‘Sky told me to climb on my roof to check my satellite dish’: 10 horrific customer service stories

From expensive restaurants to aggressive spas, our readers and writers share their stories of customer service horror – Emily Stein

Standards of customer service in Britain have never been lower. According to research published by Which? last December, major firms employ too few staff, fail to provide vital training and offer a service that is as bad – or even worse – than it was during the pandemic, when they were forced to close call centres.

“Too many people are experiencing shockingly poor customer service – whether that means struggling to get through at all, deficient chatbots or poorly trainined staff that only seem to make the problem worse,” said Rocio Concha, Which? director of policy and advocacy.

Our writers and readers couldn’t agree more…

My night at the murder hotel of North Wales

I arrived at the hotel at 5pm to find nobody manning reception. “Ring the bell for service. If no response, call this number,” a sign read. I rang, triggering a building-shaking siren. No response, but I could see a pair of slippered feet up on a pouffe in a back room. There was no way on Earth that person didn’t hear. So I called the number. A mobile phone could be heard going off, loudly. After six rings, the feet moved, their owner cancelled the call, and a solemn woman emerged and handed me a key with a keyring the size of a table-tennis bat, bearing a hotel name completely different from the one I believed I was in. I couldn’t shake the feeling something was up.

Later, I mentioned it to a local cabbie. “Ah yes, there was a murder there a couple of years ago. That sort of f—ked their Google results so they changed the name, but didn’t change the keyrings.” After an uneasy sleep I appeared at 8.30am to find reception deserted again. A new sign had appeared: “Breakfast begins at 11am.” Yet checkout was also at 11am. I hadn’t paid, so I rang the number. Again no answer. I left, and to this day I still haven’t paid. By the door on the way out was a guestbook. I opened it to find it completely empty. Fitting. I had no words either.

Guy Kelly

Dinner at the sometimes-best restaurant in the world

The catalogue of what went wrong at El Celler de Can Roca in Girona was lengthy, but the wine service stood out. The waiter asked my husband what wine we’d be drinking. He indicated that I would be choosing and I asked to see the wine list. This was produced – and placed next to my husband. He asked that it be given to me. I chose the wine. The wine waiter brought the bottle – and poured the taster for him. Dinner was shy of €800. Clearly, money doesn’t always buy great service.

Xanthe Clay

A three-month standoff with BT

It was over some missing HD TV channels. Highlights included engineers arriving hours late or not at all, promised phone calls never materialising, ignored tweets, fruitless online chats and hours on hold, the most bracing of which ended with me saying “hello” after 57 minutes of muzak, then being hung up on. When an engineer finally visited, he suggested that my issue might be due to living too close to a TV transmitter…

Thom Gibbs

‘Speedy’ delivery

Last summer, some German friends wanted to stay in my house in France. I sent them the key via the Post Office and paid £47.45, but five days later it still hadn’t arrived. I called and was told it had been sent via Parcelforce and was held up in customs in France. Parcelforce’s international office told me I’d written the incorrect value on the customs form (£10). Hard to judge how much one Yale key is worth, but hey-ho. Two weeks later, Parcelforce said the key would be returned to me. The man asked me to confirm my address and then told me it was not the same as the one he had for me. He said I must have put the wrong address on the form I filled out at the Post Office. “Why would I do that?” I asked. I tried to give him the correct address but he said he could only return it to the one on the form – he wouldn’t budge. Three weeks later I got another call; they had tried to deliver my key to the address they had but the woman wouldn’t accept it because she was not me. Surprise surprise. The key arrived, two months after I originally sent it. When I tried to get a refund it was declined, because, I was told, the delay was the fault of customs in France and nothing to do with Parcelforce.

Jessamy Calkin

Over to you…What readers said about their worst experiences of customer service

I was advised to climb on the roof to check on the satellite dish 

Two days ago, my TV showed a message telling me I had no signal. So I waited and tried again. No luck. I switched off at the mains, waited and tried again. Still no luck. So I tried to find a phone number for Sky customer services and eventually found a number and called. After endless pushing of buttons on my keypad, the line started to ring but the ringing soon stopped to be replaced by music, which was still playing after 10 minutes. I hung up and tried the live online chat. Its first suggestion was to climb onto the roof and ensure the satellite dish was correctly aligned. I had to laugh, as the only way to do that was to shin up a drainpipe!

Howard Clayton

I voted with my feet

I needed to make my Barclays bank account a joint one with my wife, who also banks at Barclays. It could not be done online so I tried the helpline. After five minutes of pushing buttons to get to the right department, I was told there was a 40-minute wait, so I went into the branch instead, only to be told I had to make an appointment because there was no one there to help. I didn’t know when my wife would be available so I asked if there was a local number I could use to make an appointment. No, they said, I would have to come in again to make an appointment to come in.

Instead of that, I just went over the road to Coventry Building Society where I was given the branch telephone number and, later, made an appointment. Now I’m planning to open an account there. I used to be an operations manager at Barclays. If the telephone rang for more than three rings, there was trouble…

Martin Hainsworth

I had to travel 20 miles to my nearest bank branch

While trying to sort out my parents’ estate I called the bereavement line of a high street bank. It was answered after about 10 minutes by a very rude woman who directed me to the website. [This] kept crashing; I then had to travel 20 miles to the nearest branch to deal with the issue in person because the one nearby had closed six months earlier.

Denise Bishop

Blanked by HMRC

I calculated that HMRC had overtaxed me by a few hundred pounds. On December 6, I wrote to them, showing detailed calculations and asking for a rebate. No reply. I wrote a very polite reminder in early January. No reply. They provide no email address and no phone number. Unfortunately, I can’t take my business elsewhere.

Nigel Morris

I was charged for a massage not provided

I booked a massage for my mum, who is fighting cancer, at a fancy spa in Bath. When we got there, they told us that the massage could cause the cancer to spread (who knew?) and refused to carry it out. They then said they would not refund my money. I’m just about to submit a formal complaint, but the face-to-face customer service was appalling. They humiliated my mum and left her in tears in a wet robe in a cold cafe. I’m hoping my credit card will reimburse me.

Nancy Doyle

The delivery driver didn’t even knock to check whether I was in

Last Thursday I was in our front room awaiting a delivery of wine worth over £100. I had been sent a text that it would be delivered during a two-hour window, so I waited where I could not miss the knock or ring. I became aware of a van reversing out of our cul-de-sac and looked out of the window to see the delivery van disappearing. I had asked that if we were out, any delivery from any company should be left behind the gate to our back garden, where it would be hidden. But, there on the doorstep were the two large boxes in full view, clearly marked “WINE”. There had been no knock or ring of the bell, nor any attempt to leave it behind the gate. I have complained to the delivery company and the wine club but have not had a satisfactory response as yet.

Rosemary Wells

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