Customer Service Atrocities... (tell your tale)

[gentlemonkey]

So on Friday, moeron and I are strolling and decide to stop for some Gelato. After looking at all the lovely flavours, we look up at the staff of three girls (heavily made-up early 20s chatty) and wait for service. As we are standing there, staring directly at them, we notice they are holding small 'tasting' spoons. Kinda weird. Their chat continues and one of the girls (oblivious to the premise of health codes) sucks the remains off her spoon and dips it back into the raspberry gelato.

"UUuggh- As if you just put your spoon back in!!?" I reacted right away, loudly, and she turned and walked away, maybe realizing she was busted. I mentioned it to her colleague who maybe didnt notice..(who also had a spoon in her hand) and she was like 'no i don't think so, what do you want?'

So we were like 'nothing' and left.

After mentioning it to a few people, I thought it might be wise to get in touch with the manager/owner of the gelato shop to report the incident.. After I told him the story, and that I wouldnt be back.. he said: ' you wont be back? Then why are you calling?' and I was like 'because your business could be making people sick and I'm going to warn my friends not to go there'

.. and he was like 'so WHY WOULD YOU CALL?!" and hung up on me!!

Not only did he never apologize, or relay disgust, he got agressive with me!!

Isnt't allowing staff to taste at their own discresion kind of a bad place to start?

[ollie]

Thanks for the heads up and good for you for saying something.

I was in line today at the Mmmmmuffins and couldn't help but notice the cashier coughing into her shirt and looking really ill. Then she'd rub her fingers all over her face before serving each customer. I bailed by the time I was second in line.

People are gross.

[Freak By Night]

I've paraded in front of a business with a large placard denouncing their lousy service.

That gets results, I tells ya!

What was the name of the gelato shop?

[Asparagus]

What was the name of the gelato shop?

I'm bored and would like to call them.

[Schwa.]

Bought a phone from a dealer here in KW. Speaker broke on it and i was treated like shit by the dealer. the only help he would give me was a fucking number to call to send my phone in for repair. after telling and yelling at him that as the cocksucker that sold me the piece of shit he should be doing the sending and whatnot. finally he did, got the phone back, no big deal.

ringer breaks a 2nd time. i come into the store already pissed that i have to deal with this dick again and he gives me the total runaround again, LOTS of attitude and refuses to help me in any way now because it'll cost him money as the phone is not under warranty any more. i said fine and proceeded to chase out every person in the store for about 15 minutes before he threatened to call the cops. I'd wait for a person to start looking at a new phone and then approach them and say "you know, if this phone ever has anything wrong with it, you will get no help from this guy...." I was able to get about 5 or 6 people out of the store before the threat to call the cops. i figure the money lost on those potential customers made me feel a little better.

Phone is still broke.

[bradm]

A few years ago, I was at my parents' place for Christmas, and they were having problems getting their internet connection working. They use Rogers, and were on the phone with them, trying to make it work, and had me take over for my Dad, who had to go off and do something.

I've dealt with network problems before (and had worked for a manufacturer of telecommunications equipment for about 10 years at this point), so I knew some tricks and techniques. I tried a few things, told the customer service guy what wasn't working, and at one point he said, "Well, it looks like you'll have to re-install Windows."

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up on end, and I said a large loud "Whaaaat???" in my in-my-brain voice.

"Uh, why?" I asked.

"Well, sometimes software wears out."

Stop. Right. There. I'm a professional programmer, and am also the son of a professional programmer. I know software. Software does not, and can not, 'wear out.' Hardware can break, databases and registries can get filled with cruft, but software is not like a brake pad or an emery board.

I started looking around at what was connected to the computer under the desk, and noticed that at least a couple of the modem's blinkenlights weren't blinken. I crawled further under the desk, turned the modem around as far as I could, and poked around at its cables. It turns out that the cable that went off to Rogers was still inserted, but had come unscrewed a bit, probably due to the modem having been moved over time. I screwed it back in again, and everything started working fine.

I told this to the customer service creature, and he said, "Oh, yeah, I should have asked you to check that first." You think? Not only did he skip basic steps on what I assume is his script, he was recommending re-installing the operating system, which would have been hard (even for me, but especially for my parents), fraught with difficulties and perils, and, ultimately, wouldn't have worked at all.

Aloha,

Brad

[PMatt]

When I was at Timmies I order my coffee and casually noticed the Creamer lady wiping up some mess around the pots as the cashier called back my "Large two cream".

The "Creamer" then proceeded to get a cup and push the large cream button on the machine....all is good so far.

Then I noticed that instead of grabbing the cup around the outside, she placed her three fingers, freshly soiled with the dirty rag and who knows what else, directly in the cup and tranferred my cup to get filled. Maybe I am becoming a germaphobe...but I just couldnt force myself to drink that coffee.

Out of site out of mind though because I am sure much, much worse happens when food is being prepared in Resturants...but If I dont see it, I dont think about it.

Edited August 25, 2009 by Guest

[Booche]

Wow BradM. Wow.

If you dont mind, may I ask when that happened? The reason I do is I suspect it wouldnt occur these days but who knows. I worked in a call center in the summer of 2000 doing the same thing and it was drilled into us, under no circumstances, to NEVER EVER tell a customer to reformat their pc.

But this is my favorite part of said thread:

Thanks for the heads up

[bradm]

Wow BradM. Wow.

If you dont mind, may I ask when that happened? The reason I do is I suspect it wouldnt occur these days but who knows. I worked in a call center in the summer of 2000 doing the same thing and it was drilled into us, under no circumstances, to NEVER EVER tell a customer to reformat their pc.

I've been trying to remember, and can't nail it down more closely than sometime between 1998 or 1999 (which is I think when my parents got their PC) and late 2001 (which was the last time I was at my parents' place before my Dad died in March, 2002). It was also in Toronto, if that matters.

Aloha,

Brad

[fluffhead77]

What was the name of the gelato shop?

I'm bored and would like to call them.

I would too.

In fact I've got a hankering to give someone hell.

[Davey Boy 2.0]

bwoof

[dosed_neurons]

What I find really atrocious is companies like Bell pawning off customers onto some sort of webbots or something...I tried to have a civil conversation with one of those Bell "online customer service reps" and I'm 99% sure that I was talking to a auto-response machine. Needless to say, Bell lost a customer.

[Northern Wish]

If its the spot near The Lieutenant Pump, I've also had terrible service in there. Nothing to bitch about to a manager (especially that assneck by the sounds of it!), but I haven't been back....

[bradm]

So on Friday, moeron and I are strolling and decide to stop for some Gelato. After looking at all the lovely flavours, we look up at the staff of three girls (heavily made-up early 20s chatty) and wait for service. As we are standing there, staring directly at them, we notice they are holding small 'tasting' spoons. Kinda weird. Their chat continues and one of the girls (oblivious to the premise of health codes) sucks the remains off her spoon and dips it back into the raspberry gelato.

Sounds like they need a visit from Ottawa by-law officers.

Aloha,

Brad

[Hux]

I'm up for a PT style assualt of the gelato shop...

[gentlemonkey]

hahahaha.. yeah, just sharing frustration I guess..

you got me thinking though hux- we should start having flash mob parties.

[Booche]

Thanks BradM. Your timeline makes sense. I would have been absolutely shocked if that had happened after 2004-2005. ISPs have great software these days when dealing with connectivity issues.

That was the cause of my suspicion. Back when I worked for Roadrunner, it was a shot in the dark.

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[rubberdinghy]

Spread the word...ottawafoodies.com

[StoneMtn]

SM speaking to Manager at Bank Branch:

"Okay, now that you've figured out that your bank actually did make five unrelated errors on my account, which caused all those cheques to bounce, etc, are you going to apologize?"

Manager:

"Well, why should I? You're obviously going to change banks anyway, aren't you."

No exaggeration.

[bouche]

hahahaha.. yeah, just sharing frustration I guess..

you got me thinking though hux- we should start having flash mob parties.

did we ever get an answer to the "what gelato shop" question?

[peipunk]

This is relatively minor, but it aggravated me to no end...when I went to the Gorge a couple weeks ago, rather than check a bag I just packed 2 carry-ons, like you are ALLOWED to. On the way home, when the plane was boarding, the line took a really long time and I started getting suspicious. Sure enough when I get to the airplane, I see that myself and another 20 people in front of me are being forced to check a bag at the last minute because there is no room left in the overhead compartments.

When I told the stewardess who was hastily writing out the baggage tickets that I was flying to Charlottetown, she said "Where?" with a puzzled look. As expected, my bag showed up a week after I was home.

[Patchoulia]

Folks, if you have a problem with Rogers, as some have indicated here, please contact me. Thank you.

As some of you know, I work for Rogers.

As some of you also know, I like to help--and have helped several people here.

Not cuz I'm a big corporate flunky, but because I hate working for a company that treats customers badly--I know how it is, I've had issues as a customer with this company myself.

We had a big "employee survey" this year and I rendered my opinions openly and honestly--checking the boxes about my unhappiness with aplomb--and when they asked for specifics/comments, I said, "How can I confidently work for a company that allegedly stands for good customer service and/or puts the customer first, when at least 10 people I know, personally, have contacted me in the 3 years I've worked here, to complain about an issue that OUR customer service could/would not solve?"

I don't think I used the word "bullshit" but I am pretty sure I got my point across.

Anyway...I am sure I was not the only employee expressing this kind of sentiment...

Following the survey, a big employee newsletter came out, with new processes/procedures to follow in the event of "someone we know" having an issue...it blows my mind that Rogers had to take this route...can't we fix it at the source? (that's what I'll be saying next year in the employee survey, if I'm still at Rogers).

Anyway...if this new helpline is overrun with queries/issues, that might help in fixing the issues at the source in the future...fingers crossed!

So! If you have an issue with Rogers, please let me know!!

[Davey Boy 2.0]

maybe you can ask them to do something about J. P. Ricciardi

[Freak By Night]

Ha Ha! You beat me to it Davey!

Rogers has been on my sh!tlist for years, for not honoring a promised cell phone discount. I stopped cheering for the Jays, and I don't even read MacLean's magazine.