Let me start the thread with a note from a small business perspective. There is a saying: "If you make a customer really happy, they will tell a friend about you. If you make a customer unhappy, they will tell the whole neighborhood."

Sometimes we make customers unhappy. Everyone makes mistakes, and some customers expect perfection. Sometimes it's beyond our control (for example, vagaries of the postal service). I'd estimate that we something goes wrong - our fault or not - about once per month.

We always do our best to make it right - apologize, replace the product, refund the money, whatever it takes. Most customers take mistakes in stride; they are people, and realize that we are people too.

Once in a while, you have someone whose live is simply destroyed. I mean, the fact that they ordered 3 widgets, and somehow 1 of these was broken during shipping - this is clearly a life-ending event! Pull out the chairs, take a seat, and watch the dramatics!

Then there are the heroic customers. I remember one case from several years ago. We send Ms. Smith the wrong widget. She returned it and we send a replacement, which was broken in shipping. She notified us, and said to please combine the replacement with her new order for a wodget. We dutifully billed her credit card for the wodget, but only sent out the replacement widget. This continuing disaster went on for nearly a year, despite us double-checking and triple-checking everything having to do with Ms. Smith. She was patient throughout, and remained a good customer for many years afterwards.

OK.

I got an oil filter for my Ninja from Advance Auto Parts. After 30 seconds, I still had no oil pressure. Since the oil change was precautionary, my having spent the previous weekend in Daytona Beach idling around, with engine temps frequently in the 220s, I put the previous oil filter (a Denso, the Kawasaki item) back on, started up and got immediate oil pressure.

I took the filter back. The clerk and manager said, "Oh no, we can't give you a refund. We can only give you another filter." When asked, "Now, why would I want another filter exactly like the one which just failed me? When a bike engine locks up, it's not just a $2000 repair bill."

I got a blank stare. Lesson learned. I left the filter on their counter, and said, "You can have that. I will not be back."

And I haven't been. The filters at Advance are $3-4 cheaper, but it's not worth it.

-----
This is secondhand, so I won't name names...
I have friends in the parts business, three of whom are serious; they're not just computer clerks. When Mikey was lent to another store location, he found a crankshaft under the counter. What's this? He was told that one of their customers, an auto shop, had brought it back because it was cut (bearings ground undersize, common practice, perfectly reliable) and they had asked for one which was not. Mikey looked, and not only had a credit not been issued, the shop hadn't ordered anything since, and it had been two weeks or so.
Wow. That meant about $4,000 of business in just that time, over one perfectly usable part that could be swapped out!
So Mikey grabbed everything in the store they could spare as tribute - hand soap, shop towels, cleaner, a couple of cases of oil, and jumped in the truck to fix that.
It was easy. Mikey'd gone to school with the shop owner. A little humility and an apology got them their client back on the spot.

When I was 17, Joe's Crabshack wouldn't let me order a kids meal (I was with a very large paying group). I've never been back. Small, but it just struck me as absurd then, and absurd now. There is no way they weren't pulling a profit off a $5 burger and fries.

More recently, American Airlines will never see another penny from me. Their employees are rude.

I also haven't purchased gas from a Texaco since they gave a raise to everyone with black skin, simply for having black skin, back in the 90's.

ACER Computers. I bought one, and it went blue screen the minute I connected it. I called them, sent it in as they instructed. They returned it, using a different box. It blue screened again, I tried to return but they wouldn't take it without the original box. I called ACER and said I wanted to my money back, they refused, and said they would fix it. I sent it back to them with the packing material they returned it in, they refused to accept it, saying it was not packed correctly.

Never, ever, ever will I buy an Acer again.

Musicland/Sam Goody- I bought a CD labeled, "Original Artists", specifically to learn a particular guitar lick. The CD didn't include the original recording I was expecting. I tried to exchange it for a CD that did. They wouldn't allow the exchange because the package had been opened. That was over 25 years ago. I've since spent many thousands of dollars on music, but not a dime with Musicland/Sam Goody. (And yes, CDs have been around for over 25 years. Yikes!)

Over 25 years ago, I got a roof installed by a "Sears Authorized Contractor". The crew that installed the roof consisted of what I strongly suspect were illegal aliens, who left my yard strewn with beer cans. When I complained about this, the "Sears Authorized Contractor" did at least make a token effort to clean up my yard.

About two weeks later, it rained. The new roof leaked. I managed to get the "Sears Authorized Contractor" to come out, but it wasn't clear that they actually did anything, because a few days later, it rained, and the same leaks were in evidence.

I started called Sears on a daily basis to complain. After the 3rd call, I started getting no answer. After trying the number several times that day, I tried dialing the next number in sequence -- and guess what? The CSR who had started to ignore my calls answered that one.

This went on for several weeks. After I threatened to sue, I got a letter stating that while the "workmanship and installation" was "guaranteed", the "guarantee" did not cover leaks. WTF is a roof supposed to do, anyway???

I called another contractor (not "Sears Authorized"), who fixed the leaks for a relatively nominal charge.

If I wanted a roof that leaked, installed by a bunch of half-drunk illegal aliens, I could have saved over 50% by not having it done by a "Sears Authorized Contractor."

Before that incident, I bought all of my tools, and most of my clothes, appliances, and kitchen stuff from Sears. But for the last 25 years, I have not bought a damned thing from those low-lifes. My wife occasionally shops there, but I have (mostly) deterred her from actually buying anything there that was not available somewhere else. As for me, if Sears is the ONLY place I can buy something, I will do without.

First the positive: I love Sephora's return/replacement policy. 1. I got a Clarisonic Mia for my birthday last year, which was not purchased at Sephora (but they carry it). It stopped working after a few months for no reason so I brought it back and they gave me a brand new one!! No questions asked - just needed to take down my license info. 2. I bought Smashbox HALO mineral foundation and it was horrendous on my skin and cost $60. I tried to stick with it for a while but it sucked. Live and learn, I thought and I put it in the back of my cabinet and remembered it like 4 months later. I brought it back w/o a receipt and almost all used up and they gave me store credit!! I don't feel badly for bringing it back like that b/c I spend a lot of money there and now they have a loyal customer. Wouldn't have faulted them if they hadn't taken it, though. A+!

The bad: I will NEVER. EVER. EVER!!!!!! Buy an Alienware computer again. I spent $1600 building the gaming laptop of my dreams. I saved for months and months and finally got it May 2009. It lasted about a year and half before it totally died. It's currently with Ztronics being diagnosed and seems like a bad mobo and video card (so...that'll be about $700 to repair). The construction was shit (if you didn't support the bottom of it, it would actually bend. This is bad for its guts. Macs don't do that...). A bunch of letters didn't stay in my keyboard. It was heavy (I knew this before I bought it but living with it really showed me that I need a lighter laptop). The special config program on the machine was glitchy. Overall, just really unsatisfied. Not a quality machine.

I called customer support a few times only to have them say stuff like "you aren't under warranty, I can't help you. I'm hanging up now". I didn't want something for free, I just wanted it fixed - at my expense - by experts who work on those exact machines everyday. I wasn't told that I needed to go through Ztronics.com (authorized Alienware retailer and repair co.) b/c my warranty was up until my 3rd time calling and after being transferred to 5 people. A manager finally explained to me they don't accept post-warranty machines and I have to go through a different company. How hard is that to explain?

We took US Air from from LA to Barcelona round trip. What a nightmare of total incompetence. Nine hours late arriving, almost as bad return. The lack of concern for passengers was obvious. I will never fly with them again at any price. The staff were ok, but the problem was lousy management and extremely poor communications.

As someone who has worked in customer service, bad customer service is a big pet peeve of mine. People have bad days and make mistakes so usually I take it in stride unless someone is incredibly rude or hostile. For the most part I do prefer a store that is customer friendly and has a good return policy. I love Target for the fact that I can return anything without my receipt and they can look it if I used a credit or debit card. Nothing is more annoying than to go to a store with tags attached from the store and be told that they can't take back their item without a receipt or even worse that they offer store credit for the lowest sale price. I hate that.

I also love that Sephora lets you try EVERYTHING before you buy. Freemium at its best. I go in there, give myself a make-over, fall in love with some kind of makeup thing and end up buying it.

And Patrick, my boyfriend is locked in a battle to the death with Acer right now. They really really really suck.

I recently needed a key made. The local hardware shop was closed, so I went to Wal-mart. I ask for the key cutting counter; I'm sent to the wrong end of the store. I finally find the place; there's no one there to help. I wait five minutes; still no service. I go in search of help, finally find some guy, he makes an announcement for someone to come to the hardware counter. I go back, wait another five minutes, nothing. I google the store's number on my cell phone, and call the store, and explain that I've been waiting a while to get a key done; they say they'll send someone right away. Another few minutes go by. I go home.

Not saying I'll never shop Wal-mart again, but definitely not for something that needs service.

My sympathies to your boyfriend, sofar. They make an inferior product and do not stand behind it. They need to be run out of business.

Is this our chance to trash businesses we really, really hate? I nominate GMAC (now renamed to Ally Financial). When my mom died last summer, she had a car leased from GMAC. I attempted to notify them of her death (emphasis on the word attempted), so as to terminate the lease. They refused. They insisted on more documentation. What are you supposed to provide beyond a death certificate? They wanted proof that I was really the executor, but the signed page from her notarized will was not sufficient. Each time I sent them what they requested, only to be told I needed to send something else.

To make this lovely process even more exciting, the people you talk to on the phone have no access to the documents. The faxes are received by some other office, and it takes up to 24 hours before the documents are recorded in your file. If the documents are refused for some reason, the call center people cannot tell you why, all they can say is that whatever you sent is not whatever they need.

As it happens, one of my mother's friends has a son who knows the car industry inside and out. He told me that they have a legitimate problem: people will lease a car they cannot afford. When they realize they cannot afford the payments, they try all sorts of tricks (including "dying") to get out of the lease. This is the reason that they make lease termination difficult. However, this does not excuse the barbarous treatment when the leaseholder really is dead, and you are in enough emotional turmoil without having stupid arguments with stupid companies.

After many days of trying, I finally got the lease terminated, but this was not the end of the story. I had it on professional advice that, according to the terms of my mother's lease, as long as the car was returned in good condition GMAC had no basis for any further claim against me or the estate. This did not prevent GMAC from lying, saying that I must immediately pay them the sum total of all remaining lease payments.

Is this not fraud? Preying on people who are emotionally distraught; hoping they will pay just to make the problem go away?

If I had not had professional advice assuring me there was no basis for their claim, I probably would have believed them, and needlessly paid them thousands of dollars I did not really have. As it is, I replied to each threatening letter with a copy of the advice I had received, and asked them to show me the contractual basis for their claim. They never did. In fact, they never responded directly to anything I wrote - it was like talking to a wall. Calling them was equally useless. Every couple of weeks I would just get another, even nastier letter. This went on for months. I haven't heard anything more since around December, so I hope that they have finally given up...

Bradley: Is this not fraud? Preying on people who are emotionally distraught; hoping they will pay just to make the problem go away?

I don't know if it's fraud, but it is illegal. You can't go after the heirs and assigns for outstanding debt. Once your mother dies, all her debts, to whomever, are void and simply can't be collected from anyone.

Talk to a lawyer if they persist.

What? Your debts don't die with you. If they did, every 80 year old would buy a new house with a 30 year mortgage. I'm not saying you continue making payments on a leased car (that you've returned), but don't kid yourself...your estate is still responsible for your debts.

Sadly, the Chili's closest to me. It was a New Year's Eve, and I wanted a bite to eat. I waited to get seated, and got seated in the bar area, which is OK. But the table was filthy. I waited for the hostess to come back to clean it off, or send a busboy or waiter over to clean it off.

Didn't happen. I had to get up and ask the bartender for a bar rag, and I wiped it down. Eventually a waiter showed up. I ordered - remember, it's 9 pm on NYEs, not a lot of places open - and ate, left a minimal tip for the minamal work and left.

I'll go to a Chilli's. But not that one, never again.

Oh, I have a couple.

About 8-10 years ago I had a Verizon cell phone. I wanted one that did not have an antenna sticking out (I usually had it in my pocket and was afraid I'd break the thing). I go online and don't find anything, so I head down to the store in the hopes that maybe they had some new stuff that wasn't on the 'net yet. The place was PACKED and they were making people put their names on a list so they could be waited on. After about half an hour, this ditzy employee walks up and asks me what I need. I ask her if they have any phones without antennas sticking out, and she kind of glances around the shop, then turns to me and says "Well, you could check our website." That was it. I walked out of there, over to the AT&T store, and never came back.

*****

We have Qwest here for phone service, and they have sucked hardcore forever. Years ago, I ditched my landline and got a cell and never looked back. Well, stupid me forgot ONE TIME to check a potential apartment to make sure they had Comcast, and got stuck with Qwest DSL. I had to pay for a land line I did not want just to get this. They also gave me shit about making me pay for a yellow page ad my late husband had in years ago for his business - which was incorporated and went bankrupt upon his death - and tried to threaten not to connect me if I didn't pay. I told them they were full of it and they finally gave in, but what assholes.

Then Qwest comes out with "naked DSL" - you can get DSL without a phone line. Great! So, I call up, and the CSR tells me that's only for new customers. WTF? I finally got her to transfer me to the DSL group, who told me that was BS and that she should know that, because the CSR's go through extensive training. Um, clearly they don't, as she was reading off a piece of paper and told me she'd just found out about it. Ha.

Then I discover the truth about naked DSL - it's fifteen dollars MORE than DSL with a landline, which, surprise, is exactly what a basic landline costs.

I now never fail to check a potential apartment to make sure I do not have to deal with Qwest. They are the devil.

Patrick, I love ya - but Just sayin' is correct. Technically, if a person dies and has any outstanding debts, those debts become the responsibility of that person's estate (for example, the executor of that person's will has the responsibility of using the assets/funds of decedent to fulfill any outstanding obligations). However, you are correct if you factor in many decedent's situations (such as, (a) the decedent died without any assets, (b) the decedent placed all of his assets into a trust or some other type of arrangement in which the assets are jointly owned with a right of survivorship (i.e., the surviving person(s) immediately gets all of the assets so the decedent's estate is basically zero)). The executor has to look at the contract to find out the estate's responsibilities.

I've dealt with the same issue/crap with a dead person's car lease; the estate was responsible (but the estate was asset-less), so the leasing company's only remedy was repossession. Of course, they kept harassing the surviving widow, whom I advised to contact the attorney general of her state - providing a certified copy of the death certificate and the trust documents should have been enough.

It's amazing what a call to the consumer affairs department of your state's attorney general's office can do. I've done it. Sometimes, government does work. LOL

I quit shopping at Walmart years ago. I lived in the New Orleans area during the time of Katrina. The store was understaffed, and that I can understand. It was the self-check that drove me away. The store had set the loss prevention tolerances on the bagging area such that getting bagged items to register was a nightmare. There were never enough customer service people to help. And the receipt said, "Fast! Easy! Fun!"

Tony Romas BBQ restaraunt. Went once, got screwed, have never gone back. And I talk bad about them whenever anyone ever asks me about them.

For our annual Christmas lunch we called them with a reservation for 12 people. Me, and most of our group, ordered the daily lunch special (beef ribs). Well, 11 plates came out of the kitchen pretty much at the same time. Not mine. I was told mine would be a few minutes.

A half-hour later, after everyone had pretty much finished, mine came out. Terrible. Six bones with damn near no meat on them, and the meat on them was tough and stringy.

I know they ran out of their lunch special (they were pretty busy that day). Fine. I know there's a lead-time in cooking ribs. Just tell me and I'll order something else. Don't throw whatever scraps you have in the kitchen in the oven, broil them at super high heat, and then expect it to taste like anything but a dog bone.

Tony Roma's is probably the only retailer that just gets my blood boiling when someone mentions them.

Consider this my "telling the neighborhood."

American Airlines

I was traveling from Florida to Boston through Charlotte. In Charlotte, I was meeting a friend and we were taking the last leg of the flight together.

Her flight was delayed. I explained to the agent that I needed to meet that flight before continuing (since it was her friend we were staying with in Boston).

The flight with which we were connecting was released just as the people from the delayed flight were rushing toward the gate (lots of Boston-bound folks on that flight).

No problem, the agent put us on a connecting flight to New York City where we could catch a flight to Boston only an hour behind our original flight. Except ... the agent didn't notify New York we were coming, so New York didn't hold the flight to Boston.

The New York clerk (it's now after 11pm) didn't have the authority to put us in a hotel, so she booked us on a flight to Providence where the airline would provide a bus to take us to Boston (she apparently did have the authority to charter a bus in another town).

No one from the airline or the charter bus met the flight in Providence (the airport was practically deserted). The Boston passengers wandered around (those not fortunate enough to have family or friends drive up from Boston to pick them up) looking for an airline representative.

We finally wandered outside and found a van waiting. When asked, the driver affirmed he had been sent by the airline to ferry passengers to Boston. We piled into the van. The driver refused to leave because he didn't have the number of passengers he was told to pick up (several having been picked up by exasperated family and friends).

We finally convinced him that those passengers already had rides to Boston and he agreed to leave.

We arrived at Logan at 5am. No one from the airline met us or helped me find the baggage claim so I could collect my bags (which had been loaded onto the original Boston flight in Charlotte).

UPS

I ordered a Christmas gift for my nephew from an online retailer, having it shipped via UPS to the East Coast. Prior to Christmas, I checked the tracking number on the UPS Web site and it said, "Delivered."

In January, I asked if he enjoyed the gift and was told it had never arrived. My brother checked with the office in his apartment complex and the package was never delivered.

I checked the tracking number details and found out it had been "delivered" to a loading dock in Ohio.

I called the retailer and was informed that UPS had returned the item as "undeliverable."

If it was returned and not delivered to its intended destination, why did UPS list it as "delivered?"

UPS 2 - The Horrible Ugly Sequel

My nephew, who had been staying with us in Northern California, moved back to his hometown in Southern California; he was going to stay with his brothers. I boxed the rest of his stuff and forwarded it to his new residence.

The expected delivery date came and went with no delivery. A week went by with no delivery. Which was strange since the UPS Web site had listed the package as "delivered" for over a week by then. And this time not to a loading dock in Ohio.

I called UPS and asked about the package. It turns out an apartment number was required. So, instead of calling me or my nephew (both of our phone numbers were on the bill of lading), they looked up my nephew's name and sent the package to the address they found online (not his, since he was staying at his brothers' place). It was an address at which he has not lived for over seven years.

The clerk on the phone promised to have someone retrieve the package and hold it for delivery to the correct address. I told her I would get the apartment number so it could be forwarded correctly. I was then told that all further communication on this matter should be done through the UPS Store from which I had originally sent it.

The UPS Store looked up the incident and found no report of any investigation or other action being taken with regard to the package. They also reported that the package had not in fact been "delivered" to the wrong address, the people at that address having refused it since the name on it was unfamiliar to them. So, the package was in fact at that time being returned to the UPS Store in Northern California.

I asked that it be sent to the original address (now with apartment number) and was told that I would have to pay a new delivery fee (from Northern California) and that my old fee "might" be refunded if I filed a claim and a UPS internal investigation indicated a refund was warranted.

I picked up the package at the UPS Store and took it to Federal Express who delivered it to the correct address quickly and efficiently.

Good timing with this piece. I was in WalMart yesterday buying toiletry items when I passed the women's section and saw a blouse that was adorable. So I bought the blouse, the toiletries, some boxers for my son, and a Glee CD. Once home I looked at the blouse and wondered what I was ever thinking. I went back today with the blouse with Walmart tags on it and a receipt. Apparently the cashier rang it up with a different UPC which I wasn't aware of because the price was correct. I know its the correct receipt because of the rest of the purchases on it. The cashier told me that I didn't buy this shirt yesterday and that Walmart didn't sell it. After asking to speak to a managaer, the cashier told the manager that I claimed to buy this shirt here when its obvious we don't sell it. I went back to the women's section and brought up 5 of the same blouse. The cashier then told me my receipt was the wrong receipt. Thankfully the manager apologized to me and stepped in and gave me my refund. I had to laugh because I had just commented on this blog piece right before my trip to WalMart.

My horror story. My father was diagnosed with terminal cancer. In my parents front yard was one of those green boxes that utilities plant throughout neighborhoods. The phone company showed up one day and started digging up the yard by their green box. A couple days after this project started, *surprise* my parents no longer had phone service. My mother went to a neighbor's house to call the phone company. She informed the phone company that they needed the phone repaired immediately because my father had terminal cancer. Nothing. I called, same results. The neighbor, a hospice nurse, loaned her personal cell phone to my mother.

Unfortunately, my father was a typical male of his generation, being very stoic. He refused hospice care, and didn't like taking the pain medication. He was clearly depressed and in great pain most of the time. While he was very stoic, he also was very pro-active. The result, in the middle of the night he took his own life. There was my mother, by herself, with no phone service. Fortunately she had the neighbors cell phone.

While I generally have little use for gov't regulatory entities, I nevertheless wrote the state regulatory entity. I immediately received a phone call, and they inquired if I would be willing to testify at the legislature about the phone company and its complete indifference and unwillingness to prioritize its repair work. Sadly, I never was called upon to do that.

However, shortly after contacting the state, I got a phone call from an executive for the phone company. The message encouraged me to call her. Since it was Friday she said I should feel free to call her at home on the weekend. I did. She was very apologetic and said they were reviewing their policies to prevent this from happening again.

While I try to judge a company by how it tries to fix things when something goes wrong, stuff happens, I am afraid I can never forgive them. I realize large bureaucratic entities find it difficult to respond to unusual circumstances, and to consider common decency, but this should have been a no brainer for anybody with a shred of humanity, and they should have been able to find some decision maker that could make it happen.

I will never buy another Apple product, no matter how sweet their iPad looks. Not after the pain in the ass they made it to get all my music from my iPod to my new Dell. (My old computer was an iBook.) I didn't have that problem with music purchased from Amazon. It's music I paid for. I shouldn't have to pay for it again to get it on a different device.

When my iPod dies, I'll buy from someone else. Their products are great, as long as you never, ever want to use someone else's product.

Also, I won't buy EA games because of the horrible time I had with their DRM. I tried to install a game and had some problems, and blew through all three of the installs they allow you. I had to dick around with customer service forever to get one more install. I hope this policy is doing a good enough job preventing theft to make up for the products I will never buy.

heh, I usually forgive eventually, unless I perceive a corporate culture where customer service people are either instructed to be nasty, or are hamstrung to the point that they can't do the right thing. The only two I won't forgive?

Qwest, because as astonishing as it is to say... their CS is WORSE than Comcast. Basically Comcast is great if you never need anything fixed... And I haven't had probelems in some years. Qwest was the same way, as long as you never need help, you are good. Unfortunately, their system broke constantly, and I had access problems all the time, and so I got the compunded frustration that their CS was worthless TOO. Sadly for internet in my area, they are the only 2 games in town.

The other? United Airlines. In the 90's on a family trip with #1 son 3yr old form O'hare to Florida in a DC-10 widebody, along with 300+ other people in families...
They pushed us back from the gate. And we sat on the Tarmac for 6 hours, for no known reason. Jets are not designed to sit like that. They get hot inside because they don't have adequate airconditioning, their lavatories start to malfunction, and so on. Add in many children on their way to Disney world. Even the most well behaved child will eventually have probelms sitting for 6 hours in a hot plane that smells bad, and when they can't eat. {Back in the day when food was served} Eventually we launched, and got to Orlando... in the middle of the night.

For all that, United deinied that it was mechanical failure, but wouldn't say waht was wrong, there was no weather in either city, no explanation given. After a number of calls, we were given 3 $50 vouchers to fly on united. I donated them to a charity, as this is something I will never forgive. It would cost them next to nothing to give open vouchers for a similar flight, but still keep us on United, the goodwill alone would have been worth the fuel involved.

My ex take the kids to Fla. every year, and she also refuses to fly united. My corporation has United as a preferred carrier, and yet everyone I know figures out how to fly another. I dunno how to calculate how much business they lost for that one reaction to a bad situation, but it is many times more than what it takes to make it right.

SwissArmyD, I'll tell you the secret to excellent customer service: Twitter. No joke, I tweeted that I thought my Comcast account was glitching and within five minutes a rep tweeted back, looked into my problem, and forwarded it to a tech who could look into it, and who called me for more info and called back later to related what was being done about it.

A little public attention gets a LOT of results.

And ditto on United. EVERY time I have ever flown them I either ended up being held up on the tarmac or kicked off my flight because they overbooked. I refuse to fly them ever again.

1) Capitol One Bank: I opened a "free checking" account for random household bills. Checks arrived. My name was wrong - not misspelled, but the wrong name. Went back to bank. Capitol One suggested I use checks anyway.

After half an hour, bank agent issued new check order. Checks did not arrive. Three weeks later, I call bank. Checks had been returned... because they had now printed the wrong address on them.

"Why didn't you call or email me? You have my information!"

"That's not our policy."

I ordered a third set of checks online myself, paying $40 for the privilege of not dealing with Cap One. Two weeks later I get a call from some woman in the Midwest, wanting to know if everything is good with my new Cap One account and if there's any way she can help me.

I tell her the story. She is sympathetic and suggests I go back to the bank to see if I can get the $40 refunded.

"Can't you do that?" I ask her.

"No, we just check on customer satisfaction."

"But you asked me if you could help me..."

"Well, I don't have the power to do that."

I would have closed the account on the spot if I wasn't afraid it would ding my credit score. After six months, I'm getting out of there if I have to take my money out in a cash bag marked with dollar signs on the sides.

Ameriprise Financial Services - I fired my financial planner.

Firstly, because he is a dishonest, self-serving, glad-handing douchebag. Some of my friends know him, and I found out that he cheats on his wife more or less constantly. He even picked up a STD from a hooker in Las Vegas and gave it to his wife. That tells me that he does not honor his commitments and never puts anyone else’s interests above his own.

Secondly, because he did not listen to me when I talked about my financial goals. Apparently my plans and goals do not fit neatly into a pre-packaged marketing brochure provided by the Ameriprise home office, which meant they were completely ignored.

Thirdly, because I dreaded my meetings with him. When I informed him that I needed to withdraw money from a fund, he was always super nosey about what I wanted it for. Frankly I didn’t consider it to be any of his damn business. He was also very snoopy about my work situation. I was subject to endless snarky comments about my job changes and did not appreciate it. I did not want my personal life being subject to endless scrutiny by someone I didn’t even like.

Lastly, there was the mind-numbing, sheer incompetence of the man. If someone is going to push me that hard to invest money in a commercial real estate fund, I think they should actually know something about commercial real estate markets. I suspect his real motivation was that the Davis Real Estate fund paid him a better commission than some of the others.

But here’s how it works: Your financial planner does nothing to keep an eye on your account, until thirty minutes before you show up for your appointment. His “analysis” of your account means looking at the Morningstar reports and printing them off. If your fund has been going up, he says, “Let’s keep you in this one,” and if it hasn’t been doing well, he says, “Let’s get you into something else.”

This has the effect of making you always trail the herd. You are never selling high, because you never get out of a fund until it starts performing poorly. But you are always buying high, because you are always pushed into funds that are already nearing their peak.

Financial planners of most stripes are not active market traders and have very little knowledge of the business environment surrounding the funds they peddle. For example, my financial planner was always trying to get me involved in a stock for an international chain of super-luxurious retirement homes. I see it as a horrible investment. (This was for my IRA account, and I needed investments with a solid future, that will be doing well 20 years from now - this isn't for day trading.)

Other countries are having a terrible time with their public pensions, and the situation isn’t much better in the USA. Our entitlement system for the elderly is at risk, and the US dollar is headed for a complete collapse. I think old people are going to find themselves much worse off than old people used to be, and just don’t see there being very many of them who can afford this type of retirement facility – ANYWHERE in the world.

This would have been a good time for him to drop the subject, but he brought that up and nagged me about it at every meeting we had until I finally withdrew the last of my funds. Which took forever, by the way! It shouldn’t take two full months to get your money back out.

I currently refuse to buy anything from EA Games as well, in addition to their damn DRM they completly ruind the Command and Coquer franchise, in addition to the horrible polt line the graphic were worse, and you had to be online in order for the damn thing to record any of your progress - and their server system sucks.

Qwest tried charging me for moths for a service I didnt have, month after month I'd call in to get the charges reversed. I cancelled them and went completely wirless once the companies in the PHx Valley finally offered internet cards.

E Mounts .com
Bought a vehicle laptop mount from them in november of 09. Was to be deliverd by Xmas, Called them at NewYears to find it hadnt left the loading dock. Call them again on January 15 when the tracking number showed it delivered the same day it went thru Ohio or Indiana or something.

On valantines day I finally get it, only its no the model I ordered. Call them up again, seems they 'upgraded' me to a more popular/expaensive model. Which was great except for the fact that this model was 8 inches too short for me to use it in my vehicle and the laptop plate had no edges on it at all.

Febuary 23(the expressed the last order) I get the stand I ordered. Only to find that the foot mount which the website claimed was 3 inches tall(and it technically was) attached to the pole of the stand at its base inside the mount and not at the top of the cone as it had appeared on the website. I bearly made it work. But to top it all off the motherfucking tack weld broke the moment I my laptops full weight rest on the swivel arm that sat on top of the mounts post.

When they called me later that week to see if I had recived my correct order I suggested a few improvement to their descriptions, such as a total height once assembled, and providing products that didnt break before you even used them. Even if they did that I doubt they'd have added all the fucks and barbed wire wrapped baseball bats I suggested.

I took the two mounts down to a welder/artist a freind recomended and had him build me one out of the two I had recived.

Pho Pasteur is a restaurant chain in Boston. I am, as many of you know, a strict vegetarian. So I asked if a dish could be made veg, and they said yes. I asked them if it had fish sauce in it, and they said no, it didn't. It did.

The first time I figured it was an honest mistake. The second time as well. The third time they kept saying it had no fish sauce in it, so finally my brother the militant went to the kitchen, read the ingredients, and sure enough there was fish sauce.

Look, if you don't have veg dishes, or if a dish can't be made veg, fine, but don't pretend its veg when it isn't. Especially when the ingredient is fish. It has a very distinctive flavor.

Citibank... aka... Shittybank.
Amy, this story will sound familiar to you...

Someone stole one of my checkbooks years ago when I lived in NYC. I was only 20 at the time and worked two jobs. As a result, I had a good amount of money in my checking account that was used to pay rent, bills, groceries, and out of pocket school expenses. I wasn't rolling in it but was frugal so had more than most twenty somethings I knew. I had hundreds of dollars worth of money stolen from my account via those stolen checks. I was able to track most of the charges fairly easy because there was a paper trail. Someone actually paid thier phone bill with MY check! I had a NAME associated with the fraud! I had undeniable proof that the checks were fraudulent. I filed a police report, had copies of all the fraudulent checks, provided an example my signature, all my bills, and my drivers license, birth certificate, etc... I gathered all the documents they asked for at the time. I asked them to stop payment on all checks that are out there. They told me they couldn't stop payment on any current checks because I didn't provide them any check numbers. I didn't HAVE the check numbers. How would I? I asked them to at least deny payment on any that were out there should they go through for approval. They said they can't do that. I asked what about just canceling my account and reopening a new one so that one was no longer valid. I couldn't just freeze my account because I had to pay bills with it. And they tried to charge me all the fees that went with it at the time including a "transfer fee" (to basically transfer the money to another account in the system!). THEN, they claimed that they were unable to prove fraud so they were unable to reimburse me any of my lost funds as per thier fraud policy. After my fourth trip to the bank in a week the clerk said,"Perhaps your making up stories of fraud to try and get out of paying your debts? You're young. Young people are suppossed to make mistakes but don't you think this would be easier if you just took responsiblity?" Seriously!? I basically handed them everything they needed to prove fraud except a written confession from the asshole who did it! I was livid. I immediatly closed my accounts with them. Wouldn't you know it, as soon as I did that, they were practically falling on themselves to get me to come back. I guess they needed the fees they charged me to bank there. All of this happened when they were the ones advertising themselves as the fraud protection bank. Shitty. bank.

Walmart. I hate Walmart and it's affiliates with a firey hot passion. I do not like thier companies business practices or the way they treat thier employees, and thier customer service is the WORST I have ever experianced in my life. There are just too many stories to tell over the years. The clerks are cranky. The store is nasty. The customers are generally very much the stereotype (at least here they are). It's just awful. The last time I ever had to go to one was for work three years ago. For work, and with the bosses money, I will suck it up and walk in if there are NO other options available to get what we need for whatever we are doing, but I will not spend my own money there. Ever. I just cannot support that company for any reason.

2 Stories from me, the first is will not buy Allstate insurance again. Had them had a car accident rates went up, fine was expected, no problem. Stay with them for a few years and forgot a payment. Policy got canceled. When called about reinstating it they quoted me a price half what I was paying before, my accident was long enough ago that they stopped caring but never undid the rate increase. So I went with someone else.

My other customer service story is from work. As part of my job I was testing and comparing several computer software development environments. Regardless of how well or easily the software installed/worked I had to make up problems in order to test their customer support. Most were iffy or ok, one I knew more about the persons product than they did, and one went above and beyond (sorry don't remember the companys name) and we even got the environment working on an operating system it wasn't supposed to work on. (Sun based software working on an AIX)

I had a waitress at Denny's look funny at me once. I have never, ever gone back to that chain.

"Also, I got Gregg at the Apple store at The Grove."
...was that a regular stock item, or was he on sale?

Mazda: Local dealer. I brought the Mazda 6 in for regular maintenance and remarked that the transmission was doing some weird things. Internet research showed many other people with the same problem. They refused to acknowledge the problem and treated me like I was from Mars. No more Mazdas for me.

Acer: As a computer reseller, I buy lots of equipment. I bought 2 LCD panels which were DOA. When I called tech support, they refused to even talk to me. They said: 'Send them back'. I did. Forever.

Why reward incompetence?

US Bank
I was 18 and just starting my own checking account, had my first full time job, all that. I went over in my checking account (mistake, forgot to deduct one of my checks, my fault.) $35.00 fee got taken out in addition to the original amount. Standard banking practice. However, USBank didn't send one of the form letters that I've gotten from every other bank that my account was negative. Went to go get cash for something and find out my account is WAY overdrawn. Turns out, if you don't put enough to go positive in the account within 7 days, they start charging you $8.00 per day for every day that you're negative. After no notice that you're negative in the first place.

I paid them off, closed the account and got a different one with a credit union. Had to have a "trial" account with the cu since i'd had the account for such a short time (didn't know to think about things like my credit score), but that was up with no problems, and I've never had any issues with them.

More recently with US Bank, my company does their deposits and change orders from them. It's a different branch than the one I dealt with, but they literally mess up our change order at least twice per week. And we call it in ahead of time and have them read it back to us, and they still mess it up.

Heh. Nice to see I'm not the only one who won't set foot ever again into a Tony Roma's.

Actual conversation:
"Sir. We don't allow people to sit at tables that aren't cleaned yet."

My response? "OK. Maybe you can have someone clean it for the next customer."

We got up and walked out.

Nor am I only one who will cross the street to avoid even walking near a Sears.

Northwest Airlines? If they're the only ones flying to a destination? Well, I guess I'll find somewhere else to go.

Honestly, I have several places or businesses I no longer patronize simply because there are too many other choices out there, so we don't need to put up with a lousy product or service.

And I never, ever make a scene, raise my voice or demand to see a manager. I keep my mouth shut, and vow never to return.

However, locally? (Washington state) There's a small chain of Mexican restaurants - El Sarape. The food's pretty good, and the service was always fine.

But when they shut down all their restaurants on May 1, 2007 so their employees could march in the illegal immigration rallies? Never again.

I always vote with my wallet. It's one of the few tools left anymore.

Pirate Jo- Spot on with the financial planner. I think they're all like that; we made the mistake of signing on with one who spent years shuffling our money around, charging us fees for each transaction, and losing several thousand dollars in the process. Before the dot-com bubble, we had asked him to convert our stocks to cash. He "confirmed" doing so, the market fell apart, come to find out he'd never actually done the trades. We had no recourse. Company? Primerica Financial.

"I will never buy another Apple product, no matter how sweet their iPad looks. Not after the pain in the ass they made it to get all my music from my iPod to my new Dell."

I find this amazing. It's trivial to do this. Above and beyond blaming one company for another's product!

Delta Airlines. My dad died while my mom was on a business trip to NYC. Needless to say, she was so distraught that I handled changing her ticket. The original ticket cost $500. Delta wanted to charge us for a new trip even though she was flying one way. Home. Three days early. But they wanted $500. And MY DAD WAS DEAD. I offered to fax them the coroners information to confirm I wasn't lying. Nothing doing. So we paid the $500 and I will walk before I fly those bastards again.

On a happier note...Sephora, Eddie Bauer, Hannah Anderson (kids clothes), Zappos, and Wegman's Grocery...they have my business forever because of their great customer service.

Amy: "Also, I got Gregg at the Apple store at The Grove."

So, he's white, square, has round corners, and an intuitive interface?

@Pirate Jo and Juliana: Consider finding a financial planner that is a CFP, or works fee-only (vs. commission-based "planners" at big institutions like Ameriprise who are usually poorly-trained and are basically just brokers by a different name). Fee-only planners usually charge based upon assets under management, and don't take a commission on trades, which helps align their incentives with your goals; they earn more money when they help your assets to grow.

"I will never buy another Apple product, no matter how sweet their iPad looks. Not after the pain in the ass they made it to get all my music from my iPod to my new Dell."

Even though I've run into this myself (for my dad actually) I can't really fault Apple. They will tell you up front that ipods are not designed to be used that way and will only transfer media to/from iTunes, and will only transfer to iTunes if it was purchased on the device and not yet put into iTunes. This is one of the things about Apple that I've always loved: they are one of the only companies that doesn't continually promise all kinds of things in the future, then cut out most of them when they finally release. They wait until a product is just about ready to be sold and then describe exactly what it'll do and what they support.

It's always driven me nuts when people will criticize any products (but Apple seems to get this a ton) that don't do something the company never said it would. Be it copying stuff off an ipod, the apple TV playing codecs like divx, etc.

Yes, I am a happy Apple customer. After going through numerous mp3 players starting with the first Diamond Rios, after getting an ipod (3g) I haven't looked back. Same with my home computers; I'm a unix admin and after years of playing the upgrade treadmill/driver/frustration game, I gave up on PC gaming and stick to macs at home. Games for me are all on consoles now (the 360 being the 1 Microsoft product that I've found quite good, and that had dynamite support when my first one hit the dreaded RRoD). Extra bonus with gaming via consoles: comfy chair in living room, big screen TV, home theater surround sound. :)

Above and beyond blaming one company for another's product!

Not a problem with the Dell. Getting my Amazon-purchased music off the iPod was easy as pie.

Oh, I know Apple is pretty clear about what it will do and not do. When I was using an iBook and an iPod and iTunes, none of it was a problem. I only ran into issues when I dared to switch teams. I have a problem with their policies, which is why I no longer buy their products. Voting with my dollars and all that. I'm sure there are enough Apple fanboys to make up for it, and Steve Jobs is not losing sleep over it.

I prefer to use other products because I can get the same or similar elsewhere without all the restrictions on it usage, and usually cheaper. Why spend $1 on a song on iTunes with all the restrictions if I can spend $1 on a song on Amazon with none?

Some bad experiences:

- I refuse to shop at Wal-Mart in San Diego. Not because of the "they barely pay their employees" stuff but because every shopping experience I've had here (and in the Bay Area) in Wal-Mart has sucked. The employees are slow and stupid. The store is always dirty. There's mangled/broken stuff on the shelves or inventory isn't kept up, etc. The only Wal-Mart I don't mind shopping at is one in New Hampshire that I've been to while on vacation there visiting relatives. It suffers none of the issues all of the west coast Wal-Marts I've been to do.

- My first cell phone was with Sprint. After a few years and a couple phones, I found I couldn't use my phone when I moved into the house I bought. I'm a stone's throw from Qualcomm Stadium, right above a very busy strip mall with a Vons, Wal-Mart, Fry's and more. I could only use the phone if I went outside into my driveway. I moved to Verizon that had great coverage there. When I called to cancel the service, the guy asked me why, after I told him his reply was, "If we knocked 20% off your monthly bill, would you stay with us?" I just replied, "I can't use my phone in my home! No amount of savings can fix that!"

- Canceling a Discover card was a huge pain. The rep kept on telling me things like, "You know, if you cancel the card, your credit score could suffer, it's better to leave it and just not use it." I had to tell the guy at least 5 times that I did not care, and wanted the account closed, period.

- Similar issues canceling XM radio account. I had one I used for a few years then essentially forgot about the account until I saw it charging my card for the annual fee. The rep there kept on trying to get me to just migrate to a different (admittedly cheaper) plan, but this was after I'd told him several times that I didn't even have the XM unit anymore. I just wanted my money back and the account closed.

- I will never shop at Fry's (or most electronics stores really) if I actually need assistance. I've had experiences at Fry's of employees clearly avoiding attempts to get their attention for help when they're chatting way with their buddies. Even the more mainstream chains tend to hire people with little to no knowledge of the merchandise. If you're ever checking out at a Fry's and the computers go down... drop what you were going to buy and run!

Excellent service:

- The previously mentioned xbox360 return. Sure it took awhile, but it was a simple web form, box showed up two days later pre-paid.. shipped it out, got refurb'd unit back within a week. Granted it took a TON of bad press for them to get to that point.

- Apple service: had a Macbook Pro with the bad battery issue a couple years ago, but it wasn't in the range of serials they covered. Didn't matter, when I described the issue in the store, they immediately took it, a new battery off the shelf, scanned it in as a replacement, and I was out the door within a couple minutes of walking in. The service for the iTunes Music Store has been really good too: auto pro-rating refunds if a season pass comes up short (show runs a few eps shorter then initially planned). They put up re-encoded eps for any shows that had things like audio glitches and send mail to let you know (happened with an ep of Battlestar Galactica and one CSI).

- Breier Audio, small mom and pop high-end electronics store in my neighborhood. You can enter the store after not having been there in a couple years and they remember who you are and exactly what you've bought. My boss even had them come out on their dime (and he lives WAY outside of town) to troubleshoot a small issue he was having with a speaker he bought there.

Had one nearly "I'll never shop here again" experience at a Best Buy. Bought some DVDs, and 1, Johnny Dangerously :), was empty when I got home. At first the manager wasn't going to let me replace it because, "I'll be at a loss because my supplier won't replace it." I pointed out the amount of money I'd spent there over the years and once he saw my reward zone account, decided to do it, but just that once of course. I don't shop at that particular location anymore but will shop BB for movies and games since the price balances out with places like amazon with the reward zone stuff, and I tend to like immediate gratification vs waiting for shipping. Plus I've otherwise had good service with them.

My wife occasionally shops there, but I have (mostly) deterred her from actually buying anything there that was not available somewhere else.

No she doesn't (occasionally shop there). Going on 19 years. I just wish he'd told me that story before the nuptials, instead of banning me from Sears after it was too late ;)

I did have to learn, though, to muzzle him on the rare occasion when we have to walk (quickly) through Sears on the way to another store, for fear he'll embarrass me with a really nasty comment to one of the employees.

In 2004, I vowed never to fly United Airlines again, and I haven't. I was flying into Missoula, Montana, 120 miles from my parents' house, but the closest "major" airport. We flew to Missoula and circled, waiting for fog to clear. We then flew to Helena, landed, and deplaned, waiting for the fog in Missoula to clear to fly up again. We were in the airport for an hour or so, when we saw the luggage being unloaded. When the luggage arrived at baggage claim, United announced over the PA that they weren't going to wait for the fog to clear in Missoula, and that we had to find our own way to Missoula. According to United, because it was a weather issue, they had no obligation to provide ground transportation to the destination. There was a mass stampede for the rental car desks. At that time, there were two agencies, but only one was open because the flight hadn't been expected. There were fewer than 10 cars available for probably 80 passengers. I was the last person to get to the desk while cars were available, but could not rent because I was under 25. I yelled to the rest of the line that someone could have my car if they gave me a ride up to Missoula. With a few exceptions, everyone who got lucky enough to get a car loaded it up with as many of their fellow travelers as would fit.

Sure, my mom could have kept driving. Helena is only 90 miles from Missoula, but in December, it's a long 90 miles on top of the 120 she'd just come, and with no cell phone, she had no idea what was happening. I get that weather disrupts travel, especially in Montana in the winter, but to just dump us out 90 miles away in a tiny airport at 7 pm and tell us to find our own way, was unacceptable. Everyone in my car was livid, and vowed never to fly United again. One man even called and cancelled his United credit card while we driving to Missoula. I complained to United and got a $25 or $50 voucher for my next trip on United. Never. Now, I'll pay more to fly any other airline, or I just won't go.

I've actually had very good experiences at our local Walmart. They've been very friendly and have accepted returns without any issues.

Months ago, I had a terrible eating experience at Texas Roadhouse. I complained on their web site. The manager called me the next day, apologized and sent me a gift certificate. Our next meal there was very good.

For bad, Red Robin. Ate there today for boss's birthday. Burger and fries were undercooked. Because we were in a group, I didn't make a scene, but I'll never eat there again (besides which, it's extremely expensive for rather average food, even if it was cooked right.)

For really bad, a company called Wind River. After a bit of hassles, we laid out $50,000 for software and licenses. It didn't work. They wouldn't give a second and were extremely rude about it. I wrote the CEO and started getting calls from just about everyone at the VP level. (Eventually I got put in touch with an engineer out of Denver who was fantastic and more than willing to help.)

One thing I've noticed all too often is that the actual workers (engineers, waiters, etc.) and the highest level of management are more than happy and willing to help, but are deliberately prevented from doing so by middle management, which is largely composed of know nothing moron dickwads with MBAs.

My horror story:

Meijer stores

They are like Super Wal-Marts even back in the '90s. The customer service was always abysmal.

I worked in jobs that I didn't get off until midnight, it's close to 12:50 when I hit the line with one person in front of me with seven items. The clerk dawdles through the ring up of that person. I put my 12 pack of beer and a pre-made sandwich on the line. The response is "beer sales cut off at 1:00 AM." Well if you had been competent it would only be 12:55, but I let it slide.

The straw that broke the camel's back: I didn't have a checking account and worked as a temp. So I just cashed my check at the register and went on with life. The temp company's check processing firm had had a block of checks ripped off. They had put out the alert of don't cash this block of checks. The clerk said she couldn't cash my check (and I saw the list mentioned the check numbers but couldn't read the small print). So I asked for the manager. The manager waddled her ass down after 15 minutes. She talked to the clerk, didn't look at the list, and then said she couldn't cash my check. I walked out leaving ice cream and perishables in the cart. I've crossed their threshold about ten (maybe fifteen) times since 1995.

Never buy a K. Hovnanian house.

Several years ago I sent my resume to K. Hovnanian in reponse to a help wanted ad that K. Hovnanian posted. They called me a few days later; and scheduled the in-person interview a couple of weeks from then. It was scheduled for 5:00 pm on a Friday.

I explained that I would be taking a vacation day from my current job and that I was flexible if they needed me to come in earlier that day or another day. I arrived a little before five; yet I was kept waiting until almost six. The woman, who worked for K. Hovnanian, I was to interview with then came out of her office, told me in a cold manner that the job was just filled as she was waiting all day for another applicant to return her call and to accept the job. When I said: "but you didn't even interview ME nor did you call me to cancel the interview." She then said "get out before I call the cops on you."

So, I will never buy, live in, or even step foot in a K Hovnanian house.

K. Hovnanian sucks big time!

In general, banks suck. Back in the mid-90s, my wife had an account with Compass Bank of Alabama. I had tried to talk her into closing it and going to my credit union, because I already knew Compass Bank sucked from when I had an account with them in college. (In the early '80s, they were one of the few banks in the area that would open an account for a college student.) For a while, I was working as a consultant, and carrying our health insurance via COBRA from my previous job. One afternoon, I was working at home and the phone rings. It's Compass Bank, wanting to send me info on a health insurance program they were offering. Well, the COBRA was kind of expensive, so I said yes, send me the information.

Next month, my wife wants to know what this $200 charge for insurance is that shows up on her credit card. I told her that I had spoken to the bank about insurance, but I never authorized any payment. She calls the bank, with me listening silently on an extension. She gets forwarded about half a dozen times and finally winds up being connected to a telemarketing agency. They play a tape, very obviously edited, of me authorizing the payment (they took where I said the word "yes" and spliced it into a completely different conversation). I jump in and point this out. They get very nasty and hang up.

Well, we're still trying to figure out how they actually got my wife's CC # to bill the payment to. They didn't get it from me; I didn't even remember that number. We go down to the bank and talk to the manager. She explains that the bank has affiliated telemarketers. And incredibly: she confirms that they provide customers' CC numbers to the telemarketers! You don't have to give them your CC number -- they already have it. All they have to do is trick you into saying "yes" to some random question, and as far as they are concerned, you have authorized payment.

Well, we close her accounts there and get her moved over to the credit union. Compass flatly refused to refund the payment, so we dispute it when my wife sends the bill in. Then, we document everything that has happened and send it to the Alabama Attorney General's office. About two weeks later, someone from the AG's office calls us and they are very interested in what happened. So we tell them the story.

Next month, when the final CC bill arrives, the payment has been credited back. We never hear anything else about it. But two years later, one day we're reading the paper and we see that Compass Bank has agreed to pay millions to the state in restitution for fraudulent CC billing, in connection to bank-affiliated telemarketers. And from that point on, whenever we run into anyone who admits to having an account at Compass, we tell them this story and encourage them to take their business elsewhere.

BOTU- Why'd she look at you funny? Do you have an unusual quality you're sensitive about or was it random?

Safeway Stores.
I won't give them my business. They are obsequious in the extreme to their customers out front and jack-booted douchebags to the vendors in the back room that do business with them.

CVS. Long lines. Stupid workers. Every location.

I'd like to bail on every escrow officer everywhere. Closing fees are always wrong, inconsistent, and incomprehensible.

Crappy (and that's being generous) service? Bank of America. If you have to ask, you've obviously never had an account with them.

Both totally trivial, but good examples of how not to do customer service.

1. I closed a credit card account, and paid the final bill when it arrived. Because of the way they calculated interest, I got a bill the following month for $0.01. Really. Which I pretty much ignored. It kept turning up every month. In the end, I wrote them a check for 1 cent and mailed it to them. A colleague at the time told me how his power company kept sending him a bill for $0.00 - and when he rang them they asked if he could mail a check for that amount because they couldn't stop it without a transaction logged against it.

2. Went to a gourmet pizza restaurant for a friend of a friends birthday. One of those places that pride themselves on being simple and rustic, so the 13 of us were sitting on benches on a long wooden table. So far, so good. They didn't sell alcohol but you could bring your own bottles of wine. We had precisely two - a bottle of champagne shared between the birthday girl and a couple of her friends, and mine, which went mostly to me and and tiny amount to two others. No one else drank. Oh, and they didn't have wine glasses, only tumblers. Ok, fine, I don't really care when it comes to booze.

They did however have a corkage charge - $2 per person. Which they added to the bill for everyone at the table whether they drank or not. I complained (and unfortunately embarrassed the birthday girl who had picked the place) that corkage is supposed to cover the profit they lose when people bring their own wine rather than buy theirs - which they didn't sell - that only five people had been drinking anyway - and that they couldn't even supply decent glasses. In the end we paid it. But I'll never went back.

Of course I apologised to the birthday girl for making a fuss.

There is a little mom and pop ice cream shop in my town that is owned by a police officer. One day I was walking my dog and she slipped her collar and took off after a cat that had been taunting her from atop a fence post. I went on the hunt for her to no avail and went home to call the company that manufactures her microchip so they can put the alert out and quickly print a few flyers to advertise the fact she is missing. My neighborhood Speedway gas station, Dollar General, and convenience store (Woody's), and Hobson's dry cleaners let me put one of my flyers in their windows. The above-mentioned ice cream shop didn't. It's fine that it was the owner's policy to not litter his store windows with posters and flyers. It was not fine that he got so nasty and rude with me upon asking if I could hang my sign. I was very distraught over my missing dog (who was not returned home for a week), and he was very unreasonable with me. He told me he was not a dog person and had no sympathy for those that were. "My suggestion," he scoffed at me, "is to rid yourself of your animals and you will not to deal with nonsense like this. Your animal will do you a big favor if she never comes home." I didn't know what to say, I was so shocked at his cruel words. Accidents happen and my dog WAS leashed. I tell everyone I know that place sucks and their owner is a stereotypical asshole of a cop. That's the only reason I won't mention the name. This is a small town and I have a feeling said asshole cop would remember and write me a ticket for the hell of it if he happens to see this thread.

Oh, financial planners! Right, those are the guys who use your money to pay for their expensive suits and fancy offices.

Several years ago, my mother asked me to look at her investments. She had been going to this really nice investment planner - he was an ex military officer, which made her really trust him. She didn't understand why she had made almost no gains over the years. This was in the run-up to the Internet bubble, when *everything* was way, way up.

I reviewed what he had done with her money. She didn't have that much to begin with, and he had rolled it over, again and again, from one batch of mutual funds to another. If you know anything about mutual funds, you know that there is always an up-front fee - if you buy into a fund, you should plan to stay with it for the long haul. Of course, each time he moved her money, he earned another sales fee.

By the time she came to me, it was too late - she had stopped working, and was living off of this savings. Then the Internet bubble burst, and everything tanked. By the time she died last summer, she was destitute, living off of Social Security plus what money I could afford to send her.

The problem with financial planners is simple: their goals are not your goals. If financial planners were paid a percentage of your profits - and had to pay a percentage of your losses - the industry would be a lot more honest.

Great:
Rega - The portion that likely failed was no longer under warranty (estimated cost to replace $200) but some other portions were under warranty. They replaced the part not under warranty and some that was - all under warranty.

Travel agent company (pre bought out) - amazing service. I am walking through the airport and I am paged to a phone. A rep from my travel agent tells me the last leg of my travel (3 total, I am between 1 and 2) has been cancelled - she is switching me to a different airline gives me a number and tells me to go to that airlines service desk and give them the number. The lady at the desk gave me the crazy look, but did say it looked like one of their numbers. Entered into her terminal and gave me new tickets with a shocked look on her face. All for no extra charge.

Bad:
Local Paw & buddy shop - I have had to go back since the only other place in town closed down. They only know exactly what they have. I cannot answer my general questions: "Do you have anything that supports the new xyz spec version 3.0?" "There is more than one version of xyz?"

Apple - I hear they are doing better. I was support a group that had a bunch of Macs. The hard drives kept getting scrambled. The machines were not due to be replaced for another year - that is they were approx 3 years old. The local Apple rep checked that there was no virus that they could detect. But that was all they would do. The machines were "too old to be serviced." Called corp. and they backed the local guy.

Travel agent (post buy out) - the is on personal travel. Everything was setup by email. I am on tour and get into my hotel about 3pm check my email and I have an auto email from frequent flier program confirming my miles etc for my flight the next day - but it is at 6:45am not 10:45am my paperworks is on. It is Sunday so most places are closed. I asked the concierge and he confirmed most places were closed ... but he had an idea. He puts me on the phone with airport and they say there are no flights scheduled to depart at 10:45. I catch my flight at 6:45. Back in the good old USA a call my travel agent. She says the airline cancelled the flight and so she rebooked me...but didn't have a way to contact to me because the international office for the tour company was cancelled. I am like, you knew the hotel I was staying at that last night because you booked it, you have my email.

Later we discussed it because she wanted to know about the tour, what I thought of the company, etc. She made the amazing statement that what i liked to do was beyond a travel agents expertize - remember she is the head one for this large company - they really are just to book round trip tockets and hotel or cruise. This multi-leg fly in, take a tour that drops me off in another city, meet up with another tour with a different company to a third city and fly back from there ---that was just too much. So, I asked her why would I just not use Expedia? She stared at me blankly and then said she had brochures!

United Airlines, unless I can get the flight with FF miles.

For the flight ORD-MDW, some years ago my wife was traveling on government business and she had to take them.

EIGHT consecutive flights (on various trips) were canceled. Always something. Weather, mechanical, etc. What they were doing is combining two flights less than 50% full into one almost full to save money, since the planes were just going to turn around and go back and forth.

Then they blatantly lied about it.

Never again, says my wife. And me, too.

Wow, after reading these comments I feel very fortunate. I flew United to Jackson Hole two years ago as it was the only airline that offered only one change of planes from where I live. No problems whatsoever.

However, I'm flying American to San Diego next month and am getting apprehensive...

I will echo some of the comments about Wal-Mart service. All businesses and most employees have bad days. Wal-Mart is pretty consistently bad. They have 20+ cash registers yet never have more than a few open no matter how busy they are.

I have a gripe about HP, too.

I was given a computer for a birthday present. Brand new, in the box, purchased from Costco, Hewlett Packard personal computer.

I plugged it in and booted it up. It was so slow I thought it was frozen or broken. Tried a couple of shut downs and finally decided to call HP.

Bitch #1- call was long distance and on my dime.
#2 I was put on hold for a very long time.
#3 fellow would not talk to me about my brand new computer without me paying like a $30 fee. I paid it.
#4 computer was laggy and slow because it had so much preloaded bloatware and startup programs enabled it overwhelmed the processor. Out of the box it was nonfunctional because of all the crap loaded onto it. Grrrr.

@Laura -

Are you sure you called HP support? They have toll-free support. And they shouldn't charge you for in-warranty. I think Costco shafted the hell out of you.

Although, the computers for Costco and other retailers are loaded with crap - it's how they hit that price point. If I ever buy one of those, the first thing I'd do is wipe it and start with a fresh load of Windows or Linux on it.

Last week, I was on my to a meeting but I had missed lunch. I was contemplating picking up some KFC drive-through - contrary to my normal dietary practice - when a local "Mom & Pop" pizza shop I had never noticed before caught my eye. I walked in and should've walked out again, based on my first impression, but I was in a hurry and I thought this place could provide me with a quick, serviceable meal. I was wrong.

I ordered the "special" - six chicken fingers for $6.99. The chicken pieces were huge, so it seemed to be fair value. "How long?" I asked. "Five or six minutes," was the reply. Twenty minutes later, the cook/cashier took them out of the oven, and I counted silently: "one, two, three, four, five." Five?!

He handed me the bag, and I looked him in the eye: "There's supposed to be six." He looked puzzled and I pointed to the sign behind him: "6 chicken fingers / $6.99."

"Oh, oh, oh," he chortled. "I'm so sorry, I don't want you to think I'm cheap" - too late! - "Here, I'll include a piece of pizza - what kind do you want?"

I didn't want any kind. If I had wanted pizza, I would have ORDERED pizza. I was in a hurry, though, so I took a piece of pepperoni and left, late for my meeting. I will never be back at Madonna's Pizza on Sherbrook Avenue.

So happy to see lots of hate for United Airlines. I've had two disappointing experiences. After the first, I vowed never to fly them again -- but then found myself in a long-distance relationship, and United had a really cheap direct flight. During that cheap, direct flight, I had bad experience No. 2.

#1) 2004, flying with friend to Germany for study abroad.
-Supposed to fly Chicago-Philly-Germany.
-Sat on runway in Chicago for 3.5 hours b/c of two mechanical delays. As a result, missed flight to Philly.
-Booked on next flight to Philly (next morning)and, supposedly, booked through to Germany.
-Arrived at Philly. Learned those mofos in Chicago had booked my Philly-Germany leg as stand-by b/c they were overbooked. Denied boarding.
-United's "solution" was to send us to a bunch of cities on the east coast over the next 3 days, where we would then wait stand-by for a plane to Germany. Because ALL were overbooked.
-Flew to Boston, Dulles and DCA. Each time, we were denied boarding to flights to Germany b/c of overbooking.
-FINALLY, 3 days later and a lot of times in airports, my friend, after 4 hours on hold w/ United got someone who had a shred of sympathy to realize that, hey, economy seating is booked up for the next week...but business class isn't! Say, why don't we put these two gals in business class? We were on a plane to Germany w/in 4 hours.

#2) After nearly 5 years of avoiding United, I ended up on one of their flights. Left cell phone at gate. I know, my fault. But then! The next day, I called my voicemail and had a message from a United person. An attendant had found my phone, looked up the number and left me a voicemail saying they had it, and I would just have to call a 1-800 number. Called that damn number. It was their basic "customer service" line. And they did not give two shits about my phone. I get that it was my fault for leaving it, but if you're gonna offer to help me, at least follow through!

Great customer service to me is how a person or company deals with problems. Shit happens. To everyone. How it is dealt with makes all the difference.

I always consider moving up the chain to deal with a manager the best first step. If I'm putting on my big girl panties and pointy-toed boots, the clerk doesn't make enough money or have enough authority to fix the issue.

I always start out polite and make a clear statement about what is wrong. Then I allow the person to tell me how they are going to fix the issue. Since they frequently offer me more than I would have requested, it satisfies me.

I very rarely have to resort to pointy-toed boots. I always thank them for their assistance... after I take down their name and number so I can get back to them or tattle on them should the problem continue.

I need a new laptop. Based on all your shitty electronics experiences, what is my best bet?

I'm leaning towards a Macbook...def not getting an Acer.

Haha that's funny about the schticker.

I mainly like to play games on my home laptop so I need something pretty powerful. No doubt I can find that in a Mac...but I'd need a higher end model which would be pricey.

Anyone have experience w/ buying a "certified pre owned" Mac through Best Buy?

"I got a bill the following month for $0.01. Really. Which I pretty much ignored."

One of my favorite teaches in HS, who had just moved to San Diego from Boston (we were his first class) had a good one. The story was: After moving, they sent him a bill saying he still owed $.05. He called them explaining that a stamp alone would cost far more then the nickel (this was 1990 so no web bill paying for you kids) so couldn't they just let it go? Nope, they needed a real transaction to close the account. So he sends a check for $.05. A couple weeks later he gets another note from them that they'd made a mistake, he really only owed them $.03 so here was his refund for $.02. He had that check framed and hung in the classroom.

After framing the check he should have called them, claim to have lostit and ask them to send another one, and he should have seen just how many checks he could have gotten them to mail

Now that I think about it, I'd have demanded they send me a stamp and self addressed envelope as well

I'll toss out a good one, for contrast. A few years ago, my wife and I were living in a half-finished house and working on it in the evenings. I called Donato's Pizza from work and ordered a pizza, with the intent of picking it up on my way home, so that we could spend the evening working on the house and not have to stop to fix dinner.

When I got to the store to pick it up, it was made wrong. The employee at the register immediately went and got the manager. The manager came out and asked me where I was headed. I told him I was headed home, and he told me to go on my way, and they would fix it and deliver the pizza to my house. I told him that my house was out of their delivery area. He said, "Doesn't matter, we screwed up, we'll fix it." About twenty minutes after I arrived home, the delivery guy showed up with the (correctly made) pizza. He refused payment and gave us some coupons. He didn't want a tip either, but I insisted that he take a couple of bucks.

Donato's gets a lot of our business. (Their pizza is better than Domino's too.)

The problem with financial planners is simple: their goals are not your goals. If financial planners were paid a percentage of your profits - and had to pay a percentage of your losses - the industry would be a lot more honest.

All these me-too's about financial planners are making me feel very validated!

Another trick mine used to play was "selling dividends." He was always trying to head me into funds that paid dividends. That's because HE got a piece of those dividends, too! My share price could tank by 50% but he would still be getting paid.

Well he's not making ANY money off me now! :-P

"Crappy (and that's being generous) service? Bank of America. If you have to ask, you've obviously never had an account with them."

Or you haven't read "I See Rude People".

No, I haven't read it.

"There's a whole chapter on them."

Just a chapter? So it's more like the "Cliff's Notes" version, then? ;-)

I bailed on BofA back when "VISA" was "BANKAMERICARD" so I'm not really up on their more recent shenanigans.

At least, I *was* bailed until they bought my mortgage from Countrywide. My first encounter with them after the transition only solidified my opinion of the company.

If "stupid" had gravity, they'd be a black hole.

I've noticed that United Airlines has taken a few hits here. I have some of my own to add, but a few good things to add as well.

In 2007, I was the Executive Officer of the USMC's Recruiting Station in Buffalo, NY. I, along with a few other Marines, was leading a group of 40+ teachers/counselors/school administrators from Buffalo, NY to Charleston, SC, with our ultimate destination being the USMC Recruit Depot at Parris Island, SC. The teachers were participating in the USMC's Educators' Workshop, which would give them a first-hand look at Marine Corps recruit training. The original plan was to fly early Monday morning from Buffalo to Charleston via a connecting flight through Chicago O'Hare. Once we arrived in Charleston, we were supposed to board buses that would take us from Charleston to Beaufort, SC (the town which is just outside the Depot.) We would arrive in the late morning with enough time for everyone to check into their hotel rooms, unpack baggage, and participate in some activities throughout the afternoon and evening. Simple enough, right?

In keeping with the maxim that "no plan survives contact with the enemy," we experienced a nightmare that lasted for the better part of three days. First, our early morning flight from Buffalo to Chicago was delayed because of weather problems. When we arrived in Chicago, we hustled through the airport to catch our connecting flight, only to discover - surprise! - the flight to Charleston had not waited for us. (Even though our group probably made up about 50% of that flight.) The airport's USO lounge was very gracious and allowed us to let the teachers settle down while we went to the United ticket counter to try to unfuck the situation. After hours of going back and forth with the less-than-helpful staff, we managed to get everyone on new flights. However, this involved staying at the airport for another six or seven hours and splitting the group into four smaller sub-groups. We ordered pizzas for the teachers and hunkered down at the USO. As some groups flew out in the early evening, the other groups found out that their new flights would be even further delayed. Eventually, by 6 AM on Tuesday morning, everyone had made it to Beaufort, albeit a day late.

However, nobody's luggage had arrived. So, we had to take 40+ teachers to Wal-Mart so they could get some necessary hygiene items. We missed the morning's activities, but were able to get with the program by the afternoon. By the afternoon, some (but not all) of the luggage had arrived. The remainder of everyone's luggage didn't arrive until Wednesday morning.

When it came time to fly back, we were once again supposed to be routed through O'Hare. Our flights were delayed again, although the flights going back to Buffalo were not as much of a goat rope as the flights going to SC. However, once again, nobody's luggage arrived with them.

The whole experience was professionally embarrassing to me and to the other Marines who were conducting the workshop. We spent a lot of time profusely apologizing to the teachers for the ordeal. When the Commanding General of the Depot came to address our group, he made sure to thank the teachers for enduring through the mess. The teachers were all very gracious and thanked us for trying to take care of them in the face of United's incompetence. United subsequently sent everyone a $150 voucher, but I never found occasion to use it.

In all fairness to United, though, I did receive some good customer service on a flight in 2009. I was flying to Monterey, CA from Washington, DC with a connection via San Francisco. When I arrived at SFO, I found that my flight to Monterey (mid-evening flight) had been canceled due to bad weather. I put my name on the standby list, but after waiting a while, it didn't look as though I would be put on the last day's flight. So I went to the counter clerk and said "Take me off the list, I'll rent a car and drive the rest of the way." I then asked to have my baggage pulled from the flight if it hadn't already been loaded. When I went by the gate again (I had a hunch), I found that my name had somehow (magically) jumped up to the top of the list. I spoke with Keith, the very helpful gate agent, who informed me that a spot had just opened up on the last day's flight and that I could take it if I wanted to do so. I told Keith that I had already asked for my baggage to be removed and that I didn't want to arrive without it. Keith graciously called the ground crew, who had found my baggage and confirmed that they could load it onto the flight. I thanked Keith profusely and ran down the jetway, where I was greeted by a cheerful flight crew. End of story - thanks to Keith, I made it to Monterey with all of my luggage.

I'm still not confident enough in United to use the $150 voucher, even if it was still valid...

Positive Story: Best Buy

So I'm in the Navy, and was moving from Virginia to Florida. I had already sent my wife and children to the mother-in-laws house, and was managing the move on my own. The movers came, all was well, until they saw my front-loading washer and asked "Do you have the restraining bolts for the tub"

Nope. And, as an LG, you can't buy them anywhere local. You have to order them through the phone...and they couldn't get them to me by the next day, when the movers were scheduled to finish.

Desperate, I called Best Buy. Jennifer answered the phone, and said she could have bolts in 10 minutes.

I drove over, and she was crawling out from behind the LG washer on display. She gave me the bolts for free, no questions asked. I think she was at most 16 years old.

Besides having a renewed faith in the younger generation, I wrote a long letter to her supervisor and regional managers, and I sent her a letter with a command coin I had from my last trip to the desert. My next electronics purchases will definitely be from Best Buy.

Here's one for good tech stores: Micro Center

Took my father and his GF looking for a laptop upgrade. They had "refurb" HP touch screen desktops at half the price of a brand new one. We then went looking at Best Buy and a few other places. The sales guys were hacks, wanted to push the warranty, etc.

So we go back to Micro Center and buy there. The parental units RV but home base out of Florida these days. The sales guy admits, with no prompting, the added warranty doesn't apply in FL.

About the only extra he pushed was the A/V solution -- but it wasn't McCrappy or Norton -- and was cheaper than either.

Add on top -- he was a geek not a sales guy (as are the majority).

I also need an external hard drive for backups, so I go on my own to hit the drive area. Guy says the "<brand> 1TB drives are dying on us. Go with the cheaper brand. They're doing good."

Again, I could tell he was a tech head and not sales.

*****Anyone have experience w/ buying a "certified pre owned" Mac through Best Buy?*****

I am a total MacHead, but I will say the only two Apple products I ever had problems with, a monitor and a laptop, were refurbished. Buy new.

I will say in both cases, though, Apple went out of their way to make it right for me, up to and including replacing a video card that wasn't in warranty anymore. I don't know how far Best Buy would be willing to go for you.

Ah yes Best Buy, my mother bought my brother an ACER, after 5 months a few of the keys broke, as it was under warentee she took it in. They sent it out, five weeks later it was back, she goes to pick it up and none of the keys are fixed.

So she lays into the guy at the 'help' desk asking why it took them 5 weeks to fix the computer when they didnt even fix the problem she had sent it in for.

Guy claims we never said anything about the key board and they had replaced the harddrive. Which would have meant all my brothers media adn files would have been lost had I not taken the time to bak them up(something my mother thought was unnecccesary)

So now my mothr really goes balostic

"did you transfer the files then?" mom
"No, you didnt pay for that service" help guy
"Why the fuck would a pay you to preform a service that wasnt neccesary? There wasnt a god damn thing wrong with the hard drive" mom
"well, cant you jsut download all the music again, its not like you'd have to pay for it" help guy
"Not the pont asshole, it will still cost me in time, not to mention the fact that it will hafe to wait until after the computer comes back beacuse you didnt fix the problem I brought it in for"

Then the guy mentions that the warranty expired just before the the computer came back so they wouldnt fix it with out charcging her for non warranty service.

At which point she stopped talking to the guy, and went over to the computer department and started telling everyone who walked up looking for a computer not to buy one.

Took less than 5 minutes for the stores manager to come running out of somewhere to try and stop her. She walked out of there with a brand new computer as a replacment - refuses to shop there for anything

*****In the past, I bought a number of used Macs but online through Mac resellers. I think I got one from Mac Mall. No problems with them.*****

I got both my refurbished ones from Apple, so I have no idea if anyone else would be better. I just like as few people between me and my product as possible. :D

And, I've bought probably 20 - 30 products from Apple over the years, and only had problems with those two (which were fixed immediately with no cost to me) so I really can't complain. I've just decided refurbished isn't worth taking the chance anymore.

"Also, my Macs have been incredible in terms of staying power. My last is still working -- a Mac iBook from 2004."

Alas, my Eldest's screen died. He would have been 27 years old this spring. I have an SE, 25 years old, runs perfectly. What's it run? IRCle. Word 5.1.2. Excel 0.0B (Yes, I have the early release of Excel for it).

You really ought to see how fast a really old Web browser is. They'll ignore the fancy eyebait and push to the screen fast enough you think you hear a "thump".

This box is a G4 Gigabit Ethernet, new in 2000. It hates Flash and most sloppy video, but runs a surprising number of things at the same time. My MBP really is only about 5x the speed.

The last 11 years have made some amazing things show up. It's sad that so much of it is hype, though.

I regret not following my own advice - I didn't buy Apple stock in Dec '95, when it was just over $10.

I am wondering just how anybody can break keys.

I've never had a keyboard failure - in 27 years!