What is the WORST runaround you have gotten from a customer service call center?

Question

I spent 3.5 hours yesterday trying to get an insurance claim resolved through Blue Cross. Their "medical claims" department claimed to have routed my claim to the "pharmacy claims" department.

When I finally reached an insurance person in "pharmacy claims" (that took an hour by itself) she said she had no way of tracking down a file that had been routed to that department.

I said, "can you please just call medical claims and figure out where my file is?"

She said, "I'm sorry, but we can't make outbound calls."

I said, "You're the same company."

She said, "I'm sorry, there is no way for me to call them."

When I asked to speak to her supervisor, she put me on hold, and I finally gave up after 20 minutes. Congratulations, Blue Cross, you win. You sapped the life out of me.

Answer 1

I don't have a story as bad as yours, but I don't really have the patience to deal with it. I just get frustrated and start swearing or hang up on them. Sometimes both.

Quite a few times, with different companies, I've had people in India hang up on me for no reason at all. It really annoys me a lot when they send call centers over there.

I also hate those automated services that you have to talk to. I always end up having to yell my answers like 3 times before it gets what I'm trying to say.

Answer 2

I had to go to the ER last month because I was bitten by a dog. Well just this month I finally got the bill on it. It was just a note that told me that I owed X amount, nothing was on that note that said what they did or why I was even there, just the amount and that if I paid it in full they would knock 10% off of the bill. Well I called the hospital and asked them if they could send me an itemized list of what all they did that night in the hospital and if they could put on that sheet that I had been in there for a dog bite. Her response to me was no, I had to come in and sign for that paper. I told her that I was not driving all the way back there (in another town) just to sign a paper.

Answer 3

I've been put on hold for 45 minutes  by a government department and that was enough.  

On another call an automated telephonist at a  business had me pushing buttons to answer questions to determine which department to forward me to;  I was directed to 6 different departments with automated telephonists who then referred me to another department in turn.

Now, whenever I make calls and am put on hold, if I remember to say the time of making my call to the telephonist (whether it is human or automated) my waiting time is only a few seconds.  

Answer 4

There are so many that were so ridiculous, that I couldn't choose one over all the others!

AT&T, I guess, would have to be the worse.  Of course, I am no longer a customer, but they have to top the list.

Answer 5

"One moment please"

45 minutes later still waiting on the phone

Answer 6

I know what you mean.

I was on the phone with my medical insurance.  Now they say "Hello Mrs Queen, Pagan...is it ok if I call you Pagan"  Now I do not know why, but I do not like that.  And once is enough but after the third time I was upset and said...I do not care what you call me just get the problem solved.  2 hours later no result!  frustrating!  

Answer 7

   To wait on the phone line for more then several minutes and, no life is in the balance, I hang up. My life time is more important at this stage in my life then that.

    They can send me a letter.

Answer 8

AT&T's Billing office.  I was an Alltel customer, and had AT&T as my long distance carrier.  They never got the long distance billing right, so I called, as directed by the Alltel office, and changed my LD carrier to Alltel at a fixed rate.  I called AT&T, and notified them of the change, and that they were no longer my carrier.  All was well, for three months.  I got an AT&T bill for three months of service.  I called AT&T, and after the usual holds, was told that Alltel had used AT&T lines, so they had the right to bill me.  Then the girl said, and we only bill you every three months......I called Alltel, and they said it was simple, take the bill to the Alltel office, and have it faxed to the central office.  Call first, and make sure Mrs. X was there, as she would handle the problem.  I called, repeatedly, and not one person answered the phone.  I called the central office back, and the lady said, "Well have you tried tricking them into answering the phone?  When the main menu starts, push 2 for "New Service", and someone will answer the phone.  New Service means they can sell you something, and they will answer."......Now, I am getting bad service from a vendor, and my own phone company has to be tricked into answering the phone?!!!...This went on for 9 months, unresolved...I called Time Warner, went on digital phone, and dumped both of them.  What is wrong with a "Service Department", when you have to trick them into answering a service call?"  Sheez-z-z-z-!!!!!

Answer 9

For me, the most frustrating was trying to correct a billing for my telephone service with Verizon after getting Fios and putting phone, internet and t.v. all in their hands. They over billed and no one wanted to talk about it. Regular Verizon and Verizon Fios couldn't seem to communicate and it was a nightmare trying to get them to coordinate installation of lines between their engineers and their office staff. They seem to purposely be detached from what their other offices are doing.

I was developing a serious dislike for all of them.

Answer 10

many years ago, being argued with for 1 hour trying to cancel my Compuserve account.  The guy would not transfer me to a supervisor.  I finally started to insult him--"you're an idiot, aren't you?"--but he would NOT give up on his spiel to try to retain me.  I don't even know if Compuserve is still around, but if they still hire morons like that, I'd be surprised

Answer 11

19 hours & 26 minutes over three days & 4 calls.  Trying to get my health ins reinstated.  A so called "computer glitch"  I literally had to prove my existence to them.  Name, age, SS#, start of employment, retirement date,  off payroll date ( they're not the same) marriage cert. had to fax that to them.  "We'll check & call you back."  All this going on while my wife was checking in to hospital for surgery.  Didn't know there was a malfunction until we got to hospital.  No valid response till I threatened to get a lawyer involved.  Bear in mind that this was thru no fault of my own, but a data transfer error on THEIR behalf.

Answer 12

I sent a package of personal things to myself from Las Vegas, NV to Budapest, Hungary.

Did it every year for 7 years with no real problems.

last year I sent  a package,it was suppose to take about 6 to 8 weeks for delivery.

5 months later, no package.

We went to the main post office in Hungary and called customs to find out what happened to it.I had insurance on the box.

They said it never arrived through customs or entered the country.

i e-mail the US post office and got the run around for 2 more weeks with various people to talk to etc.

when I finally put in my request for my insurance on a lost package, all of a sudden they found my package. It was just sitting in a warehouse in the Netherlands and never entered Hungary like they swore it did.

The US postal service was trying to put the blame on the Hungarians when all the time it was their contractor that messed up.

They have now discontinued with mailing packages from land (shipping overseas) because too many packages have gone missing.

Now everything must be airmailed at more then twice the cost.

Answer 13

Aren't all big companies masters of the red tape runaround???  I always dread having to call any of them for any reason because I know it's going to take hours on the phone and NOTHING is going to be accomplished, except I'll just be angry at the end of it.  I recently decided to upgrade to DSL (I was a long-time dial-up user).  But when I tried to run the software that sets up the modem/connection, it gave me an error message saying I wasn't who I am (gee, I thought I might be someone else).  So I called and spent 2 hours with some outsource in the Philippines where I had to have the woman spell everything for me because her accent was so heavy (I'm usually really good at hearing what's being said once I get the rhythm of an accent); we rebooted everything, we reset everything, we tried this and that and this other thing--and in the end we arrived at the same error message at the exact same screen that I'd initially called about.  2 hours to get nowhere.  She kept putting me on hold during that 2 hours workout so she could go get instructions.  After 2 hours, she puts me on hold...and disconnects me!  The only good thing is that it was an 800 number so I wouldn't be charged for the phone time.  So, on the weekend when I had a bit more time, I called again to try to get some help and went to the Philippines again but could easily understand this new women, we went through the exact same dance steps for 2 hours, got to the error screen every time.  Finally she decides whatever the problem is is waaaaayyyyy beyond her expertise so she's going to escalate to the next tier.  The guy who picked up her forward immediately understood the problem, had a solution that worked (!) and we fixed everything within about 5 mins.  But that's 4+ hours of going nowhere.

Many many many years ago when Microsoft still tried to be available, I had to call them about an ongoing problem I encountered and spent hours on the phone with someone there--nice guy and all but it turned out to be one of those mysterious "Microsoft bugs" (in other words, we don't know what the problem is).

However, when you do have a chance encounter with a customer service person that is actually well informed and knows how to help, is gracious and courteous, it is stunning to the point where you kind of feel it just isn't right--because we become so accustom to getting nothing but frustration from CS.  I always want to go "gee, can I send you a check or a new car or something????  You were just sooo helpful and fixed everything and were very nice too and that kind of thing just NEVER happens."