The Most Incompetent Company You Have Dealt With

[cornmillgirl]

Hi folks

I just wonder who you would vote as the worst company you have ever dealt with.

Mine would be Pruhealth, we have had private health insurance with them since 2006 (never claimed). They have a scheme
called Vitality where I can earn Nectar points from buying fruit and vegetables from Sainsburys. Being a vegan this amounts to
about £40 per week which earned me 30 points per £ spent, so I was getting loads of Nectar points. When I renewed our
policy in August 2012 it all went pear shaped and the points were not being allocated to my Nectar account. Big do's and little
do's it has STILL not been resolved after 17 months. They have told me inaccurate information, given me the runaround, said I
have done things like opting out of email communications (I have not), the list goes on. They have given me bonus points for the
inconvenience, but I have damn well earned them. It really is the principle that bugs me though, if you say you will do something
do it. I have finally given up today and decided I will not be renewing after reading stories of people trying to make health insurance
claims.

So be interested to see which companies everyone comes up, maybe P&O!!

[gfwgfw]

Yep no probs

E-On Energy

One needs an OxCam First Class Degree with honours

. . . to understand their fanciful zillion tariffs

[Admiral of the Humber]

Yodel the parcel delivery company. We use them at work for our "non urgent / not really a major issues if the silly buggers lose it" deliveries. Their customer service is inept and they very often blatantly lie when parcels go missing. The only thing in their favour is that they are cheap ...so I suppose we get what we pay for.

[Jacknian]

Well, EON are pretty useless. We had a letter from them saying they needed to change our electricity meter as it's old, - ok no problem, I took a day off work, which is quite difficult as I have to book my holidays weeks in advance, anyway I duly waited for the man to come but during the morning they phoned and cancelled as one of their engineers was sick. Ok I was a bit annoyed but these things happen so another visit was booked, another days holiday taken and again they cancelled , but the day before this time. Too late for me to change my day off work, so I had a day off for nothing. I then told them I wouldn't be able to have the meter changed until after the new year as I have run out of holiday so would have to wait for my New Years allocation. You would think this was an easy concept to grasp but since then I must have had at least 7or 8 phone calls from EON asking why I havent made an appointment to have the meter changed. Now it's the new year I've made another appointment, and booked another days holiday and we will see what happens this time.

[Boris+]

Without any doubt - Virgin Atlantic; and HSBC.

Couldn't organise a drink in a brewery!

Em

[haveabeer]

Santander, BT

These cause me some real stress

[Boris+]

Hi HaB -

That's weird, I get on with Santander just peachy. The only thing which BT annoy me with is sometimes ringing to 'talk to us about a package'!

Em

[haveabeer]

Hi HaB -

That's weird, I get on with Santander just peachy. The only thing which BT annoy me with is sometimes ringing to 'talk to us about a package'!

Em

I do online banking with them I wanted to change a DD payment I changed the amount online go the text to say it's all set up I allowed 28 days as requested when due date come they did not pay it so I rang them all the usuall apologies they set it up on the phone to make sure that the next due date it would be paid guess what it was not this happened again so I now transfer the money much easier

[wolfie]

BT, BT and BT

Recently, John Lewis.

[ItsmeAnnC]

Zurich insurance. On the first day of my policy with them my car was broken into and the lock barrel on the front passenger door stolen, along with damage to the paintwork. They refused to authorise the repair and I had to pay to get the lock changed or else my car was insecure and the policy therefore invalid. But I was not allowed to have the rest of the repair done until their investigations were complete. The reason? They first of all suggested that the break in happened before I took the policy out and I had deliberately delayed claiming for no-claims bonus reasons. The break in was 25 miles away outside a concert venue, for which I could offer tickets as proof, and I had witnesses that the car was undamaged before we left home. They also decided to get a fraud officer to visit, but would not reveal why until he came - three months later! They were extremely nasty and their tone was accusing on the telephone. On arrival the officer announced that he was here to investigate the theft of my car. "What, that one on the drive?" I asked. He phoned the office to ask why he was here and was told that I had made a non-declaration. Apparently they believed I had had an accident two years previously, which was my fault, a claim had been made and I had not declared it. It turned out to be my daughter who had made the claim - on her own insurance, not mine, but we share the same initial, and it was while she was living at home. Of course, they had to pay up, but it was four months after the incident before it was settled.
It's bad enough having your car broken into without the insurance company creating bad feeling. I received no apology and I still will not take out a policy with Zurich, or with anyone that they underwrite.

[towny44]

Halifax, they wouldn't even be able to find the brewery never mind organise the p*** up.
Nationwide credit card are not far behind, their fraud prevention phone calls are more worrying than having my card hacked.

However I find HSBC on line banking very easy to use and, so far, have never had a problem. Yorkshire BS and its affiliates are not far behind. But the star company has to be Amazon, I swear that one day my order will arrive before I have finished printing off the confirmation.

[Kendhni]

Any public sector paper pushing department

[haveabeer]

Halifax, they wouldn't even be able to find the brewery never mind organise the p*** up.
Nationwide credit card are not far behind, their fraud prevention phone calls are more worrying than having my card hacked.

However I find HSBC on line banking very easy to use and, so far, have never had a problem. Yorkshire BS and its affiliates are not far behind. But the star company has to be Amazon, I swear that one day my order will arrive before I have finished printing off the confirmation.

Agree Amazon are the best I ordered most of my Xmas stuff with them all arrived on the day usually next day I had one broken item they collected it FOC and replaced it within a few days lessons to be learned by other online companies

[oldbluefox]

Santander for me.
When my uncle developed the latter stages of dementia I was left to act as power of attorney to sort out affairs for himself in a home and for my disabled aunt left in the marital home. It took 3 months to get them to authorise my power of attorney and during that time I was not allowed to pay any bills at all from their bank account. Every time I rang them I was assured the matter would be resolved, and despite numerous visits my local branch was powerless to do anything. I wasn't allowed to speak to those in the POA office directly and nobody else seemed able to either. They were a total nightmare. It was only when I sent a 'Special Delivery' letter to the Chief Exec that the problem was resolved.

EoN come not far behind - difficult to get hold of and totally lackadaisical and unconcerned even at management level. They lost all of my POA documentation and despite my having proof they had received it they tried to brush the loss off and suggested I take the matter up with the Post Office. It was only when I got annoyed and threatened to take the matter further they accepted responsibility for returning the documents was theirs and offered to pay for replacements.

[Manoverboard]

The Department of Work and Pensions are as inefficient as any ... I spent 9 months sorting out the unholy mess that they got themselves into regarding Mobietta's pension payments. It started off on a high note with them advising her that they had lost all her records and it got steadily worse with underpayment followed by three corrections, misdirected payments and two lots of compensation. All along the communication with Cardiff was dreadful, most of them had ' attitude ' and should not be allowed anywhere near a ' Help Desk '.

P&O's flight Department are also on my list ...

[royalprincess]

DWP and HMRC. When I retired DWP refused to process my claim (which they asked me to do) because I was applying too early. Four months beforehand - pointed out to them that they wrote to me - they told me they had changed the rules (untrue). HMRC decided that I had received my state pension for the whole of the year and taxed me accordingly. I turned 60 half way through the tax year but they would not hear of it. Their records showed that I had received it for the whole year and that was that and then when I actually retired found out that I was entitled to a tax rebate of over £1000 which they would not repay as it was to be set off against any future tax liability. Got it eventually through the intervention of MP.

[CaroleF]

Another vote for Yodel. Just this morning there was one of their horrible little red cards on the doormat - I was in! Not a knock nor a bell going did I hear. On the card it said the parcel had been left "over gate" . So I looked outside our back door - which is inside a gate at the side of the house. No parcel. I looked under bushes, no parcel. Eventually I found it inside the back gate of my neighbour's house! I don't think they made any attempt to deliver it to the front door. Makes me so mad!

Until recently I would have said Virgin with whom we have telephone, tv and broadband. In the past they were dreadful - usually speaking to someone I could barely understand. We had a problem with our cable box. I was constantly told by Virgin that it was a local problem and they were dealing with it. Eventually they agreed something was not right so they booked an Engineer's appointment. So on the day I waited in all day - no Engineer so eventually I phoned and received a recorded message saying they had discovered it was a local problem, not our box so they had cancelled the appointment - all without telling me!
So when it still was not working I called again and, I'm afraid to say I lost my temper and said I was fed up with being given the run around, it was not a problem locally it was a problem with our box. I also said that my husband was fed up with it and we were going to change to Sky! Well, things changed and I was told well it does look as though your box is old so we'll send you a new Super Hub. It arrived and since then - probably a couple of years ago - we have only had trouble once. It amuses me that when there's a problem they tell you to look online to see if there's a problem in your area - how? I was able to look online as I could connect to my daughter's internet and yes there was a local problem that was supposed to be sorted by 5pm. It wasn't so I called, and the person I spoke to spoke excellently clear English. She apologised and said there was a delay and it should be back by 8pm and to call her if it wasn't. It did come back about 7.30pm. The next morning I was amazed to get a call from Virgin asking me if all was now fine. I said the tv was fine but I hadn't used my computer that morning so I didn't know about the broadband. She said she'd wait while I connected if that was ok - she wanted to make sure all was ok. It was. I was amazed and complimented her on their Customer Service. She told me changes had been made and she was pleased all was fine. No further problems since having the Super Hub - fingers crossed!

Carole

[david63]

For me it would have to be any company that has a call centre based in India

[Stephen]

Don't get me started......oh all right then.

My Bank

A bl**dy nightmare trying to phone them. You can't just dial a number for your local branch and get straight through to a human being. Ooooh no, that would be too damn easy. Instead it's a central number.

Press this button, press that button, put in this card number, what's your security password, blah blah blah. Then it's the usual message of basically 'we're busy and we will answer your call as soon as possible'. What they really mean is they'll answer once they've racked up your phone bill sufficiently. And all this before you get to actually speak to someone, who will then proceed to ask you the same questions again.

By the time they finally ask 'how can I help you', I've forgotten what the hell I was phoning for.

If this is their idea of customer service, they can stick it where the sun don't shine

[Jean W]

Not just your Bank Stephen. My Hubby had a nightmare yesterday trying to get through to 'Our persnal banker' - what a joke - Not So it's back to snail mail

[Silver_Shiney]

Paypal.

You have a problem and then report it. You then get an email back asking you to look at one of the web pages, which has absolutely nothing to do with the problem, and saying that if you still have a problem, please reply giving full details. I always reply telling them to read the full details sent in the first place. They won't provide a proper telephone number (only one of those iniquitous 0870 numbers)

NatWest.

They won't provide an email address for business banking and insist on documents being sent by fax. We don't have a fax machine (the line interfered with the office broadband) - I know faxes are still very popular in Japan but in this country??

I've had one big problem with Virgin, which turned out to be caused by a notorious member of staff who was, I understand, subsequently dealt with and the company bent over backwards to put things right. I'd recommend them to anyone.

[cornmillgirl]

Some very interesting and totally frustrating tales many of which I can relate to. You really have to stick to your guns and be persistent.

Pruhealth are very good at blaming the customer - so with me, I apparently changed the preferred method of communication ie email
so I did not get a letter informing me of a change in their terms and conditions. I have never changed it, its always been email.
They sent me a magazine in December with no covering letter apparently I had to read the magazine to learn of the changes. Getting
the magazine would be a start. I had to email them late last year to tell them they were addressing letters to a property we moved from
in 2008, even though they had my real address on file.

I have sent the most snottiest of letters to the CEO, doubt I will get a reply but I felt great sending it. And I will not be renewing
when the policy expires.

Thanks for all the replies folks.

[Gill W]

DWP and HMRC. When I retired DWP refused to process my claim (which they asked me to do) because I was applying too early. Four months beforehand - pointed out to them that they wrote to me - they told me they had changed the rules (untrue). HMRC decided that I had received my state pension for the whole of the year and taxed me accordingly. I turned 60 half way through the tax year but they would not hear of it. Their records showed that I had received it for the whole year and that was that and then when I actually retired found out that I was entitled to a tax rebate of over £1000 which they would not repay as it was to be set off against any future tax liability. Got it eventually through the intervention of MP.

HMRC for me as well.

They find it difficult to cope with me having income from a job and a private pension, and the fact that my tax code has to be split between the two, as I don't earn enough in my job to benefit from my full tax allowance.

Every few months they change my tax code on my pension to BR, meaning I pay tax on the whole of my pension. So I have to write and tell them to change it back, so the code is split between the two.

If that wasn't bad enough, this time they've surpassed themselves. This month I've got my correct tax code back again, but they've given my pension income details to my employer, which has confused the employers systems, and I've paid £100 too much tax.

So I've had to write another long letter, asking them to explain why they've done this, asking what they will do to put it right..... And asking for my £100. Probably won't see my £100 again this year.

[ShirleyT]

Yodel. Interesting to see that Carole F has had a very similar experience to me. We have a fairly long drive with closed double gates on the roadside. Yodel van appeared outside, delivering quite a large heavy parcel. I waited for the doorbell to ring.......silence. Looked thought the window to see what the driver was doing......nothing....he had driven off...... leaving my parcel outside the gates, on the side of the road!! I rang and complained and got the distinct impression they couldn't care less.

[Capt Black]

I regularly have the misfortune of dealing with an IT company called CGI. Fortunately the walls in our office are quite soft and it doesn't hurt too much when I bang my head against them.