Monday, June 17, 2013

Faulty equipment creates water damage

Location: Alberta, Edmonton
Industry: Other
Annoyed By: City Water International


We signed a contract with City Water International to install a water cooler for our staff. Shortly before Christmas their faulty equipment started to leak. There was no one in the office when the leak ocurred, and the water did about $10,000 in damage. City Water intially lead me to believe they would pay for the damages, but after 6 weeks of run around refused to do anything, except say I had to keep paying them their monthly fee!

Never, never, never deal with this company. I suggest you look at their BBB status (it is an F for Fail), I wish I had!

Terrible care and unprofessional nurses.

Location: Ontario, Etobicoke
Industry: Health
Annoyed By: nurses at Etobicoke General Hospital


My father was hospitalized just before Christmas 2012 after getting sick returning from a trip to Europe. He was taken off the flight directly to Etobicoke General Hospital.

Once he was finally admitted to the Emergency Department, they weren't sure if what if he had was contagious so they said anyone who was near him had to wear a mask. This was reasonable but to my dismay nurses who were treating my father weren't wearing masks, gloves or anything. Many of them claimed " They never got sick". I found this terrible as it is a serious breach of health policy.

He was also put in a very busy section of emergency where he could not get a wink of sleep as a nursing station was at the edge of his bed and it was very loud there. The nursing station was so close to his bed that one time they were trying to sort out who got what oranges for some kind of fundraiser and there were crates and crates of oranges stacked around him and they were busy talking loudly about these oranges. This was at night when he was trying to sleep. Unbelievable.

My dad had bacterial pneumonia (we were eventually told) and he was eventually put in a room by himself to sequester him. He received even worse care here. He needed ice as he had a fever on and off and when we asked a nurse if we could have some ice, she told me where the ice machine was. Meanwhile she's sitting there online shopping (I can see this on the screen). When I came back from getting ice, 3 nurse had their feet up on the desk complaining about how hard and crappy their jobs were. How unprofessional and pathetic.

They had all these signs up saying " know your treatment plan etc" but my dad knew nothing about his treatment plan or what in the hell was going on at any given time. When he was released someone called to ask how his stay was, he told them the truth (basically what I said) and they said they would send him a paper survey. They have not and it's now February, probably because they didn't like what he had to say.

In my opinion, this hospital is sub-par especially for Canada. Their staff were rude, unhelpful and unprofessional. I did not appreciate their attitudes especially since my Dad was very close to death. I'm not sure these people deserve their jobs, and this hospital needs serious improvements. Avoid this hospital like the plague!

AAA gets an FFF for customer service

Location: Other, Sarasota
Industry: Transportation
Annoyed By: AAA membership services


I had purchased a 1-year AAA membership in 2012, I did it online and unbeknownst to me in the "small print" included verbiage that the account would be "auto-renewed" after 1 year. Well, 1 year later they "auto-renew" my account by sending an electronic payment through my checking account using the debit card number I provided them 1 year ago. Not expecting this charge and being between deposits, I did not have enough for this payment in my account thus creating an overdraft fee and resulting in a negative balance because my bank paid the payment instead of denying it. So AAA go their money and I am not short an extra amount because of the overdraft fee. I called AAA to complain and get my money back. They agreed to refund the membership fee but not the overdraft fee because it wasn't their fault I didn't have the money in my account. After explaining to them that it is their fault I was charged the overdraft fee because I was not aware the charge was going to be made, the "Supervisor" tells me I can't possibly hold their company responsible for my financial failures. That it is my fault because I "knew" about the auto renewal since I agreed to it by continuing with the purchase online a year ago, plus he says they sent me a notice in the mail as a courtesy. I never received the notice, I only received the annoying junk mail they send offering me life insurance at a reduced rate. I told him this and he had the gall to say "well we can't control what you receive and what you don't receive". I said, "neither can I and I am the customer! That should make a difference to you, but obviously your only concern as a supervisor of customer service is arguing with the customer and making them madder at the company you work for!'

DutchGardens.com = Bad Customer Service

Location: Other, Bloomington, IL (US)
Industry: Retail
Annoyed By: DutchGardens.com


I just wanted to get a gift certificate from an online nursery for my wife who is a gardener. Since my wife gets flower catalogs in the mail, I went to a few catalog's websites and found DutchGardens.com has gift certificates available (supposedly).

I ordered the gift certificate on March 30. The web page did not indicate how long it would take to receive this item however I assumed a week to 10 days or even immediately if they emailed it like most online stores do. After 10 days and not having received the certificate (no email, no snail mail), I called their customer service and was then told gift certificates take 2 weeks and to call again if I hadn't received it after that.

I called customer server again on April 15 and was told after holding for 4 minutes that the gift certificate had been sent on Thursday April 11 so it should arrive any time now.
OK. Today is Friday April 19; no gift certificate. I called once again and informed the customer service person of the issue. Again I was put on hold for 5 minutes. This time I was told that my credit card was not approved the first time, but a subsequent try it worked and that the gift certificate was sent on April 16 (a new story). I requested a refund but was told I could not get a refund because the certificate had been sent out. It turns out now that my account was charged twice; once on 4/10 and again on 4/17. My wife's birthday is long since passed and I have no certificate to give her and have been charged twice the full amount.

I've issued a dispute on the 2nd charge with my bank. However, according to DutchGardens.com customer service, I have to wait to get the gift certificate and then send it back to them before they will issue a refund!?!

*Very* poor customer service. They are incompetent. Don't bother dealing with these people.

Ruined Mothers Day!!

Location: Ontario, Ottawa
Industry: Retail
Annoyed By: Bloomex Inc.


I ordered Mothers Day flowers from this online company without doing my homework first. That was my first mistake. I paid $19.98 for same day deliver that never happened. In fact the flowers were 3 days late. When they finally arrived they were half dead and looked NOTHING like the photo on the website.
After a few keystrokes on Google and the BBB site I was horrified. This company has 239 complaints against them and a warning on the BBB site. They have an F rating. I should have done my homework.
Please DO NOT order from this company, they are a SCAM!!

Dell Does Not Want Your Business

Location: Nova Scotia, Country
Industry: Technology
Annoyed By: Dell Canada


Here's my story. It's absolutely true.

I ordered a desktop and monitor from Dell. The sales person (Gaby) was excellent. She helped me get a great system at a great price. I received my order confirmations and paid by Visa. I also got a tracking number and an ETA of May 20 2013. So... I dutifully checked on the tracking site. Order processed... but not shipping. OK, I waited another day or two, checking now and then. Still not shipping.
I called customer support. That's when things went south. The lady on the other end confirmed everything about me... credit card details, shipping address, home address and then asked what telephone # I was calling from. I was calling from home. She noted my home # was different from my office #. Yea...so. Well I can't talk to you on this number (this is true...I'm not kidding). I said..."Look we've already determined I'm the customer and I've already paid for the system. What difference if I'm calling from my home phone?" She asked me to go to my office and call back. I again expressed disbelief that this should be a concern to her. She refused to talk to me because I was calling from a different #. At this point, I admit, I got a little testy. I asked her what kind of crazy bureaucracy they had going on at Dell. I asked to speak to a manager. She refused to transfer the call. I asked her if she could at least tell shipping to move the order along. She also refused to do that.
So I said good bye and emailed my sales rep. She said she would see what she could do to help.
Then I got a voice mail on the long weekend (here in Canada... Victoria Day.. May 19). It was my dear overseas friend from customer support. Her message, "Call me at ...#### ext ####. If I don't hear from you I am going to cancel your order. Click." Monday was a holiday. I called back Tuesday and got a Dell manager (also overseas) to complain about the service and very rude customer support lady.

Guess what... my order was cancelled. The manager was 'very sorry' and "no, you don't have to call from your office if you need service", etc. But he couldn't help me at this point. I had to go to Resolution Services because I was on some kind of black list. I guess that's where Dell sends you now if you dare ask why your computer isn't shipping.

BTW.. I ordered a different system from a competing brand.

Jon