Your Best/worst Customer Service Anecdote

[nlaruccia]

Here's one that happened to me and a friend who was visiting a few weeks ago:
We're in a cafe, there is a special advertised - "cafè con leche con una porción de torta a elección $25 pesos", so my friend orders this but asks for the coffee WITHOUT milk, just black. The waiter tells us that he will have to ask if that can be included in the special. He goes in the back and comes out and says "NO". You have to have cafè con leche if you want the special. So of course I get angry and I say that it is ridiculous and that they should actually DISCOUNT the special because we are saving them the milk. So I tell the waiter that I want the coffee in one cup and the milk in another with the piece of cake for the $25 pesos. He says "let me ask" he comes back and says that the manager said that was fine. So he served my friend one cup of black coffee a separate cup of hot milk and a piece of cake. No words for this.......

When I was in Las Vegas several years ago I asked for a cafe cortado. The waitress didn't know what that was and I explained it's a cup with 80% coffee and 20% milk in it. I explained that I wanted milk and not cream. She didn't understand the concept of the coffee/milk ratio. After trying to explain it for five minutes I gave up and ordered a cup of coffee 80% full and a separate cup with milk and I made my own cafe cortado.

 

[nativexpat]

Had this one happen in Spain, I have not even tried it in Arg. cause I already know the response.

McDonalds. I get my order after a 10 minute wait. The tray is greasy and wet. I ask the girl at the counter if she can give me a clean one. Response: "well, they are all the same". So much for giving your best

 

[nlaruccia]

Years ago before I had private health insurance I was really sick with the flu. My friend took me to the emergency room in the Hospital Bernardo Rivadavia. While waiting in line to see a doctor I started to feel nausea. My friend asked if they could please unlock the bathroom door in the waiting room because I felt like I was going to vomit. They refused because they said that they don't want homeless people entering and using the bathroom. They said I would have to get written permission from the supervisor who wasn't working that day. My friend argued with them and ordered them to order the door. I couldn't help it, in front of all the other patients in the waiting room in the ER I heaved and vomited everything up on the floor. I don't know if they called the supervisor to open the bathroom, just that sent me to the first doctor available so they could get rid of me.

 

[nativexpat]

And don't get me started on the "spa day" that my sister got me for Mother's Day through LetsBonus. *

It is too long of a story, so all I am going to say is that the massage cabin was crowded with 2 other clients and their masseuses, and the place was so small that I got the massage table next to the wall (yeah, my whole right side against the wall, imagine!). Every time someone came into the room, they bumped their legs against my feet ... the situation was so, so pathetic that all I could do was just laugh and give in.

*Don't ever go to Spa del Sol in Colegiales.

 

[majortungsten]

I traveled on Trenes Buenos Aires.

 

[Canick]

Movistar "suspended use" of my phone line randomly one day. I checked online to see if I had somehow missed a payment. It showed a credit of 800 pesos which i had overpaid from last month. I called and asked what the problem was. the operator told me even though she saw the credit, the almighty "system" would only turn on the phone for 300 pesos.....
knowing i couldn't win, i caved and I asked her politely to remove 300 pesos from the 800 she had in credit. she told me the system would not allow her to do that...and i needed to go physically to movistar. i asked if i could pay with credit card. she said it was not allowed.
So i went to movistar. waited 3 hours with 4 different agents trying to resolve the error. no one knew why it was asking for this mysterious 300 pesos. they suggested i pay it in cash, giving me now a credit of 1100 pesos and that should turn my phone back on. (again there were no outstanding charges.)
fed up i paid the 300 extra and was told i would have to wait until the end of the day for the line to return as the "system" was now down.
24 hours later my line was turned on, and the 1100 credit was still there for use against my bills for the following months. no one knows what happened.......except of course, the sistema....

 

[Ashley]

I have so many but the best two:
1. When I first arrived here (10 years ago), I ran out of makeup (foundation) so went to the Clinique counter in Alto Palermo to replace it. I'd been using the same brand for years so knew the exact product I wanted (the lightest colour available). Sure enough, they had it among the testers so I asked the woman, she said it was in stock,got me a tube out back, I purchased it and left. On the way out of the mall, I had a "feeling" that something was wrong (weird, as I hadn't been here long enough to realise the extent of the horrific service), so I opened my bag, checked the makeup and saw that it was an orangey-brown colour and about 14 tones darker than the one I asked for. I went straight back to the store and asked them why they'd given me something so obviously not what I'd asked for. She said that they'd run out of the colour I wanted so had just given me a different one! (this is face makeup so a completely illogical move on their part). I asked for a refund. Her answer? "Where are you from". When I told her the UK. She said, "Ah well, estamos en argentina. Aca no damos refunds". I was so furious that I marched up to the Alto Palermo administration offices and made such a fuss that the manager there went to Clinique and insisted on my refund. Un quilumbo terrible!

2. Last year. I went for lunch with my husband at Le Ble. They'd just changed the menus and didn't yet have half of the stuff they were advertising. After waiting just over 30 minutes to see a waiter, I ordered a coffee to start and we asked if they could give us the salmon bagel but without cream cheese. Of course, this was impossible. Then we asked if we could get the chicken sandwich but with a salad instead of fries...Again, impossible. Then we asked for a carrot and orange juice...They had no carrots. Frustrated, we said to leave it and that we'd eat elsewhere. In the heat of the moment, I forgot to cancel my coffee order (which I'd now been waiting for for about 20 minutes). We got up, left and started walking along alvarez tomas. A few seconds later, I hear this voice shouting "chicos...chicos" from behind us. It carried on for another couple of minutes and I finally turned around to see what all the noise was about. The waitress was running behind us screaming! I asked her what she wanted and she said, "No queres el cafe?". I said, "No, perdon." And she answered "Me hubieras avisado"!
I couldn't believe it... And this was in front of a window-full of diners and people shopping in the surrounding area. My bad for forgetting to cancel the coffee but after the absolute run-around they'd given us and to do it in public...una verguenza total!

 

[RobinsonGO]

The god forbidden SODIMAC. I used to love going into home debot back in the US when i was working on a project, talk to the employees, pick their brains, find what i was looking for and be one my way. Here, first off, I cant find the parts and tools that I would have used in the US, no problem, this isnt the US, so I find new parts and new tools to do the same project but when speaking to the employees, explaining to them what im working on and looking for ideas, suggestions, or at least a point in the right direction to where I can find a part or tool and I cant get even that. Errrrr. HOWEVER, there is a small hardware shop right around the corner and they are GREAT. Like Loving Eric said, its like doing business with family. For such a small shop they have EVERYTHING, really EVERYTHING in that little store. They are helpful, patient and since I have gone back to them so many times, every once in a while the owner will give me a box of nails or something small, on the house. LOVE THAT.

 

[toongeorges]

This happened to me this week:

I needed to have a quick meal, so I went to McDonalds, but I did not want a hamburger with onion (because I would go to a milonga afterwards). I asked if the triple mac contained onion. The women behind the cash register said yes, but that they could omit the onion if I wanted. I said I wanted the triple mac without onion. She just orders the triple mac and goes on to the next customer. Of course, it contained onion as she had not communicated in any way it should be without onion.

 

[renka]

A month and a half in BA, my best experience was with a taxi driver on a very frustrating day... After paying a custom fee to DHL I was told I had to go to the airport customs to have my package released. Not happy at all!! I asked a random taxi on the street how much he would charge me to take me to the airport and he said 200 pesos round trip + toll. I thought it wasn't bad since it is about what you pay to get from the airport to downtown BA one way.
After employees gave me contradictory directions for 1/2 hour in the vast custom premises, I finally get to the right place and the custom official asked for my passport. I only had a copy of it and my national ID card! It didn't occur to me to bring my passport -I never carry it around! It was not possible to negotiate, I was really upset. I came back to the taxi and told the driver the whole story. I had enough and was giving up, I would just try to get the custom fee reimbursed and have the package shipped back (no cost). The taxi driver told me that since I had been this far, I should do it all the way... He probably saw how miserable I was and offered to drive me back at no extra charge provided I pay the highway tolls.
Long story short: he convinced me to go back, drove me to my place, then back to the airport, waited for over an hour, then drove me back. It was 10am when he first picked me up and after 4pm when he finally dropped me at my place. So I paid the 200 pesos + tip and gave him some of the chocolate I had received, for his young daughter. During these long hours we spent together he told me about his life, anecdotes from his job as a taxi driver and I got the feeling he is a very honest and good person who disapproved of other taxistas’ fraudulent behavior. It was amazing that in this frustrating day, he was the only person who sincerely tried to help.