Customer Services
 

Was just wondering how you all rate customer services. We have had bad experiences especially with PC World, Can't think of anything good to say about them. On the other hand we bought something from Argos and can't find the receipt. The staff were really helpful there and were even prepared to go back through the tills to find a record of my purchase. In the meantime I rang Morphy Richards who were the supplier. Once again the staff were more than helpful and it got me thinking. Why can't all companies ensure that all their staff have adequate training and know how to speak to customers? After all if you have a positive response from staff you are going to tell other people about it and therefore the company gets good publicity. I was just wondering if any of you have any stories of good/bad experiences with customer services.

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Asda have always been very good.

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I forgot about Asda, their staff are always helpful and polite.

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See my thread re. Marks & Spencer Online. I am still trying to get my refund for the goods they didn't send. They insist they didn't charge me and I've now had to fax my bank statement to them to show that they did. M & S stores are very good but their online service.....well! :(

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My daughter bought an item from Asda (their own brand) it was faulty but because she couldn't find the receipt they refused to refund or exchange, this item still had the ticket on. She complained and eventually received a full refund. maybe she caught the customer service on a bad day............

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AOHELL customer helpline is rubbish but when you write a letter to complain to them then the customer services was spot on.

M & S ive always found them to be ok for returning stuff mind you i only go into the shops dont buy online.

Asda i've had trouble once when took something back but in the end i got my money back.

Tesco & Argos i havent tried their customer service out .......... yet!!!!

It depends on the company and their policy on customer services and how they train their employees. You can tell which ones value their customers and which ones dont. Because of where i work i had to go through our training course for customer services and to me it was basically being good mannered and polite. It also does help if the person who is doing the complaining is polite and well mannered. I find that you get more out of the company concerned when you are polite - if you lose it and start getting angry then they shut off its just another complaint but if you complain and state your case politely there is no come back - dont forget a lot of companies record their phone calls!!!

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That is bad West Ender, you shouldn't have to send them proof. The response from Argos really surprised me after all I should have had my receipt. For them to offer to go back through their tills if it came to that is over and above what they need to do IMO. Excellent customer service.:)

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i was in asda in blackburn and i was being served i was having trouble with my chip and pin card it was slightly broken they woman holding the card almost pushed the chip out... rather than just letting me pay with cash shew just kept fiddling with the chip in the card
i was fuming

not really custumer services but she still could of had manners

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Everybody has different experiences Bernie. I bought a 'phone system from Argos, which became faulty. After ringing BT to try and reconnect the link from base to 'phone, they told me to take back to my retailer.

Argos in Accrington asked me lots of questions, including what was wrong with it ! girl on counter had no idea was I was talking about .. course not, why should she understand the workings of all appliances they sell ..doh. Had no receipt of course, was few months old, and they were not prepared to go back through any transactions to prove I had bought it from them .. just suggested I bring in bank statement to show I had a transaction with them around date acquired.

Of course, only bloody statement that was missing, wasn't it ! After ringing/visiting Natwest Accrington 3 times to please forward me October statement (costing me £5 for copy ... cheeky sods .. would love to hear my customers reactions when they ask for copy if I requested a fee !!) took to Argos .. lots of argy-bargy, but did get gift voucer and bought another(different one) with them. Was a little point here, it was on special offer when I bought it with good discount, if I had replaced with same item, would have cost me £20 more as no longer on promotion ! So, no, Bernie, not impressed with Argos at all.

M & S Westender .. well, just purchased two items, one was floral decoration with lights ... duly arrived at work, badly packed one long cardboard packing, with other long cardborad packing upside down on top, cellotaped in the middle. This, of course, had come adrift with extra bash on top from journey. Courier man did remark that he didn't know what what in it, but had been a problem all day. Some of the little twigs had snapped, but does look very good in the corner of kitchen, but suppose should have complained about their packing really.

I ordered at the same time a table lamp, which I am informed could not be delivered on said day .. they are going to let me know .. I await with interest.

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Either I got Argos on a good day or they have done some work on customer service Kate. I was just very impressed and thought it deserved a mention.

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yeah argos are 50/50 depends on branch and hte person

i bought a cd player which didnt do the mp3 tag recognition so i went back and they wouldnt take it back as it was opened - how am i meant to test it without opening it?

but went to blackburn townsmoor one and it was yeah sure would you like a credit note?

asda are usually top notch. i once bought sommet that wasnt suitable for vegetarians and she started gettin a lil lippy but i got the gift card refund.

just on that note about the chip and pin woman gettin on someone's nerves. i was on the self service till and at times they almost treat u like ur doing your best to rob them! i had a few coupons that were valid etc and she was like no wait let me see what u got - then half way thru she shot off to do soemthing else leaving my screen on hold

i wonder if esso would give a refund if i didnt like the journey...

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I think Dyson are brilliant,,, a few weeks ago i broke my Dyson ball vacume which i bought from Argos over 2 years ago...as the guarantee had run out ,i took it to a local store ,who after having it for a week decided they couldent fix it,,so i went back to Argos to get another one,,the girl said why dont you ring Dyson up first , and see what they say,,Well Dyson said they WOULD fix it for £58 ,,the engineer said it would take 5 days to get the part,,after 5 days[friday] the part was still not available,so i had to wait until tuesday..and because it took so long NO CHARGE....

.....Thanks to Dyson and the girl at Argos,,.....

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So it looks like Argos are on the up!!!

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When my children where young, some 35+ years ago I was once given change for £5 instead of £1,in M & S, I said to assistant "excuse me I think you have made a mistake my change is wrong" she replied "Oh I don't think so we are trained not to make mistakes" I just pocketed the extra and walked out. just wonder what other people would have done.Sorry if this is off thread.

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How on earth can you be trained not to make mistakes? My God, we'd all sign up for that course wouldn't we? :D

This thread just goes to show how first impressions count for so much and the staff really are representatives of the company. I notice that after a bad experience we say, for example, 'Argos has very bad customer service.' This is after one experience in little old Accy. There are hundreds of Argos branches up and down the country yet they are judged on the behaviour of one person from one store.

After bad service we bad-mouth the company, not the person. I suppose it should be the other way round really but it isn't. If you are customer facing and don't give the expected level of service you damage the reputation of the whole company.

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Last Thursday i cooked a frozen meal from Iceland thought i'd try it. Anyway it being boil in the bag or microwave i chose to boil in the bag. It hadnt been sealed right and some of the sauce escaped into the water. I sent an email to Iceland on Thursday night and ive just had a reply today by email saying they are going to send me some vouchers to make up for it.

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I can say without hesitation that the standard of service in most shops and pubs in Hyndburn is at best, pathetic. I was in Ossy Co-Op only last saturday; there was a queue of about 6 or 7 people at the ciggy check-out, most with baskets full or half full. I was the last one in the queue. Meanwhile, none of the standard tills was manned, the reason being that three of the girls from those tills were stood idly gossiping in the middle of one aisle. After 10 minutes or so - and just as it was my turn to be served - two of them decided to return to their work station.

It is not the first time that something like this has happened. There is a great delusion among the local people of Hyndburn that they are in some ways far friendlier than the rest of the country. Well, being friendly is far more than saying Hello to friends; not displaying ignorance to customers and strangers is also a part of it.

Anyway, Hyndburn will shortly be no more; maybe Accy and Districts will result in a little more civic pride combined with civil good manners.

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I was buying a new belt at Mark's and Specer I went to pay 2assiatants behind counter 2 can you stand over there that lady is before you" 'lady served' Imoved back to my original position only to be told "i'm going off now move to other till", belt thrown over counter customer lost, before that happened it took me ages to find belt correct size as they were all mixed up,no assitants in sight,regardless of me beiing handicapped. I intend to get the names of these 2 'till assistants' and complain to head office, when I have cooled down. Accringto branch is not realy busy as I was paying through the nose for the bet £ 15. 00 is not cheap. Stroppy assitants are a curse on any ones business, at the end of the day the Manager is to blame for employing them,but it may be a case of nepotism?

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Usually, I shop Canadian, (Rona and Canadian Tire instead of Home Depot for example) and buy locally produced food, and I use locally owned stores as much as possible; but I have to admit that the best customer service I have had is from Walmart. You don't even need to keep your receipt. All the products have a bar code with all the sales info. on it. And there is never a hassle about returning stuff.

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Last week I was praising Orange but this week they undid all the good.

I got a phonecall from them last week telling me that I was paying too much on my monthly service, would I like them to reduce it by £5 per month and whilst I was on would I like the brand new Samsung phone as a free upgrade. Naturally I was very happy with the phone call and even happier when the shiny new phone arrived the day after.

However, yesterday it didn't work at all. I phoned the service number on a landline and after countless 'if you want such and such a service press 1 or if you want to scream at an employee press 2' options, I finally got through to a person. He told me that the reason my phone wasn't working yesterday was because exactly a week after receiving my new phone I had to change the sim card over - I've looked back through the paper work and no where does it say 'wait seven days and change the sim card over'. I had to point out to him how frustrating it was and how annoyed the automated call service was - I really don't think he cared at all, which made me even more cross.

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Bargain Booze in Ossy offers great, genuinely friendly service.

It's the nearest thing we have to a supermarket at the bottom end of the town, and it nearly has as much stock as the Co-op, and is also reasonably priced.

All the staff are very friendly, and helpful, and pack your bags for you, which for me is very useful.

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Three have some really good deals on at the moment. More minutes and or texts than anyone else for the money I would say. Mine seams to work everywhere I try to use it.

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I have always been impressed with the service from Vonage, a VOIP telephone provider. I cancelled the service today. As soon as I put the phone down I received an email saying it was disconnected and it was. Pipex need 30 days to cancel my broadband.

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|If I go into a store with 10 till's and only one manned with queues Wilkinsons is my nemisses I leave the goods in the trolley and walk out, just have a look at how many are 'skiving' round the customer service dept all with tunnel vision, assistant's asking for prices as the bar code is not on the item, at Aldi the assistans are required to remember all the prices and do not use bar codes. The assistant's at Aldi are the best I have ever seen, I do not think they get paid for memorising prices in their own time.

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We are friendly where I work, but i cant tell you where otherwise you go and get me hahahh, anyway, if a customer brings anything that its faulty, either clothin or battery powered then we do give a refund. Neither customers or the people from where i work makes the things that come faulty so we all know that people do make mistakes wich is normal.

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Without doubt ORANGE must rate as one of the worst telephone companies I have dealt with...

Never, ever, again!!