Thetownend.com

Are you the complaining sort. I know most people will if their service is appallingly bad, but what about if it is just a bit shoddy?

Had a couple of bulbs go on the car so me and Mrs Audrey popped into Halfords bought the 2 bulbs and decided to pay another £12 to have Halfords fit them.

We were told to sit in a waiting area for the fella to fit them. We knew which member of staff was doing it and when another customer came in he bypassed us and went to fit something for the new customer.

Now, I didn't really give a fuck but Mrs Audrey took exception and took the fella to task about not serving us first. He was particularly disinterested and shrugged.

Bit of a red rag to a bull for Mrs Audrey who promptly told him the service was shite (my words not hers) which got the attention of some cheese in the store who quickly refunded our purchase and fitted the bulbs free of charge.

Good result. Must complain more often - or, more realistically, get Mrs Audrey to.

Halfords is fucking AIDS. Hate the place.

when it comes to face to face I am distinctly British at complaining, I.e. I don't very often.

the Mrs on the other hand... the look on a lot of waiters/waitresses faces when you tell them "no everything was not OK with my food"...

Some bellend in a restaurant overcooked my steak today, so much so that I left some of it. I am now really annoyed at myself for not saying something.

Happy Birthday FH.  Have a burnt steak on me.

If i deem to spend my hard earned cash on a "premium" lager, say Peroni, then at circa 4.20-4.50 per pint i expact it in a Peroni glass, as they are designed to enhance the drinking experience of the product, not some overwashed scabby struaght sleever. You'd be pissed off being served champagne in a slim half pint tumbler after all. As a rule the consumers in this country settle for farless than our contempories in the States.

Thanks  ;D

Never has a truer word been spoken


I'm not great at complaining when in restaurants - I always think that the replacement food will be seasoned with a rub round the staff urinal before being served. I'm more happy with being a keyboard complainer. 

Happy Birthday BR

I'm not normally a huge complainer, although when I get a bee in my bonnet I really let go..

My other half tends to be embarrassed..

..Maybe that's just being seen with me. Who knows..

I'd happily have a rant over the phone or in an email but when it comes face to face i normaly just let it go, unless its somethime major.

Space is finite, sometimes a bar will run out of clean peroni glasses as it's 'the lager to be seen with', they also lack a certain structural integrity and often break easily, of course people often steal them too.

It's illegal to serve in other branded glasses so there will always be a stash of regular glasses on hand as they can be used for anything and take up far less space than their non-stackable compatriot peroni glasses.  

We in the industry would love to be able to serve 100% of drinks to spec because most people take great pride in their profession, alas it is sometimes out of our control.  

I would always tell the customer first in the case you mention to give them the option of choosing something else, if this isn't happening that is a problem.


Always say something at the time mate, I actually quite like dealing with complaints as I believe in people getting what they pay for and I like it when an otherwise unhappy customer leaves happy.

It's way more preferable for restaurants to deal with things straight away rather than face a bad review after a customer who has said nothing during their visit subsequently puts something on trip advisor for examlple.  If the restaurant deals with your complaint badly then take them to the cleaners on TA.

Also tell them it's your birthday, often a free desert or glass of prosecco can be comp'd.  Don't take advantage though...

No, no, no. This is a rant thread. Any more of this nonsense and you're gone!

 I always complain, especially when it comes to beer/wine/cider/lager etc.  Pay enough for the stuff so expect a decent product, similarly complain in restaurants. Although the posher the place, the more likely I am to complain.

 

I both complain and praise where required.  Utility companies have a tendency to feel my wrath, as has the Council in the past.
I've got a few entire family meals comp'd in the past due to shoddy service - I usually snap if it takes too long for the bill to be honest.  I'm fine with waiting for food (it needs cooking is my take) but I expect someone to check in for drinks and just generally engage with us.
I happily tip 20% on occasion as well and provide feedback where possible on good service.

As an aside, if Halfords has AIDS, then tripadvisor has the bad AIDS.

You 'paid' someone £12 to fit your bulbs?! Are you a man or a mouse? Seriously. I wouldn't touch Halfords with a barge pole.

I still can't believe someone would pay £12 to fit light bulbs!

worth every penny on the drivers side bulb on mine. no more scraped to fuck knuckles. let hlafords girly hands man do it.

actually I let the bloke with the home garage do mine, and he doesn't charge 12, but I'm not ashamed.

It must be a right kerfuffle pulling of the plastic covering and what not. Fuck that, I'd gladly pay 12 quid to spare myself from the hassle.

modern car design. they seem to not want users to replace them. every other car I've had was a piece of piss. this one is a fucker for space

some cars mechanics have been known to drop the bumper just to replace a sodding headlight bulb

I've had 3 really crap customer service experiences recently. One in Boots, one in Sainsburys, one in Argos. Decided to complain about them all

Boots REALLY impressed me - store manager ran me to discuss the problems. Asked me to make myself known next time I was in the shore which I did - she talked through how shed dealt with the problem then put £10 of points on my card

Sainsburys wrote me a letter and sent a gift card

Argos did nothing!

Just take all of their tiny pens

The blue ones? Do they still have those blue ones?

Tom you're right of course and trust me i will and do so. However, sometimes you do not talways get the chamce to see if your "premium" drink is being dispensed into another drinking receptical.

Seriously? It's a fucking glass. Get over yourself.

EDIT: that's a smiley, amused "Get over yourself" btw, not an angry shouty one. But really ... it's a fucking glass

Yes, despite having automated ordering and payment, you still get the joy of flicking through a (laminated) catalogue and then writing out the number before going all new fangled.  You then still get the 5 minute stare off with the bemused looking member of staff under a big A, B or C.  You don't have to be a consultant to identify some process improvement opportunities really, but the pens are a literal little perk we can all still take away.

It's all coming back to me now, it's as though I was there yesterday.

There was a relatively small time musician who produced three music videos about his complaint to United Airlines - they broke his guitar and did an Argos to JFW.

Same opinion when it comes to food, I vote with my feet by not going there again, plenty more to choose from. I think Arriba said the same thing when he found a plaster in his kebab.

If it comes to clothes, hardware etc. no way, get them to replace/fix it or give them a bad review. Dabs replaced my speakers in 24 hours after telling me it would take a month, after one bad review.

Ah, you obviously haven't been into the new Argos within Homebase at the Orbital.  No laminated catalogues, it's all computerised.  They must have had pens and order forms, but I didn't notice as was collecting an item I'd reserved already.

The service in there was pretty shambolic to be honest.  I had to draw attention to the fact my item had been brought out and left at the side of the till while the lad on it proceeded to dish out items to people who had come in after me.

Sweet Jesus. The thought of a kebab alone turns my stomach but that's beyond.

I never complain really. I don't think it's politeness, more cowardice. On the occasion I do though I think a company can make a far bigger impression by dealing with a mistake properly than not making mistakes at all.

Again, please do complain, most of us want to do things the right way.  If I get a food complaint I take it to the kitchen and watch as they make it again (I am management so not often running a section myself so can find the time to do this if I want to ensure you get what you expected in the first place).  Always speak to management, if your waiter/waitress checks back and all is not well tell them and say you'd like to speak to management, the waiting staff can then continue make sure other customers in their section are well imbibed and being served as they also expect.  Managers are usually able to shift attention to wherever it is needed most at any given moment.

Nothing bad is going to happen to your food, we all go out to eat ourselves and while we're maybe a little more lenient we expect to be treated right when on the other end so will understand if you have legitimate complaints.

I take an enormous pride in the product and service I and my team deliver and I know some don't so I can well sympathise that sometimes service isn't what it should be.

Unfortunately the professional complainers make the staff suspicious even when there is a genuine gripe. People deliberately complain about accommodation e.g. hotel rooms to get upgraded because the punters know they have the upper hand. But it is to the detriment of us 'honest' people who very occasionally have a genuine issue but we get lumped in with chancers; shame on them. That's why I don't complain (often).

There was a fella complaining about his Peroni getting served in a bog standard glass in the Legends last season.

Was it you?

Never understood the Peroni popularity, it's tasteless, overpriced, and generally seen in the hands of wankers (a proportion of which are my mates)

My Dominoes Pizza was burnt, and on a very thin base this week. Did I complain. Nope. Why? Cos I was hungry.

They now have something called fast track, whereby you order and pay online. You then pop to the fast track counter and state your code to pick up your goods. It would have been great for me, except when I arrived the staff member looked a bit confused to start with. No worries,  all explained and processed. Then, the wait. After five minutes I asked where it was. More confusion, the bod out the back had forgotten / gone on a break etc. Another five minutes passed and it finally arrived. I did ask why it was called fast track when for me it probably would have been quicker to queue and pay. I did suggest the name slow track, but nothing more was said and I left the shop with my purchase in hand.

I remember that post. I thought he had a point as i'm the same and not alone in that instamce.

The Woodlands Edge by me charge top prices for Stella, Heineken and San Mig. If you get served in some bog standard glasses it does alter the flavour and gassiness of the drink. In fact i had a Heineken recently and they poured into a Carlsberg glass because they had no Heineken glasses in this instance they found the Carlsberg glasses had the same effect as the genuine Heineken ones, i did not ask for it they offered after finding out themselves. No other non Heineken galsses did this though so there is some scienece behind it. My missus even got served a glass of wine in a tumbler because they had no wine glasses not to long ago FFS. Lets be fair, as i pointed out, serving a drink in the appropriate glass is just a bog standard expectation and the prices charged can be eye watering. If anyone is prepared to put up with shit service and shoddy products that's what you'll get and fine by me, but you shouldn't expect everyone else to adhere to that doctrine.

On the flip side last year in Florida we had dinner in Wolfgang Pucs in downtown Disney, suposedly and "upscale" eatery. I ordered a starter and the wife and nipper just a main. All the mains came out when i was half way through my starter. My God, the fuss they made was embaressing even for me. They took my mains away apologising profusely. When mine came back after i was ready they scratched it off the bill ($30), offered us any drinks we wanted and free deserts!!!

The only thing I don't like drinking out of is a pint mug. Can't believe bars still use them.

Are you a slow eater?  :)

There you go you toff. You'll be getting all gentrified if you carry on. I remember you only got those Dalek type pint mugs in the Brunel Rooms, harder to glass someone i suppose....

No fuck off they were out like a flash trust me. That's a flash not The Flash.

I remember years ago we played Kettering away in the FA Cup. We were in a social club of some sort when a load of Northampton fans stormed in. One of those pint mugs got chucked, luckily missed everyone, and ended up embedded in a dart board.

I would like to add I frequently tell companies when people have given me good customer service too!

Sounds like a load of old cobblers.

The social club next to the ground? I had just parked up  outside there when a pool ball came flying out of the window. Did you throw it?   Close game mind.

Close game? Twas 7-0 twernt it

Twas!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1ujeTkTNg0