Does Apple Canada have the worst customer support ever?

Yes! Ask me why...
I'm posting here a) to warn other Mac users what to expect if you ever need customer support and b) because there's no where you can actually e-mail comments to Apple, and trying to contact customer support has been fruitless (see below).
Here's what happened to me...
I bought my iBook just under three years ago - a few weeks ago, the logic board went. Now, because I purchased the computer less than three years ago, that's covered under the extended warranty for iBook logic boards (see here: http://www.apple.com/support/ibook/faq/).
Simple, right? Well, I took my computer in to my local authorized service provider about three weeks ago. They confirmed the logic board was the problem... copied my receipt for the iBook to prove date of purchase... agreed that it was covered by the warranty.
However, when they sent all this to Apple, their reply was that it was NOT covered because it was manufactured more than three years ago (although Apple's own website says it's purchase date - not manufacture date - that's important).
I called Apple last Monday to find out what was going on. Spoke to a nice fellow named Kevin who said he'd look into it, and call me back the next day.
Next day passed... no call. I called Kevin back left a message, and indicated I'd like to know what was going on.
Wednesday passed... no call. By this point, I'm getting anxious - the service provider can't move ahead without authoriztion from Apple, Apple's not returning my calls (or the service provider's) to grant authorization.
I tried Kevin again on Thursday. Left another message. No reply.
Tried back on Friday morning. Left another message. Still no reply.
Called customer support again Friday night. Antoine puts me hold for a half hour. I call back, explain that I've been on hold for half an hour, ask how long the wait should be. Antoine says two or three minutes. He puts me on hold again.
For another ten minutes.
I call back. Antoine explains that the reason I'm on hold is probably because customer service is closed. So why was I on hold for nearly an hour listening to terrible music? That's one of the mysteries of Apple customer support...
So here I am, with a computer that's been in the shop nearly three weeks, that can't be repaired because Apple won't honour its warranty, and no way to even find out what's going on, because Apple's customer service is such an unnavigable maze.
The sad thing is, I usually like Apples. I was even going to buy a new one this summer.
Now - not a chance.
The moral of the story? If you own an Apple, pray nothing ever goes wrong with it. If you expect your computer to ever need repairs, I'd suggest getting rid of your Apple now.
If you're considering buying an Apple - consider again.
As for me - from now on, make mine Microsoft.
iBook G3 700 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Does Apple Canada have the worst customer support ever?
I doubt it.
Seriously, would you like some help?
Call back, and don't mess around with Customer Service. Immediately ask for Customer Relations. These are the people whose job it is to make an unhappy customer happy again. They aim to please.
A polite, but seriously disappointed tone of voice is what you need, so take some deep breaths until you can achieve that.
There was an article in the February, 2005, issue of Reader's Digest called "How to Complain." Please read these tips. Then call and tell Customer Relations your sad experience with Customer Service.
How to Complain
You call customer service to complain about a product, and you hang up angrier than when you started. That’s customer rage, a feeling experienced by millions of people with a major complaint, says Scott Broetzmann, president of an American firm that tells companies how to offer the best customer service. His secrets to getting good service:
Have a goal
If you want your product repaired, say so. Want an apology? Speak up.
Keep it short
Focus on one problem, and be succinct.
Stick with it.
You have to invest the time it takes. Don’t get what you want? Ask for a supervisor.
Skip ultimatums
Don’t threaten not to do business with them again. Why should they help you if you won’t buy from them in the future?
Plead your case
Many companies have information such as how much money you’ve spent with them and how often you complain. If you’re a good customer, they may be more willing to help.
Be nice
You’re unlikely to get what you want if you’re rude.
Good luck!
(P.S. Microsoft doesn't make computers; just the crappy OS that goes on them.)

Similar Messages

How do you get a human being from Apple for customer service? This is the worst customer support ever seen!

How do you get an actual human being to speak with at apple to help with customer service?

The Apple Support COMMUNITIES is a user-operated apple-run page where users of the COMMUNITY help other people the best they can. Apple employees do not have anything to do with this page apart from own the servers and design it. If you want to speak to Apple then go to their Customer Support here: http://www.apple.com/uk/support/contact/
Remember, this isn't a customer support page, it's a community forum based on using Apple products. If you wish to refer to Apple employees then this is the wrong website.
Hope this helps.
- bi9scuit

Literally the worst customer support experience I've ever had to deal with -- Why don't they let their customers speak to supervisors on demand?

Call 1: I spoke to them to see if I was eligible for an upgrade. It turned out they had accidentally counted a temporary phone switch to an old device as an upgrade. The representative was extremely slow minded and took over an hour to read through my notes and process what I was saying happened, consulting with his supervisor multiple times. He claimed to have noted everything and told me I had to go to a verizon store to verify in person that I was still using my original phone, and that then I would be able to get an upgrade immediately.
Trip to the store: Drove an hour only to be told by the store rep that there were NO NOTES on my account about the issue and there was nothing he could do to help me and that I'd have to call customer support again. The store was closing in 20 mins and customer support seems to take 45 minutes minimum to resolve anything, so I left.
Call 2: Asked a woman to speak to a supervisor about the guy who wasted 2+ hours of my life and gas money. She put me on hold for a long time, came back and said they were all busy right now, would I like to leave my complaint with her? I said no thank you, I will keep waiting. She said ok, and proceeded to hang up.
Call 3: Asked a different woman to speak to a supervisor, she put me on hold for a long time and then told me that since I wasn't an authorized user I could not speak to one... lol ok. Had a family member call and authorize me.
Call 4: Asked a guy to speak to a manager. He insisted on taking the complaint himself. Why would I trust someone to take a complaint about their colleague possibly sitting a few desks away when many of them have proven to be incredibly incompetent already? It sounded like we were making progress... then he hung up too.
Call 5: Asked yet another woman to speak to the manager. She demanded a reason, I told her it was to make a complaint and she told me about a dozen times that the managers would just tell her to take the complaint. I insisted, she refused... finally I threatened to close all of our accounts unless she let me speak to a manager. She said they couldn't right now since the office was closing soon, but that one would call me within 24-48 hours. I'd bet my life savings that never happens. At that point I tried to talk to her about the original upgrade issue, and she said her system had suddenly crashed and that I'd have to call back the next day... Seriously???
Absolutely unreal how horrible their customer support is. Will be switching to T-Mobile immediately.

Having worked in customer service, I have some experience with this kind of situation. Reps are typically trained to make all attempts to handle complaints by themselves, because there are obviously many more reps than supervisors. They're usually REQUIRED to fully authorize the account and to get the whole situation from the customer prior to referring you to a supervisor. One of the biggest problems is that many customers think that demanding a supervisor is a way to guarantee you will get what you want. If the reason for your request to escalate isn't a valid one, the supervisor won't give in to you either.
There are plenty of times in my own experience, especially as a brand new rep out of training, that I took a long time to research and get an understanding of the issue. Yes, I wasn't moving at light speed, but that doesn't make me an idiot. It means I was trying to gather as much info s possible to try and deal with the issue. But I had plenty of customers tell me I was stupid and to transfer them to my supervisor, simply because I took longer than their patience could tolerate to get all the details I needed.
I have never had a job that I executed flawlessly day in and day out. Maybe you have and that's why you can't tolerate a person taking a little longer to wrap their head around the issue, but I'd rather doubt it.
I also don't think you will find reps who work at light speed and utilize a magic wand to fix people's issues at T-Mobile, either, but I guess it never hurts to try.
Just to clarify: I do not work for Verizon and never have. I worked for a residential phone and internet company.

Caseid 4670247907 worst customer support ever seen

caseid 4670247907
today was 15 day of my camplain log
i have been provided with replacenet of defective part 2 times but both them self required replacement.
this is the worst service support i have seen

The Apple Support COMMUNITIES is a user-operated apple-run page where users of the COMMUNITY help other people the best they can. Apple employees do not have anything to do with this page apart from own the servers and design it. If you want to speak to Apple then go to their Customer Support here: http://www.apple.com/uk/support/contact/
Remember, this isn't a customer support page, it's a community forum based on using Apple products. If you wish to refer to Apple employees then this is the wrong website.
Hope this helps.
- bi9scuit

WORST CUSTOMER SUPPORT EVER + COMPLAINT

WORST CUSTOMER SUPPORT ISSUE EVER - I purchased an HP Laptop in Sept 2011. I had an issue with my SD card reader and some flickering upon Startup on my screen. I was on the phone with 3 reps only for them to tell me that bc I was calling from a Canadian line, they had to transfer me to a Canadian rep (after I had already spent 50mins with an "American" rep). I called the number that was on my HP Support Assistant. After being transferred to my 4th "Canadian" rep, I asked them to call me back asap on my landline bc my cell phone was dying. Waited 10 mins - NO CALL. Had to charge my phone to use my browser on it bc I was left in the middle of a trouble shooting issue with no access to the internet to then look up a Canadian HP support number. Now on the phone with my 5th HP support rep, had to re-explain my issues with my laptop, he remotely tried to troubleshoot my issues from INDIA (Jon) he says his name is, and still no success. Total time on the phone now with HP 2+ hours. I asked to speak to the supervisor. Put on hold for 20 mins. Then my landline cordless phone DIED. "Jon" calls me back and puts me on hold again but none of my phones have any battery life so I asked numerous times for a box to be sent to me and he kept telling me I had to HOLD for a supervisor in order to authorize for a box to be sent to me. I hung up. I repeatedly told Jon, we attempted all the troubleshooting and driver updates and that I had to get off the phone immediately. WORST EXPERIENCE EVER WITH A CUSTOMER SUPPORT LINE AND STILL NO REMEDY TO MY ISSUES. I don't even know where to send a complaint. My frustrations with this laptop and customer support are through the roof bc I still have no remedy to this issue. {Personal Information Removed} And who knows if a repair box is even going to get sent. This is not a good situation for a grad student dependent on their laptop. All my contact information is in the ticket number. Hope that if someone from HP ever contacts me in regards to this issue will have a quick solution as I have spent more than enough time on the phone with them.

You're a close second in the race for worst experience but I think I win. I purchased my Pavilion on 11/28/11, under Walmart's special return policy eff. 12/26/11. That meant I had until Jan. 10 to return. Didn't even open and register until after Christmas as it was a gift to myself. On the 8th, I encountered some issues, shut down, rebooted later , had the same happen again. Tried twice more and gave up. On the 9th, same problem, finally got a HP # from a neighbor's kid, b/c I couldn't w/o a manual or laptop. Got some iYogi company who checked for viruses, etc and tried to frighten me into buying more spyware. They were actually affiliated w/HP, I found later. After that waste of time, went to my neighbor's again to google a number, got the correct one and began my nightmarishish journey into HP hell. Christina kept me on the phone an hour that night, checking for problems, setting into motion updates which she told me should correct the problem. I told her I was just going to return it the next day but she said to wait, to give them a chance to correct the problems first. She felt sure the updates would do it. Updates ran all night and were still running when I returned from from work the next day! I called tech support and it just got worse from there. In 9 days, I talked / held (for12 hrs&35 min) to 14 reps. Only 5 of were not rude and could be understood, the remainder horrible, absolutely horrible. By wasting my time with these people and allowing them to railroad me with their repeated attempts at recovery, I missed my window of opportunity to return the piece of junk. Oh - the salt in the would was that on the 13th, I spent one hour holding until they finally figured out the HP was having technical problems. The irony....
Anyway, when I discovered I couldn't return it, I thought, surely they will replace it or refund my $$, after all they are the self proclaimed "pc leader". They can't just not replace it or give me a refund, can they? I mean, this is America, that's what you do. Little did I know that they do indeed have in place the dreaded 21 day policy I'd read about in complaint forums. Before I realized this to be true, I accused a couple of tech support staff of stalling while that period expired. They denied it of course, just asking for "another 5 minutes" of my time. Apparently this is part of the "HP process" after all. They hold you, your time and your laptop hostage until they're satisfied that you have no recourse but to allow them to repair it and return to you. Now - I will be stuck with this worthless piece of ****. Whether it works or not after it is returned to me, I don't care. I will buy another and try to sell this on Craig's list. I have no confidence in their product and will NEVER buy another or speak to another HP person as long as I live. I could go on and on about the ludicrous, pathetic service I received because it is almost unbelievable but I'm sure most already know how insanely loathsome it is.
There is only thing that could make me feel better about this experience and wasting my hard earned 359.00. That would be to locate an HP store, taking the piece of trash there and throw at someone, watching it shatter into a million pieces. Unfortunately, I can't even get that satisfaction, as the nearest store is 200 miles away. So instead - I'm going to copy and paste this complaint on every site even remotely related to electronics, including Walmart's, Best Buy, etc. I'm going to email it to all my friends, associates. And then I'll put it on Facebook. I do have a Case Manager # for you though, although I hope that surely by now you don't need it. {Personal Information Removed} Knowing these guys, though, you probably still have no resolution.

Skype has by far the worst customer support I've e...

I must say, I've been confronted with the worst of the worst: Comcast, Valve, AT&T but your customer service is a new peak.
It's the most incompetent and unprofessional customer service I've seen in pretty much my whole lifetime.
I had a rather simple issue of my account being compromised and my password changed. So I contacted Customer Service step by step by your FAQ, filled out the form and provided all necessary information. Since that point, I have received 4 mails from 3 different employees (? I'm not even sure if these are human beings or just automated bots), telling me the same thing over and over again, prompting me to fill out the same form that I've already filled out thrice(!) with no results whatsoever. I keep getting the same copy-pasted default text every time.
Do you people just have a network of bots sending a case around while copypasting the same text in it with the variety of putting one made up name from a long list to give the customer the illusion that his case is actually being worked on?
So, customer service obviously has no intentions of helping me recover my account and drags a usual case in bueracracy without any results while treating their customers like complete morons.
I will be looking for an alternative messanger for me and everyone I know and not going to bother making a new account, knowing how things are handled around here.
I guess this is what the illusion of monopoly does to you. Making you treat your customers like utter garbage because they "have no other choice". Way to go, Microsoft.
Edit: I just saw in related posts that other people had the same problem with the same frustration and never got an answer so I just wasted another 10 minutes on absolutely nothing because Skype doesn't care about their customers. I'm actually not surprised, seeing similar things in the industry every day.

I also was talking to Francis F. Who forwarded me to the security team. I also asked if it would make any diffrence instead of being asked the standard 4 questions I got asked many times. She said Yes. Today I saw my mailbox and suddenly saw a skype message from the security team. It had the same 4 questions in it I need to awnser before getting any help...

Microsoft - Worst Customer Support ever! Where can I get a decent Microsoft customer support for Windows in the UK?

I have just tried to created the ISO of the operating system I am using for last 5 years, Windows 7 Ultimate. I remembered that on Microsoft website are quick links dedicated exactly for that purpose. However, when page loaded I've seen this:
The Page or File You Requested Could Not Be Provided
The resource you are looking for has been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.
HTTP Error 404 - File or directory not found.
If you purchased your Microsoft Windows software from another source, but have the software key provided by Microsoft, you can download the Windows operating
system from the following website:
Windows Downloads
When I have clicked on the download link it took me to the webpage which seemed everything going for it. 3-step guide, including the product code and language. Brilliant! I thought, until after filling all the details I have clicked on 'Next-Verify
Product Key' than I faced a message:
Validating your product key. This may take several minutes. Do not refresh the page or select back, doing so will cancel
the request.
When finished, a message pop up: that the language provided is not compatible with the product key - try different language. Interesting, I am using this product last five years but is not compatible with English? I must have been a fairy then
to be able to make it work for all these years. Then it got better.
I have tried it again with a different message in the end:
System Error
We encountered a problem with the product key you provided. Please visit the Microsoft Support Contact Us page
for assistance. Refer to Message Code 715-123130.
So I have contacted Microsoft. Contacting Microsoft is an experience itself and half.
Being Microsoft certified, I used the link provided for IT Pros. I click the link provided and the page started loading..... and still loading now....
So I have decided to call the customer support as you would normally do with any other organisation. To actually get to the phone number, illogically placed, took me a few loops around MS website. Once called, I got to speak to very efficient lady on reception
who kindly switched me to the Technical Support. That's going well, I thought.
Once the connection has been made, I felt that MS technical support is based in submarine 3 miles under water in Japanese sea. All I could hear was the very familiar sound of water of modern Voice over IP connection dated back in 2003 and a male voice (but
by the sound of it it might have been a whale) asking me my name. Unsurprisingly, the connection was interrupted several times when I tried to describe my issue I am having, and eventually I was disconnected.
Still not put off, I made another attempt to contact MS customer service. This time I have been talking to a woman, seemed a little bit closer, maybe Bristol waters? Still in the submarine but not so deep. Also here I was asked my name AND surname; then
I have described my intentions and the difficulty I am having in succeeding it. The woman on the phone didn't get at all what I was saying. I had to literally spat out word by word what the problem is. (Luckily, I have many years of experience supporting IT
users over 60 years of age so it didn't take so long to explain it to her.) My thought just was, oh my God, how can she help if she didn't even understand the issue. Then the phone went completely dead for 10 mins. When it came back to life, I could hear clear
sound of fishing boat passing by until a voice, I assume the same woman, apologised for the delay. And now - the best is coming:
1) I was informed that the website is being tested, under construction and that doesn't work properly.
Comment: How can Microsoft, one of
leading organisation in technology, do testing of website 'live'? Quite clearly, that is BS.
2) I was advised to obtain the ISO image from 3rd Party website!!!! On question if she can give me the link to any 3rd party website the answer was NO.
Comment: Seriously, so here we are in 21st Century, dealing with almost the GOD in IT and the recommended solution is - to obtain help for the God's product from UNKNOWN 3rd Party. Brilliant! If this is the case, where Microsoft is exactly heading to???
3) She cannot tell me when the issue of non-working website will be sorted and I should go and buy the copy of Windows; than I will be able to do the ISO.
Comment: Well, that's what I call a professional advise from Microsoft representative. The fact that I do have the physical copy was totally ignored, the fact that I have been running the system for several years have been totally ignored the whole point
of this exercise (to cut down the time making ISO using Microsoft website) was totally ignored.
When I started asking questions to clarify what has been said I have been continuously interrupted.
To my question whether MS customer service representative have been trained to interrupt customers I have been told that I am talking over her. I asked her name, which she told me but I didn't catch and therefore I have asked if she could spell it. On that
point she hung up.
Well done Microsoft! And now I want to know just one reason why I should buy your products when the support, in case of problems, is not existent.
Does anyone know where I can get a decent customer service that can resolve my issue better than smudge it ?
Thank you.
Lenka Novakova
Microsoft Certified IT Professional Enterprise Administrator
Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate

Just having the same issue there, which is real not fun, I have not tried to contact them, but looking at your experience I am not sure if I should.
My key comes from the back of a laptop o so I guess that would be a W7
OEM, and that could explain why you can't download a ISO from their website, would that also your case ?
Also could it be because we are attempting to get the ISO after the product became EOL ?
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/lifecycle
Maybe I will give a go with the customer care people and maybe I will get a right answer ;)
Will keep you posted

Defective t440s and the worst customer support I've ever received

2 months ago I purchased a t440s that arrived defective. Notably, the screen was the upgraded FHD IPS panel. My unit came with the LG model, which is notorious for being defective. The screen had bad viewing angles (its main selling point...), about 1.5 inches of light bleed along the bottom, and significant yellow tinting outside of a medium-sized circle in the middle of the screen. Additionally, the trackpad was too far left in its housing and would ocassionally *get stuck beneath the case* and ALWAYS scrape against it.
After waiting 3 weeks for my laptop to arrive, I requested a repair after owning it for 2 days and sent in my laptop-- at the end of September. I didn't receive any updates on the status of my repair until several days ago. I was unable to answer the call and the voicemail Lenovo left only said that my repair was pending. After attempting to contact support myself and being placed on hold for absurd lengths of time, I gave up.
Earlier today I received another call. The rep told me that my laptop wouldn't be able to BEGIN being repaired until November 24th, at the very least. This is due to a backorder on replacement screens. I'm assuming that's because they're having to replace more than just a few.
The rep offered to have my laptop swapped with a new unit, yet I'll have to speak with another person who won't be calling me until "sometime next week" to actually have this done.
The girl I spoke with to initially request my repair was very kind and knowledgeable. Everything following that has been unacceptable at best.
I purchased from Lenovo after being told by numerous peers that their quality was legendary across the board. I don't think I'll ever purchase another Lenovo product in my life and I will definitely try to dissuade anyone from making the same mistake I did.
You suck, Lenovo. You really **bleep**ed me here.

I gotta say that when I was dealing with customers services I thought they were fantastic, and this was back in June. Now my player has sadly broken again...ugh...twice in a year...which is making me consider just buying something else, I know all mp3 players are reportedly like this, but its just not right... ...and I'm pretty sure Creative just have a big warehouse of faulty Zen's which they put all the faulty ones in when they get returned, and then they just pick up another one and send it out to you. I also find it ridiculous that there is no telephone support for everyone...which would solve alot of problems... I sent Customer Support an e-mail, so when should I hear back? My Zen doesn't charge properly, and for the past couple of days any time i turn it on it just freezes...Message Edited by Kid-Eternity on 2-0-200608:23 AM
Message Edited by Kid-Eternity on 2-0-200608:26 AM

Verizon has given me the worst customer support.

Recently i had dropped my iphone and the outer glass cracked. So I went to go to them to get a new one through insurance. They wil not ship it to my school adress. No one knows why not they just wont. So i called the insurance company and they will not give me service because I am not the account owner. My mom lives 300 miles away back home.... All I want is to give them the money and they ship me a new phone. Is this really that hard. I am really considering dropping verizon becaues of this poor assistance, and because i pay insurance year round. then when it comes time to use it i have to pay almost as much as i did for the phone. And on top of that im gettin a refurbished phone. This is sad.

rosthabos81 wrote:
Recently i had dropped my iphone and the outer glass cracked. So I went to go to them to get a new one through insurance. They wil not ship it to my school adress. No one knows why not they just wont. So i called the insurance company and they will not give me service because I am not the account owner. My mom lives 300 miles away back home.... All I want is to give them the money and they ship me a new phone. Is this really that hard. I am really considering dropping verizon becaues of this poor assistance, and because i pay insurance year round. then when it comes time to use it i have to pay almost as much as i did for the phone. And on top of that im gettin a refurbished phone. This is sad.
Hi rosthabos81,
I understand your discontent for the limited options presented to you regarding the processing of a phone replacement. Please keep in mind that (as noted by other community members -thanks-) our customer service department can only provide certain service and information to account owners and account managers for the protection of our customers. Please be assured that once you are listed as an account manager we'll be able to provide you with the type of extensive assistance you require.
Please visit the links below for details about account owners/manager and how to add an account manager. Please share this links with your mom and she will be able to add your name as an account manager. Our goal is to provide the best customer service while preserving the integrity of our customers' account and sensitive information.
Account Owners and Account Members
Account Managers

WORST CUSTOMER SUPPORT EVER EXPERIENCED........... WAY BELOW IN PROFESSIONAL ASPECT.

I am a new member of BB community and faced the worst experience today just for taking a internet setting for 9360 by calling a the customer support centre. Either it does not connect or put on hold for eternity. Surprised to have this experience. Is this going in a professional manner or not.............
Can anybody help me out in this..............

Just having the same issue there, which is real not fun, I have not tried to contact them, but looking at your experience I am not sure if I should.
My key comes from the back of a laptop o so I guess that would be a W7
OEM, and that could explain why you can't download a ISO from their website, would that also your case ?
Also could it be because we are attempting to get the ISO after the product became EOL ?
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/lifecycle
Maybe I will give a go with the customer care people and maybe I will get a right answer ;)
Will keep you posted

Total conquest? Worst customer support ever!

I been trying to play total conquest game for a while now and I seem to be contacting their customer support team more often than I actually play the game. Its full of bugs and issues. Two weeks ago I got banned for no apparent reason and tried to contact support yet again, I got the usual automated reply saying i am very important to them and so on and that a reply would come in up to 3 days. HAH! I got a reply after 6 days asking me to show proof of purchase. I didn't buy anything and answered right away. Waited another 6 to 7 days for another reply from a girl called Elena saying they made a mistake and have unbanned me. Well it's now over 21 days and I am still banned! The very nice customer support team seem to have vanished again! Bloody useless bunch of people there. Now, my question here is, where can I file a complaint on stuff like this?
Thanks guys

Hello Zneek
If you have an issue with the app that was downloaded from the App Store or any other of Apple’s online stores, report it to help resolve the issue.
How to report an issue with your iTunes Store, App Store, Mac App Store, or iBooks Store purchase
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1933
Regards,
-Norm G.

Could this be the worst customer service ever???

Hi - not used the forum before, but have had the most unbelievable time trying to deal with BT. The simplest way to illustrate how abysmally terrible they have been is to paste below the letter of complaint (and the follow up 2 weeks later) that I have sent to BT. It is long, but shocking reading, and compelling if you have ever had experience of what BT ironically calls "Curstomer Service". No response yet, apart from a lame reply a few weeks later saying that they agree that the service was terrible, but that they probably won't do anything about it. As soon as the 8 weeks are up, I'm going to escalate this to http://www.ombudsman-services.org/
Am I missing something here? Am I expecting too much of BT? Am I making a fuss over nothing? Or does this resonante with anyone who has had dealings with them?
ORIGINAL LETTER (5th NOVEMBER):
Dear British Telecom
I am afraid that I need to make a formal complaint about my treatment at the hands of BT over the past 6 weeks.
I received a MAC code from BT at the start of September which I tried to use to switch to another supplier. The supplier told me that when I had signed up to BT Infinity with you last year, this had made the line incompatible for the ADSL service that I was now requesting and the line needed to be downgraded. I originally called BT on 13th September to request that this be done, and spoke to a woman called Jackie. She agreed that it was remiss of BT not to have explained the implications of the switch to BT Infinity when I was offered the deal, and so agreed to arrange a manual downgrade of the line to avoid triggering a contract renewal. She told me that the work would be complete by 23rd September and that I would receive confirmation from BT that the work was to take place within 2 business days. No confirmation came through. I called again the following week and had 2 lengthy conversations, with one person telling me that no work was in progress, and another telling me that yes it was in progress. However, on 24th, the work had still not been done.
I called again on the morning of 24th for a very lengthy conversation (well over an hour), when after a lot of resistance, the person eventually explained that they didn’t know why the work had not been carried out, but it would definitely be carried out the next day. I asked her to assure me that if this was not done, then I would not be liable for any charges as a result of BT’s repeated failure to perform this work. She agreed to this.
I went on holiday the following day, and by the time I returned on 10th October, my other supplier, had still not managed to use the MAC code to switch to them, and it had now expired. It had been repeatedly rejected because there was an open order on the line.
I called again on 10th, and was told that they didn’t know why the work had not been completed, but it would be done by 14th. I was told I would have one month of broadband payments refunded, and that I would not need to make any further payments to BT, as it was BT’s fault that the work had not been done and I was still with you. I requested confirmation of this twice, to be sure that I had not misunderstood, and it was given twice in very clear terms.
Of course, the 14th came, and the supplier I wanted to switch to was still being told that there was an open order on my account. I called again on 14th, and this time was told that the work actually took place on 26th September, but that there was still an open order on my account. None of the many people I was passed to over the next couple of weeks was able to tell me what the order was for – one person said it was just an administrative item that needed to be closed. I spoke to many people who claimed that it was closed. Eventually someone agreed to do a little research and found some background processes running, which were eventually closed after several more difficult calls.
These calls were without exception long and difficult. I was often promised calls back with explanations, but not one ever came. I was often told that I needed to be put through to another department and that the person I was speaking to had spoken with them and they would be able to help me quickly and easily and were awaiting that I be transferred, but I was put through to a long phone queue and then spoke to someone who didn’t know anything about my case and was not able to help anyway. I had to repeatedly explain the situation from scratch to somebody new, despite being assured that this would not be necessary. In short, I spend very many hours that I really could not afford on the phone to BT to sort this out.
This was dereliction of customer service and a breach of your duty of care on a significant scale (in addition to the failure to supply the service downgrade promised, and then the failure to communicate that it had been supplied until I called many times more). The calls caused me significant frustration and distress, and affected my mood for a long time after. The hours I had to spend on the phone in a vain attempt to make myself understood by your people caused me to miss deadlines at work, to appear sloppy, and to present myself in a less professional way than usual due to the vexation caused by all of this. I could never have imagined that getting a simple request fulfilled could require such a significant expenditure of time, effort and internal strength.
My complaint is not that there was an initial error with the work, but that this error was not explained, investigated or put right despite extremely lengthy efforts by myself to communicate with BT what needed to be done. I was treated with disrespect many times, as people told me they were putting me through to specific people they had spoken to, but then just put me through to a long phone queue; people promised me confirmation texts/emails and update calls which never came; different people gave completely conflicting stories about what was going on with my account; people repeatedly assured me that everything was fine and the other supplier would now be able to place the order, and the other supplier was not able to place the order. These were not one-off events – each of these situations happened several times. I can only describe your customer service as consistently abysmal.
Finally, last week, the supplier I want to switch to was able to place the order and arrange for the takeover of my line and broadband which will take place next week.
Sadly, though, that is not the end of my problems with BT. In the early hours of this morning, I received 3 emails asking me to view and pay my new bill. This came to over £140 (up to now I have been paying £17 per month), and included an incomprehensible set of charges for “Line Rental”, “Broadband and Calls” (which included BT Infinity Option 2, which I do not have), as well as separate listings for “BT Broadband Option 3”, which I also do not have. There are no words to describe the shock and disbelief I felt upon opening this.
Throughout the whole process, I have been very clear and explained multiple times that my purpose has been to be able to switch to another supplier, and that despite being offered new contracts and new deals many times, this was not what I wanted. I only wanted to be able to switch as soon as possible, and so wanted no renewal of any contract. I was assured several times that this is what would be achieved. The comments on my latest bill refer to a “contract start date”, and so if there is any new contract in place, this has not only been done without my consent, but in contravention of my repeatedly expressed wishes. Whether the explanation for this is gross incompetence or corruption, it is not acceptable, and must be cancelled immediately.
I called again today, but again found myself talking to apologetic people who couldn’t help who passed me on to long phone queues which led to more apologetic people who couldn’t help.
Given that this has been going on for so long and given that the many promises made to me by BT have been repeatedly broken and given that I had been clearly and explicitly assured that I would not have to make any further payments to BT, as my switch was in progress and only BT was obstructing it from taking place; I am no longer prepared to subject myself to this treatment. Rather than paying you this money and giving you more of my time, I would expect significant compensation from you for the many many hours I have put in to trying to address the consequences of BT’s failures and for the resultant stress, that has affected other areas of my life and which continues to do so.
Please respond to this letter within 14 days, confirming that you will be cancelling the latest bill and any contract that you may have put in place, and advising me what level of financial compensation you feel would adequately compensate me for what I have been put through by BT. Naturally, you will not be proposing any credit to my account, as I will hopefully no longer be a BT customer in a few days’ time, and the balance on the account should actually be zero.
I look forward to your prompt response.
Yours sincerely
FOLLOW UP LETTER (20th NOVEMBER):
Dear British Telecom
I submitted the letter below via the complaints section of your website on 5th November, asking for a response within 14 days. The automated response said that you would normally respond to complaints within 48 hours, but at very busy periods this may take up to 96 hours. However, 2 weeks has now passed and I have received no response from BT.
I tried calling BT again on 12th November, after receiving a new bill demand. On the automated system, I asked to speak about my bill. The automated voice said “about your bill. Is that right?”, I said yes, but it put me through to the BT Options team, who were not able to help and eventually transferred me to the billing team. I spoke to one lady and to her manager, and was told that she would investigate the huge and confusing charges on my bill, and the promise that had been made to me that I would not incur ANY further charges, and that she would get back to me on my mobile number within 48 hours, and that if she could not reach me, she would call back until she did. I asked whether this meant that my bill would be on hold until she spoke to me again, and she clearly confirmed this. Of course, no call ever came, so my bill is actually still on hold now, according to she clearly told me.
Then, in the early hours of 18th November, I received 2 emails: one telling me that another provider had requested to take over my broadband service and that service would stop from midday on that day (even though it had actually been transferred to another provider more than a week earlier), and another thanking me for taking out a new 12 month phone contract starting on 18th November. Of course, I never discussed any new contract from BT, apart from stating very clearly on several occasions during my many calls with you that I specifically didn’t want to enter into any new contracts.
I called again on 18th to speak to the complaints department. I spoke to Angela, who told me that the complaint that I had made on the phone on the 12th, and the complaint that I sent via your site 2 weeks ago, and which I copy below, had both been ‘escalated’ to a woman in India called Sharon, who was supposed to have called me back by 14th. Angela said she would look into this, get hold of the complaint I had sent and read it carefully, and would look to cancel my bill and offer me compensation. As has been a common occurrence in my dealings with BT, she apologised for the way things had been handled so far and assured me that she would now take ownership of my case and would definitely call me back at 2.30pm with an update, even if the situation was not fully resolved at that point. She even re-confirmed my mobile number, but of course, no call ever came.
And, incredibly, this morning, I received another email from BT, telling me that as I hadn’t paid my bill yet, a late-payment charge had been added to it, and threatening me with a downgrade of my credit status.
Again, I feel compelled to emphasise the great frustration and stress that this situation is causing me. This is utter neglect of your duty of customer care, and there is nobody in your confusing maze of customer support phone services who has been able to understand and address any of my issues I have had over this extremely difficult 2 months. Several people have promised that they would take ownership of my case, and would stay in contact with me, but none of them ever has. There seems to be no way to meaningfully communicate with anybody at your end, even while the bills, and charges, and threats and confusing emails are coming thick and fast. This is now proving to be equally true of your complaints procedure – my complaint has been completely ignored.
As I requested in my previous letter (below), please cancel my bill immediately and propose what level of financial compensation you feel would reasonably compensate me for the extreme frustration and stress that I have been subjected to in recent months, which has affected other areas of my life, including my work and family life, and the time and trouble I have taken to try to reach you to get this sorted out.
I include a copy of my original letter below, and am sending this to you both by email and in the post. I would like a positive response within 10 calendar days of the date of this letter, addressing all of the issues I am raising. Beyond this 10 day period, I may take further action, which may include legal action and/or publicity about this case.
Yours sincerely

Update - in case anyone is still interested - Here is my response to them:
30th December 2013 – Our Response
Thank you for your proposal, which we do not find acceptable.
Not only does it ignore the promise that we were made by telephone in October that we would not receive any more bills from BT, as the fact that we were still with you had already been down to your negligence for some time, but it also ignores the abysmal service that you have given us and the resultant stress and personal inconvenience that you have directly caused. An apology and a weak offer to refund the difference between what we pay now and what we paid you is very very far from even beginning to make up for this. Your wilfully ignoring a promise that you had made in October and that we very clearly drew your attention to in our original letter is yet another example of this, as are your over-complicated "final" bills, which are not easy to make any sense of.
You say that you will feed back to the agents involved about the terrible service that they have given. This will make no difference. If only one or two agents had been involved in delivering a terrible customer experience, then maybe this may have helped, but the fact that your service has been so consistently and unswervingly catastrophic in every single interaction (and you will be aware that there are very many posts on forums all over the Internet singling out BT for similarly incalculably bad service) suggests that the problem is in your processes, your training and your staggering lack of customer service ethic. If you truly wish to make changes, your actions will need to be far more fundamental than simply scape-goating a few individuals who are doing nothing different from anyone else you employ. I do not hold any individual or individuals responsible for what BT has done, but BT as a whole.
I intend to refer this case to Ombudsman Services: Communications, but would welcome a response from you before 2nd January if you have anything further to add.
Best Wishes
Guy

Worst customer support ever

I was using sony ps3 super slip 500 gb,after 11 months of using this my system could not read the discs. As my product was under warrenty, I sent that to service centre. They told me that they will call me in 7-10 days. They did not, when I called them they told me that it will take 10-15 days. After 13 days when I called them agin, they've told me that it will take 15-20 days to get the replacement. I donno what the hell is going on? But one thing is sure that i'll neither buy another playstation nor suggest any one to buy. Though my brother and I decided to buy ps4, but now we are going for the xbox one all because of this customer support.

Just had a similar issue with my PS4 went back due to disc eject problems. Issue with courier pick up to begin with and then delivery was attempted without anything notification from Sony to say the PS4 had been fixed & was on its way back out to me. All i get from them when i call or email is sorry will be reported does not seem to be any real worry or case for concern that their customer is annoyed / upset.eBay maybe seeing my PS4 very soon & an xbox one will arrive soon Sony your Customer Support is 110% useless

How do I talk to a real person? And does Verizon have the worst customer service of any business of any type?

This company is nearly impossible to communicate with! How can they continue to not address their inability to handle questions?

Customer service at 1-800-922-0204 or *611 from your phone. When you get to the phone tree select option 4 and say agent.

Why Sony Xperia care (France) is the WORST customer support I ever seen?

Hello, I am desperate and disgusted by Sony that I believed to be a serious 'high end' company. The promises of 2 years guaranty and reparations within 10 days sound enthusiastic. But from my experience it is far, far away from truth:- After 8 months, my Xperia Z2 tablet suddenly stopped working during software update to Lollipop (black screen, unable to turn it on anymore).- Confident I sent it to Sony care expecting it back (repaired or a new device) within 10 days. BUT, 8 days after having received my device they just sent a message saying that the reparations are not covered by the guaranty (without any explanation why) and that I must pay a ridiculous quotation of 414EUR, stating that everything in my tablet has to be replaced. (why???)- After many unanswered e-mails and many attempts to get a phone contact, I got the reason of the guaranty refusal: I sent an USB cable that was not Sony branded and they consider it as an incompatible accessory!!!! (Ridiculous).I am waiting since one month for a solution. The main problem is that nobody takes care about customers. There is no way to have an answer. I already had low cost Chinese made devices, and their support was of a much better quality than Sony.

Hi,
I'm sorry to hear that.
Unfortunately, I cannot do anything from my position and neither can we at the support forum answer these questions. Warranty may differ from market to market and repair process is handled at a local level. You need to raise this with your local support team for further information about your repair and how to proceed with this in the best possible way. I suggest that you place a call to your local support team:
http://support.sonymobile.com/global-en/contactUs/

Does Apple Canada have the worst customer support ever?

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