The worst customer service you've ever received

[Cy4Patriots]

So, they say they will handle it.

But, I'm not sure the guy will get fired.

Companies do some form of this to every call.

 

[Bipolarcy]

And then you use a credit card, right?

I've never owned a credit card. Straight cash, homey.

 

[cycloneworld]

I've had trouble with Toyota Financial Services/Toyota for the last 6 months... Long story short:

I had a similar story with Mediacom, although it didn't complicate a home loan. I bought a house in 2007 and wanted to switch to Directv. So I cancel Mediacom and drop off all equipment at the place on Ingersoll in Des Moines. I ask them if there is any outstanding amount due. They say no. 3 months later I get a notice in the mail from a collection agency for $76. I call and its for past due Mediacom bill. I call Mediacom and they say I didn't pay the final bill and they sent me 2 past due notices (which I never got). Finally I just paid the collection agency, disputed it on my credit report, and it was removed.

 

[NickTheGreat]

The Wal-Mart up by what used to be Dahl's in Ames has somewhat recently started stationing a flunky at the exit door to ask you for your receipt, apparently just if you're walking out with larger unbagged merchandise. Couple weeks ago I was in a bit of a mood and just told them to leave me alone, she didn't really do anything but she looked a little dumbfounded. I assume they can't really do anything about it, just annoys me.

I know Sam's does the same thing but for some reason it bothers me a lot more at Wal-Mart, I mean I'm at ******* Wal-Mart. You think if I wanted to steal this box of diapers I would just walk out with it under my arm?

Legally Walmart doesn't have the right to do this. Sams, on the other hand, does. It is part of your terms and conditions when you sign up.

http://consumerist.com/2011/03/07/calm-man-successfully-buys-tv-and-denies-walmart-receipt-checkers/

 

[cdnlngld]

Wells Fargo.....

We had a surplus in our escrow account. The service rep told us that they would apply the surplus to our next house payment, but never did. Turns out they couldn't do that. Long story short we found three months later that the payment was missed for that month and they had already started with foreclosure. When we tried to explain our case, the bank said they would not discuss it with us we had to discuss it the firm representing them in the foreclosure proceedings. Keep in mind, this is during that period in -08-09 when they were finding all kinds of illegal things going on in the home loan/foreclosure industry. Long story short we ended up having to pa a but-load of legal fees, penalties, and had to come up with an extra month of payments in order to not loose our home. By some stroke of luck we learned of this when calling in on another matter not related, and we were able to stop full foreclosure proceedings. I will never work with WF again. I spit on them, and hate them with the passion of 1000 burning suns. Gets me all ****** just talking about it.

 

[keepngoal]

The Wal-Mart up by what used to be Dahl's in Ames has somewhat recently started stationing a flunky at the exit door to ask you for your receipt, apparently just if you're walking out with larger unbagged merchandise. Couple weeks ago I was in a bit of a mood and just told them to leave me alone, she didn't really do anything but she looked a little dumbfounded. I assume they can't really do anything about it, just annoys me.

I know Sam's does the same thing but for some reason it bothers me a lot more at Wal-Mart, I mean I'm at ******* Wal-Mart. You think if I wanted to steal this box of diapers I would just walk out with it under my arm?

At Costco I will usually have two orders ... one personal and one for bidness, each done on seperate check outs and receipts. I put the bidness stuff on the bottom rack of the cart, which is usually one or two items. I will only hand the 'verifier' the personal receipt. I have yet to be asked for the proof of purchase for the bidness stuff that isn't on the personal receipt.

Items not checked out with receipt and bottom of cart: Ice, shopvac, box of paper, crate of chlorine, and others I can't think of.

It is now a game I play on how I pack the cart knowing I have two receipts on me for what I paid for.

*no animals are injured in this exercise, along with no laws are broken.

-keep

 

[Mr Janny]

Im flipping the s-cript a little, but AT&T is some of the best I have experienced here in DFW. We had a crappy HD DVR box that failed, they came and fixed it the next day, worked for about 1-2 months and failed again (right in the middle of an ISU bball game too..), and came out to exchange it the next day. Also when I called to report the issue, they gave me $50 discount (~half a month off for 3-4 days of trouble) and shortly after I received a $100 prepaid debit card in the mail. Not sure if it was tied to the incident or not, but either way, that was nice.

Unfortunately, we moved to an apartment that has Time Warner as their provider, and although the service hasn't been terrible, it is an inferior product. Can't wait to switch back to AT&T after we find a house.

You're right. There are some companies with very good service. I work in IT, and end up talking to lots of software vendors and their support staff about their products, and there are some really good ones out there, especially if you're spending a lot of money with them. Dell, for example, has incredible service, that I've found. Then again, my company spends and insane amount of money with them every year, so I would hope they would be good.

 

[VTXCyRyD]

The Wal-Mart up by what used to be Dahl's in Ames has somewhat recently started stationing a flunky at the exit door to ask you for your receipt, apparently just if you're walking out with larger unbagged merchandise. Couple weeks ago I was in a bit of a mood and just told them to leave me alone, she didn't really do anything but she looked a little dumbfounded. I assume they can't really do anything about it, just annoys me.

I know Sam's does the same thing but for some reason it bothers me a lot more at Wal-Mart, I mean I'm at ******* Wal-Mart. You think if I wanted to steal this box of diapers I would just walk out with it under my arm?

Just keep walking, they aren't going to do anything.

 

[1100011CS]

Legally Walmart doesn't have the right to do this. Sams, on the other hand, does. It is part of your terms and conditions when you sign up.

http://consumerist.com/2011/03/07/calm-man-successfully-buys-tv-and-denies-walmart-receipt-checkers/

That is a state law in Virginia. Do we have a similar law?

 

[GTO]

I don't think he's right either. There's nothing restricting that it's just that most cities choose to only grant franchises to one provider.

You are correct on that. It is really the franchising with municipalities that prevents more than one carrier in most areas. Here is an interesting article from 2011 explaining the situation and how screwed we are with cable companies: http://gizmodo.com/5830956/why-the-...ou-from-getting-screwed-by-your-cable-company

Per the article, "The last reliable statistic shows that a mere 2-percent of American markets had a choice of cable providers. That's from 2003, the last time the FCC produced a statistic."

The government is also not doing jack squat, so we continue having to pay high cable bills with no other options. It's worse in the bigger cities. I live in a DFW suburb and I still only have one available cable provider. One of the many reasons why I cut cable...

 

[DIRustCohle]

I had a similar story with Mediacom, although it didn't complicate a home loan. I bought a house in 2007 and wanted to switch to Directv. So I cancel Mediacom and drop off all equipment at the place on Ingersoll in Des Moines. I ask them if there is any outstanding amount due. They say no. 3 months later I get a notice in the mail from a collection agency for $76. I call and its for past due Mediacom bill. I call Mediacom and they say I didn't pay the final bill and they sent me 2 past due notices (which I never got). Finally I just paid the collection agency, disputed it on my credit report, and it was removed.

Did it to me as well. I switched from Mediacom to DirectTV. I took all my equipment down to Ingersoll. They said they would credit the equipment to my balance and send me my final bill. Didn't get it after 30 days. At 60 days, a contractor for mediacom guy shows up at my house to disconnect my service on a Saturday night, in a blizzard. I told him I had it shut off two months ago and turned all my equipment in. He laughed and said they pretty much suck.

Two days later I received a bill from a collection company. It showed a $180.00 balance, and a $85.00 collection fee. I called Mediacom and they said they could take the payment, but couldn't take off the collection fee, oh, and the $180.00 was incorrect on top of it. I ended up having to dispute, and pay like a $90.00 balance, and a $45.00 collection fee. I never received anything from Mediacom. I was not happy about the fee, but at that point, I just wanted to be done with them. I scanned and saved everything. I will say that the collection company had a really poor rating (as most junk debt companies do), but I was fairly calm with them, and they seemed to be willing to work with me on getting it settled. They were better than Mediacom was.

 

[Ms3r4ISU]

Legally Walmart doesn't have the right to do this. Sams, on the other hand, does. It is part of your terms and conditions when you sign up.

http://consumerist.com/2011/03/07/calm-man-successfully-buys-tv-and-denies-walmart-receipt-checkers/

And this makes me wonder if, in WalMart, the little "old' lady who checks receipts at the door can actually make the "alarm" sound at the door. That happened to me once with some fairly insignificant purchase. I bought a weather radio for less than $30 (and a few other things) and the alarm went off as I walked out. The lady told me the cashier was supposed to have done something with the weather radio box. I have no idea what, since it didn't have one of the electronic security things on it, and geez, it didn't even cost $30. But instead, I had to stand there like I'd done something wrong until the lady checked every thing in my bag and matched it to the receipt.

 

[keepngoal]

Did it to me as well. I switched from Mediacom to DirectTV. I took all my equipment down to Ingersoll. They said they would credit the equipment to my balance and send me my final bill. Didn't get it after 30 days. At 60 days, a contractor for mediacom guy shows up at my house to disconnect my service on a Saturday night, in a blizzard. I told him I had it shut off two months ago and turned all my equipment in. He laughed and said they pretty much suck.

Two days later I received a bill from a collection company. It showed a $180.00 balance, and a $85.00 collection fee. I called Mediacom and they said they could take the payment, but couldn't take off the collection fee, oh, and the $180.00 was incorrect on top of it. I ended up having to dispute, and pay like a $90.00 balance, and a $45.00 collection fee. I never received anything from Mediacom. I was not happy about the fee, but at that point, I just wanted to be done with them. I scanned and saved everything. I will say that the collection company had a really poor rating (as most junk debt companies do), but I was fairly calm with them, and they seemed to be willing to work with me on getting it settled. They were better than Mediacom was.

Did you get a receipt for what you turned in?

 

[jbhtexas]

Im flipping the s-cript a little, but AT&T is some of the best I have experienced here in DFW. We had a crappy HD DVR box that failed, they came and fixed it the next day, worked for about 1-2 months and failed again (right in the middle of an ISU bball game too..), and came out to exchange it the next day. Also when I called to report the issue, they gave me $50 discount (~half a month off for 3-4 days of trouble) and shortly after I received a $100 prepaid debit card in the mail. Not sure if it was tied to the incident or not, but either way, that was nice.

Interesting. AT&T spent a bunch of money putting their Fiber-To-The-Neighborhood nodes in around here, but they still run from the FTTN to the houses over the antiquated copper phone lines. There is an AT&T copper distribution box in my back yard in a low spot (my back neighbor's yard is 3 ft lower than mine) that gets drowned every time it rains because it is right in the drainage path. The cover is setting partially open. When we used to have an AT&T land line, the phone line would go down until the box dried out. I called them repeatedly about it, but nobody every came to fix the box. That box has been sitting partially open for about 3 years now. I've also showed the box to the numerous salesmen AT&T sends out trying to switch people over. Pretty much nobody in the neighborhood uses AT&T because of these problems.

However, in our neighborhood, AT&T is now offering GigaBit service if you are within a certain distance of the FTTN node. They are actually stringing new cables on the utility poles from the FTTN nodes right below the Time Warner cable. I told the salesman that came by a couple of months ago that I'll consider it when I actually see the cable in my back yard. Nothing yet....

 

[ISUAlum2002]

Wells Fargo.....

We had a surplus in our escrow account. The service rep told us that they would apply the surplus to our next house payment, but never did. Turns out they couldn't do that. Long story short we found three months later that the payment was missed for that month and they had already started with foreclosure. When we tried to explain our case, the bank said they would not discuss it with us we had to discuss it the firm representing them in the foreclosure proceedings. Keep in mind, this is during that period in -08-09 when they were finding all kinds of illegal things going on in the home loan/foreclosure industry. Long story short we ended up having to pa a but-load of legal fees, penalties, and had to come up with an extra month of payments in order to not loose our home. By some stroke of luck we learned of this when calling in on another matter not related, and we were able to stop full foreclosure proceedings. I will never work with WF again. I spit on them, and hate them with the passion of 1000 burning suns. Gets me all ****** just talking about it.

You didn't go into foreclosure for missing one single payment.

 

[Cyclonin]

Interesting. AT&T spent a bunch of money putting their Fiber-To-The-Neighborhood nodes in around here, but they still run from the FTTN to the houses over the antiquated copper phone lines. There is an AT&T copper distribution box in my back yard in a low spot (my back neighbor's yard is 3 ft lower than mine) that gets drowned every time it rains because it is right in the drainage path. The cover is setting partially open. When we used to have an AT&T land line, the phone line would go down until the box dried out. I called them repeatedly about it, but nobody every came to fix the box. That box has been sitting partially open for about 3 years now. I've also showed the box to the numerous salesmen AT&T sends out trying to switch people over. Pretty much nobody in the neighborhood uses AT&T because of these problems.

However, in our neighborhood, AT&T is now offering GigaBit service if you are within a certain distance of the FTTN node. They are actually stringing new cables on the utility poles from the FTTN nodes right below the Time Warner cable. I told the salesman that came by a couple of months ago that I'll consider it when I actually see the cable in my back yard. Nothing yet....

That is interesting. As is with any company, there are both positive and negative experiences. But yours seems a lot more significant than mine.

 

[demoncore1031]

DirecTV has the worst customer service I have encountered.

 

[Bipolarcy]

I had a similar story with Mediacom, although it didn't complicate a home loan. I bought a house in 2007 and wanted to switch to Directv. So I cancel Mediacom and drop off all equipment at the place on Ingersoll in Des Moines. I ask them if there is any outstanding amount due. They say no. 3 months later I get a notice in the mail from a collection agency for $76. I call and its for past due Mediacom bill. I call Mediacom and they say I didn't pay the final bill and they sent me 2 past due notices (which I never got). Finally I just paid the collection agency, disputed it on my credit report, and it was removed.

I had a similar experience with Cox. I was moving, cancelled my service, brought all the stuff to their office and asked if there was any outstanding charges, which there shouldn't have been because the cable bill I got in the mail was always for NEXT month's service, not the past month, and since I was moving in the middle of the month, I should have been getting a refund if anything. They told me no, there were no outstanding charges, but then I got a bill in the mail at my new place for a full month's bill plus a little more. I called and asked WTF, and they said it was for past due bill and disconnection fee. I argued, but you can't really argue with these a-holes because they'll just eff up your credit and get away with it.

 

[CyFan61]

Amazing how many of these stories have to deal with different media providers. I'm sure that has nothing to do with the severe lack of competition in that industry, though. Might as well let Comcast and Time Warner merge so we can get even better service!

jimlad: in case you didn't pick up on it)

 

[RING4CY]

I wouldn't give out my phone number, but I don't generally have a problem with businesses asking for my zip code. There have been times I've refused, usually tied to my mood at the time, but on the whole I don't really care.

There are times where I'll give the number "319-867-5309".

Cashier punches it into the system without batting an eyelash, every time.