Bad customer service or just bad customers.

Money-Saving-King

DevilsAdvocate1 wrote: »

I tried to return a faulty pushchair once. I didn't have the receipt though I did have the credit card slip which proved I'd spent £220 in the store 3 weeks before. I didn't want a refund, I just wanted an exchange as I'd had it 3 weeks and one of the wheels had fallen off.

Anyway, the staff member said the same as you - that I couldn't prove I'd purchased the pushchair from there so they couldn't do anything. So I asked her if she was saying that I had stolen it. I then pointed to the pushchair on the display where a large sign said "New design, exclusive to xxxx" (where xxxx was the store name).

I was very polite throughout the process but I think the staff member thought this meant I could be walked over. It was only when I became angry (when she implied I must have stolen it) that the manager came over. I explained that it was embarrassing in a busy store that it had been implied I was a thief. At this point I was given a full refund in cash (I only wanted an exchange). I never shopped at this brand of store again despite having 2 more children. Prior to this I had been spending around £200 a month there.

So I don't agree that being polite always works. Sometimes they think you will be a pushover.

Could you not have politely pointed out the sign? I still don't see how anger was needed for a result. This easily could have been done calmly as well. It basically seems the sign actually solved the problem not you getting angry.

DevilsAdvocate1

CHRISSYG wrote: »

The card numbers aren't the same at all .The account info if its on there will obviously be the same but the "long" number certainly isn't.

We have credit cards with 2 companies and with both of these we each have a card. I just checked the credit cards that my husband and I have and the long numbers are identical. So are the 3 digits on the back. This is with both types of credit card (one is a visa, the other is a mastercard) The only difference between the two cards are the name at the bottom and the signature on the back.

I am sitting here with the four cards in front of me and can assure you that for each account my card and my husband's card have the same long number.

DevilsAdvocate1

Money-Saving-King wrote: »

Could you not have politely pointed out the sign? I still don't see how anger was needed for a result. This easily could have been done calmly as well. It basically seems the sign actually solved the problem not you getting angry.

I was really calm and really nice when we first arrived. The staff member was very rude and I think it was because I was young and polite. I did point out the sign in a calm manner but when she maintained that she couldn't do anything as I had no proof I asked her if she was calling me a thief as where else could I have bought the pushchair from? At this point I asked to see the manager and had to be quite forceful in doing this as she did not want the manager involved.

It was only when a queue was building behind me and she finally realised I was not going to move that the manager was called. When I explained the situation (calmly but with a firm tone) she realised how upset I was and offered to give me the cash. The whole process from me first arriving in the store with the broken pushchair took 2 hours. None the wonder I was not calm at the end :rotfl:A lot of this 2 hours was dealing with the first member of staff who I think thought I would back down.

DevilsAdvocate1

geerex wrote: »

I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you're just very trusting, and not totally naive.

It's an anti fraud measure. Here's how it works:
Suppose you're skint and need cash fast. The only option you have is withdrawing from a credit card, but it's expensive and could affect your credit rating. Why not buy something in a shop with said credit card, then refund that transaction onto your debit/atm card? You'll still owe the credit card company the money, but it won't be a cash advance and in the meantime you'll have some available funds on your debit card. .. Not a heinous crime by any means, but certainly against both the cc company and merchant terms.

Next up, we have the stolen/cloned/cardholder not present transactions. These are all variations on a theme, but the guts are the same. Criminal "buys" goods on a stolen/cloned card, luckily for him, it's not been reported so the card hasn't been stopped. The sophisticated types may know the PIN (maybe through an atm hidden camera etc), or may convince the retailer to put the transaction through with a signature. A couple of days later, criminal (or accomplice) goes back in to store and has refund put on another card which they can use to withdraw cash.

There are many other permutations of this sort of thing, without the merchant banks insistence, it would be incredibly easy for criminals to commit fraud or launder money.

(Above explanation is by no means exhaustive).

Whilst it may not make sense to you, this is why retailers insist on refunding to not only the same person named on the card, but the same card NUMBER (not sort code/account but long number across middle). Both these criteria must be satisfied to comply with their merchant terms.

I guess I'm just trusting as scenario 1 would never occur to me. Mind, I hardly ever use cash. I tend to just use cards these days as very few places don't take them.

But with your second scenario, both my husband's card and mine have the same long number across the middle. Shops don't keep a copy of the name of the person doing the transaction, so if my husband buys an item using his card, you would not know if I then returned it using mine. The issue comes when I don't have my card on me, so my husband gives me his. The numbers match, but if I sign using my signature they don't match. I guess we should both use a squiggle type signature and then it would not be obvious.

Viberduo

Linegeist wrote: »

How many times have you telephoned a CS number to be immediately greeted by the stock phrase, “Sorry, but we’re currently experiencing unusually high call volumes……”? What, every time I ring you??
Its sheer ubiquity makes me suspect that this phrase simply a euphemism for “We don’t actually have enough call centre staff because we’d have to pay for more – so you’ll just have to jolly well wait”.

Having worked in call centers I say this is true, what happens is you get times of year that are obviously bad i.e Easter, Christmas etc and instead of hiring more staff they just say you cannot take a holiday in these times as they know they are busy and let staff take holidays in quiet times of year(which is a problem in itself as they have a set limit on availability of time off so people lose their allowance)

What ends up happening is you get days where you are swamped and other days when you may get next to no calls so the bosses quota staff around this so on a day which is quiet they have less staff on so the customer still is in a queue the same amount of time, yet the bosses keep cutting back on call handling times because of this and you get assessed on performance.

I can understand the basics of cutting costs but instead of having slightly more staff than needed they seem to go for the bare minimum if not less as a queue is more acceptable than instant call answering and having higher costs.

System

DevilsAdvocate1 wrote: »

We have credit cards with 2 companies and with both of these we each have a card. I just checked the credit cards that my husband and I have and the long numbers are identical. So are the 3 digits on the back. This is with both types of credit card (one is a visa, the other is a mastercard) The only difference between the two cards are the name at the bottom and the signature on the back.

I am sitting here with the four cards in front of me and can assure you that for each account my card and my husband's card have the same long number.

in over 20 yrs and various accounts myself and my oh have never had cards with the same numbers.

Jo_F

CHRISSYG wrote: »

found the perfect stress antidote :coffee::coffee::coffee: and plenty of it !

We get plenty of it, it just would be nice to have a warm one occasionally

System

Jo_F wrote: »

We get plenty of it, it just would be nice to have a warm one occasionally

same here ! LOL

Fosterdog

Another good one today.

Customer: I want a refund on this printer
Me: OK, what's the problem with it? Maybe I can help you sort it
Customer: It doesn't print A3
Me: No it is an A4 printer, it's not supposed to print in A3
Customer: But I need an A3 printer, I want a refund so I can buy one
Me: How long have you had it?
Customer: About six months
Me: Unfortunately I won't be able to offer a refund on the printer but I can show you our range of A3 printers
Customer: No you're not listening to me, I want a refund, this printer is no good to me
Me: I understand that but as it is six months old and used I won't be able to offer a refund
Customer: But it's not fit for purpose, I need an A3 printer
Me: But you have used it for the last six months
Customer: Yes but I didn't need to print A3 then, I do now
Me: So did you buy this thinking it was an A3 model?
Customer: No, but I didn't need to print A3 then, I do now so this one is no good. It's not fit for purpose so you have to refund me.
Me: This printer is fit for purpose, it was never sold as an A3 printer, it is an A4 printer and that is exactly what it does.
Customer: But it's not fit for my purpose
Me: That's because your needs have change, the printer does exactly what it should
Customer: Fine, I'm going to take this further

An hour later, same guy comes in, sees my colleague who I had already told about what happened earlier and he recognised him.

Customer: My printer is faulty, I want a refund
My Colleague: How old is the printer?
Customer: Six months and it's stopped working
My Colleague: What I can do is get this one booked in for repair, what is the fault?
Customer: I don't want it repaired, I want my money back
My Colleague: We don't refund faulty printers that are this old, we book them in with the manufacturer and they either repair them or swap with a reconditioned unit, it's a 48 hour turnaround for a swap over or 5-7 days for a repair.
Customer: I'm not interested, I just want my money
My Colleague: Well you still haven't told me what's wrong, sometimes we can sort issues in store, what's not working?
Customer: It won't print so I want my money back
My Colleague: let me just turn it on and check some setting, these things can be very simple, the printheads may just need cleaning
Customer: No I don't want you to turn it on, are you calling me a liar, I want my money
My Colleague: In that case there is no more I can do for you today
Customer: you are criminals, you think you can steal my money, get me your manager.

At this point the manager came over and the guy said he wanted all the staff sacked and we have no idea how to run a business and he's going to make sure we are sorted out for what we've done to him.

I'd love to say this was a one off but not a week goes by without a similar sort of scenario.

rustyboy21

Just don't stand near any windows in the shop Fosterdog. I got shot at through the window, when someone said they were going to take it further !