Well, what a coincidence! I had already planned to write about crappy customer service today, and what do you know? Kristine beat me to it. Great minds and all that!
On Sunday N and I stopped at the gigantic outlet mall in San Marcos. We were both in dire need of wardrobe updates, and decided to just bite the bullet since it was on the way back from San Antonio anyway. Our first stop was the Old Navy Outlet where we encountered poor customer service upon checkout. I had a coupon for a 15% discount that came in the mail from our credit union a few weeks ago. I read the fine print carefully, and nowhere was there any exclusion about the outlet stores or anything like that. The only condition was that you had to use your Visa card. Well, when I showed her the coupon she informed me that I would have to use my Old Navy Visa card. I said I do not have an Old Navy Visa card, and it does not SAY THAT. It just says Visa card. She argued with me some more, so I asked her why in the world my credit union would send me a coupon that had to be used with a credit card they do not offer. Her response? Well, they are probably affiliated with Old Navy. Um, NO? And also, WTF? Give me a break! At this point N could tell I was about to start ranting so he cut me off and told me to let it go. FINE.  MOVING ON. I had a cute pair of pajama pants that I wanted for Miss T. They came off the clearance rack and didn’t have a price tag so I asked the clerk how much they would be. She looked up the UPC number and says They’re part of a set and the top is missing. So they’re $14.99. Then she just tossed them under the counter and continued the checkout process. HELLO!! What if I still wanted to buy them? And what about the fact that any other Old Navy I’ve been to will just give you a discount if part of the set is missing? They will still sell you the single item! ARGH. What a bitch. I was totally fuming by the time we left and was mad at myself later for not insisting on speaking to the manager. N, however, gets embarrassed when I do things like that so he was just glad he had been able to get me out of the store without a major scene. GRRRR. I am STILL mad about it. OBV.
Of course, this wasn’t the first time I’ve encountered crappy customer service. My first summer home from college, my best friend/roommate Valerie and I had one of many late night Taco Bell cravings. We headed over to the local drive-thru and pulled up to the menu. The cashier asked if we could please wait a minute. Sure, no problem. We went back to chatting and starting laughing loudly about something or other. Suddenly through the speaker we heard Will you just SHUT UP!? I will BE right with you!! GAH, what? We hadn’t even been talking to her! Within a few seconds a different voice sheepishly asked us to please pull forward to the window, where we received an apology from the manager and the explanation She’s new and got flustered. So? I would have been on my BEST behavior when new on the job. I certainly wouldn’t have randomly yelled at innocent customers.
Actually, now that I think of it, that wasn’t the first time I had issues at that particular Taco Bell location. In high school, Valerie and I were on the drill team together. As a fundraiser the team had been selling these discount cards that were good at several local businesses. (An aside to Val: Would you like to buy a Butt Card?) The cards had a list on the back of what the discount/special deal was at each store. I think at Taco Bell it was buy one burrito get one free or something. Anyway, one night we went inside to place our order and the guy behind the register was SO CONFUSED. He had evidently never seen one of these cards before, and even though we tried to explain it to him he Was. Not. Getting. It. By the time all was said and done, we walked out of there with several free burritos. There comes a point where you just give up on trying to do the right thing and you just take the free food, you know? (To be fair, this isn’t an example so much of BAD customer service as UNFORTUNATE customer service that happened to work in my favor. The poor cashier was very nice and also trying his hardest. Poor guy just wasn’t the brightest bulb.)
Then there was the time that some friends and I were eating at a Black-eyed Pea and had most pitiful waitress in the history of humankind. She was so terrible. She was nice, but couldn’t get anything right to save her life. The orders were horribly wrong, she never managed to refill the drinks (even after being asked), it took half a lifetime to get our check. We left her a 12 cent tip, which she noticed just as we were leaving and so she shot hate-filled dagger eyes at our backs. Too bad. Learn to suck less.
Just a few weeks ago I had a problem with PayPal. I logged into my checking account to see that a small amount (about $4) had been debited without my knowledge or consent. I went to the PayPal web site and attempted to find a phone number. They don’t make it easy, apparently they don’t want you to call them. Once I finally found a number, I was informed by the automated operator-lady that the number was no longer in service. NICE. Also very professional. So back to their site I went, and used the little e-mail complaint thing. Got no response at all, but a few days later I did get a survey from PayPal asking me how Gisela had done handling my recent customer service problem. Since I had never heard from Gisela, I wasn’t overly friendly. I’m still out $4 and haven’t heard anything since, from Gisela or anyone else.
I know I’ve had plenty of other bad experiences (I even thought of one on my way back from lunch but since I wasn’t near a pen and paper I have since forgotten it), but these are the ones standing out in my mind at the moment. I’ll update later if I remember any others, but in the meantime, what was your worst customer service experience?
