Friday, April 30, 2010

Six nice reasons to use our services


mv
Ok. We are not entirely sure whether people like our site. We think it's great. Some people may dislike it, some may be tired of it, some may think it's a brilliant idea (but never come back), some may think this is exactly what they need, some may like it, and some may like it a lot.

We have come up with six nice reasons to use our services:
  1. it's free (like ketchups at McDonald's)
  2. u appreciate good services even more
  3. it makes u healthy (by letting go ur anger)
  4. u help others
  5. u help yourself (as you help others)
  6. companies could learn a lesson (and improve)
We do hope you would try out our service, enjoy it and tell your friends, coworkers, parents, grandparents and their friends about us. And please help us improve by leaving us comments. We do look forward to your complaints =)
ihatebadservice.ca

Ahhh..British customer Service at its Very Best!

Location: Other, England
Industry: Other
Annoyed By: Stuart!


Ahhh…British Customer Service at its Very Best!!

I know you'll think I made this up, but trust me - it's all true! If you think the art of good customer service has gone the way of the red squirrel, do not despair, you simply haven't met Stuart!

I recently moved house and had a bunch of stuff to get rid of and thought I'd be clever and do my part to make the world a bit cleaner and greener. I contacted my local online freecycle community. Unfortunately, I had a spot of trouble with the registration process.

Not to worry – I'll simply contact the "we're here to help" moderator, Stuart. (Little did I know at the time, but I suspect that Stuart may actually be Jeremy Clarkson performing some undercover community service as payment for one too many speeding fines!) Stuart has an interesting interpretation of English grammar and potentially a pathological fear of full stops; nevertheless he is committed to providing the type of quality customer service we've come to know and love from white van men across the British Isles.

Anyhoo….the saga begins…

----- Original Message ----

From: newtonzapple@yahoo.com
To: freecyclechippenham-owner@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thu, 29 April, 2010 9:36:15
Subject: problems registering

hello,
I received an email saying I have been rejected from this group. Can you please tell me what I need to join? I am moving house soon and would like to offer many household items on freecycle.

-----Original Message-----

From: Chippenham Moderators [mailto:chippenhammods@yahoo.co.uk]
Sent: 29 April 2010 11:15
To: newtonzapple@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: problems registering

Hello there
If you received the rejection message, then you did not follow the instructions sent to you in the 'File - Welcome Message' email, if you had indeed read this email it would have told you how to join, also in the rejection message it tells you why you were denied membership in the first paragraph under "reasons why" so on 2 occasions you have not read the messages and this says to us that you would not read any of the important messages that the moderators/owners send out from time to time which are for your benefit and guidance and most importantly the rules that get sent out for your guidence, you would not read them and for which if you were to break the rules after we'd sent you an email which we told you about it but you haven't read it, you could well be banned from the site all together, so you see how important it is to read the emails sent to you.

If you still wish to join then please reapply and follow the instructions in the welcome message.

Regards
Chippenham moderator (Stuart)

----- Original Message ----

From: newtonzapple@yahoo.com
To: Chippenham Moderators <chippenhammods@yahoo.co.uk>
Sent: Thu, 29 April, 2010 12:19:24
Subject: RE: problems registerin

Dear Stuart,

What a grumpy response to a legitimate question.

Thanks, but no thanks; I'd rather join a religious cult than belong to a group with such a miserable patronising git as its moderator.

s

-----Original Message-----

From: Chippenham Moderators [mailto:chippenhammods@yahoo.co.uk]
Sent: 29 April 2010 12:39
To: newtonzapple@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: problems registering

well what do you expect if an email was already sent to you saying how to join

Regards from

A Patronising git

Don't go there, Hotel Horror Stories

Location: Worldwide
Industry: Tourism
Annoyed By: Horrible Hotel Services


Think you've had it bad at a hotel? Read on.

Calella, Spain

H Top Olympic Hotel
Woken up by the sound of breaking glass... someone fell through the window of the patio doors. More
Las Vegas, NV
Circus Circus Manor Motor Lodge
Drunk people sleep right outside our room lying in the hallway. More
Broadbeach, Australia
Island Beach Resort
Our belongings were stolen from our ROOM while we were in the swimming pool. More
Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt
Tropicana New Tiran Hotel
Flooded by sewage overflow twice in the 5 days that we were there. More
Miami, FL
Majestic Hotel South Beach
He shoved the couch into my luggage, broke a bottle of alcohol in my bag and ruined my camera. More
Beijing, China
Guomen Hotel
We spent our entire vacation in quarantine - never having a fever or symptoms. More
Albufeira, Portugal
Valmangude Jardim Aparthotel
The robber had a key to all the rooms and they somehow knew how to get into the safe! More
Petra, Jordan
Petra Palace Hotel
A male cleaner knocking on my door at 6.30am to say hello and ask if he could wash his face in my sink. More
Athens, Greece
Hotel Fivos
Liked — Leaving
Disliked — The period between check in and departure. More
Bangkok, Thailand
D&D Inn
The POLICE demanded a substantial fine...withdrawn from a conveniently placed ATM... More
Source: Trip Advisor

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Hostelling International Whistler

Location: British Columbia, Whistler
Industry: Tourism
Annoyed By: Abusive staff


I stayed here and watched the staff belittle, berate, and abuse people. It made the atmosphere really tense to have to be exposed to such horrific customer service and I know several others felt the same way.

Ex-Toggery Consginment

Location: Ontario, Toronto
Industry: Retail
Annoyed By: the arrogant bitches downstairs


This was actually a letter I intended to email to them....however they don't even have an email address on their website. Is it to avoid the tons of potential email complaints they should be receiving? Possibly.

Dear Ex-Toggery,

I wanted to address the unprofessionalism I experience when I drop off my clothing. I have been dealing with this for several years, as I've been a regular consignor, and shopper at your store. It has come to the point where I no longer even want to leave my clothes with the girls downstairs, because they have the most unapproachable, demeaning attitude to your customers.

Are they trained to behave this way? I don't understand it.

Today, I went to drop off a few pieces, from labels I had consigned with you before. The girl wouldn't take them, and that's perfectly fine, however when I asked why, she didn't bother replying. In fact, she didn't even say a word to the very basic questions I asked her.
For one, there was a shirt which I had seen upstairs selling for $39.99, and mine, though new with the tag attached, was rejected. When I asked her why, she replied with silence.

For two, I asked why certain brands were no longer accepted, and again, silence. And a scowl, of course.

Mind you, her and I were the only two people downstairs, so I know she wasn't being bombarbed by customers.

I understand and appreciate why you don't take every piece that is brought in. However, my experience consigning has been so annoyingly negative and unproductive, that it's not worth the few dollars I have made here and there. I would much rather donate my things to people who would appreciate them.

The girls upstairs, and the manager whom I've met, have been perfectly lovely, so I don't understand why your customers need to experience this treatment over something that should be so simple.

I may consider picking up the few things I currently have in the store.

Thank you for your time,
Rita

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

DigitalRiver On-line Personal Security breach

Location: Other, Brisbane Australia
Industry: Retail
Annoyed By: DigitalRiver On-line Store


Without going into too much detail I have been trying to get my copy of Windows 7 pro at a Student Discount price that I ordered on the DigitalRiver online store 3 weeks ago. But even though they have given me an order number and a Windows Activation Key they have sent my purchase details & password to someone else so I still cannot get the software. But the other unauthorized person can get it using my details.

I have found out only now & after 3 weeks of speaking to the Digital River Support daily by email that they have mistakenly associated my purchase, including my banking details with someone else. They have been sending this unauthorized person my personal information & password instead of sending it to me. They did not find the error until I discovered it & showed them what was occurring.

The strange thing is that when I informed them of this breach in my personal security all return email correspondence from Digital River immediately stopped, which is pathetic because now I am left not knowing what is happening to resolve the problem.

I have contacted my bank but I don't know what is going to happen concerning the DigitalRiver side of things now that I am getting the silent treatment.

Even under normal circumstances when you do have unrestricted contact with them it is quite hard to understand exactly what is going on because they mainly use generic pre-written responses to answer your questions & they don't investigate you concerns too thoroughly either.

But there is one thing that I do know for sure & that is that the Digital River on-line store security is not secure.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Incompetent Enbridge Gas Water Heater Event

Location: Ontario, Toronto
Industry: Utilities
Annoyed By: Enbridge Gas
mv


Our water heater that we are renting through Enbridge Gas sprung a leak, so we called the Enbridge number for service. When we got through to someone, we explained the situation only to find out that they could not send anyone out until the following morning. So, we were stuck all night with a severly leaking water heater. But it gets worse.

The person showed up during the usual "between 9am and 1pm" routine, they looked at the tank and "confirmed" that there was definitely a leak. They then proceeded to write out a request for another person to come out at another time. I asked "Wait, you mean you can't fix the tank today?" and they looked at me dumbfounded and said "of course not" as though I had two heads. But it still gets worse...

Now, the guy thinks I'm trouble maker, so he takes a look around and determines that my house is "breaking code" because we don't have the "appropriate" ventilation into our furnace room. He could not quantify what "appropriate" was, but he did day that a 6" fresh-air duct would do the trick. He said that we had to have this done within 15 days or they would shut-off our gas service. Note that our house was built in the 50's, and the Enbridge Gas had been to our house multiple times before for the annual service maintenance on the boiler and they never mentioned any additional venting requirements...but alas...

I paid a contractor to run a new vent into the furnace room, cost $275 in total. So, the next Enbridge guy comes out to replace the water tank, and I start off by showing him the vent, and he says "that's overkill, you don't need that much venting!" Needless to say, I'm a little upset. But it gets worse...

He replaces the water tank, and I think "well, at least we're done", but nooooo...this guy then says "Hmmm, you don't have any carbon monoxide detectors. You have a three levels on this house, so you will require one for each level." "What?!?" I asked...so, I had to run out and buy 3 carbon monoxide detectors, then he had to come back, and he then complained that he didn't like the location of the detectors (I had mounted them in the stairwell at each level).

At that point, I stopped him and asked for his credentials and qualifications as they relate to his line of questioning. He then simply signed the papers and left.

Overall, I am hugely disappointed with these 3rd-party providers that Enbridge uses, and I hope they understand how these same providers have tarnished their brand. But, Enbridge (like Bell) are quite often the only game in town for many people so therefore will rarely have to worry about servicing their customers with any level of professionalism.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Worst Dining Experience Ever!

Location: Ontario, Toronto
Industry: Restaurant
Annoyed By: Over Easy - 56 Yonge St. Hotel Victoria


I've been here a few times since I live in the area & at best it was average; but breakfast is breakfast and it's hard to screw up an egg. Or so I thought.

Egg shells in my eggs benedict, a rude manager & a waiter who ignored us. If the manager Kyle treats his staff as badly as his customers I understand why the food & the service is so bad. Condescending, to rude, to overtly insulting is this guys M.O. - typical spoiled kid who doesn't care because it was handed to him (apparently this is a family run business).

I have no family in the city, so I decided to treat myself to brunch for Easter. After biting into eggshells, Kyle was sarcastic, accused me of basically just trying to get a free meal - I had eaten 3 bites, literally, so how is that a meal exactly? I put the eggshells on my plate & pointed them out to my waiter when he finally came for the plate. I had considered ordering the soup instead but after the terrible service and insulting behaviour I just wanted to get out of there. After the eggs, & having a clear line of sight into the kitchen to see how the staff didn't seem to care about what they were serving, I just wanted to leave & go somewhere else. My salad - which I could not eat - was some leaves - nothing to make it a salad - with dried oregano in olive oil that they call a dressing.

After trying to resolve this issue politely I ended up paying $15 for coffee & a hot chocolate, being accused of being a thief (EVEN THOUGH I PAID $15 FOR COFFEE!) and getting out of there just before bursting into tears. So in the end, they are the thieves, literally - $15 for a cup of coffee. Happy F-ing Easter Over Easy!

UPDATE: I called the owner of this chain at the 208 Bloor St. location to tell him of my experience at one of his restaurants - which was very difficult amidst his constant interruptions. He prefers to listen to himself talk. After speaking with his staff (or relative, as the case is) his response was "We don't want customers like you." No problem Glenn(?), I'll never go back & I will tell this story for years anytime the subject of a breakfast in Toronto comes up.

I guess the lesson learned here is if there are eggshells in your food, just keep quiet and eat it. Better to have only bad food then to have bad food & abuse from hack restaurateurs.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Yang's sushi bar (markham)

Location: Ontario, toronto
Industry: Restaurant
Annoyed By: The entire staff

mv md


It's 7:30pm, April 2 good Friday, me and 2 friends decided to try Yang's sushi bar on hwy 7 for the sake of convenience. It was our first time there because one of my friend was here for a visit from Latin Americas. Busy night, no one really spoke English but we didn't mind because it was just a casual dinning out. The waitress seated us and we ordered 10 dishes on the spot while waiting for 3 more friends to come in. I just wanted my friends(some are Canadian and some are from England) to have a good experience trying Japanese all you can eat and get a good impression on Markham . The waitress wasn't really informative and kind of rude but what do you expect on a Friday night right? Only 5 dishes came after 25 min and it wasn't that good. My other friends arrived at 8pm and we ordered 17 more dishes. After 8:30 only 3 more plates arrived and my friend was desperately waiting on the sea food because of the Catholic holiday code. We politely called over the waitress a few times because all the tables around us were getting tempura and everything while we waited more than an hour to receive 8 tiny plates of meat and sushi. The staff mostly brushed us off while the six of us sits there hungry and anxious because there is an 1.5 hour eating limit printed on the menu. My friend asked for clean water and the waitress was like "I don't know, try it".

I mean what kind of a response is that? I felt so embarrassed because my Spanish friend asked me if this a representation of Canadian service or just just Chinese community? I said maybe it's just the restaurant and the whole management tonight. Lucky they didn't kick us out but it was getting overwhelming after "2 hours" without much food while we placed at least 27 orders by now. They should have came over to apologize or check on us. But no, they didn't even care to bring over any napkins or forks on request and was extremely impatient with us when we pointed out that all the other tables are getting food and we had to wait 2 hours for a tempura.

The whole objective of "all you can eat" style is to serve up the food within reasonable time and allow the customers to indulge. It was a clear strategy to make you wait and then tell you time is up where you can't eat as much or even get full. We made plans to head else where after this and did not want to extend our eating time to 3 hours. My three friends that came in a bit late only shared a plate of scallop and cali roll (it's $24 per person .......same as Mandarin). We decided to leave and refuse to pay 6 heads because it was barely 2 of us who really ate or had any food in our stomach after 3 whooping hours (9:30pm). Being still partially hungry and completely disappointed, we remained cool and simply said we are only paying for 3 parties. The waitress was very rude and accused my friends for eating and was determined to charge us 6 heads. Just when things couldn't get any worst, all the food that we ordered came at once and overloaded our table which we refuse to touch at this point (no one's hunger can extend to three hours of wait). She accused us of wasting food which was not of my responsibility where they should have printed on the menu "warning, you do have to wait up to 3 hours" as part of the agreement. I'm sure they'll serve it to some other table because I use to work in a restaurant like that. I bluffed and told her I'm lawyer and I think this is absolutely unacceptable. She then went back and forth to talk to her manager and bickered with my friends some more. It was getting so ugly and all the other waiters were talking smack about us in Chinese. We wanted to speak to the manager but got declined with some stupid reason of her being too.

I didn't expect much from a restaurant like this but the people who run this place does not have a clue how Canadian business operates. We finally settled to pay $18 for 2 plates of tiny portion for 3 people(still ridiculous! ) and a $85 for 3 of us who ate. Did I mention they are not paying tax because I know how they run their business due to the cash or debt option on the menu. They had the audacity to charge us tips which was placed on the bill automatically. I refused to pay tips and only left the right amount. As I was walking out the door, the manager who was supposedly "too" busy suddenly ran after me like a mad person and grabbed me violently. My boyfriend told her to back off and she continued on to blab about her tip. We told her in plain English that we are not oblige to pay any tip if our service was dissatisfy according to the Canadian law. She called us stupid and continued to cuss in an uncivilized manner.I was so close to calling the police on her. My boyfriend finally dropped a few more dollars on her and told her in Spanish you "I don't even know how you qualify to run a restaurant and someone of authority will look into this."

Yeah.......long story but I have never ever experienced anything like this my entire life in Canada. I normally eat throughout Toronto or chains like Pickle Barrel, Moxie's, and the Keg. This wasn't cheap either but I seriously hope someone do something about this because it's so unfair for the costumers and it gives Markham such a bad name. I know they have plenty costumers and maybe they got treated differently, but please if you ever been there and got the same experience, post it!



Thursday, April 1, 2010

Transmission place that doesn't give a shift

Location: Ontario, brampton
Industry: Automotive
Annoyed By: AAMCO


I had ,y minivan serviced by AAMCO in brampton, they rebuilt it and charged me $3909. 6 mths later I'm getting a hard shift from 2-3 gear.
First they said I need a tune up, then they said it's electrical problems. Having got a second opinion from another location then they said 'oh it a mechanical problem "
and they were willing to charge me $1900 to fix the problem before he's even opened up the transmission.
NICE!!!!!!!