Thank you for advancing the "MegaCorp" meme.

MegaCorp loves you.

Nestles bought Ovaltine and changed the Ovaltine formula so that now it tastes like Nestles.

I wrote and complained.

They sent me a coupon for a free jar... of the new Ovaltine.

DarthBrooks: Nestles bought Ovaltine and changed the Ovaltine formula so that now it tastes like Nestles.

I wrote and complained.

They sent me a coupon for a free jar... of the new Ovaltine.

Not too different then when Wheaties went less flavor/malt.

Want deeply generic? Vote MegaCorp.

His name was Robert Paulson.

pro tip: For better results, always press "0" even if it is not presented as an option.

FTFA: In the age of pepper-sprayed Black Friday shoppers, stores clearly no longer care what their customers think

When did they ever care?

sno man: pro tip: For better results, always press "0" even if it is not presented as an option.

Yeah, honestly... I've dealt with every major insurance firm. Slamming down 0 for a while will get you a person. However, how you handle that person? Totally up to you, dude.

Maybe corporations are making it harder to complain because there are a lot more customers out there who feel they should get something for nothing. The customer is not always right. At least these days they aren't . Shame that it also punishes those with legit complaints. This guy sounds like the former...for example, griping because Starbucks ran out of an additive for their eggnog drink . Get over it. Walk down the street to the other Starbucks and get your drink, or better yet, come back the next day.

/hated my last year working retail

I WANT MY WALDORF SALAD.

/the customer is far from always right, these days.

CayceP: I WANT MY WALDORF SALAD.

I'm sorry. We're fresh out of waldorf.

Ed Finnerty: CayceP: I WANT MY WALDORF SALAD.

I'm sorry. We're fresh out of waldorf.

But we can get you a side of farty owls.

Semi-related note: I'm not a huge fan of Domino's Pizza, and don't order from them much. They're kind of meh, but there isn't much choice around here and it's something easy for me to get if I'm at work and can't really go anywhere/forgot to bring something. Used their website recently to order a pizza and a couple of 20oz sodas for us. Everything was fine except that I got 12oz cans.

I didn't really care much, except that it wasn't what I ordered and I paid too much for the cans. I didn't really want to biatch out the delivery girl, because it wasn't her fault. So I left a little note in the 'feedback' area of their website.

I got a call from the manager within 5 minutes with an apology and a reasonable explanation, and an offer to have more sodas or gift certificates brought out to us. I didn't really need 'em, and the food was.. again.. meh, but I did like the quick response.

Have you by any chance ever tried a Ritz salad?

He sounds kinda douchey.

coco ebert: He sounds kinda douchey.

More than kinda.

1nsanilicious: Here's a question: "Why does every opinion these days have to be so farking tied to politics?"

Fo' real.

NewportBarGuy: sno man: pro tip: For better results, always press "0" even if it is not presented as an option.

Yeah, honestly... I've dealt with every major insurance firm. Slamming down 0 for a while will get you a person. However, how you handle that person? Totally up to you, dude.

They've been onto that trick for years at a number of places. It simply says "Unrecognized option" or something like that.

TsarTom: Have you by any chance ever tried a Ritz salad?

Ed Finnerty: I'm sorry. We're fresh out of waldorf.

I internet heart you both right now.

The one legitimate time I had to complain, my concerns were positively responded to in a timely fashion. Basically, the hotel room for chain '6' I stayed in was crap. I checked out the next morning, literally walked around the corner, and get a VERY nice room (relatively speaking) for only $27 more at chain 'Q'.

Anyway, had a link sent to my email about a week later asking for customer feedback. So I took them to task. Wasn't a douche about it, though...I outlined the differences in the rooms, the amenities that were not included, even the missing bottles of shampoo I noted.

Within a few days I had email contact with their customer service rep and was ultimately able to get a refund for the night I stayed. And I won't be staying with them for a long time, if ever.

/the article writer sounds like a douche

Unobtanium: Happy Hours: NewportBarGuy: sno man: pro tip: For better results, always press "0" even if it is not presented as an option.

Yeah, honestly... I've dealt with every major insurance firm. Slamming down 0 for a while will get you a person. However, how you handle that person? Totally up to you, dude.

They've been onto that trick for years at a number of places. It simply says "Unrecognized option" or something like that.

Get Human (new window) It doesn't always work, but it's a pretty good website. As much as I detest "Press 1 for this, Press 2 for that," it's the voice response systems that get my blood pressure up VERY fast. You don't know how or whether the system will react to/recognize "person," "representative," "operator," or "human".

"I didn't understand."
"Of course you didn't, you're a computer."
"I didn't understand."

I've taking to mumbling unintelligibly, which sometimes gets the system to hand me off to a person.

I've used the mumbling technique occasionally.

On the flip side if I'm calling to make a payment I've found some places actually connect you too quickly to an agent. Either I screwed up entering my account # or entered it faster than they can interpret it and blammo, I'm talking to a real person. What's worse is some of these places like to charge extra for making a payment with an agent.

Anyway, thanks for the link.

I think my worst customer service experience was Hampton/Hilton. For our honeymoon the first night was in San Juan, so I booked a room at the Hampton Inn since it was a good price and secured. For an extra $100 you could upgrade to the romance package which on their website included roses, chocolates, a bottle of champagne, and two souvenir glasses on your arrival. I thought it sounded fun, so I splurged a bit. After a ten hour day of flying/airports" we got to San Juan and there was nothing in our room at all. I called and asked about it to which the hotel people said they would remedy it right away. The knocked on our room and kicked us out for ten minutes while they spread rose petals, gave us three chocolates, the champagne, and two flutes. We were both exhausted and just wanted to sleep, but thanks them anyway. I go to open the champagne and see it has like beer bottle top which I hadn't seen before. Then I realized it was sparkling apple cider and not champagne, but we had no bottle opener anyway, so I wandered back down to ask for champagne. They said they weren't an alcoholic hotel (even though there was a bar in the pool area) and didn't have champagne. At that point I was too tired to argue, so I took the cider upstairs and we drank it. I washed the glasses and we took them with us on the rest of our trip.

When I got home I noticed they charged me for the champagne glasses! I finally had enough and complained about the whole thing to corporate. A representative from that Hampton called, apologized, and assured me they would change their website. For my trouble they were sending me a voucher for a one-night stay at any Hilton-owned property which I thought was nice, but they wouldn't refund me for paying $35 for the champagne flutes. I ended up never getting the voucher. I waited three months and then decided to call back (since we were going to Florida and needed to stay a night in a hotel, so I wanted my voucher). Apparently they had undergone "new management" and that manager refused to send me a voucher since it didn't happen while he was managing the hotel. WTF? I complained to corporate again who told me I had to work it out with the manager of the hotel.

I see they did change their website to sparkling cider instead of champagne, so at least another couple won't be scammed by the "romance package". I will never stay at any Hilton-affiliated hotel again though.

I filed a BBB complaint last week. I don't expect much to be done about it, although if any of us had done what the company in my situation has done, we would be arrested for theft.

/ avoid selling used phones to celltradein.com
// no, I didn't check reviews first

Typing into a web form is easier than writing a letter. More people do it. Each complaint is taken that much less seriously as a result.

Roukzeptea23: I had a problem with Panera making my sandwich wrong multiple times, and it kept happening when I was grabbing lunch to go before I had to go to a meeting somewhere (so I didn't have time to go back and get it fixed).

I put in a complaint on their website. Panera sent me a gift card that covered a little more than the cost of the sandwich (sandwich was $6 and the gift card was for $8) and sent it with a handwritten note. I thought this handwritten note was really nice.


On the other hand, my husband had a problem with Chipotle and got a different response. He went in to get a burrito, but he says that the person who served him gave him half the normal amount of everything so that his burrito was half the size of normal (given how big their burritos are, this is a big deal). He said the person serving him gave the person behind him the normal amount, so it sounded like he was being singled out.

Given my good experience with Panera, I suggested he file a complaint on Chipotle's website. Chipotle's response was a non-apolgy along the lines of "We're sorry you feel that way."

The way he was shrugged off makes him not want to eat here anymore (at least not at this location). The way Panera treated me made me a much happier customer and I still eat there a lot.

Food places are always better with just offering a free sandwich or burrito. Their food margin is so low and the amount of people that actually complain over those that just suck it up is also low. I never understood when restaurants throw a fit for obviously getting an order wrong. My husband and I use to eat breakfast every Friday morning at Cracker Barrel since we both have the day off and enjoyed their food. We did this for almost a year, enough that we were regulars and knew all the servers that worked. We got a new lady and put in our usual order (the wholesome sampler for me, my husband got eggs over medium with toast and pancakes). When his eggs came out they were runny and hardly cooked, obviously eggs over easy. I called the waitress over to get the right order since he wasn't going to eat his meal with gross runny eggs (I don't blame him). She proceeded to argue with me how she was a professional chef (yet somehow is now waitresses at CB) and knows what eggs over medium are, that they were eggs over medium, and it isn't her fault he ordered the wrong thing. I got so pissed off I called over the manager-on-duty (he was newish too) who just shrugged and said he had no idea what egg over medium look like, but if the waitress knew then she was right. We left right then leaving our food, paid the tab without leaving a tip, and have never been back since. I didn't however complain to corporate however since I thought it should have been handled then and there.

We found a little mom-and-pop shop to eat breakfast at now. The food is awesome, cheaper, and the staff is very friendly with little turnover. Better all the way around.

Katie98_KT

Years ago, I got the cable TV company to respond by writing to the state agency that regulates telephone and cable.

Impasse: Stockholder value > your service

I repeat my recommendation of the book Fixing the Game, which discusses this point at length. The author gives examples of companies that did well in the long term by maximizing customer satisfaction; this part, however, is anecdotal rather than statistically significant.