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Oncefallen

Idiot in Chief
Staff member
Jan 15, 2011
6,029
3,240
113
#1
your worst (or best) experiences with businesses.

All of us at one time or another have had an unusually good, or outrageously horrendous experience with a business.

Tell us about them.
 
S

Sully

Guest
#2
I just had an event with my Jeep transmission. A friend recommended a mechanic. Now I know nothing about transmissions, but this guy had me describe the symptoms over the phone and said, "sounds like the clutch, probably be around $760 bucks and a week in the garage". So I had it towed down to his shop, two days later the job was done perfectly for $729. I'm still in shock. Was expecting a call back that it was the entire tranny and I would have to do without the Jeep for two weeks with a cost of $1500. Hope in humanity restored and intact.
 
Aug 2, 2009
24,574
4,262
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#3
^^That reminds me of the guy we take our vehicles to. I had my car towed because I was sure the throttle cable had snapped and so the gas pedal was completely dead. He called me and said it was just a broken plastic grommet that holds the cable to the pedal. He said he checked a second grommet on the other end of the cable and it was still fine. Only charged me to replace the grommet. I love that guy! He happens to be an old japanese guy and he reminds me of Mr. Miyagi from the original Karate Kid. :D
 

Lynx

Folksy yet erudite
Aug 13, 2014
24,799
8,103
113
#4
Once upon a time, many years ago I worked at a Taco Bell. This of course made me not want to eat tacos for supper so I would go across the way to Long John Silver's. (This was many years ago remember, when I was woefully uneducated in all gustatory matters.)

One night I went there and it took forever to get my order. In fact by the time I got my food, I had only five minutes to scarf down what I could. I had to pop a bite here and there after I clocked back in. But there were two things I noticed that night that impressed me.

They impressed me so much, in fact, that I called LJS up the next day (at a time when I knew they would not be busy) and asked to speak to the manager. I told the manager that I was there the night before and heard the employees mention that three people had called in sick that night. I mentioned that service was understandably slow, but I was impressed by the attitude the remaining employees had. Of course I couldn't speak for the people back in the kitchen, but the ones I could see where all doing their best and maintaining a calm and cheerful attitude as best they could under the circumstances. I said I would be glad for any of them to be my coworkers and if the manager could give them a bonus or a free meal or something he should.

Fast food factories are hectic and the only customer feedback they get is complaints. Sometimes it's nice to give someone a compliment when it's well deserved. And they deserved it.
 

Lynx

Folksy yet erudite
Aug 13, 2014
24,799
8,103
113
#5
Hmm, two people mentioned cars... We have a pretty good mechanic here. He's also a trustworthy guy, a good man to have as a good mechanic.

Recently I took him my car and gave him a laundry list of things I wanted done to it, in order from most urgent to least urgent. I said "This is what I want done and this is how much money I have to spend on it. Start at the top of the list and go down until you run out of money."

That's something you can't do with every mechanic... but as I said, this is a guy we can trust. :D

Only thing is, he's always really busy. He works long hours and it's still hard to get a car in his schedule. The only problem with knowing a good mechanic is that too many other people know he's a good mechanic.
 

Oncefallen

Idiot in Chief
Staff member
Jan 15, 2011
6,029
3,240
113
#6
I'm surprised that everyone has posted about positive business experiences since statistically people are more likely to share negative business experiences by far more than positive.


 

Lynx

Folksy yet erudite
Aug 13, 2014
24,799
8,103
113
#7
Yeah, tell me about it! As I said, the only feedback they usually get is complaints.
 
Jan 24, 2009
1,601
31
48
#8
your worst (or best) experiences with businesses.

All of us at one time or another have had an unusually good, or outrageously horrendous experience with a business.

Tell us about them.
I had a barber for maybe 15 years that could recognize my voice over the phone.

I'd get there for the appointment and would get a by-name greeting.

I'd sit in the chair & he'd ask if I wanted the same kind of cut as usual.

Then he'd start talking baseball - a game we both enjoy - and the haircut would seem like it lasted less than 5 minutes.

I think haircuts were about $5.50 when I first going to him. When he retired, they were something like $9.50.
 
Jan 24, 2009
1,601
31
48
#9
I'm surprised that everyone has posted about positive business experiences since statistically people are more likely to share negative business experiences by far more than positive.
people are more likely to share negative business experiences by far Only on comment cards on location or through company website feedback. :p
 

Lynx

Folksy yet erudite
Aug 13, 2014
24,799
8,103
113
#10
I'm surprised that everyone has posted about positive business experiences since statistically people are more likely to share negative business experiences by far more than positive.


Now that I have thought about it, I think the reason I remember the positive ones more than the negative ones is because with the positive ones I make a mental note to go back there.
 
D

DCrawshawJr

Guest
#11
Want to make a lending company smile? Pay your bills on time.

I'm still paying off my student loans (I pray victory comes soon), and I've noticed that any time I was having trouble paying, they would always help me out. One lender called me "one of their best customers". I'm not trying to brag at all; I just wanted to share how weird it is that actually paying your bills on time makes you "one of their best customers".

Another example: A lady that helps service one loan beams a big smile when I come in with a check.
 
D

DCrawshawJr

Guest
#12
Oh, and props to my mechanic! Seriously...
 
Jul 27, 2016
458
7
0
#13
your worst (or best) experiences with businesses.

All of us at one time or another have had an unusually good, or outrageously horrendous experience with a business.

Tell us about them.
Dealing with Man United e-ticketing, trying to buy tickets online to watch the football games.

They are HORRIBLE, my worst experience, there is always something. Last year I was an official member and paid £40 for the year to be an official member. As an official member, you'd expect some benefits over regular people because you're paying extra. Then my team went into the final of the FA Cup and I thought I'd like to go see them play. But because I hadn't been to watch the team play over a certain amount times that year, I wasn't even allowed to apply fr tickets. Talk about awkward, paying extra you expect better service, not to be told "oh you're not good enough for us".

And that's not all... they tried to auto-renew my membership to them for the next year by direct debit. I said "no" and they STILL tried to process my money WITHOUT my consent. I had to ring them up and tell them in the end, and they gave me my money back.

Tried to buy tickets a few weeks ago to watch a game, because I am not an official member anymore I wasn't allowed to buy. Only official members were allowed to buy tickets, the general public weren't allowed.

Then about a week ago, they made the game eligable for the general public to get tickets, you didn't have to be a member to get tickets for a certain game. So I tried to buy a ticket for it last week, but they told me that they wouldn't sell me the ticket because I was a "new client". This made NO SENSE as they STILL to this day send me marketing promotions through the post to advertise tickets for games and to try to encourage me to become an official member again. I had no problems with buying a ticket in October (which is in the same season as this game would be) so don't understand why I am a "new client" and why wouldn't be allowed to buy it.

A pain in the backside, I LOVE the football club and the team, always have, but their ticketing and financial department is a NIGHTMARE to deal with.
 
W

wwjd_kilden

Guest
#14
Bad experience: Telenor (Norwegian phone/ internet company)
I called because our router was down. They told me to restart it. I told them I had and it didn't work. They told me to do it again. I did, still didn't work. They told me they couldn't do anything else....


Good experience:
A while back I had Northon antivirus (shudder!). It came preloaded, but I couldn't get it to set up properly.
After about two months, I contacted customer service. Once they had fixed it, they gave me a one- year full subscription for free, to "make up for" the two months without :D
 

Lynx

Folksy yet erudite
Aug 13, 2014
24,799
8,103
113
#15
Ah yes, the phone company! I can contribute a negative experience after all.

Once upon a time I had CenturyTel (tm) internet through the home phone line. The connection was fast when it was there, but it was about as stable as words written on water. At the time I was a moderator on an apostolic chatroom and there were times when I really needed to be there to monitor... and the connection would vanish for anywhere between 5 and 25 minutes at a time. Every time I called their tech support in the faint hope they would actually fix the problem. Every time they insisted on going through the same initial script - reboot computer, reboot modem, no help, access modem and look at settings, no help, seems the problem is at the main server downtown. No kidding, just like the last thirty times.

The last time I called their tech support I explained the chat moderator thing and said, "Look if you were me and you needed a sure-fire, never-fail, always-there, dependable connection, what would you do?" You know what their tech support said? "Well I'd probably get one of those AT&T usb clips."

When THEIR OWN TECH SUPPORT recommends the competition... it's time for this rat to jump ship. I switched to an AT&T data account hotspotting from my phone and never looked back.

I was visiting my mother in east Tennessee in February and she was having trouble with CenturyLink internet (new name, same company, same problems.) She spent more than an hour on the phone before they would send somebody out to fix the problem. So these two guys finally came out and "fixed" it and it still didn't work when they were done. Another two calls and about two hours on the phone and they sent out another guy who actually knew what he was doing. At last report Mom's internet is still working... for now. Heaven help her if it messes up again.
 
Aug 2, 2009
24,574
4,262
113
#16
I'm surprised that everyone has posted about positive business experiences since statistically people are more likely to share negative business experiences by far more than positive.


I think my mind has blocked out all the negative ones.. :rolleyes: I know there have been some, just can't remember what they were..