Ever Complained About a Bad Product or Service?

[Ash]

A few weeks ago, I woke up thinking of Pizza Hut pizza and made it my mission for that day to get some.

(doesn't it look delicious?  )


I don't usually order from Pizza Hut because they're so darn expensive.  But I broke down and placed a to-go order online for two medium 2-topping pizzas.
They were running a special and I got both pies for $12.99.

About 30 minutes later I drove down to pick them up and made the big mistake of not lifting the lids and checking the pizzas before I took them out of the store.  Instead, I just paid the guy and left.
When I got them home, I lifted the lids and was immediately ticked off.
The first pizza was a thin crust with pepperoni and extra cheese.
There was no extra cheese and it was so overcooked that when I tapped on the cheese part with a fork, it actually made a tapping noise.  Cheese is supposed to be gooey, not rock hard.  It had been cooked too long and the pie had an almost black look to it.

The other pie was a hand tossed sausage & pepperoni and it looked and tasted like it had been sitting out in the open for a few days.
Needless to say, both pizzas were absolutely awful.
Even though I had only paid $12.99 for the both of them, I still felt ripped off.  I ate one slice of the thin crust and two of the hand tossed and threw the rest into the garbage.

Immediately after, I went to the Pizza Hut website and clicked where it said "Contact Us".  There was a drop-down box and one of the options read, "I had an unsatisfactory experience".  So I clicked that and then filled out the fields.  I wrote to them in great detail and told them exactly how awful the pizza I received was.
There was a box I could check to have someone contact me by phone and I checked it.

Several days went by and I finally got a call from the local district manager for my city.
I politely told her all about the crappy pizza I got and how it was overcooked and how I felt ripped off.  We talked for almost a half hour.
She was very apologetic and wanted to know if I would ever buy Pizza Hut pizza again.  I told her that I would.
She then told me she was going to send me a coupon for a free pizza.
I got the letter from her two days later, and, to my surprise, there were three coupons!
Each was good for any size/style pizza with unlimited toppings!
I've already used two of them and have one left.
And yes, the pizzas I received by using them have been much better.  Fantastic, in fact.  And they were from a different nearby Pizza Hut.

Have you ever bought a bad product or received bad service and complained about it?
If so, what happened?

[The Burgomaster]

I had a terrible experience with my Verizon telephone bill.  My wife and I moved to a new house.  We changed our telephone number, but kept using Verizon.  I didn't realize this would cause our account number to change.  I had Verizon set up in my online banking system, so it still had the old account number and I kept using it to pay bills electronically.  Everything was fine for about 6 months, then all of a sudden my statement showed that I didn't pay the previous month's bill (but I knew I had paid it).  After some discussions with Verizon and my bank, we figured out that the payment had gone to the old Verizon account number and therefore was not showing up on my new statement.  (Verizon could never explain to me why the first several payments I sent to the old/wrong account number DID come off my new statement).  To make a long story short, I spent 9 months calling Verizon repeatedly to clear this up.  All they needed to do was apply my payment (which had been sent to the wrong account number) to the new account.  For some reason, no one could figure that out.  In fact, they even TURNED OFF MY TELEPHONE SERVICE because they said my payment was delinquent!  (This is AFTER I had called customer service numerous times trying to fix the problem).  I even talked to one customer service manager who said she would be personally taking care of my problem.  I never heard from her again and when I tried to contact her, I found out she had left the company!  Finally, I wrote a strong (but polite) letter to the President of Verizon.  Within about a week I got a call from "Executive Customer Service" and they were able to fix the problem.  They told me they needed to send me a refund check from the old account and I needed to send a new payment to the new account.  Of course, on the first attempt, they sent the refund check to my OLD address and I didn't get it.  On the second attempt, they sent the refund check to my current address, but it had SOMEONE ELSE'S NAME ON IT.  On the third attempt, I received the correct refund check and I immediately paid the amount to my new Verizon account.  Everything ultimately got settled, but it took 9 months, at least 12 - 15 telephone conversations, and a letter to the President of Verizon to get this problem fixed.  This is a horrible way to do business.

[meQal]

My experience has been a mixed bag ranging from great to horrible. The worst being dealing with ATT. They took over my local phone company and suddenly my bill was being charged a late fee despite the fact that the day they claimed the late fee incurred was either on or before the date my bill was printed. When I pointed this out, they just gave me excuse after excuse and even told me that I just need to send them a payment even before my bill arrived. Despite trying to speak to someone reasonably about the fact I was not going to send money to anyone without knowing how much I actually owed, they kept telling me I how I just needed to send money and hope I got the amount right. I dropped them as my phone service.
I use to have problems with my cable service as well but after several calls about loosing signal and other problems, Charter came out and installed new lines to my home and ran tests all over the area. They also gave me a year's worth of discounts on the services I had.
Most recently I had some problems with a new computer I ordered. The company I ordered from kept running out of stock on some of the parts I had ordered so they gave me a discount, upgraded me on some of the parts, a refund on my rush build fee, and even gave me overnight shipping for the price I was paying for 2 day shipping.

[Saucerman]

I bought my laptop at Best Buy, and got the super-duper extended warranty.  This past summer, it died on me.  I took it to the Geek Squad, since it's still under warranty.  The next day, Geek Squad calls me, requesting permission to send my laptop to another service center (which I believe is just standard operating procedure for them).  I grant it, and then wait.

A month and a half later, I call Best Buy to see how my laptop's doing, they tell me they'll check on it and call me back the next day.  It turns out the guy who'd called me to ask permission never filled out the requisite paperwork, so my laptop sat there collecting dust in their back room for a month and a half.  The person who was apologizing to me told me his manager had authorized a $25 gift card be given to me for my troubles.  Not great, I think to myself, but at least I'll have my laptop back and can get some more DVDs.  

A week later, when my laptop returns all nice and fixed, I ask the guy at the counter about the $25 gift card, and without checking with a manager or anything, just says, "I don't know anything about that."  

A week later, I get a phone call from a representative wanting me to answer some survey questions about my recent Geek Squad experience.  I gave her an hour and a half long earful about what lousy service I'd received and how unhappy I was with the whole situation.  She told me she'd make sure I received some sort of gift-card related apology...

And no such apology ever showed up.

[Trevor]

The website www.hellopeter.com is where I go to lodge my consumer related complaints and compliments.

The normal complaints that I personally get are whinges from customers who cannot get what they want from me (usually films put onto DVD) and then whinge about it to my bosses.

[Mr. DS]

I'm on a practically on first name basis with customer service representatives.  However, I do say it takes a lot for me to call one but apparently places go out of their way to offer bad service in certain circles.  Some places I've called on...

Walmart (they absolutely refuse to admit when they're wrong in certain places)

Bertuccis (usually offer good service, but insisted I eat a pizza they cooked wrong)

Applebees (for spilling a tray of drinks on my sister in law and not doing much about it)

Friendly's (who seem to be cutting back their portions and hiring moody people)

Home Depot (customer service is hard to find there)

and the all time winner...

Taco Bell (for repeatedly not getting orders right and running out of menu items by 8 PM at night)


However, I go out of my way to call on good service too.  I've called Walmart one time to compliment a young lady at the cash register who was more than patient with an elderly woman.  I've emailed Red Robin simply to tell them that they rule on all levels.  I've talked to the manager of an On The Boarder about a server's exceptional skills. So the door swings both ways when it comes to my customer service tales.

I do get gift certificates from time to time but for me its not the point.  Getting the best service for you dollar is.

[CaptnTripps]

Last year, I bought a HP Pavillion Desktop from Sam's Club. It was fine for about a week, and stopped turning on. I had paid for the warranty, so I figured no big deal, ill just take it back and get another one. So I get there and tell CS my problem and they said they needed the store manager. He told me they were out of the exact computer and couldn't order another one cause they stopped selling that particular model. He stayed quiet. So I  was like, well, something is going to be done! So he says hell replace it with an "almost the same model", but I would have to pay the 140$ difference, which is B.S. So I asked for a full refund and told him I would be writing a letter to their corporate offices (which I wouldnt have done due to the hassle) and finally, he was like, well let me see if I can give it to you without you paying the difference, and he did. He could have saved all that time, by doing that in the beginning. 

[ghouck]

My worst CS experience is at work with Lowes hardware. I called them and got a quote for 30 gallons of yellow wood glue. They quoted me about $11/gal. I sent a private carrier to pick it up, which they assured me was ready in will-call. The carrier is a guy I've done business with, and his thing is that he wants to be in and out, no BS in the middle. Not only did they waste 20 minutes of his time, the product wasn't there. So, I get charged for a pickup that didn't happen. So, I call them back and straighten it out, they assure me it's ready for pickup, and I also have them throw a huge tarp in with it. All is good, I have the same carrier pick the glue and the tarp up, BUT, they invoice me for $14/gal for the glue. SO, I get them to send me a new invoice for the glue at $11/gal, but they leave off the tarp. I code and approve the invoice and send it up the chain. (This is for the state here, so it's has to go through about ten people to get the check cut and sent). I ask them for an invoice for the tarp, and they send me an invoice for it, AND the glue AGAIN, still at $14/gal. What follows is literally a year of my clerk calling at least twice a week trying to get this straight, and EVERY time he has to re-explain the situation because he NEVER got the same person twice. We made a journal that ended up being 132 typed pages of entries on what exactly we did to try and resolve this, all the while they are sending me account closure warnings and nasty-grams to me, my boss, and anyone else who's name they could dig up out of the system, claiming we still owed for the tarp and the $14/gal for the glue. One of the many things that made it even more stupid was that apparently the offices involved were at opposite ends of the building, so when they were on the phone checking something, it always involved a few near 5 minute walks back and forth from sales to accounting to management. One rep said they getting so many complaints about poor customer service, that when they were doing something like this and had to make the trek across the store, they HAD to stop and help anyone that flagged them down, which turned the 5-minute trek into a 15 minute trek, while I was waiting. Keep in mind, I am doing all this to get THEM THEIR MONEY for the stupid tarp.

So, I'm in Anchorage (where the Lowes is) with my boss, and I have this journal with me. We go down to try and straighten this out (My boss had the idea she was going to sweet-talk them and get it straight, that idea lasted less than 60 seconds). They immediately get on the defensive and say they're doing us a favor by not having turned this over to collections. That was it. I somehow figured out which office was of the main dude in charge, and burst in. The guy had a look on his face like I was robbing him, and I just started laying the entire situation down for him. He asked what I wanted him to do, and I said "just listen to this, this is my journal", and I proceeded to read it to him. Over an hour and a half later I was most of the way done, they guy was going insane with boredom, and trying to get someone (me) to get me to listen to his heeds of not wanting to hear any more, get to the point, what can we do to fix it, ,, blah blah blah. I got tired of reading and my boss was almost asleep, so I said "NOW, you obviously know what it's like for someone to not listen to you, you obviously know what it's like to have someone waste your time", and told him to void out the invoice for the tarp, that's a freebie, write a letter to the guys in my accounting department to let them know this was his fault and not mine, and to delete my account from their system, and MAYBE in 5 years or so I'll forget about it and give them a try again. They did so, and I've not head from them since, and haven't missed it.


Whoa, , what a rant, , I went off there, didn't I.. . sorry

[ER]

Yeah, I have. One time I did was back in '99 when my roommate and I went to a psychic fair in Boston and she got a Tarot card reading. She gave this hippie chick her last ten dollars for a reading that was so stupid ("I see many angels around you, and some of them are the babies you'll have someday and some are your parents from past lives, and you're going to get money in the mail from a foreign country, but only if you light red candles tonight and only if you wear blue tomorrow and have two cups of green tea as soon as you get out of bed...") that I made the reader give Jackie her money back. She kvetched but she did it.

[The Burgomaster]

Walmart (they absolutely refuse to admit when they're wrong in certain places)
 

My next comment doesn't EXACTLY fit in with this topic, but The DarkSider's Walmart comment made me remember it.

About 2 or 3 years ago I was in Walmart just to pick up a few things (saline solution, Tums, whatever).  All the checkout lines were long, but I only had a few things so I went to the "12 items or less" counter (there was no one in front of me or behind me).  As it turned out, I had 13 or 14 items and the checkout girl (around 17 years old) told me sort of bluntly that I had too many items.  I didn't count them before I brought them to her, and she was correct, so I went to the end of one of the regular lines.

I then proceeded to watch her stare off into space, look at her manicure, twirl her hair and do nothing for a minute or two until a customer approached her.  I have no problem with following the "12 item" rule, but I only had 1 or 2 extra items, there were no customers in line behind me, and she wasn't doing anything anyway, so she could have taken the 60 seconds to ring up my sale. 

[ghouck]

That's one I would have gone right to management over.

[JaseSF]

With regards to Wal-Mart, I witnessed a bad experience my girlfriend had there. She requested to put a printer on layaway and was about to exit the electronics department with it to carry it to layaway when she was stopped by two guys working that section. One was a young, rude jacka** who said you cannot put items that big on layaway (space in the layaway section was taken up with Christmas layaways but he never bothered to explain that to her) while another 40ish hippie looking guy working there said that's right and agreed with him. Besides said the young jerk, I don't think someone like you can afford this anyways. What got my goat is the assuming on the part of these idiots that 1) my girlfriend couldn't afford to pay for said item and 2) that she wasn't even allowed to leave the electronics section which is commonly done everyday in the same store and finally 3) that they didn't bother to explain the situation in a friendly courteous manner but instead acted rude and like they didn't want to be working there (this was Saturday evening). It p**sed me off so much that I returned to the shelf several DVDs I was planning to buy. Ultimately because of their actions, the store lost hundreds of dollars.

[Mr. DS]

My wife was at a Walmart and the girl ringing her up was talking about going to lunch with her coworker.  The total was $9 and something and my wife gave the girl a 20 only to get the change $10.00 light.  The girl went on to claim that it was my wife's error.  After a drawer count, my wife was given her ten bucks. 

Side note, through my experience positive or negative feeback will HARDLY ever garnish any gift certificates from Walmart. 

[Ash]

What follows is literally a year of my clerk calling at least twice a week trying to get this straight, and EVERY time he has to re-explain the situation because he NEVER got the same person twice.

I think that's why a lot of customer service experiences are bad.  Especially in situations like that where the problem isn't resolved in one call.
Because you almost always have to re-explain everything!
I've had situations where I've called customer service 5 different times and have had to explain the situation to five different people.
That's frustrating...

[Ash]

AHHH!  It happened again!

I went to Lone Star Steakhouse earlier this evening with a couple of friends and the food was awful.



Immediately after getting back home, I filled out the complaint form on their website.
Here's what I wrote:

"To whom it may concern,

After not having dined at Lone Star in over 10 years, I decided to go there with a couple of friends earlier this evening.
I ordered the large cheeseburger with a side of steak fries and was terribly disappointed in the food.
The fries were fine, but the burger was not.
Before I bit into the burger, our hostess asked me to slice into it with my knife to make sure it was done enough.
It was not. 
Instead of medium rare, it was almost raw on the inside.
I don't know if it had something to do with the cook or not because before we received our food, we overheard the people at the next table complaining to the waitress that their food was undercooked. (that's probably why she asked us to check ours)
Anyway, she takes my burger back to have it put back on the grill and then returns with it several minutes later.
It still was very bloody.
She takes it back again to be cooked a THIRD time and finally, it was decently cooked.  By this time, my friends were already halfway finished with their meals.
Needless to say, the burger, after having been cooked 3 times was considerably shrunk in size.  My burger consisted of about 10% beef and 90% bread and it was not very good at all.
I've had 99 cent double cheeseburgers from McDonald's that were better than the $9.00 burger I received tonight.

The server was very nice and the restaurant was clean...but the main course I bought was just plain bad.
Lone Star did not leave a good impression on me after not having eaten there in so long.
I was very disappointed.

Thank you"