Everyone knows what it’s like to be on hold with a customer service phone line, or speaking to someone on a Live Chat about an issue you’ve found on their website. What everyone doesn’t know is what happens when you are speaking to someone on the other side who could really use with some extra training.
Bad customer service happens to everyone, but sometimes it can be worse than others. While some companies occasionally get complaints about bad language from their staff, some are a whole lot worse. Let’s walk through 3 examples of some truly awful customer service!
Vodafone
The problem: Other than OFCOM discovering that none of the customer service staff were trained in what constitutes a complaint, they event stalled a potential Masters student from gaining her degree. Holly O’Donnell had incorrect charges applied by Vodafone, which meant she was denied funding for her postgraduate degree after Vodafone chased her for debts she did not owe.
The solution: To put it plainly – this should have never happened in the first place. Technical errors are easy to track the origin of, so once it was reported, it should have been dealt with. As for the incorrect training, they should have come to us!
Thomas Cook
The problem: Or should I say problems! One poor customer has his wife’s gender change on their booking confirmation – and then made him pay to change it back! Next he was told that his complain had been deleted without being read, quickly followed up by being charged twice for his booking. Of that wasn’t enough, because of the errors, they were upgraded to premium class, but then charged £603!
The solution: This poor gentleman won’t be travelling with Thomas Cook anytime soon, but what could have been done to remedy this quickly is to have changed the booking name for free, as this was an error from the company. If that happened, none of the other issues may not have taken place.
Homebase
The problem: Who doesn’t love a sale? When Homebase were offering in their Spring sale £100 credit and a 75% discount on their sofas, they received dozens of orders through! However they all failed to show up to their customers. Homebase didn’t notify anyone, instead they sent a refund straight into bank accounts of their customers in a way of cancelling their order. Homebase blamed a “software glitch” which caused it to order stock that didn’t exist.
The solution: Same again with the technical glitch, this should have been sorted straight away. While this isn’t as bad as the others, it’s still annoying for their customers, and could result in a lack of repeat business!
So what have you learnt? Be careful of computer glitches, always check your booking details for flights, and report any customer service issues you’ve had straight away!
Have you ever experienced any hellish customer service? Let us know in the comments!