To each his own I guess. I hate being approached. If I need help, I’ll let them know.
Worst : Verizon. No contest. Directly lied to me about the pricing/features of a calling plan to get me to upgrade. Twice.
Best : Huntington Bank, probably. It’s been a while since I needed customer service from them - which sort of makes them the best by default.
Best:
Best Buy. I had to change the battery in my truck. Once power is cut, the faceplate on my stereo has to have a master code entered, before the stations can be reset. This is so that if the faceplate is stolen, it cannot be used on another unit.
I called Best Buy, and they told me to come down on a Friday night. Everyone was busy, but they had me park my truck next to where they did stereo installs. A salesman spent 2 hours on the phone, calling the manufacturer, his corporate office (for authorization), etc.
He finally got the code, entered it, and the stereo was back up and working. I asked how much I owed him, and he said no charge. I went back the next day, and bought some new speakers from him.
Worst:
Bank of America. I was a customer for 14 years, and had the following fun times with them:
- When my ex split, I had a cash flow problem, and was living on a not quite check-to-check budget. I deposited my paycheck, and wrote out my rent check, then paid the rent. Five days later, I get a call from the rental agency, informing me that I was going to be evicted, as my rent check bounced.
I went to B of A, and discovered that my rent check bounced because my account was 200 dollars short. When I asked how that happened, I was told that the teller who’d helped me earlier decided to deposit the 200 bucks in a joint accout that I wasn’t using. When I asked why, I was told she was trying to help me save money. This is one of the few times that a bank manager informed me that cursing at her wasn’t going to help.
- I called the automated teller to see if some checks had cleared. I found out that every check I’d written in the last month was not paid (among them, my favorite, the rent check). I could not call the direct line at the bank, as it had been disconnected. I called another branch in the hope of getting another number. When I called the new number, I asked about the disconnected line. “It’s so that we do not have to talk to customers.”
I finally called the corporate office, and found out that the checks had indeed been paid. I wanted to know why the auto teller did not reflect the activity. “You were at the middle of your cycle.” Not knowing that I was in fact a woman, or that I even had a cycle, I inquired about the local branch’s inability to help customers. “Well, the tellers spend so much time taking in and giving out money, they don’t have time to to help people.”
Cashed out my account the next day, and ran straight to the nearest credit union.
Worst: tie between Verizon Wireless and Adelphia Cable.
Best Countrywide (Mortgage)
Worst – Washington Mutual. When my brother died, we paid off the loan on his modular home. It took a year for us to get the title so we could sell it, and that was with the help of a lawyer and real estate agent.
Best: rivals.com for sportswear. Shopped with them last Christmas, had immediate acknowledgement of the order, which was shipped in 24 hours. I sent them an appreciative e-mail and received a thank you back.
I also get great customer service and extremely fast shipping from Suzanne’s Quilts, Land’s End, and J.C. Penney. Clotilde and Keepsake Quilting don’t acknowledge orders and the shipping is slow.
I love Cosmetique, which sends cosmetics (duh) every month. When I called to cancel, there were no questions or attempts to get me to keep buying.
I’m happy with DirecTV too. The couple of times they’ve messed up, they’ve given us free months of one of the premium channels.
Worst: Wells Fargo. They completely screwed up a loan we were trying to get for a rental property.
Best: LL Bean. You can return anything at anytime, and my kids’ school backpacks have actually lasted longer than a semester!
Hey, those are mine, too!
Best: USAA - what everyone else said.
Worst: SBC phone and internet - outstandingly awful service. Worst “indian reading off of a BAD script” phone support, complete with fraudulent first names to try to trick you into thinking you weren’t just transferred to Pakistan (“Hello, my name is Derek Patel, and I’ll be assisting you.” Derek? Really? :dubious: ) Completely nonsensical and unhelpful internet support (at one point Derek Patel told me to try unplugging the ethernet cable, reversing the ends, and plugging it back in. I flat-out told him that was HOODOO)), excruciatingly long wait times.
Oh, and the best part - internet service plans default to an astronomical, unpublished monthly fee when your 12-month agreement ends and you have to pay it for one month before you can agree to another 12 months at the previous rate. You cannot ever get them to match the current “offer rate” either - that’s only for new customers. :mad:
Yay, I love getting to say nice things about people!
Good 
:
First off, because it was so recent: Best Buy, their Geek Squad, and eMachines. Great big sloppy kisses to all three! Our CD ROM drive failed two weeks before our warranty was about to expire. eMachines spent hours and hours with us one evening, both on the phone and online, taking over our computer (coolest thing I’ve ever seen) and trying everything they could think of to fix it. When that didn’t work, they sent us to Best Buy and the Geek Squad who sent it out for repair, didn’t charge us a dime even though the repair would not be done before the warranty expired, and gave us a completion time that was correct to the day. Great service all around, and that surpised and pleased me.
Secondly: Sony. We bought a Playstation 2 when they first came out and were still quite buggy. Not once, but twice when the thing went kaput, Sony had us ship it to them, repaired it and shipped it back and didn’t charge us a thing, even paid for shipping both ways! Of course, the PS2 we had was still a P.O.S., so eventually we gave it to a family member and bought ourselves a newer model. Have never had a problem with it.
Worst :mad: :
I hate to say this, but: Best Buy. While our recent computer repair experience was pleasant, buying the computer a year ago was a hassle and a half. We stood around for about 45 minutes before someone asked if we needed help, ended up being some dumb kid who didn’t really know jack about the products they were selling. When we finally found one we liked and were going through the process of ringing it up with another dumb kid who could barely figure out the cash register, he confided in us that he, personally, never shops at Best Buy because their stuff is so crappy and always breaks. :rolleyes:
Circuit City. My husband bought me a Discman there one year for Christmas that ended up breaking about a month later. He had purchased a warranty for it, so we took it in. They couldn’t find his name in the computer. He assured them it was in there. They called someone else, who also couldn’t find his name in the computer. This went on for TWO HOURS. Of course, they finally found it, apologized profusely and replaced the Discman with another one. Which also broke.
Best customer service I’ve experienced:
The TGI Fridays in Reno. I know there’s a lot of hatred here for those kind of restaurants, but the one in Reno has AWESOME customer service. Those people are always friendly and the minute I slurp the bottom of my Coke someone’s there with a new one. They’re always coming by to check if there’s anything I need, but in an unobstrusive, nonannoying way. When I can afford to go there, I do, and I tip well because those people work their asses off.
Greater Nevada Credit Union, a local CU in northern Nevada. Oh my God. They’re so friendly! They always get the job done, and rarely are they bitchy about it. I love them.
Napa Auto Parts: I dunno if they’re a nationwide chain, but there are quite a few Napas around here. The guys are always super friendly. I went there to get screws for my computer case (it was the closest place with bulk-style bins of different sizes of screws). I picked out five of the right thread but then asked the guy at the counter if they had them shorter. He trimmed them down for me and then refused to charge me for the screws. So I bought a new splicer set from him. I love them, and I always fix my cars using their parts - not a single one of them has yet to crap out on me, either.
WORST customer service:
Wells Fargo Bank: I put cash in my account and it took them three days to recognize it. Meanwhile, an automatic payment had hit the account and sent it into overdraft by a buck. They charged me a $30 overdraft fee and then $5 every business day after. A $1 overdraft that was essentially THEIR fault wound up making me owe them $200. They keep calling me trying to get it and I said “I’ll see you in court.” I’ll be damned if I’m gonna pay $200 for a $1 overdraft that was their fault. Calls to customer service don’t help, because those people are morons.
T-Mobile: Back in the days of yonder I lived in Pennsylvania for four months. While I was out there I needed a cell phone for a myriad of reasons. So I went to the Berkshire Mall and stopped at a multiprovider cell phone kiosk. They recommended T-Mobile because Nextel wanted a $300 deposit from me. So I got T-Mobile. Flash forward a month - I haven’t gotten a bill yet. I call T-Mobile support and try to find out how much I owe. I can’t get a straight answer from them (this was a while ago; now when you call in it’s all automated and you can find out how much you owe right away). I try logging on to the Web site and it crashes my computer…over…and over…and over. Well, then I get kicked out of my place and am living on the streets, and attempting to get back to Nevada, when my phone gets shut off. I call T-Mobile and they tell me I owe them $120 dollars and that I never made any attempt to pay them back.
I honestly have no idea why people have such issues with SBC. I have them for my phone and DSL at home, and they’ve never been anything less that awesome. When I got my DSL when I first moved out (I would prefer cable, but Charter communications, our local cable provider, is notorious for not being reliable - not bad customer service, but bad service in general. As my mom put it, “I wish your dad went down nearly as often as Charter does.”), I got the self-install kit. I’m pretty tech-savvy, so I was stunned when I hooked everything up right and it wasn’t working. I called SBC and I got someone who must be the coolest tech support guy on the planet; we were cracking jokes left and right about Charter going down and shit like that while he pinged my modem and tried to figure out what was wrong. (Turns out, the completely invisible “Reset” button needed to be pushed - literally, you can barely see it, if you have good eyesight, so I was screwed). Another time, I had to switch when I paid the bill and they did it for free (my electric company and cable company both charged me to switch it) on the exact date I needed to pay it every month. I like them.
~Tasha
Worst:
American Airlines. They’ve screwed me so bad that I will gladly pay an extra few hundred dollars just so I never use them again. Their major offense is selling tickets for direct flights that don’t exist, just so you can show up and spend 18 hours in airports and travel for what’s supposed to be a 3-hour direct flight. Not to mention the guy who was trying to reroute me who refused to speak to me for half an hour while he fiddled with his computer.
The icing on the cake was when I got to my destination, and the person at the counter said “Oh yeah, they’ve cancelled the direct flight you were originally on every day this month.”
“When did they do that?”
“Oh, about an hour or two before it’s supposed to take off.”
Best: NYCT is a pretty good ISP in New York. Time Warner handles their billing, but they’ve got a separate help desk if you have issues, which is very good.
Really good:
Vanguard. I have had to talk to them several times regarding my investments, wire transfers when I was buying my home (very stressful time), etc. Pleasant, on the ball, no “let me check with somebody else”, etc.
Cabelas. Had to return something once, they immediately sent me a prepaid return mailer and when they refunded my purchase price they also refunded the original shipping, that’s something that few people do.
Many independent stores. Local movie rental place is great - everyone working their knows movies and digs what they are doing, likes talking to the customers. Contrast this with your Blockbuster or Hollywood Video chain where it’s just a minimum wage job and the people behind the counter can’t even put a favorite movie on the TVs, they’ve got to keep the endless corporate loop of coming attractions & candybar ads playing 24x7. Mom & pop computer stores - generally have the best prices and they know their components, compared to a place like CompUSA (“Why Pay Less?”) which sells everything at maximum MSRP and most of the people their haven’t a clue as to what anything is. My local ACE hardware is staffed with people who know hardware and have great ideas and troubleshooting abilities (that’s including the highschool kids who work there). By and large the Home Despot has none of those things, and their prices are often much higher (even on basic commodities).
Pretty good:
HP Support One and MS Premier Support. These are their business level services, not the generic home user support. Pleasant folks who know their stuff and often have solutions to weird problems within the hour. Not always, but much of the time.
Crappy:
SBC/ATT. Just bad, I have had to deal with them many times for broadband service (both at my home and for remote setups related to my job). Unending series of transfers, people reading off of scripts, etc.
Telemarketers when I have to call them and get them to stop blasting our phones with jillions of automated marketing calls. Lying, cheating, scum.
And I love the way they yell “CORNER!” every time they approach one so they don’t run into each other. 
Best: My house oil company, Bray’s Fuels in Bradford, Ontario. Absolute. The. Best.
Worst: Bank of Nova Scotia for prequalifying me for a mortgage for twice the amount I needed and then, when I bought my house, telling me “well, you DO KNOW that it has to be over 800 sq ft?”
No one I have spoken to, including real estate agents and bankers, since then has ever heard of this.
As it was, I got a far better deal elsewhere but only after a week of absolute utter panic!
Best: Disney. The resort people were absolutely fantastic, even surpassing the service I get from Marriott.
Worst: Merck/Medco. Their processes only work well when it follows the predetermined script. They are obviously modeled after an HMO as they can decide what you get charged for and what services they will provide you. No one is in a position to actually make “right” any mistake they make except to reprocess a prescription order and charge you again. Not worth the discount.
I agree with your worst - ScotiaBank - Just after we bought our house, I was laid off, and I was pregnant. We were VERY financially strained, but we were just barely scraping by. Then, just after the baby was born my husband was laid off. We were toast, completely toast. We were going to have to sell the house just to try and get our heads above water, or declare bankruptcy.
We put our house on the market and immediately got a big enough offer to cover both our mortage discharge, real estate commission and what we were told our penalty would be. No chance. Our bank decided to hit us with the interest rate differential, which was about four thousand more. I went to speak to the manager, explaining that since the majority of our debts were with them anyway, couldn’t they charge the lesser amount? They would get it anyway but then maybe we could eliminate the Visa and then just have the line of credit to pay off. They would be “losing” the four thousand dollar difference, but we would then be able to work on the bigger amounts we still owed them, they would gain in the long run.
No dice.
I explained we were trying very hard to avoid bankruptcy (as I sat there with my three month old on my lap), couldn’t they try and help us? I had been banking there for over ten years…?
Nope.
The best part of declaring bankruptcy was knowing that I would force them to write off the almost $25,000 we owed them from other things.
A few months later I got a call from a survey “Did I have time to do a customer satisfaction survey for ScotiaBank?”
“Yes,” I smiled. “I have all the time in the world for that survey!”
They also jerked my mother around after her husband died. It was a mess. I will never bank with them again!
Disney gets my vote for best customer service, too.
On our visit to Walt Disney World in Orlando, my husband and I misunderstood the monorail system, and we ended up stranded at closing time in a monorail station that was a long distance from our Disney hotel, with no way back except through the parks, which were closed and locked. A security person noticed that we were standing around looking dazed and unhappy. The security guy got on the radio and talked to someone, and about five minutes later, a big bus (empty, except for the driver) appeared to pick us up. The bus driver was funny and pleasant, and he didn’t seem to mind giving a couple of nitwits a private ride back to the hotel. We were amazed and impressed. We offered the driver a tip, but he cheerfully declined it.
I dont know about best customer service, but easily the worst, IMO, is my local cable company Comcast. They through hidden fees in everywhere and dont even try to call them on the phone. You have to talk to a machine for 30 minutes, then wait another hour on hold in order to talk to someone. I wish I could switch providers but of course they’re the only ones who provide service in our area.
Best: My credit union. Not a single mistake in the nearly 15 years I’ve been with them. Waves fees and gives you the benefit of doubt.
Worst: Qwest DSL. Six months of on/off service. Techs who were clueless. Finally they said I would need to pay a tech to come check the line. Told them I’ll just switch companies instead.
Best
Dell I’ve not used their tech support but I had amazing experiences with their regular customer service. They overnighted a desk top to me on their dime after a screw up I made.
Guess I ordered a corset and it didn’t come do to some shipping mix-up (not their fault) and they refunded my money AND sent me another free of charge.
Worst
Cox Internet They love to randomly cut it off and then blame my router when I call their tech support.
Half.com Ebay I am still waiting for my money back. I ordered a bunch of books on December 26th. I paid extra for priority shipping on a biology text book. All of my books came before the 8th of Jan except for the Bio text. After it still didn’t arrive on the 11th, I send emails asking the seller about the book which were ignored. When it finally arrived on the 18th (well after class had started and I bought another) the package was torn to pieces and then re-taped. I returned the package and then sent the seller two more formal emails (which Electronics, Cars, Fashion, Collectibles & More | eBay requires you to do) and then finally a claim on the 23rd of Jan.
It is over a month later and I am still waiting for my money back. I would just go to my credit card company except that Electronics, Cars, Fashion, Collectibles & More | eBay says that they can suspend your account for doing such a thing. I just sent them an email saying basically “Where the hell is my money, I’ve been waiting for almost 2 months for this situation to be fixed” and if they don’t get back to me in a week, I will go with the charge back. I’ve spent at least a grand on that site buying books without a problem. I previously only bought from the big seller who have thousands of transactions. The only reason I bought from this seller was because I have only an 8 by my name and I would hate for someone to refuse to buy from me because of it. Never again. If they don’t revoke my account I will only buy from the big sellers, especially those I have had multiple dealings with.
There’s a Red Lobster in Ocoee (Orlandoish) that has awesome customer service. Friendly, attentive but not intrusive, great service. I’ve gone out of my way not only to leave a good tip but to mention my satisfaction to the manager and mention my server by name.