Tuesday, December 15, 2009

The Modern Shoe Hospital ruined my shoes and won't return them

Location: Newfoundland and Labrador, St. John's
Industry: Other
Annoyed By: The owner and his son


I took a brand new pair of unworn $400 shoes in for an adjustment. I gave specific instructions which they ignored, in fact they did the opposite of what I asked for and mangled the heals of my new shoes in the process. When I refused to pay they THREATENED ME saying they would "see to it I never got my shoes back". They still have not returned my property.

Why isn't this theft?

Sloppy amateurish work combined with ignorant hostile staff makes for very poor service.



CIBC and Customer Service / Accountability

Location: Ontario, Toronto (1-800)
Industry: Finance
Annoyed By: Visa Customer Service


I noticed some fraudulent charges on my CIBC credit card in late September. I called CIBC's Visa customer service line to report them. I went through a LONG drawn-out process to make sure that they had understood and itemized absolutely everything. I know that they had it correct because they repeated every single date and line item in question. Phew I thought, "that was easy!" And it should have been easy, every single disputed charge references exactly the same 1-800 number. I was told to expect a letter outlining all of the charges for my signature so that they could be investigated and reversed. "No problem" says I!

I get the letter; it contains a fraction of the charges that I know that the bank entered into their system. It comes from some woman with the initial "S" so I call her. She's not available so I leave a detailed message with my CC number and 2 different phone numbers. She doesn't reply. I call her again and leave the same message several days later… She doesn't reply!

I finally get fed up and call the main number complaining that nobody is returning my call. I get put on-hold forever until "S" finally shows up on the phone. I inform her again (3rd time now) in person about the problem and tell her that about half of the disputed charges are not on the letter… And I ask why because I tell her that I know absolutely every charge was noted and read back to me in my original call. In fact, I even tell her that she's reversed a legitimate charge. She doesn't know much, says everything she was provided is in the letter, but that I can hand write the missing info in myself with the dates and amounts and then return it to her. So I do.

I wait the suggested time and check my statement on-line. There are still 2 charges that haven't been reversed. I've learned my lesson about trying to contact "S" directly so I call the main-line and ask to make sure that I can speak to someone live… Somehow or other they get "S" on live with me. I again explain the situation and express a little frustration about the fact that the bank can't get this correct. I give her the amounts in question and she says "oh that first one was already credited" and I say "no it hasn't"! She says that that charge from X date was credited on Y date. I say "you're correct but I'm talking about the charge from W date which was clearly outlined in the letter I sent to you". She now says AGAIN that she'll take care of those 2 "missed" charges and reverse them immediately.

I ask about the interest rebate for ALL of the charges. She says that I should see something on my statement called an "interest reversal". I haven't seen anything like that so I ask where it is… She seems surprised and tells me that she's going away to calculate it… She comes back after an incredible time on hold and tells me that she'll be reversing less than $7.00. I don't understand because there are about $800.00 in questionable charges so I ask how she came up with that amount, since we're dealing with hundreds of dollars over several months… She flips me to someone we'll call "M".

"M" tells me that she has 15 years of customer service experience and can perhaps explain the interest issue better than "S". She tells me that the interest reversal that "S" was referencing was just in regard to the charges I had asked about that day. I say "that's not what she said"… "M" says that the system would have automatically reversed the interest on the previous reversals and the "new" total would have been reflected in my monthly interest charge. I say "that's not what she said"…

I then ask if "M" is the manager of "S" and I'm told "no". I'm asked why and I say I'd like to express a little frustration with the amount of time that this has taken to get corrected along with the fact that "S" won't return her calls. Engage "M's" attitude…

First I'm told that "S" never had to reverse the 2nd set of charges because I didn't fill out the letter correctly. I say I filled it out exactly as I was told to by "S", in fact I filled it out while I was talking to her. I'm told that if "M" had seen it she wouldn't have approved it, "S" was good to me by accepting the letter as is. You mean the person that won't return my phone calls is being good to me? The person that can't get her job right when everything is spelled out easily for her is being good to me? Wait, the same person who missed reversing 2 charges on that same letter is being good to me? The one that had no idea that she'd fucked up is being good to me?

I then ask why it takes ME following up a significant number of times to have this done correctly… "M" goes into a bit of a tirade about illnesses, family issues, vacations, etc. At this point I'm upset, I tell her that that's no different than any other business out there and that most of them are able to continue being responsible and do their jobs while working through that same shit. "M" doesn't like that response… I want to hold "S" accountable for doing her job and being responsible to the bank's customers... That seems to be completely out of line according to "M". I again ask why this process is so fraught with errors and has taken so long… "M" says that "S" just missed it. And I say "the first time, the second time or the 3rd time?" "M" gets REALLY upset and finally says "OK, it's human error"!

What?!?! A bank employed just admitted to me on a phone call that is supposed to have been recorded that they fucked up due to "human error"! Funny, she wants me to accept it from the bank, but when whenever I've had a "human error" issue from my side, the bank won't accept it. Could this be a double standard?

So, hopefully in a couple of days I'll be able to check my statement on-line and see 3 credits… 2 for the remaining contested charges in question and 1 for the "interest reversal". God help me if they're not there.