I can’t even count how many hours I’ve spent in the past year arguing about some BS charge, trying to get something repaired under warranty, or even trying to redeem an valid coupon that was sent to me. I’ve reached a point where I’m exhausted in trying to fight these kinds of things but I feel like I can’t just let any of it go. Sometimes I wish I could hire a Karen, it would be 100% worth it.
Sam’s Club. We cancelled our membership and they still charged us. I called the main customer service number and told them to reverse the charge, or I would reverse it for them. They got all pissy and claimed they could only speak to my wife, who wasn’t available, despite the fact that my card was the one charged. Then they started getting insulting, and claimed my bank wouldn’t reverse the charge. I ask to speak to someone higher up, and politely explain the situation again, complete with my cancellation email, and the supervisor is even ruder than the first person. I then called the local store, and thankfully the person there wasn’t an asshole. They pulled up the account, saw it was cancelled on the date I said, and quickly refunded the charge. I have no idea why Sam’s Club customer service is the way they are, but they can eat a bag of dicks.
Sennheiser. 500 euro headphones broken after only 3 years. It was the fanciest one in the store, but I really needed it.
I tried to get it fixed at various repair shops. No one dared to touch it, I suppose due to some legal reasons. So I ended up sending it to Sennheiser themselves. Got a letter back that it was unrepairable. IIRC I had to pay around 150 euro just for that.
When I asked them to send it back so I could have a look on my own, they said they couldn’t because what would be the point. Finally they did after reminding them that it was still my property to do with as I please. Keep in mind that I even offered 500 euro to get it fixed. No need to waste resources if you ask me, and it has some sentimental value.
I didn’t know anything about electric circuits and I managed to fix it on my own. It just needed a new wire from one side to the other for the battery. I’ve been using it for years now and it works fine again. Apparently the wire they used wasn’t particularly strong.
And I’ve always bought all my headphones from them.
Fuck Sennheiser.
They also like to use proprietary cable-jacks which is annoying and unnecessary.
Even the 560s which uses a standard 2.5mm jack also requires a proprietary locking mechanism
Oh yes I remember I lost the cable and had to buy a new one. It was quite tricky to find.
PayPal. Oh god, PayPal. They shut down my account over a misunderstanding (from their end), and did nothing but spam me with pre-written corpospeak every time I begged to talk to a person. I would send a ticket explaining EXACTLY what happened and I would get the same copy-pasted response from the human representative that literally ignores everything I said and says now that my account is flagged, I should stop using Paypal and there’s nothing I can do about it.
I’m not kidding, that was the response they kept sending me. If your Paypal account gets tagged as suspicious they literally tell you to bugger off and stop bothering them. I’ve never seen anything like it.
After a few weeks of insulting and attacking them they finally decided I was more trouble than it’s worth, allowed me to close my account and make a new one. It only took like 10 tickets of getting the same pre-written “good luck trying another service” response. By far the worst company I’ve had the displeasure of dealing with, but unfortunately I need it for work.
This is also a good place to say, never store any money on your PP account. This isn’t an uncommon story, if you look on Google there are tons of cases of people getting locked out of their account for virtually no reason.
I had a $200 gift card to Google Play that came with a Samsung TV. I redeemed the card and wasn’t spending the balance very quickly. Next time I checked, the balance was gone. I contacted Google support and they tried to tell me there was never any credit on the account to begin with. They tried to get me to contact Samsung. I asked them why Samsung would have information on my Google Play balance after putting a Google Play-branded giftcard on my Google Play account (never got an answer to that). After multiple escalations, they finally told the balance was either zeroed for inactivity or expired (it had been a year-ish). I received no warnings, no notices in change of terms (this info wasn’t on the gift card), nothing. All the credit was just gone one day.
I requested clarification/explanation (including a copy of their gift card expiration policy) but they simply stopped responding to emails. The whole process took over a month.
It’s become worse dealing with Google over these play cards since covid. They shut down all phone support. I made 13 attempts to get a $100 card deemed with them and I got all kinds of reasons why I couldn’t redeem the card by email despite providing the receipt, card and codes and my utility bills. I even called other departments within google to try to get it fixed. Nothing.
I wasted way more of my time on principle. It happens quite often I read online for many people.
I think Google should be barred from selling these cards. There’s no recourse and they keep the money. It’s a racket and there’s no way to recover the money unless you pay by credit card with a charge back. Those that used cash or debit are out the money as there are no refunds from the store.
Ebay, by far!
In 2020 my account got locked for suspicious activities, I got it unblocked and it got blocked again after 1 login. I called them again and told them what happened. Basically, they said that if you log in with literally any privacy respecting browser (Librewolf in my case), your account gets immediately locked and you have to call them, you must use Chrome, Firefox (without antifingerprinting) or any other “normal” browser. So I stopped using ebay (their loss really) but I didn’t close the account since I couldn’t log in.
In September 2021 the account got hacked (I used the same password on multiple sites, one of them got hacked and the password ended up in a public database), it was used to pull some GPU scam and I ended up getting billed for 135€. Obviously I called the bank and blocked the transaction, then I called ebay to explain the situation. They said they would lock the account and mark it as hacked and not to worry about the 135€.
A few months later I get a call from a debt collecting company! They want the 135€. I explained the situation again, and they said to call ebay. So I call these idiots again and they said they would contact the collectors to explain that the account was hacked and not to bother me again. A few weeks later, the collectors call me again! Ebay did not provide any evidence that the account was hacked. So once again, I called ebay and this time I finally had the “debt” cancelled and the account closed.
Fast forward to June 2023, and I really need to buy something from ebay (old and rare PC part). Thinking that by now they would have improved their detection systems, I create an account and log in. Motherfuck. It gets locked immediately.
This time, the experience is even worse. The support page keeps redirecting me infinitely between the italian and english versions instead of giving me a phone number. Eventually I find it on google and call them. I ask them to unlock the goddamn account and they say they can’t because they can’t verify my identity since. At this point, I’m feeling Karen’s wrath running through my body and ask to speak to a manager. They transfer me to some guy who doesn’t even speak italian. I explain the situation and after nearly a hour of wasted time he unlocks the account and I can buy the item. I don’t dare try to log in with that account again.
Never again, fuck you ebay.
Sprint. My mom and I moved across country. Before we left we signed a new contract. This was in 2005 when they had some sort of guarantee on service. We get out here and our phones have no service at our residence. They have a tech drive by and confirms we had no signal. They wouldn’t do shit for us. I think it ended up going to collections.
As close to verbatim as possible, calling to the former eletric supplier we used.
“Good morning, ny name is XYZ and I need a clarification for the invoice you just sent. My account number is 123 and the address is ABC.”
“Thank you. Please wait a moment.”
5 minutes later, without notice I’m transfered to another department.
“What seems to be the problem with the invoice?”
“After reading it, I have found it was issued based on calculated numbers. My meter is already online.”
“I am afraid you are mistaken; we have no readings from your meter for the last 6 months.”
“I have just disconnected from the power distributor service line and was informed my meter has been online and registering the energy used for the last year.”
“I apologize but that is incorrect.”
“I am checking my customer area at the distributor as we speak and I have information the online date for this location is XPTO; the company has not been issuing invoices based on real numbers for some reason I do not know and I would appreciate an explanation.”
p.s. I am not confrontational with call center workers; I worked at one for a short time and it was a rotten work environment for the most. I was miffed but making my best to be polite.
“I must insist that information is incorrect. Our invoices are firm and issued according to an algorithm calculation for expected consumion based on client history.”
“Right. Would it be possible to have a complaint issued to have this matter evaluated?”
“Considering the information provided, there is no basis to present a complaint. I also notice the next invoice is due in 8 days. I remind you that the late payment will incur in penalties. Can I be of any further assistance?”
I thanked and ended the call, after which I started the transfer of my contract to another vendor, while submitting a complaint by the public complaint book, that is supervised by a regulatory organism.
After 4 weeks, I was returned a good chunk of change and was bombarded with calls to evaluate my satisfaction with the conpany and inquire my interest in moving back to them.
Nah, I’m good.
I was wondering if this was Australia. I’ve heard of issues with smart meters and the issue is annoyingly complex as the information they get from the AEMO isn’t always correct.
Source: Have worked in the energy utilities sector in the past…
Europe.
The meters run fine and there has been a push from the distributor to make the entire network digital as they have been eating huge fines for not guaranteeing timely readings. The last one was more than €20 millions, to be returned to the consumers.
This particular situation was due to laziness and a sense of dominance the company has, because it is the oldest and most well known in the market. They can treat people in the worst fashion that their customer base won’t leave them; it’s a mix of Stockholm syndrome and a well put together slander campaign of every other energy retailer in the market.
Comcast is always terrible for me. (Recent got a fiber company into our neighborhood and couldn’t drop them fast enough) Waiting for like 45 minutes, getting somebody who can’t do anything, often having the call dropped. It’s not technically the fault of the employees, although they chose to work as such a terrible company, but they’re just given like 1% of an ability to do anything to help anyone.
A decade ago I moved into a house and tried to get the whole home dvr thing that was new at the time. It took like 4 calls before we got what we wanted. It was terrible. When I got the chance to move to a local isp I jumped. Other than it mightve taken them longer to restoring our residence after some idiot took out the line. It’s the second time it’s happened. Which is weird. Comcast was faster but they probably have more techs they fan throw at the problem. The first time the idiot left a trail of destruction down the road.
Just canceled Comcast after about 10 years. Recently moved, and after a month of difficulties getting my account transferred and losing my discounts I wanted to rollover due to salesman incompetence, I finally talked to someone who seemed ready to finish fixing everyone’s mess. I end the call with a sigh of relief, only to get an email a few minutes later with the wrong address on my account. The idiot was helping two customers at once and mixed us up. After a few more days of long calls, someone sorts it out and decides to order me a streaming box I explicitly said I didn’t want. Turns out, if you don’t plug in the streaming box, they’ll force you to return it, and if you don’t return it, they bill you for the BOX THEY GAVE ME FOR FREE. I try to return it online, but I can’t, in fact, the online portal says I have no equipment under my account. Why? Because the streaming box is still mixed up in an account I don’t have at the other address. Whatever, I can cancel and move on with my life. Within two weeks of canceling, they sold my email to a bunch of scammers, and I know it was them because the email was unique for Comcast.
