Forum Moderators: open
Mine would be:
- domain registrars.
14 transfer requests and the domain is still park at Net (it's no accident their name ends in SOL).
- long distance phone companies.
I'll use two tin cans and a string before I use some of those companies again.
- credit card processors.
Charge back - I got your charge back right here ;-)
- cell phone companies.
Two dozen crack NASA rocket scientists recently studied the top cell phone plans. They couldn't figure them out either.
opps I work for one :)
Craig
Mostly large companies that will happily spend millions on marketing then nothing on service support.
Content theft really annoys me.
Unoriginality to a lesser extent as well.
Property rental agencies that try to rip off students are on the list as well.
In fact, I have a fairly large list, so Ill stop now.... ;)
JOAT
Automated systems:
If you would like to talk to someone who is really freindly but could not organise a pi## up in a brewery press 1. If you would like to be put on indefinite hold until you lose your rag and smash the phone in bits (i did that once :)) press 2.
etc etc
Webmasters
</duck>
mutter, mutter ... bunch of used car salesmen ....
I had a signed receipt with his credit card number hand written - I called him, he agreed the charge was valid - I got my money back from the CC company, minus their $15 chargeback fee. For a chargeback everyone involved agreed was not warranted.
If he had continued to protest - even though I had a signed receipt and he had my merchandise - they would have given him his money back.
I know this isn't news to you guys who deal with this every day, but I don't know how you don't go postal over this stuff...the $15 was a principal thing, but it made me realize how easily the merchant can get left holding the bag.
Don't think I'll be taking credit cards for the vaction rentals anytime soon...
ISPs - Ick. Any excuse to pretend your problem is someone else's fault. Usually without finding out what it is first.
Opting out of lists from utilities, banks, gasoline credit cards, etc, is an ongoing nightmare. Though the Feds require them to have an opt-out options, their instructions at every step of the way make the whole process unclear and cumbersome.
And the customer service phone lines of many of these companies... once you've punched in your 20-digit ID number, they put you on hold and play you a two-minute commercial while the computer "checks your account."
And online... opting out from real-company mailing lists that you never wanted to be on in the first place... Often they send you to an opt out page where you can't find the instructions to get off the lists, and if you do find the right link, it doesn't work.
Don't get me started...
Spanish national telephone co.
When a provincial newspaper stated that their fees were too high, they stated that it was far too complicated a process to figure out how much they charged, to make such a statement....LOL
A certain Spanish/now international service provider "(spanish for earth)" who at the beginning of last year cut me off and during the same summer started taking money from my bank account again. If I call to complain it could take me months to sort out and cost me in call charges (not to mention getting uptight at the innocent operators who are trained to pass you on).
I knew I shouldn't..... :(
Actually, the great majority of adult webmasters seem like honest folk.
They should stick to Gilligan's re-runs and let DSL do the heavy lifting.
Automated telephone switchboard:
"Welcome to *****. We'll just spend the next 45 seconds telling you what we do even though you already know that because that is why you called in the first place...."
"Your call is important to us..." bollocks. You are so focussed on cost cutting, your customer service is undermanned and you work the guts out of the poor buggars operating the phone.
"You call may be monitored for"... can I speak to that monitor, I'm keen to discuss some customer service issues.
"Your call has been placed in a queue. You will be attended to by the next available operator".... translation is "we have no intention of paying for the manhours necessary to provide adequate customer support, but see nothing wrong with you sitting there burning up your time. We know it pi**es you off and we intend to do sod all about it"
"You are #17 in the queue".... click. Not any more.
Websites that have no telephone contact numbers. "Idiot... I don't want to fill in your stupid bloody form, I want to speak to a person"
Cheap web hosting (arranged by the client)
Q. "What stats are you providing?"
A. "You can add a counter on your site if you want"
Q. "What preferred scripts do you provide"
A. "Go find your own"
Q. "What about so and so?"
A "We'll try and get back to you in the next few days"
And finally, my all time bitch. Responses that start with "you just..." No, actually I'm paying you for a service, I don't just do anything... you are the service provider in this deal.
