Complain about horrible customer service experiences!

[pochercoaster]

Right, well we have regularly occurring threads about our horrible jobs, which usually devolves into how customers are stupid and/or horrible. Now it's time to complain about the people on the other side of the counter, who are sometimes just as horrible as customers with the added benefit of ripping you off!

[loooong rant]

So I decide that I've saved up enough money to have my hair done. I don't "do" my hair professionally often because supporting yourself on minimum wage doesn't allow for frequent trips to the salon. Nevertheless I decided I was officially sick of my hair and ready to have it dyed because I work hard for my money goddammit and I should allow myself little luxuries here and there.

Let me preface this by saying that I have had my hair dyed multiple times before and I've never had hairdressers as seemingly inexperienced as the ones I visited last. I have even bleached my hair at home with better results than what I got here.

There's a salon that's literally a 2 minute walk from where I live so I decide to go there out of convenience. It didn't strike me as ritzy but I figured it'd be "good enough."

First thing they screwed up:
I came in to make an appointment and brought an example of the colour I wanted (bright pink.) I asked them when I could make the appointment because I know salons don't normally carry weird colours and I wanted to allow them enough time to order the dye. So I made the appointment 3 days afterwards and was reassured that they'd have the dye by then. Of course I come in on the day of my appointment and they "forgot" to order the dye. So I reschedule for two days later.

Second thing they screwed up:
They burnt the shit out of my scalp. That is, by the time I got home it was covered in bloody, pussy leaky blisters (yum.) As I previously stated, I have bleached my own hair with better results than what I got here. The hairdresser started out applying the bleach with a brush and then proceeded to practically massage it into my head (YOU DO NOT DO THIS). After she finished applying it (and she took her sweet ass time- my previous hairdressers have worked quickly when applying bleach because it's fuckin' bleach it works hella fast) she put a dryer over my head.

At first it tingled slightly (normal); the hairdresser even asked how my head felt and I said it's slightly tingly. Then she went about working with some other clients and abandoned me. About 20 minutes later that tingling rapidly (like within a minute) suddenly became an intense, extremely painful burning sensation the likes of which I've never experienced on my scalp. Obviously I call her over to me as I'm kind of freaking out cause hey my scalp is in the ninth layer of hell!

So they rinse it out in cold water, apply the dye, yadda yadda finish it up. I shell out $100 for this, not counting the tip.

The next day I wake up my hair is a disgusting pussy matt (sorry for the graphic-ness). I go back to the salon and they schedule me for three free conditioning mask things to help it heal. I finished the last one today and while my scalp is mostly healed...

The colour in my hair is extremely, unevenly faded, a mere four days after having it done. The crown of my head is nearly white while the rest of my hair is a pastel fuchsia. I've only shampooed it twice with colour protection shampoo. I have dyed my hair pink before at OTHER salons and it never faded this fast! In fact, it has taken me up to 8 months to completely loose pink dye (and yes, I made sure they used permanent dye. At least they told me it was permanent.)

I would have tolerated blisters on my scalp and shitty customer service IF it meant my hair would stay the colour it was supposed to. Pain is beauty and all that.

But nope.

So, for the record, I:
1. am $100 poorer
2. have blisters on my scalp
3. have shitty hair that will soon warrant another expensive trip to a different salon IF I can afford it
4. am less naive about judging stores by their outer appearance. I could've gone somewhere more expensive and had it come out much better for another $30-40 :(

SO! What ways have you been ripped off or otherwise made to have horrible customer service experiences?

[TDK]

I shell out $100 for this, not counting the tip.

...You tipped her?

[pochercoaster]

I always feel shy/awkward when someone's doing my hair and although they did a shit job they were really nice and sympathetic afterwards and the whole process sort of left me feeling like I had been a difficult customer even though that wasn't the case. Basically I shouldn't have have tipped them but I did because I have a habit of blaming myself.

Funnily enough when I saw them yesterday to have my hair conditioned the owner came up to me and basically insinuated that I was responsible for having my scalp burned. I said no that wasn't the case and she started to argue with me. Seriously... I would have forgiven them if anyone BUT the owner had told me it was their fault they massaged bleach into my scalp (I have a high tolerance for shitty service) but the fact that it was the owner really pissed me off. And there's no justice because it's a busy location & the income they get from non-returning customers is probably enough to fund the business because the owner obviously cuts corners.

If I was more plucky I'd go back there today and complain but I don't feel comfortable about that and they've wasted so much of my time already...

[Melfice]

I always feel shy/awkward when someone's doing my hair and although they did a shit job they were really nice and sympathetic afterwards and the whole process sort of left me feeling like I had been a difficult customer even though that wasn't the case. Basically I shouldn't have have tipped them but I did because I have a habit of blaming myself.

Funnily enough when I saw them yesterday to have my hair conditioned the owner came up to me and basically insinuated that I was responsible for having my scalp burned. I said no that wasn't the case and she started to argue with me. Seriously... I would have forgiven them if anyone BUT the owner had told me it was their fault they massaged bleach into my scalp (I have a high tolerance for shitty service) but the fact that it was the owner really pissed me off. And there's no justice because it's a busy location & the income they get from non-returning customers is probably enough to fund the business because the owner obviously cuts corners.

If I was more plucky I'd go back there today and complain but I don't feel comfortable about that and they've wasted so much of my time already...

This business has injured you.
You might just leave some subtle hints (SEND PICTURES OF YOUR SCALP) with whatever department says you can open a hairdresser's.

But seriously, you got injured (admittedly getting bleach in your hair) at a business where you don't normally expect to get injured (aside from a small nick in the ear, if you happen to get an apprentice, but really, they tell you in that case).
If the owner says that it was YOUR fault, let them prove it. Ask for any surveillance tapes. If they can't produce that, it'll have to go by testimonies. The fact you haven't burned yourself while bleaching your own hair should help tremendously there, no doubt.

[Pip Boy]

This business has injured you.
You might just leave some subtle hints (SEND PICTURES OF YOUR SCALP) with whatever department says you can open a hairdresser's.

But seriously, you got injured (admittedly getting bleach in your hair) at a business where you don't normally expect to get injured (aside from a small nick in the ear, if you happen to get an apprentice, but really, they tell you in that case).
If the owner says that it was YOUR fault, let them prove it. Ask for any surveillance tapes. If they can't produce that, it'll have to go by testimonies. The fact you haven't burned yourself while bleaching your own hair should help tremendously there, no doubt.

To add to this, while american culture has a tendancy to be like "OMG you looked at me wrong SUE SUE SUE SUE SUE", if these people charged you money to injure you and then insinuated it was your fault, you actually have legitimate grounds for a lawsuit. While odds are you probably don't have the money for a lawyer, you should go back, ask for your money back, and subtly threaten to sue them into the ninth layer of hell if they don't refund you.

Alternatively, you could bust in there with a sawed off and some knives, force them to tie themselves down in their own chairs, then cut off their scalps for you to wear as hats.

[shiney]

Seriously! At least go get your money back. And ask to speak to the salon manager/owner to ask them if there is anything remotely acceptable about the color of your hair a mere 4 days after treatment.

[Nikose Tyris]

...Pocheros... would this shop be in Etobicoke, by chance? We've filed complaints about a horrible job done on my girlfriend's hair as well...

Edit: Agreeing with Fifth 100% there. When I don't have someone to back me up, my complaints tend to fall flat.

If you don't know anyone local, my girlfriend would be more then willing to support- especially if it's the same place that butchered her hair.

[Fifthfiend]

If you go to complain, it may help to take someone you trust to back you up if they try to argue back or bully you.

Regardless of what you end up doing, the job these people did was really horribly incompetent and their behavior in defense of it disgusting.

[pochercoaster]

...Pocheros... would this shop be in Etobicoke, by chance? We've filed complaints about a horrible job done on my girlfriend's hair as well...

No, I live in Brampton, a.k.a. home to dozens of salons run by immigrants unfamiliar with proper procedures. I know that sounds horribly racist but it's often the case... It must be pretty common in Toronto too.

Fifth: Actually I'm about to head over there and I asked my roomie (who's also had his hair cut there and didn't like it) to come with me.

I typed out more but I think I'll hold my thoughts until I see if the provide any kind of compensation.

I really feel kind of silly that I had to wait for other people to tell me to go back there to demand compensation (my roomie told me to do so before I posted this thread as well.) Ehh I guess it's a good thing that these bad experiences are infrequent, at least. This sort of thing has never really happened before so I'm just kind of... "bwuh? How do I handle this?"

[Nikose Tyris]

Etobicoke is, for Toronto, the worst place to be for businesses. It's entirely immigrants and... we've had some bad encounters at local businesses. That's not to say immigrants can't run good businesses, just... it's terrible here.

[pochercoaster]

Well I just went there and the people I needed to talk to weren't present, so I'm going back tomorrow.

As much as I love justice I honestly wouldn't sue them over something this small. I mean, it fucking sucks, but it's not suing material. If like... my hair started to fall out in vast quantities then I would seriously seek compensation. Even so I doubt that's going to happen (I sincerely hope not.) And, not to diminish the fact that they did a horrible job, the blisters on my scalp are at least healing very well and I don't think there's going to be any permanent damage.

Now what I'm kinda wondering is if they'll refund me (doubt it) or offer to re-colour it (likely, if they're not assholes), but if that's the case I'm still kinda iffy, especially because re-dying your hair too quickly can fuck it up really bad. So hopefully if they offer that it can be done in a few weeks. If they insist on doing it right away then I'm refusing...

[Fifthfiend]

No, I live in Brampton, a.k.a. home to dozens of salons run by immigrants unfamiliar with proper procedures. I know that sounds horribly racist but it's often the case... It must be pretty common in Toronto too.

Fifth: Actually I'm about to head over there and I asked my roomie (who's also had his hair cut there and didn't like it) to come with me.

I typed out more but I think I'll hold my thoughts until I see if the provide any kind of compensation.

I really feel kind of silly that I had to wait for other people to tell me to go back there to demand compensation (my roomie told me to do so before I posted this thread as well.) Ehh I guess it's a good thing that these bad experiences are infrequent, at least. This sort of thing has never really happened before so I'm just kind of... "bwuh? How do I handle this?"

It's a perfectly reasonable reaction. Pretty much everyone gets caught off guard by this sort of unexpected shitty behavior, nobody likes confrontation, and anyone who isn't A. superhumanly self-confident or B. an asshole is going to naturally have the same impulse to question your own reactions and seek outside confirmation that how you were treated was in fact unacceptable before deciding what to do.

[pochercoaster]

Well I don't know if anyone's interested in this, but I went back there today to talk to the guy who coloured my hair... His excuse was that colours fade, they did enough by treating it with the hair mask (all that did was heal my scalp, maybe) blah blah blah. I told him the job they did wasn't worth $100, he said "Oh well it costs $45 to bleach and $45 to colour" and I said it doesn't matter because I still paid $100 and my hair didn't come out remotely resembling what I had asked him to do.

I could go into more detail but he's obviously a crook. I brought my roomie along and afterwards he told me he wasn't very good at stonewalling, which I agree with. He was obviously pissed but kept calling my sweetheart and hon in an effort to butter me up and cover up his annoyance which no one really gives a fuck about when you're kicking around a lot of money. Anyone could tell by the tone of his voice that he was thinking "#$%& this bitchy customer" while calling me darling which is quite grating.

So I'm resigning that battle and going to talk to a hairdresser who I had a good experience with at another salon to see if my hair can be fixed. I don't trust the other salon and I'm positive if I went back there they would do something to make it fall out even if I could bitch my way to a good price. I don't care about the money now, I just don't want to walk around with shitty hair. And I don't have the guts to try and bitch for a refund a week later.

[Darth SS]

http://www.consumerhandbook.ca/en/contacts/provincial-territorial-offices

Contact your provincial consumer affairs office. It exists for this kind of situation.

EDIT: Basically, in Canada it is considered "illegal" to unjustifiably overcharge for services. If they investigate and clearly find that a business gratuitously overcharged for a bad service or a bad good then they have violated your right as a consumer to know what you are purchasing.

[Seil]

Imma agree with Darth here. Seriously - we've got governent services available to us. We should use them.

A few years ago, I got burned at work - required a trip to the ER, bandages for a week and ended up with a blister the size of an orange. I didn't call workers comp because I was young and stupid. I was worried about what would happen atwixt my employer and I if I called it - even thoguh I regret it now.

Why am I telling you this? Because we've got a slew of services available to us for situations like this, or for what I experienced, and we need to use them. I missed a week or two of work and needed to have a little bit of scratch but was off the schedule. Seriously, if there was ever a time to view me as something other than a slightly pinker internet link site, now is the time.

http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/2499/48326049.jpg

You've got to get mad!

[pochercoaster]

I dunno, this isn't exactly so serious that it's causing me to miss work (if that happened to me I'd definitely call worker's comp- in fact, I think your employer is legally obligated to make you fill out a worker's comp form). Additionally if I had to get my scalp treated at the hospital or at a doctor's I would be taking this more seriously but the burn was just superficial (thank god).

This is an independent salon, not a chain, so there's no one higher up to talk to within the business other than the owner. My hair's not falling out or anything, so I'd rather just move on and stop patronizing that business. I already know that no matter how politely I complained the owner wouldn't give a shit and refund me and I don't want to use the remainder of my free time to file a complaint. I don't want to kill the buzz but isn't the BBB horrendously backlogged anyways? Plus I don't know how much proof I have now anyways- I didn't take pictures of my scalp when it was newly blistered.

I guess I'm over it and if there's any justice maybe I'll stop by and politely tell them I'm no longer patronizing their salon. Also I serve A LOT of people at my workplace every day so when they ask me why my hair looks like it was dyed with kool aid I can tell them what salon fucked it up. :dance:

TL;DR: It's too little, too late.

Edit: Although I should take some pictures of my scalp in the off chance that my hair does start to fall out in the coming weeks. Often the damage to hair follicles isn't obvious until several weeks later so to be on the safe side I'll do that and make a note of the date, time, what was said etc. while it's still fresh in my memory. Interestingly the same thing happened to a friend of mine but her hair was fine afterwards so hopefully mine is too. In the meantime I am leaving my head alone- shampooing it only twice a week maximum and conditioning it every day for at least a few weeks.

[Nikose Tyris]

To compound on the BBB... don't use it.

There's a whole list of complaints that they're just a bullying tactic that boosts your reputation based on money. [Link: http://consumerist.com/2010/11/ag-says-ratings-not-trustworthy-after-bbb-gives-a--to-hamas.html]

[McTahr]

Well, it's too little too late now, but yeah, gonna put this out there:
Twenty-three days ago, the maintenance staff janked around in the attic and basement of my apartment building, working on some of the electrics. That same day, at the same time, my heat and half of the power in my apartment died. I called my landlord and asked him to get someone out to fix it.

Asked.

Yesterday, an electrician finally came out and replaced my electrical box, shitting up my kitchen and fucking up the wall in the process, and made the problem worse, janking up the power in the rest of my apartment, and still not fixing the heat issue.

Today, I called and bitched out my landlord. I have various evidence spanning the twenty-three day period where I had no heat, stove, or fridge and it's definitely enough to make my case for a complaint to the city, should it come to that.

My heat and electricity were fixed an hour later, a sheetrock worker is scheduled to fix the damage the previous electrician did, and my landlord personally cleaned up the mess the electrician left. I've also haggled them down to something less than half of my rent. Probably around a quarter or so, depending on how far I want to take it.

If you can't get mad, get someone who can. Do not take shitty service laying down. You paid money and you will only get what you let them get away with.

[RobinStarwing]

This is why I fear my mother...she can make even McD's managers and other people cry without even raising her voice or yelling/cussing.

But here is a story from OUR END of things. Yes, that's right. I am in Customer Service and while you may think we can be idiots...sometimes customers can be even more idiotic.

Case in point. My job at work is in the Maintenance Department for Retail/Grocery (Cleaning, Minor Fixing, Housekeeping, Cartpushing, Minor Store Improvement, etc.) and I was doing the mop buckets as they need daily changing. So I was doing this and this short Mid-30's woman stops me as it was busy and asks me if I can help ring up her overloaded shopping cart. It was a busy day with lines full of customers and people in the store.

One thing you might notice missing from the list of jobs my department does is Cashiering. They don't train us to do it. That's Flex Help, Cashiers, Managers, Assistant Store Director, Store Director. I tried to explain this to the woman as nicely as I could but she just seemed to get frustrated and said, "Thanks for being no help."

So the lady managed to get an open Register line as it was busy but after it rang up $300+ in Groceries, she decided she didn't want the whole order that was in her overloaded cart and left it and us without even paying for anything.

The only thing that beats this is the guy who was high on speed and tried to shoplift $700 in stuff from us. >_>

[pochercoaster]

McTahr, that's absolutely awful. I hope your situation is rectified soon. :( My story pales in comparison to that, ha. Your landlord's a douche bag, to put it lightly, if he can't take the well being of his tenants seriously!

Robin: That's happened to me before- I used to work in a grocery store. A lady asked me if there were any more hot dog buns. It was the day before Canada day and we had sold out. When I said no she said "Oh, well I'll go somewhere else then!" And she left an entire cart of groceries on the floor... Like not being able to get hot dog buns in one trip invalidates the rest of your groceries? WTF? She was going to have to make a second trip anyways so I don't know why she didn't buy everything that was already in her cart and just make a quick trip for the buns.

Like a lot of other people here I've been working in customer service full time for a long time (well, 3 years, but that's long enough for anyone) so I'm familiar with the stories- everything from someone wanting to pay for $5 worth of stuff in pennies, to aggressive perverted old men making comments about my ass, to calling the police over a crazy drunk man making threats, to witnessing a co worker get assaulted by a customer has happened to me.

I actually feel like my experience working in customer service has made me want better service from others, actually. That doesn't mean I expect the minimum wage 14 year old working at McDonalds to be all smiles when I order, but when I go into an establishment where I'll be spending a good chunk of income I expect a high level of professionalism and don't think that's unreasonable. I work in an expensive Starbucks-style restaurant and while others may laugh at customers who spend $4 on their coffee there's something to be said of the exemplary service they receive. If you have the income to spend that much on coffee every day you might as well go somewhere where your order is ready for you by the time you walk through the door and the taste is consistent and the employees greet you by your name and say hi. Although I am definitely not a people person I do my best to embody good customer service. If a customer was ripped off I'd feel bad for them because even if they're Mr. Fancyrichpants it's still their money that they're giving to us for a premium product. Anything less is deceitful.

[ChaoticBrain]

Okay, pocheros, so you're patient enough to let this incident slide. I can respect that. But what about everyone else that visits the salon? If not for yourself, report it for the well-being of others. Because if you don't, they're going to scam other people into getting overly expensive, shoddy services. They'll get rich, and more people will get mad, and they may not report it either simply because they don't know they can.

Can you live with that on your conscience?

[pochercoaster]

Yeah, I can, cause it's not like they're raping babies and it's not my responsibility to fix their business practices.

There's gray area as to what's considered blatant unprofessionalism versus what's to be expected when you want to dye your hair every colour of the rainbow (that is, you can't do it without putting serious chemicals on your head and even in some cases where it's done properly it might still fuck up your scalp if the client has an allergy they're unaware of etc.) If I were to report it I'd have to demonstrate that I followed the process laid out by the BBB or Consumer Affairs Office, and I'd have to prove that it's solely their fault and it was preventable. While it was preventable, I do not believe I have enough proof nor did I exactly follow the recommended process.

Also, as previously stated, such authorities are kind of backlogged and I doubt it would do much to change their business practices. If I had been ripped off worse or had third degree burns (scalp's completely healed, btw) then I would've done something, but I also would've made sure to have evidence etc.

Also, I don't care. I work a lot and when I get home I have no energy left for that kind of stuff. My time is really not worth it. Although the entire point of this thread was supposed to be about how pissed off I am my view on the matter has been softened to "oh well, shit happens" because I haven't suffered any long term consequences.

Sorry if that sounded harsh ^^; I'm not trying to discourage anyone for trying to get justice where it's deserved but this battle just isn't one that I'd pick.

[ChaoticBrain]

Yeah, I just have this sense of overwhelming justice which, to my own detriment, is pretty much unrestrained. If someone I am able to communicate with gets screwed over by someone else, I want to gather the torches and pitchforks regardless of the offense in question.