Customer service - a lost art? Please share your horror stories!

[Kathryn]

OK, I am ticked off.

My husband and I have spent a lot of money at Lowe's over the years, because we've renovated several homes. Their customer service has never been GREAT but their prices and selection have been good, so we've stuck with them. In fact, we even bought some stock in Lowes a few years ago.

On 12/31/11 we went to Lowes and, in spite of poor customer service and a long wait in the flooring department, we picked out some hardwood flooring. We had already had the installation guys come out to take measurements, so we knew exactly how much to order and what the cost would be when we placed the order. It came to about $3700 for materials and installation.

Lowes expects you to pay in full for both materials AND installation when you place the order. Right off the bat, I don't much care for that but you have no option with Lowes. We even had the manager come out and assure us that they would be calling us at every turn (delivered to the store, delivery to our house, installation, etc) and that our flooring would be in in just a few days, and that our floors would be installed within a week of delivery to the store.

So - in spite of our reservations, we paid in full for everything. Now they had our money - now the dropping of the balls begins.

On Saturday, the7ht, we went to the store, just to check on things. They told us the flooring was not in yet but would be delivered to the store on the 9th and they would call us that day.

No call. On the 10th my husband went up to the store, after trying to call but only managing to be put on hold repeatedly, and THERE WAS OUR LOVELY FLOORING, all 16 boxes of it. He was told it had been there since the 5th. Interesting. They had told us on the 7th that it wasn't there yet.

Anyway, we had already paid for delivery - of course, since you have to pay for everything up front - so we agreed to just have it delivered the next day. They could not tell us what time they would be there so my husband stayed home all day waiting.

No show, no call.

So - on the evening of the 12th, we got on the phone and tried to get a live person again. We were transferred five times, and no one would even pull up the information -instead they just kept transferring us to other departments. Finally, we got someone in flooring who told us that our delivery had been changed to 1/22 and that we had been called repeatedly about this. No sir. We had not received a single phone call, and they had both our cell phone numbers correct in their system. After arguing with us about that, the young man assured us that our flooring would be on the first truck out to our house the next morning (1/13). He told me "I am leaving notes everywhere, and I've left notes in the computer as well."

You guessed it - no delivery the next day and no phone call either.

That afternoon, my husband made the 20 mile trip AGAIN and loaded all 16 heavy boxes of flooring into his truck and they are now in our garage, awaiting the second level of Hell, which will be the installation.

I can hardly wait.

There is NO excuse for this. NONE whatsoever. It has been a dark comedy of errors from start to finish. I will never shop at Lowes again. I will shop with and support local merchants even if I have to pay more.

We are selling our Lowes stock Tuesday. It hasn't done anything anyway.

 

[Rakhel]

We went to RIte Aid the other day. They had a nice sale of some foods we needed($1.50 for rice that would have cost 2x that in a grocery store or $1.50 for can of Progresso soup which is half the cost in a grocery store.)
Only problem is, is that you need one of their customer reward cards to get the discounts. Usually, the cashiers have these cards at the registers. However, this one did not. When asked what one was supposed to do without the card, because the stuff was only on sale with the card, her reply was, "well, I'll let you slide this time, just make sure you have a card next time."
I politely said thank you and walked out the store, with my items. after leaving I'm thinking, "you'll let me slide every time, until you have those dammed cards in stock."

My daughter had a bad experience at a bank yesterday. she had received a check and wanted to deposit some of the money from the check into the account and withhold the rest(a measly $10).

The teller started "yelling"(her words) at her that she could not withhold money and that she must deposit all of it. My daughter countered that bank policy dictates otherwise and that she had better hand over that $10 or they can wait for a manager to arrive.
The teller informed my daughter that the manager was gone for the day, so my daughter said fine, we'll wait for the police and you can explain to them why you won't abide by "you're bank's policy and allow me to withhold money from a deposit."
(Keep in mind that the bank was full of people watching this exchange.)
The teller threw the bill at my daughter and we walked out the door. Needless to say, we won't be going back to that branch anymore.

 

[Kathryn]

OK here's another one.

I called my doctor to refill a prescription for cough medicine the other day. I told him which drug store (Walgreens) I would like the prescription sent to. His nurse called me back and told me that the prescription was filled and waiting for me and I thanked her.

I went to Walgreens the next day on my lunch break, but the prescription wasn't there. The clerk helpfully called WAL MART and it was there. She had the prescription transferred (also helpful) and told me it would be about ten minutes and I could pick it up.

So - first error was by the nurse, who sent my prescription to Wal Mart instead of Walgreens. But anyway...

So I sat down right in front of her in the little waiting area. I waited fifteen minutes. I got up and asked if it was ready and she checked and said, "No, it has been declined."

I said, "Declined? Why? And when were you going to tell me this?" She said, "It's declined because you can't have more than 120 mg of this within thirty days." I said, "I haven't had this prescription filled since 2010, so we should be good."

She said, "No, you can't have more than 120 mg in thirty days." My head started to hurt. I said, "I haven't had ANY mg in thirty days!"

She looked at me like I was stupid. She then said, "But this prescription is for 180 mg."

I stood there for a moment digesting this factoid - as if I even would KNOW how many mg the prescription was for. Finally I said, very slowly and carefully, "Can you reduce the amount to 120 mg?"

"Sure!" she said cheerfully - as if she were delivering truly superior customer service.

"OK, so...when will this be ready?"

"Ten more minutes!" she chirped.

So - I spent my entire lunch break waiting on this.

She honestly never realized that she was being a goober.

 

[Kathryn]

My daughter had a bad experience at a bank yesterday. she had received a check and wanted to deposit some of the money from the check into the account and withhold the rest(a measly $10).

The teller started "yelling"(her words) at her that she could not withhold money and that she must deposit all of it. My daughter countered that bank policy dictates otherwise and that she had better hand over that $10 or they can wait for a manager to arrive.
The teller informed my daughter that the manager was gone for the day, so my daughter said fine, we'll wait for the police and you can explain to them why you won't abide by "you're bank's policy and allow me to withhold money from a deposit."
(Keep in mind that the bank was full of people watching this exchange.)
The teller threw the bill at my daughter and we walked out the door. Needless to say, we won't be going back to that branch anymore.

Did your daughter have $10 in her account at the time? A bank can withhold the full amount of a check if the account is at zero balance or overdrawn.

If she had matching funds, they have to give her the matching funds.

The bank cannot refuse to give her money that is available in her account. It is HER money. They can put a hold on a check until it clears, however, depending on the account history and available balance.

If a customer comes to our bank and has no available balance in their account, or is overdrawn, we place a hold until the check clears and the account is positive.

If a customer comes in and they have, say, $5 in their account, but they have a good account history, and no significant history of overdrafts or charge offs, and they deposit a check, but want some cash back, we will usually give them up to $100 back and put a hold on the rest till the account clears. But this is a courtesy, not a requirement, and it also depends on the type of check they are presenting.

Kiting and fraudulent checks are unfortunately very common occurrences. Kiting is when a customer has another account at another bank (or their relatives may be in on this as well) and they deposit a personal check from another bank into their account and ask for cash back though they have no available funds. The check is no good, but now they have the cash. The bank is stuck holding the worthless check.

That is why usually banks will only allow a customer to withdraw funds that are already available.

Even cashier's checks are not "as good as cash." They can be fraudulent. Or the customer can have already placed a hold on that cashier's check. Cashier's checks have to clear. So do paychecks - they aren't always good either.

Personal checks are the riskiest however.

 

[Rakhel]

Did your daughter have $10 in her account at the time? A bank can withhold the full amount of a check if the account is at zero balance or overdrawn.

If she had matching funds, they have to give her the matching funds.

oh she had the money in her account. she also doesn't have a history of overdraft either.
This bank has an option when you open your account as to whether or not you want to participate in their overdraft policy. Meaning that if you have something coming out that is more than you have in your account, they deny the transaction, and you don't get the overdraft fee.
She just didn't like the attitude of the teller. And this bank has never given either her or us a problem, in the past, about how much she could deposit. Initially, when we both opened our account with a check they did, but that was understandable.
This was just rude.

 

[Kathryn]

oh she had the money in her account. she also doesn't have a history of overdraft either.
This bank has an option when you open your account as to whether or not you want to participate in their overdraft policy. Meaning that if you have something coming out that is more than you have in your account, they deny the transaction, and you don't get the overdraft fee.
She just didn't like the attitude of the teller. And this bank has never given either her or us a problem, in the past, about how much she could deposit. Initially, when we both opened our account with a check they did, but that was understandable.
This was just rude.

I agree. You should definitely complain to the manager. Tellers are often not paid much and don't have a lot of customer service training. If the manager has a teller that is giving this sort of poor service, they need to know about it and that teller should be disciplined or at least retrained in funds availability policy.

 

[Mathematician]

I'm usually an accommodating consumer. Unless I'm paying high dollar I don't demand much as it's understandable that someone working for less than $10/hour is not exactly in the mood to find every outlet to please me. I always tip whether I'm at a bar or restaurant. If I'm buying alcoholic drinks, I tip $1 for each drink. If I'm buying food, I tip regularly at around 18%.

That said, my worst experience was at Applebees a few years ago when a waiter had us waiting for over two hours. Keep in mind I'm one of those people who tries to accurately judge which aspect of service is not up to task. I can't stand when customers yell at a waiter for something that was out of his control. If a place is understaffed, it's the fault of the manager or staff supervisor, for example.

But this guy clearly avoided us and even forgot about us. I had to talk to a different waiter just to ask if he was still on the clock. Then he treated us like dirt.

It's the only time I've ever tipped "one penny."

 

[Kathryn]

Wow, that's hardcore.

I know what you're saying about being an understanding customer. I'm pretty empathetic and patient when it comes to honest mistakes or even sullen behavior from a clerk or waitstaff. After all, I don't know what's on their mind but it's pretty safe to say that money problems may be at the top of their list of troubles.

However, I do draw the line at outright rudeness. I will not go gentle into that good night.

A couple of days ago I was in my favorite clothing store spending my birthday money. It's a small boutique and though it's not designer clothing, it's a pretty high end little shop and the staff is usually very helpful and pleasant. I was shopping with a girlfriend and she had tried on a cute little jacket and told me where she had gotten it so I could go get my size.

The jackets were hanging on a rack that was not yet out on the floor - they were on a rack right next to the door to the ladies room - in other words, in a public place but not out on display yet. They were new arrivals.

There were several sales people in the shop but it was crowded that day - lots of customers in the small showroom.

As I was looking thru the rack for my size, a clerk suddenly raised her voice across the store (not the woman who had been waiting on me by the way). She said loudly, "Um, excuse me - EXCUSE ME." (I had no idea at first that she was even talking to me.) "Um, do you need HELP or something?" she asked - but not in a tone that implied that she was actually interested in helping me. "Oh, no thank you, I'm just getting this jacket in my size," I said. She was still across the store but striding purposefully toward me with a grim look on her face. Still speaking very loudly, she said, "Well, that rack is for US to bring to our customers if they need a particular size in something that is already out on the floor. If you need something from that rack, I would appreciate it if you asked your salesperson to get it for you." Then she just stopped in front of me like a tank.

I was dumbfounded. The rack was not labeled in any way. It was in a public area. It was chock full of clothes.

I just looked at her steadily and said, "I've found my size. Is there a problem?" She looked at me flatly and said, "Ask your salesperson if you want anything off that rack" and she turned on her heel and walked off.

Before I left that store, I found the manager and told her about this person. She was mortified and clarified that I had done nothing out of line. But even if I had - so WHAT. If you don't want someone getting something from a rack, either label it "Please do not touch" or get it out of a public spot. Sheeze! I was ticked off!

 

[Revoltingest]

Our local electric & gas utility (DTE, a state controlled monopoly) had an interesting policy back when I bought energy from them (about $200,000/year).
They had shut down all the local offices, so payments could only be made by mail. Occasionally, the USPS would slip up & lose or delay a payment, so I'd be
late at times. DTE would place a single phone call to customers about arrearage & imminent shut-off, but if they got an answering machine, their policy was
to never leave a message. Thus, we were seldom notified of problems. I wanted a customer service rep, thinking that I spent enuf money to qualify for one.
DTE said that's only for companies who spent millions of dollars each month. I was too small to deserve half-way decent service.

 

[gnomon]

No personal stories as a customer but one that involves working with vendors.

There is a particular distributor I shall not name who has consistently filled and dropped orders on me. Once when I contacted the vendor regarding an overdue customer order he told me they didn't have the product, didn't have it when they filled the order and were not getting the product in to their distribution center. I was left dumbfounded on the phone thinking "How am I going to explain this to the customer.". Fortunately I called our own DC after that call, and saying something not very friendly to the other vendor, asked if they had recently stocked that merchandise. They had it, I got it shipped overnight to the store and hand delivered the merchandise to the customer to save face.

Since then I've had three more drops by the very same vendor. I hate them.

 

[Kathryn]

Grrrrrrr.

I recently ordered a shirt and a bracelet from an online source. The shirt came, with no packing slip, and no bracelet. My debit card was charged for both items. When I contacted the vendor, they said, "Oh, the bracelet is not currently in stock. We hope to have it in stock soon."

Not only that, but the shirt was MASSIVELY small - I mean, like 6 sizes too small. When I read the fine print on the site, it said, "Our shirts run extremely small - please order them at least two sizes bigger than you usually order."

Weird and stupid, in my opinion.

I gave the shirt to my daughter and am still waiting for the bracelet.

GRRRRRRRR!

 

[Engyo]

Our local electric & gas utility (DTE, a state controlled monopoly) had an interesting policy back when I bought energy from them (about $200,000/year).

I believe I've identified the problem here......

 

[gnomon]

Grrrrrrr.

I recently ordered a shirt and a bracelet from an online source. The shirt came, with no packing slip, and no bracelet. My debit card was charged for both items. When I contacted the vendor, they said, "Oh, the bracelet is not currently in stock. We hope to have it in stock soon."

Not only that, but the shirt was MASSIVELY small - I mean, like 6 sizes too small. When I read the fine print on the site, it said, "Our shirts run extremely small - please order them at least two sizes bigger than you usually order."

Weird and stupid, in my opinion.

I gave the shirt to my daughter and am still waiting for the bracelet.

GRRRRRRRR!

What happened to you is that when an online order is placed the companies electronically shop the DC's. The standard practice is that if the company has a DC but is out of stock they will shop it out to other vendors. A vendor who isn't particularly concerned with their business practice will "fill" the order so that they get credit for it. Given the dollar amounts involved they will get to take the revenue for accepting an order but no consequence due to their contract with the company you ordered it from.

The same with couriers. One major courier our company contracts with has an insurance policy allowing them a certain dollar amount that they are not liable for in regards to lost shipments. From the customers point of view they want compensation form a botched shipment from the company they ordered it from and not the courier who actually botched the shipment. A few years ago I had a customer who had a nine hundred dollar order botched. We traced it to one of the courier's delivery points in Atlanta and from there it could not be found. So we ended up refunding the order, which is fine, and thus we take the claim against the courier. From there I have no idea what happened because the corporate lawyers handled that.

All I know is that I lost a nine hundred dollar sale. Even though the couple that made the order understood it was not our fault I have not seen them again.

 

[beenie]

After the delivery of my sixth daughter (which in case you don't know, I delivered all 8 pounds of her loveliness MYSELF in the front seat of my van on the way to the hospital), I was in the hospital for the recovery. On the second day, I started feeling the all-too-familiar twinge of a kidney stone, so I asked my OB if he could do a quick ultrasound to confirm.

He insisted (several times that day) that the pain I was feeling was from the catheter he placed during my epidural. Read the bolded portion again and understand why this doctor had poor customer service. I finally convinced him to let me have the damn U/S after FOUR HOURS of bickering, chart-reading, etc. Yep, I had a 1 cm stone at the junction of the kidney and ureter. Jerk. Then, that lovely doctor had that audacity to bill me for an entire delivery. Guess what one of the line items was? Yep, "epidural anesthesia, 2 units". Last time I checked, epidurals ARE NOT a part of a Toyota Sienna's package. Hmmm, I'm thinking of an invention idea though. I fought like hell and got that doctor to remove the errors and reduce my portion by 2/3. The only thing they did was triage the baby and me and a few other small aftercare items.

Added note: I never had any pain meds, epidural or otherwise, with any of my six deliveries. Fast labors have benefits.

 

[gnomon]

After the delivery of my sixth daughter (which in case you don't know, I delivered all 8 pounds of her loveliness MYSELF in the front seat of my van on the way to the hospital), I was in the hospital for the recovery. On the second day, I started feeling the all-too-familiar twinge of a kidney stone, so I asked my OB if he could do a quick ultrasound to confirm.

He insisted (several times that day) that the pain I was feeling was from the catheter he placed during my epidural. Read the bolded portion again and understand why this doctor had poor customer service. I finally convinced him to let me have the damn U/S after FOUR HOURS of bickering, chart-reading, etc. Yep, I had a 1 cm stone at the junction of the kidney and ureter. Jerk. Then, that lovely doctor had that audacity to bill me for an entire delivery. Guess what one of the line items was? Yep, "epidural anesthesia, 2 units". Last time I checked, epidurals ARE NOT a part of a Toyota Sienna's package. Hmmm, I'm thinking of an invention idea though. I fought like hell and got that doctor to remove the errors and reduce my portion by 2/3. The only thing they did was triage the baby and me and a few other small aftercare items.

Added note: I never had any pain meds, epidural or otherwise, with any of my six deliveries. Fast labors have benefits.

A one centimeter stone!

 

[beenie]

Oh! Another one!

A group of friends and I went to a restaurant (the name is escaping me, but it's a chain). Anyway, we ordered pina coladas, virgin. The waiter informed us that the bartender gets furious with "virgin" orders and won't fill them for us. Yep, the manager got involved, the bartender had NO CLUE he was being slandered and made us the best darn pina coladas we've ever had, and the entire meal was free, plus a coupon for another free meal.

Great thread, by the way. :yes:

 

[beenie]

A one centimeter stone!

YES. I had already passed 3 before this (4mm) and I had two more 1 cm stones lithotripsied three months after my last delivery. That stone had to be removed via ureteroscopy two days after delivery.

Who says women aren't tough?

 

[gnomon]

YES. I had already passed 3 before this (4mm) and I had two more 1 cm stones lithotripsied three months after my last delivery. That stone had to be removed via ureteroscopy two days after delivery.

Who says women aren't tough?

Ow!

The largest stone I had was 6mm and I thought someone was stabbing me to death. A woman at the emergency room even remarked that childbirth was easier. I told her that at least you didn't have to keep the stone.

But ouch! All the stones I've had since were smaller. Small enough to only be a discomfort rather than almost passing out on the floor screaming.

edit: Now I'm glad I don't have to go through childbirth.

 

[Kathryn]

After the delivery of my sixth daughter (which in case you don't know, I delivered all 8 pounds of her loveliness MYSELF in the front seat of my van on the way to the hospital), I was in the hospital for the recovery. On the second day, I started feeling the all-too-familiar twinge of a kidney stone, so I asked my OB if he could do a quick ultrasound to confirm.

He insisted (several times that day) that the pain I was feeling was from the catheter he placed during my epidural. Read the bolded portion again and understand why this doctor had poor customer service. I finally convinced him to let me have the damn U/S after FOUR HOURS of bickering, chart-reading, etc. Yep, I had a 1 cm stone at the junction of the kidney and ureter. Jerk. Then, that lovely doctor had that audacity to bill me for an entire delivery. Guess what one of the line items was? Yep, "epidural anesthesia, 2 units". Last time I checked, epidurals ARE NOT a part of a Toyota Sienna's package. Hmmm, I'm thinking of an invention idea though. I fought like hell and got that doctor to remove the errors and reduce my portion by 2/3. The only thing they did was triage the baby and me and a few other small aftercare items.

Added note: I never had any pain meds, epidural or otherwise, with any of my six deliveries. Fast labors have benefits.

Wow.

You really have to watch these medical providers.

A few years ago, when my oldest son was about 14, I got a frantic call from my 18 year old daughter about 4 pm one Tuesday afternoon (I was at work). A police officer had come by the house to inform her that my son had been taken to the trauma center (ie, emergency room) in an ambulance. I nearly wrecked my car getting there in a state of panic!

Come to find out, this is what happened:

My son had been skateboarding down the street, and had wiped out on his skateboard -while wearing his helmet, God love him. Anyway, he was fine, but a bit shaken up, so he sat down on the curb to take a breather. An elderly neighbor witnessed this and called 9 1 1.

Here comes the ambulance! By now my son was back on his feet, and quite surprised to see the ambulance. They way-laid him and started asking him how he felt, and the next thing he knew he was strapped to a gurney! He told me later that he kept trying to tell them he felt fine, and that his house was less than 500 feet away, but they insisted that he come on to the hospital. He also gave them my phone number but they didn't call me. Meanwhile, I guess the police officer showed up and my son managed to point to our house before he was bundled off to the ER.

So the police officer showed up and scared my daughter to death, who then scared me to death.

Anyway, I ran into the ER, thinking my son was seriously injured, and there he sat, cool as a cucumber, in a wheelchair - not being attended by anyone, and waiting to be called to the back.

I said, "Thank God you're ok - and ARE you OK???" He laughed and said, "Mom, I tried to TELL them that I feel fine." He had his helmet in his lap, and I said, "Were you wearing your helmet? Did you hit your head? Is anything on you hurt at all?"

He stood up and said, "Mom, I feel FINE. I hit my knee. It's not even bruised. I'm not bleeding anywhere, and I told them I just wanted to go home, but they wouldn't let me, and they wouldn't even call you at work, even though I gave them your number. They MADE me ride here in the ambulance!"

Oh, I was mad. My son was not even LIMPING. He had no discernible injuries whatsoever. I told the person in the office, "I am taking my son home."

Then SHE got mad. "You can't do that - he has to see a doctor." Wrong thing to tell a mother.

I said, "Are you telling me that it's OK for paramedics to pick up a minor child who doesn't have ANY apparent injuries, and whisk him off to the ER without even calling his mother? Which, by the way, no one at this hospital has called me yet either. My DAUGHTER called me - and by the way, she's probably in more need of medical attention because she nearly had a nervous breakdown over all this!"

I took my perfectly fine son home. Then I called the ambulance/paramedic department of the hospital. They informed me that I wouldn't owe them anything, because my insurance information was already on file at the hospital and they would simply bill my provider - so don't worry about it.

I told them, "Don't you DARE bill my provider -not unless you want to end up on the local evening news. I did not authorize you to transport my son, and since he obviously has no injuries whatsoever and clearly told you so when you scooped him up off the curb, I absolutely refuse to be any part of you receiving any payment for this fiasco!"

I called my insurance company and told them the story and told them that if they received a bill from the paramedic service, to refuse payment.

 

[beenie]

Kathryn, that is so strange I don't even know where to start. Unbelievable!!

I'm glad he wasn't injured!