CHRIS_D

[img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img] Story goes like this:

Mid July - I knew my AA renewal was due on the 16th Aug. At the time i was on joint roadside recovery. As i no longer need joint membership i phoned them in advance to inform them of this and adjust their records accordingly for renewal time, to which i was told i would have to wait until my renewal came through and phone again then.

Aug 10th (ish) - Renewal comes through, two membership cards and bill for £106 to be paid by direct debit on the 17th Aug. So now i phone AA:

me: 'I'd like to change my membership from joint to single'

AA: 'Ok that reduces it to £84'

me: 'Great, im also am member of the armed forces and i am also an SIDC member, i believe i am elidgable for a discount'

AA: 'yes that is correct, 15%, therefore your bill is now £71, ive updated your account, £71 will be deducted from your account by DD on the 17th Aug'

me: 'Great, do i need a new card, what do i do with the two i received today?'

AA: 'Cut them up, you will recieve a new one in the post in the next few days'.

Confirmed actions twice, thanked them and hung up.

Aug 17th - No DD from account & no new card in post , so ring AA only to find out nothing has been actioned from my last call, also find out AA has already taken £106 from my account and it wont show for another 2 days, so go through whole process again; reduce to single cover, discount etc etc. Asked about new card, told to use the one i received a week earlier - good job i didn't cut it up then !! [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img] Also told i will be credited £35 to my account within a day or two.

Yesterday - £106 comes out of my bank

Today - Phone AA to ask where my £35 is and/or how long until it will be in my bank ? operator has no record, puts me on hold for 5 mins. New answer is: it will take up to 20 days to be credited to my account, earliest is 5/6th September.

WTF are these people on !! i spend 5-10 mins on the phone & it seems they completely ignore me and not bother actioning my requests. And how come they can take £106 from me in 3 days but it takes 20 days to credit £35

Had a similar converstion/scenario with carphone warehouse afterwards as well, but wont even go into that one!

Really pi55es me off ! who employs these morons !

chris <rant over>

Muffleman

TELL me about it, customer service is a lost art nowadays.
The number of conversations I have had with similiar types, you have to ask yourself 'why do I bother ?'

A mate of mine was on a similiar call, just going round in circles getting no where - in the end he said 'Can I speak to a brunette please !!!'

Obviously not a sentiment I agree with (ahem).

I recently had to phone a 50p a minute support line for my satellite internet setup, after 5 mins of having to talk v-e-r-y-s-l-o-w-l-y and explaining the problem every way I could imagine - he finally said, 'sorry I can't help, you need to ring another number' AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH.

TurboKitty

I recently changed my payment arrangements with a service company I've used for several years because they had repeatedly messed up taking payments. I told them I wanted a monthly invoice which I would pay by cheque.

Last month, when the invoice arrived I didn't have any cheques as I'd used the last one and the bank were being slow in getting a new cheque book to me. So, rather than pay the invoice late, I 'phoned the company and gave them my debit card details to pay the bill.

This month I didn't get an invoice, so I 'phoned them to find out what had happened. 'Oh, don't worry', I was cheerily told, 'your account is not in arrears, we deducted £x from your account today'.
When I enquired how they had taken any money, as I didn't have a direct debit set up, I was told they'd put the card details I gave them last month into their automatic payment system and switched me off invoicing. (Bloody good job I'd paid the bill with my card then!)

To make it even better, they'd taken too much money from my account.

Suffice to say I went absolutely spare. I've written an extremely stern letter to the company telling them exactly what I think of them and informing them that I want a return to the invoicing arrangement immediately, and that if they ever so much as attempt to take money from me in any way, without prior authorisation from me, there will be Hell to pay. I've also started dispute proceedings through my bank, with the aim of having this company prevented from doing this again.

Interestingly, my bank's initial line on this, (before I went nuclear at them), was that it was my fault for giving my debit card details to the service company in the first place!

Unbelievable!