Who Is The Worst Company you Have Had The Misfortune To Have To Deal With

**Gemmel** · 28-06-2012, 10:26 PM

There's just no competition from my experience it has to be Virgin Media

Before that it was NTL, but guess who took them over

.........Yay virgin ******* ****ing stupid cocksucking bellends

**gaz** · 28-06-2012, 10:28 PM

VM are very poor. Orange are up there too, as are Sky. They just don't want to deal with current customers, just replacing them with new.

**Tokyo-Saint** · 28-06-2012, 10:32 PM

When I saw the title of this thread I thought Virgin Media but thought I would be slated as virgin somehow have a kind of cool image with some. Absolutely the worst customer service in the Uk.

**badgerx16** · 28-06-2012, 10:33 PM

The Student Loans Company.

**dune** · 28-06-2012, 10:48 PM

All the companies that put you through to an Indian call centre.

I always demand to speak to someone in Britain, and all you have to do is mention the magic word "cancel" and they miraculously find they can put you through.

**Lighthouse** · 28-06-2012, 11:11 PM

3 Mobile broadband. Trying to cancel that, even after the 24 month contract had expired was just a nightmare. Just a series of unanswered emails and an Indian call centre bloke who ignored what I was saying for half an hour whilst he tried to sell me a laptop I told him 50 times I did not need. Eventually I cancelled the standing order to try and they started sending me letters threatening to send debt collectors round to my house. Never again.

United Airlines were pretty poor too.

**swannymere** · 28-06-2012, 11:35 PM

Without a doubt the now defunct Setanta, wouldn't let you cancel, despite letters from solicitors and various promises just continued to try an collect monthly payments.

**Hatch** · 29-06-2012, 04:21 AM

Talk Talk.

Amazing thick and stupid people in their customer service teams.

**Julian H. Cope** · 29-06-2012, 06:08 AM

Originally Posted by Hatch

Talk Talk.

Amazing thick and stupid people in their customer service teams.

Yep, I have to agree with that one. Also N-Power.

**Jeff Le Taxi** · 29-06-2012, 06:08 AM

Aol end of.

**trousers** · 29-06-2012, 06:10 AM

A thread listing the decent companies would be quicker...

**Patrick Bateman** · 29-06-2012, 07:10 AM

Originally Posted by Gemmel

There's just no competition from my experience it has to be Virgin Media

Before that it was NTL, but guess who took them over

.........Yay virgin ******* ****ing stupid cocksucking bellends

ntl: were not "taken over". ntl: bought Telewest and Virgin Mobile. With that, that bought the right to rebrand as Virgin Media.

Their customer service really isn't that bad, there are FAR worse companies out there - what's your problem? I still know plenty of people that work there if you need help?

**CHAPEL END CHARLIE** · 29-06-2012, 07:35 AM

It took Virgin Media 4 months and numerous visits to deal with a very simple wiring fault on my land line, but that problem pales into insignificance compared to the aggravation I've experienced over the years surrounding the tiresome necessity of insuring a car. It has been my experience that this industry is without doubt the very worse offenders when it comes to poor/abysmal customer service. For just one example from many, the last time I changed my car not only was I was charged a outrageous £50 'admin fee' for next to no actual work, but the company concerned then decided to add insult to injury by posting urgently needed documents using a 2nd class stamp !

Car Insurance providers and wheel clamping company's = the last bastions of organised crime.

**Thedelldays** · 29-06-2012, 07:50 AM

3 mobile phone/broadband.

horrific customer service

**trousers** · 29-06-2012, 07:53 AM

pap - anything to add to this thread? [cough]Europcar[/cough]

**Glasgow_Saint** · 29-06-2012, 08:05 AM

BonVivant - horrible customer service

**Thedelldays** · 29-06-2012, 08:06 AM

Originally Posted by Glasgow_Saint

BonVivant - horrible customer service

Arnold clark (you should know these lot) are like blood hounds when you register an interest

**Glasgow_Saint** · 29-06-2012, 08:21 AM

Originally Posted by Thedelldays

Arnold clark (you should know these lot) are like blood hounds when you register an interest

95% of cars in Scotland have that stuuuupid yellow Arnie Clark sticker!!

**Petersfield Saint** · 29-06-2012, 08:26 AM

Originally Posted by Thedelldays

3 mobile phone/broadband.

horrific customer service

Yup, this - and Capital One gripped my sh** many years ago - utter bast***s.

Funnily enough, I've found Virgin Media to be ok - usually helpful if not very efficient. My biggest beef with them is over moving out of a cabled area into a non-cabled area and being forced to take their appalling ADSL service when I could have had BT Infinity. Ah, hindsight...

**Petersfield Saint** · 29-06-2012, 08:27 AM

Originally Posted by CHAPEL END CHARLIE

It took Virgin Media 4 months and numerous visits to deal with a very simple wiring fault on my land line, but that problem pales into insignificance compared to the aggravation I've experienced over the years surrounding the tiresome necessity of insuring a car. It has been my experience that this industry is without doubt the very worse offenders when it comes to poor/abysmal customer service. For just one example from many, the last time I changed my car not only was I was charged a outrageous £50 'admin fee' for next to no actual work, but the company concerned then decided to add insult to injury by posting urgently needed documents using a 2nd class stamp !

Car Insurance providers and wheel clamping company's = the last bastions of organised crime.

And agree with this, absolutely

**Thedelldays** · 29-06-2012, 08:49 AM

When I had virgin. It was hit and miss

If you got through to a UK call centre you were fine.

Got through to Bangalore. May as well give up

**Viking Warrior** · 29-06-2012, 09:04 AM

British Leyland

**dubai_phil** · 29-06-2012, 09:08 AM

Not relevant to you lot but still funny.

Pakistan International Airlines..

EU visitor - biz trip ignored the flights I told him to t ake - was sold tkt for non existent flight from Lahore to Dubai (we all were going via Karachi)
At airport he ws told to fly to Karachi & they took his (those days) paper ticket.
Land in Karachi - he has no paper tkt to Dubai - it's been used.

He has "discusion" gets all "irate" and then demands to see "PIA's Customer Service Office".

To which the answer was in a wonderful Punjabi wobbly head accent - "Oh no sir, this Pakistan, we not having Customer Service here".

Took him 3 days to get out and he spent one night on the floor in Karachi Airport...

Oh how we laughed

On topic NTL as was

**suewhistle** · 29-06-2012, 09:10 AM

Obviously no Ulster Bank customers here?

**eurosaint** · 29-06-2012, 09:21 AM

Sky !
It took them about 3 mins to increase my standing order when I upgraded to 3D !
It took them 5 months, (multiple e-mails and phone calls) to send me the £50 cash back which was promised as part of the deal !
Finally, no apology just a cheque in the post !

**The Cat** · 29-06-2012, 09:55 AM

I've never had any problems with Virgin and I've been with them for years.

Would have to say npower are pretty bad. They ballsed up our bill on more than one occassion and it took a long time and plenty of effort to get it sorted. I was glad when we left them.

In a job related role it was Harrods. Having to deal with them was a complete nightmare. They were always adamant they were the most important company we dealt with, despite the fact they were buying piddly amounts of product from us compared to others. Constantly hassling us over every single little thing and very arrogant with it.

**pap** · 29-06-2012, 10:14 AM

I'm a Virgin Media customer too. No real problems with my setup, but they messed me around when I was getting broadband installed in my old dear's place. Wanted it in for last Christmas, ordered in November - had one cancellation which I could live with - but when they gave me a January date I lost my crap with them. Just said I wasn't going to proceed with the order if they couldn't sort it. Uncancelled almost immediately

My recent experiences with Europcar have put them top of my list, though.

**Verbal** · 29-06-2012, 10:22 AM

Originally Posted by dubai_phil

Not relevant to you lot but still funny.

Pakistan International Airlines..

EU visitor - biz trip ignored the flights I told him to t ake - was sold tkt for non existent flight from Lahore to Dubai (we all were going via Karachi)
At airport he ws told to fly to Karachi & they took his (those days) paper ticket.
Land in Karachi - he has no paper tkt to Dubai - it's been used.

He has "discusion" gets all "irate" and then demands to see "PIA's Customer Service Office".

To which the answer was in a wonderful Punjabi wobbly head accent - "Oh no sir, this Pakistan, we not having Customer Service here".

Took him 3 days to get out and he spent one night on the floor in Karachi Airport...

Oh how we laughed

On topic NTL as was

Why was he moaning? If he survived the flight on PIA (known to all trembling passengers as 'Please Inform Allah') he's come out on top.

**ecuk268** · 29-06-2012, 10:22 AM

Originally Posted by The Cat

I've never had any problems with Virgin and I've been with them for years.

Likewise. Any faults have been quickly sorted and often had a follow-up call to "make sure everything's OK".

**Glasgow_Saint** · 29-06-2012, 10:24 AM

Is SWF a 'company'? I have had a few issues with them in the past

**Spudgun** · 29-06-2012, 10:36 AM

eBay are rubbish when you have problems & actually need to speak to someone real.

Vodafone are also poor unless you are lucky enough to speak to someone in the uk

**dubai_phil** · 29-06-2012, 10:41 AM

Originally Posted by Verbal

Why was he moaning? If he survived the flight on PIA (known to all trembling passengers as 'Please Inform Allah') he's come out on top.

Yeah. But he was an EU corporate type who had never left Europe before. He just could not get his head around the fact that some parts of the world aren't like Kansas.

You know you're in trouble when you board PIA and they put a prayer over the PA for God's Will to ensure that you land. Personally I'd prefer if they trained pilots to fly and mechanics to service them and have the Big Man as a back up rather than the other way around

Maybe that's why NTL are so bad.... They wait for the Man upstairs to do stuff with the cables?

**Gemmel** · 29-06-2012, 10:43 AM

Originally Posted by Glasgow_Saint

Is SWF a 'company'? I have had a few issues with them in the past

**Colinjb** · 29-06-2012, 10:46 AM

City Link

Often don't even bother turning up for item pick ups if its near the end of the working day. No consideration for their customer's needs and highly unprofessional.

**Verbal** · 29-06-2012, 11:37 AM

Originally Posted by dubai_phil

Yeah. But he was an EU corporate type who had never left Europe before. He just could not get his head around the fact that some parts of the world aren't like Kansas.

You know you're in trouble when you board PIA and they put a prayer over the PA for God's Will to ensure that you land. Personally I'd prefer if they trained pilots to fly and mechanics to service them and have the Big Man as a back up rather than the other way around

Maybe that's why NTL are so bad.... They wait for the Man upstairs to do stuff with the cables?

PIA will win hands down against NTL all day long. Try complaining about this:

http://www.historyofpia.com/acciphoto.htm

It was attributed to 'pilot error'. Aka, the pilot forgot to put the wheels down. Truly the world's worst airline.

**saint1977** · 29-06-2012, 11:39 AM

Virgin appearing here again is no surprise. Carphone Warehouse are a company that you really want to avoid on all counts. I've not ever been with 3 but their dreadful reputation goes before them. Having a lot of problems with South West Water at the moment and the train companies are often very poor. I'm certainly not against privatisation per se (some of them like electricity have worked well and increased competition) but whoever decided to privatise those two industries was a buffoon as consumers have no alternatives to switch (apart from driving which is a bit limited if you need to go from Devon to London regularly for work).

This is why the Coalition really need to make extending shareholder power to remove poorly performing senior managers a priority. As we've seen with Bob Diamond at Barclays, the fish usually rots from the head. No wonder the heads of large companies were lobbying for Beecroft, they knew the current round of exposure on their screw ups and misdeeds were coming. Good to see investors rather than 1970s style trade unionism finding its voice. Just need governors in educational establishments to start doing the same and ditch the dead sheep routine!

**toofarnorth** · 29-06-2012, 12:18 PM

Originally Posted by badgerx16

The Student Loans Company.

I was actually struggling to think of one before I saw this but you are 100% right. Awful.

**buctootim** · 29-06-2012, 12:36 PM

Originally Posted by Verbal

PIA will win hands down against NTL all day long. Try complaining about this:

http://www.historyofpia.com/acciphoto.htm

It was attributed to 'pilot error'. Aka, the pilot forgot to put the wheels down. Truly the world's worst airline.

When I was 19 I wanted a flight to Bangkok, no frills, just low price. Two airlines were about 30% cheaper than anybody else - PIA and Aeroflot. The travel agent (no web then) said Aeroflot (Soviet times) were rude, unhelpful and the food was bad - but they would get you there. PIA would fall out of the sky halfway and his conscience wouldnt allow him to sell anyone a ticket with them.

**Verbal** · 29-06-2012, 12:45 PM

Originally Posted by buctootim

When I was 19 I wanted a flight to Bangkok, no frills, just low price. Two airlines were about 30% cheaper than anybody else - PIA and Aeroflot. The travel agent (no web then) said Aeroflot (Soviet times) were rude, unhelpful and the food was bad - but they would get you there. PIA would fall out of the sky halfway and his conscience wouldnt allow him to sell anyone a ticket with them.

You were very well advised. Here's another example (among many, but one of my favourites). Landing in Turkey, one pilot says to the other: 'You take the landing'. The other one doesn't hear him. Therefore the plane lands with no one at the controls.

http://www.historyofpia.com/acciphoto2.htm

And yes, I have flown PIA and lived to tell the tale. Only once though, and never again.

**manji** · 29-06-2012, 12:49 PM

3 and Vigin Media are obvious but true and Apple. They get away with murder but because of the myths surrounding them are rarely challenged.

**Verbal** · 29-06-2012, 12:58 PM

Originally Posted by manji

3 and Vigin Media are obvious but true and Apple. They get away with murder but because of the myths surrounding them are rarely challenged.

I agree about Apple. I've had several run-ins with them, but there's a culture within the company that suggests not only that they can do no wrong, but their products are invariably so superior that any fault or damage must be the result of customer mishandling.

I once went into the Regent's Street branch to change a plug/adapter that had gone south after just eight months. Once I'd got to the front of an interminable queue, I was confronted by a 'Genius' (heaven knows, the arrogance of this title) who went into full meltdown because I was asking him - of all people - to exchange a plug.

**Jillyanne** · 29-06-2012, 04:08 PM

Scottish Power and Sky

**the colonel** · 29-06-2012, 04:12 PM

NTL.....awful.....then they became Virgin Media.,,,never got that far with them

**Crab Lungs** · 29-06-2012, 04:25 PM

Conversely... the best experience I have ever had was Virgin Media.

The worst was o2. Still angry they robbed me of over a grand today..

**St Marco** · 29-06-2012, 04:30 PM

BT.....

Took them three months to install a line in my new house. Then took £200 out of my account implying that for those three months the line was active (activation fee) and was the quarterly bill. After informing them of their fault they wouldn't give my money back!
Almost had to go to court to get them to give it to me. They decided to pay me the day before the hearing.

****ers

**manji** · 29-06-2012, 04:52 PM

Originally Posted by Verbal

I agree about Apple. I've had several run-ins with them, but there's a culture within the company that suggests not only that they can do no wrong, but their products are invariably so superior that any fault or damage must be the result of customer mishandling.

I once went into the Regent's Street branch to change a plug/adapter that had gone south after just eight months. Once I'd got to the front of an interminable queue, I was confronted by a 'Genius' (heaven knows, the arrogance of this title) who went into full meltdown because I was asking him - of all people - to exchange a plug.

If you have faulty Apple product you have to go in the store in West Quay and make an "appointment" because according to the smug "experts" in there most faults are user error ! God forbid that thier products have gone wrong.