, including a reporter from somewhere.

Original manager, suddenly re-existing, called me back the next day and send my music pack (which also suddenly was back in stock). He also asked me to post about the issue being resolved. Ahem.

I received my music pack a couple of days later, after weeks and weeks of delays and a lot of wasted time and good faith.

Still boggles my brain that a company could act like that in the internet age.

(Now if I could just learn Duvi's secrets!)

[JFSikora]

Originally Posted by Duvi

I use the same with all companies... Sprint ended up giving me just under $3000 worth of credits in less than two months.

I've believe that the way you speak to someone will yield the positive or negative results.

Yeah, I wish speaking to someone nicely would always get great results... not in my case. In the end it's their choice to keep your business or throw it away. Other companies out there are more than welcome to take your money.