Your worst customer service experiences

[mamamia88]

i just called ms and spent about an hour trying to activate windows just to find out i was putting a 8 where there should have been a b. during that time they bounce me back and forth to dell who just refused to replace the code for free because i was out of warranty. whats your worst experience?

[lovinglinux]

My former satellite TV service was terrible, but my phone/dsl company introduced voice recognition recently and it makes me crazy.

The stupid machine doesn't recognize what I say and then I have to wait until it repeats the steps all over again, then when it finally recognizes my voice command it gives more options to say. It's a never ending process, specially when you just want to talk to someone. When the machine finally says you will be directed to a person the call hang off. It's ridiculous. Then if you are trying to get help about your Internet connection, the person from the Help Desk asks which OS I'm using and as soon as I say Linux, they start acting like stupid zombies.

Additionally, here in my country we have to pay for the DSL service and for a "Content Provider", which does nothing except authenticate your connection. They also provide the modem, but when I have a connection problem they bounce me back to the phone company and the phone company bounce me back to the provider. It's really great.

When I had dial-up connection, the only method of contacting the support was by live chat. So if the Internet doesn't work, you cant get support to fix the Internet. Superb!

My ISP service has been suffering with DNS problems recently. I know the problem is not here, so I call them just to know when the problem will be fixed, but there is no way to make the person on the help desk to understand this and they keep asking if I have restarted the modem or checked if all cables are connected. It's madness.

They should provide an option when you call to select "1" if you are noob or "2" if you are tech-savvy, then redirect you to someone which have at least a clue about networks and OSs.

[Dr. C]

...

My ISP service has been suffering with DNS problems recently. I know the problem is not here, so I call them just to know when the problem will be fixed, but there is no way to make the person on the help desk to understand this and they keep asking if I have restarted the modem or checked if all cables are connected. It's madness.

...

Have you tried installing bind9 and running your own DNS on Ubuntu, bypassing the ISP DNS?

[Mr-Biscuit]

Having sections 14-101 & 14-102 along with sections 3-801 & 3-802 of the Maryland state code broken by a hospital.

[CJ Master]

Having sections 14-101 & 14-102 along with sections 3-801 & 3-802 of the Maryland state code broken by a hospital.

I think I speak for everyone, in asking what the heck those are. ):P

[lovinglinux]

Have you tried installing bind9 and running your own DNS on Ubuntu, bypassing the ISP DNS?

How would I do that? How it works?

[dragos240]

A man from customer service thought I was a woman, and called me ma'am, I am 14. Wow they're stupid.

[random_hypocrisy]

AOL & Microsoft. They both sucks hard.

[xpod]

Some of Virgin Media`s support,especially the offshore variety.
Words alone cant describe.......


How would I do that? How it works?

Just use OpenDNS (http://www.opendns.com/) if your ISP`s DNS is being a problem.In fact,i use them even without problematic ISP`s.

[dragos240]

AOL & Microsoft. They both sucks hard.

suck plural? It would be suck hard.

[random_hypocrisy]

suck plural? It would be suck hard.

It was a typo, little dictionary dude...

[lovinglinux]

Some of Virgin Media`s support,especially the offshore variety.
Words alone cant describe.......

Just use OpenDNS (http://www.opendns.com/) if your ISP`s DNS is being a problem.In fact,i use them even without problematic ISP`s.

Thanks. I know OpenDNS, but I never tried it. I will give it a try next time.

[Dr. C]

How would I do that? How it works?

Open DNS is an option if you want to use an alternative DNS to your ISP or you can run one's own DNS by


sudo apt-get install bind9

The trick is to use a static IP for the Ubuntu box running bind9 and then set your DNS for all the computers on your network to the IP address of your Ubuntu box.

I currently use a computer running gNewSense (http://www.gnewsense.org) 2.2 deltah (Ubuntu 8.04 stripped of any propriety software to the highest Free Software standards of FSF) that provides among other things DNS for my network. Works fine with GNU / Linux, Microsoft Windows etc.

[kc3]

i just called ms and spent about an hour trying to activate windows just to find out i was putting a 8 where there should have been a b. during that time they bounce me back and forth to dell who just refused to replace the code for free because i was out of warranty. whats your worst experience?

haha good times, I would have just got a key off the internet (it's not piracy if you own a legit copy I don't think lol) But yeah, Sprint was aweful, and I'm not going to say who since the worst service I can think of comes from the company I work for lol (my primary job not my 2nd) but still, I just don't know HOW ON EARTHJ my boss can think a customer having to wait 6 hours for tech support is somehow acceptable haha

[mamamia88]

i asked them politely if they would let me have a new key they wanted to charge me $50 and i was getting extremely frustrated. they wanted me to read like a 25 digit code to them and they barerly spoke english and once i accidently hung up and had to do it all over again. eventually one guy was like try b instead of 8 and magically it worked even though i swear it says 8

[kc3]

I'm sorry but that is so funny haha, at least you got it working :)

[Ms_Angel_D]

I have 2 incidents

1) Dealing with Comcast cable who told us one thing at their office and another thing on the phone, then blamed us for their screw up.

2) Dealing with our bank:

On the 21'st of April I logged on to my bank account only to discover that we mis-calculated about an automatic payment, and were overdrawn. So My husband, went down to the bank and deposited $100.00, he verified with the teller that this amount covered both the charge and the overdraft fee. The teller told him it did and in fact the deposit put the account $44.00 To the positive.

Well the next day I log on the account only be horrified to find that we had two more Overdraft charges. So My Husband (whose very very good at not taking crap from people) gets on the phone to the branch and tries to figure out what happened. The lady he's speaking with tells him that there we're two charges which went through One for Xbox Live $7.99 (the overdraft fee was $32.00) and another from Taco Bell For $6.93 (The Fee was $37.00), He said yes but how did I get charged overdraft fee's for these items when I had money in the account to cover it? This girl didn't know so she asked him to hold while she got the manager. A Few minutes later she comes back on and takes our number and says the manager is in a meeting she'll call you back. So he gives her the phone number and we wait 45 minutes still no phone call, so My husband calls back. Finally he gets the Manager on the phone.

The Manager Says the charges where on the account the day he made the deposit, and teller could see this and would have told him this, and then she informs him there are two more charges coming through that we'll be charged fees for as well. He said Well the teller never informed me of that I have her name right here and she only told me that the $100.00 I deposited covered the charges, and that I was $44.00 to the positive. She said "So we should pay for your mistake?" He said "Your Damn Right, when your teller is telling me one thing but the truth is something else". She said "Sir there is no need to cuss if you continue to talk to me like this Then this conversation is over". He said "I didn't cuss at you besides Lady you have heard cussing yet". She said well I can reverse one of the charges but not both. This went on a few more minutes with her using every excuse in the book and trying to blame him for their mistake. Then she said "We give courtesy calls to let you know your account is going over" he said "really because We never got one, the only reason we found out was because my wife logged on to the website". Well then she basically called him a liar. This was the last straw, he hung up on her.

I got a 1-800 Number from the website and we proceeded to call them. My husband explained the situation to the lady on the other end who in turn put her supervisor on the phone because she didn't have the authority to make reversals. The supervisor, refunded both overdraft fees and informed my husband that after doing so it only put our account at $10.00. So he said "So If I go put $90.00 in the account right now that will cover the pending charges as well and we'll be good no more fees?" twice he asked her this and twice she said yes. So my husband went and made the deposit and that covered us finally our account was in good standing again.

The bank we use is Key Bank, and that was the worst customer service I had ever had. I mean it's not like we were disputing the original charge we knew we screwed up and we're trying to fix it but that manager made us feel like we we're criminals. This was our first overdraft charge since opening that account, we had been in good standing since the beginning prior to this incident, wouldn't you want to keep a customer like that? Apparently this lady didn't care.

[kc3]

As for Comcast, I've only had ONE time ever that the cable guy was smart enough to hookup our internet and I didn't have to actualy set it up when the guy did nothing but leave a cable and a modem lol. For the bank issue, man that sucks, a lot of people have issues with overdraft fees but that's just crap

[3rdalbum]

I bought a video capture device from Austin Computers in Joondalup. It stopped working on Christmas Eve that year, so I decided to take it back to them under warranty.

Firstly, the store was closed for weeks after Christmas. I work in retail; this must be the only store that actually goes on holiday! So anyway I patiently wait those weeks, and then go in on my day off to return the device. They'll give me a call when it's been "fixed" by the supplier.

A month later I haven't heard back. I call the store, and they tell me to call their head office. I call the head office, the guy tells me that he'll find out from the supplier and call me back. Didn't happen.

The next week, on my day off, I call the guy again and he tells me that it'll be ready for pickup from the store in 3 days. So, 7 days later, I go in and they know nothing about my video capture device. The man at the store is on the phone for forty minutes to the head office chasing this thing up for me, before telling me that they seem to have lost my device! He says he'll arrange for me to get a store credit but I need to come back in an hour.

I do, and they withdraw the offer of a store credit and instead give me a brand-new device, exactly the same as the one I originally bought. It might have even been mine, I don't know.

I tell everyone this story, because I work in retail and this is a completely ridiculous, unprofessional way to run a service department. Just so you know, that's Austin Computers in Western Australia.