Sometime a business seems to go out of its way to make any of their services or products absolutely terrible. Is this business out to personally attack its customers? They might as well be. This was the final straw for these people. It took some outrageously awful events to convince patrons to never return to the evil businesses, and now we the readers will know what places to completely avoid. This content has been edited for clarity.
Not The Dog!
“I always took my dog to the same vet, for years. It was time for his annual dental visit. When I picked him up and went to pay the bill, I noticed it was about $400 more than previous visits. A quick look around the waiting room could explain why: the new stone wall backsplash, tropical fish aquarium, new signs and fancy window details. When I brought up the higher price change I was told, ‘We have the best equipment and anesthesia to ensure the best outcome.’
But the final straw was that it took my dog TWO DAYS to snap out of the high from the anesthesia.
Additionally, I was owner shamed for not agreeing to buy their $15 a week vitamins for him. ‘You don’t want what is best for your dog?’
So I found a new vet who has a humble office and fair prices. Also, after my dog’s teeth cleaning this year, he was able to walk to my car and move around the same day! Not a fuzz slug with crossed eyes due to that ‘top-notch anesthesia.'”
“Is That Our Plane Taking Off?”
“One summer I was working in New England, and I flew home for a wedding. On the return trip, I was flying from Ohio to New Jersey by way of DC. Well, there was terrible weather in Newark, so our flight was delayed. Eventually we were loaded onto the plane, where we waited. And then we were unloaded. And then loaded back on. Now we pulled away from the gate and waited on the tarmac. Finally, we got up in the air.
Unfortunately, they still weren’t landing any planes in Newark, and we were out of fuel (why did we leave DC?), so they rerouted us to a small, rural airport in Pennsylvania. When we landed (while we waited for our turn with the airport’s sole set of mobile stairs), they said that we had two options: we could get off the plane and be responsible for getting ourselves where we were going, or we could stay on the plane, fly back to DC, and the airline would get us to our final destination.
I was too young to rent a car, and I was broke, so I stayed on the plane with maybe ten other passengers. Another 30 minutes later, they tell us we all have to disembark because there’s some mechanical issue, and they can’t repair it with us on the aircraft. But they assure us that once it’s fixed they’ll take us back to DC.
So we get out and all wait at the gate until someone points out the window and says, ‘Is that our plane that’s taking off?’
Spoiler: it was. They left us behind without telling us or notifying the airport. There were no airline employees left in the airport, because it was late, and the airport employees said it wasn’t their problem.
I was still broke and young, so now I’m stranded and have no idea what I’m going to do. Fortunately, there was a woman among the other stranded passengers who lived near the Newark airport and whose husband was driving down to come pick up her and her two small children (yes, also stranded by the heartless airline). They let me ride with them and dropped me off at my car. I was and am so grateful to that family, and I will never fly that airline again.”
Child-Friendly Catastrophe
“Several years ago, Toy R Us had a 3D Easter Egg Hunt that was MAJORLY hyped. My older sister and I took her four young kids, both taking the day off work to do this for them, for they were ecstatic. We get to the entrance, and no one working there seems to know what we or any of the other families there were talking about. Imagine at least a hundred kids, all holding Easter baskets, ready to hunt for eggs in the store, and all the parents, glad they found something to get the kids this excited.
Finally, after a manager is called up, we get some bit of info. She hands each kid a cheaply printed paper with five empty squares on it. She then says, ‘There are five hidden spots in the store with a roll of stickers. Find each of the five stickers, and bring them to the table at the front for a surprise!’
Now all the parents got a little concerned at this point. This wasn’t an Easter egg hunt, but maybe it was something leading up to it. So about half an hour passes and just about every kid has four of the five stickers. But the parents are upset and the kids are frustrated because there isn’t a fifth. All the employees keep saying, ‘There should be a cardboard cutout with the last sticker near the barbies, gotta find it though!’ Someone forgot to set the last cutout up. So after another half hour or so, they get it out, everyone grabs their sticker, and head to the front table. At this table they’ve set up a big four-foot by two-foot table, and two at a time, kids got to draw on it with the Crayola 3d crayons. TWO KIDS AT A TIME.
While everyone is waiting in line, kids are angry and crying, parents are angry and whining, and this manager is coming down the line trading the papers with five stickers, for a brown paper lunch bag for each kid. Inside the bag is a single mini tootsie roll, and a coupon. A coupon to be used ONLY on the Crayola 3D Crayon set, and ONLY usable the NEXT DAY. The whole thing was designed so parents would buy something for the upset kids, then hopefully come back the next day to use the 5% off coupon.”
“Sucked Every Last Dime They Could From Him”
“Back in the late 70s, my dad would go to get gas at the local Shell station, and he would grab a coffee to chat with the owner while filling up. He did this for years. He got to know the guy pretty well. The owner was an immigrant that had worked his fingers to the bone to get to this point and was hardly stopping. He was so proud of his Shell station and his attached repair garage.
A while later, while filling up with gas, my dad noticed that the garage was filled to the ceiling with tires. When he talked to the owner, the owner seemed distressed. Apparently the franchise office told him that he’d lose his franchise if he didn’t buy these tires. So he sunk most of his savings into it, knowing that the Shell name was worth keeping. Next week, there was a going out of business sale. He had to take the Shell signs down and sell those tires at a huge loss. They made him buy the tires, and shut him down anyhow. Sucked every last dime the company could from him. He was ruined.
My dad never went to another Shell station again. And after hearing the story, I didn’t either.”
Diamond Disaster
“Once upon a time I had an addiction problem and I had taken up stealing from people’s cars to support my habit. I stole an engagement ring from someone’s car. Through some online research, I found out that it was sold at Kay Jewelers. So I took the ring there and asked the lady working about its value. She looked at the ring under her microscope and told me the ring had a small 3/4 karat diamond, and they sold the ring for $3,500.
Now I eventually get caught for stealing all of this stuff and still had the ring. So when the police told me the value of the ring from the receipt the couple had, the ring was supposed to be a 1 karat diamond that they paid $5,000 for. So to sum it up Kay Jewelers sold them a 3/4 diamond engagement ring for the price of a 1 karat diamond.
And yes the people got their ring back.”
Payment Over Patients
“I hurt my back and had to go physiotherapy. The woman didn’t really do much besides shock me with machine while she was out of the room for 30 minutes, and print off exercises I had to do at home. That bothered me right from the start. Like, shouldn’t you show me the proper way to do these things? So I don’t hurt myself more? Nah.
I had to go to these appointments first thing in the morning because I want to sleep before I have to be up for a 14-16 hour shift at work. She called me at 6am one morning from her house and asked me to change my appointment time to something several hours later. I explained to her that it wouldn’t work for me. She started complaining to me that she doesn’t have any other clients until later, and how she would have to wait around after my appointment while not getting paid.
I asked her if cancelling my appointment would be more convenient. She responded yes. After which I called the business and cancelled every appointment I had scheduled for the next three months. Which was all of them.
Of course, I had to give a reason why I was cancelling. ‘[Name] called me from home to let me know she doesn’t want to wait around after my appointments, not getting paid.'”
“Zero Tact. Zero Accountability.”
“I paid for an installation from Dish Network, so I wasn’t locked into a service contract. It was specified in the paperwork I signed. Two months later, my brother was in the hospital in a neighboring state fighting for his life, and we thought it was going to be a long road. While I was back home getting clothes and things I would need, I made what I thought would be a quick call to ‘suspend’ my expensive TV service for a few months, as I was told I could do.
Customer service said their computers showed me as having a contract, and that there was NO POSSIBLE WAY the paper I signed didn’t match what was entered into their computer system. They didn’t know where the paper was stored, or even who would know. Dish didn’t think it mattered anyway, since whatever method used to put it in the system was utterly infallible. They just flat didn’t believe me and treated me like I was speaking nonsense for thinking a mistake was within the realm of possibility.
I was an emotional wreck at the time. They knew this because I explained what was happening when they asked why I wanted to put my service on hold. Zero tact. Zero accountability. I ended up a screaming, sobbing mess, thanks Dish Network.”
“Rightfully Theirs?”
“I travelled outside the country last year, when I left, someone tried to use my card number in a different country, which meant that I had to cancel my debit card. No big deal, my bank offers a good protection and assessed the situation appropriately. When I got back eight weeks later; however, I realized that I was overdue on a 24-Hour Fitness bill payment because of the card cancellation.
I paid my overdue bill at 24-Hour Fitness (including a late fee), and I thought I was done with the problem. I let them know about my new card number, and told them to update the information and begin billing my new card. Every time I would go back to 24-Hour Fitness and check in, they told me that my card information was not updated. Each time (it happened at least 5 times) I calmly told them my new card number and requested that they take the authorized monthly payment
About three months later they decided to take three months of payments all at once (including more late fees) equalling $120 from my bank account. I was not at all prepared for this, and they ended up overdrafting from my bank account. I was at (-$30), and this compounded with overdraft charges to make for a real situation.
I called the gym and told them that they took money that they were not entitled to take. They then informed me that everything in my bank account was money that was owed to them. They took what was ‘rightfully theirs.’ They just had not had my updated card information until this point (which was an obvious lie because I had updated with them several times). I demanded some customer service, for I had been a loyal customer with them for several years.
They told me I was entitled to nothing. Not even a refund. They insisted it was their money, and they were entitled to take it. Well, I decided to report them for fraud, and did a little digging. As it turns out, not only did they steal from my bank account. They had somehow acquired my credit card number as well (it must be from some small purchase at their front desk that I made in the past). They had also been charging my credit card for a gym membership for almost a year. I had never paid attention to this charge before, it was ambiguously marked, and I just assumed it was a utility payment automatically taken from my card every month. Further inspection confirmed it was 24-Hour Fitness stealing money from me.
Thank God I have a good bank that took my fraud claim seriously. I sent in records of all of my credit records and bill payments to their fraud department, and they returned every cent that 24-Hour Fitness stole from me.”
Perfume PR Nightmare
“There’s a big cosmetics/fashion superstore franchise in France that my mom, who happens to be black, went to for some perfume and makeup. The cashier asked her if the card she was using was really hers (implying she was a thief). The cashier would not give it back. My mom was obviously not pleased and told the cashier that she will not be spoken to this way and asked for her manager.
The manager came in and once again asked that she prove that the card was hers because ‘her people’ were always stealing things. Other customers started noticing the situation, and my mom took her card back. She put down everything she was trying to buy and walked out, and other customers started doing the same (about 10 people).
I also found out later on that this has happened in multiple stores where Middle Eastern and black people were followed closely by security and treated badly. Since then, my mother has boycotted the brand and I have too.”
Supermarket Scam
“I Just got off work, on my way to my new home, just moved in. Awesome, I should get a six-pack on my way home. Luckily, there is an Albertsons on the way! So I drop in and look for my favorite adult drink.
Oh boy, here it is. On sale, too! Oh, $8.99, that is the normal price at every other grocery store, and that is their sale? Whatever. I guess I’ll buy it. I walk up to the register. Ring up the six-pack. What? $14.99? The price must be wrong, I saw a sign for less. Oh, what did you say? That price is only if you buy four six-packs? So, you mean a 24-pack, but less convenient?
Hold on. I saw a 24-pack over there. It’s cheaper than $8.99 x 4. So why would anyone buy 4 six-packs? It is less convenient and more expensive. And then I realized. They knew all along nobody would buy four six-packs. But they also knew that everyone would see that big, decently priced sign. They intentionally put up a sales price that nobody will ever take advantage, to make everyone think their six-packs were reasonably priced. But they were not.
In short, I paid 15 bucks for 6 average drinks and it was the last thing I ever bought at Albertsons.”
Pettiest Auto Shop Worker
“Mr. Tire is straight up terrible. When my wife and I were first married, we took her car there for a new set of tires. Coincidentally, it also needed struts at the time. I planned to do those myself. I’m good with a wrench and really only visit a mechanic for tires and the occasional oil change.
The guy at Mr. Tire pointed out that the struts were bad and offered to replace them. I said something like ‘No thanks, I’m going to take care of it. There’s actually a new set in the trunk.’ The dude gets cranky and tried to tell me that the car was unsafe to drive, and that he couldn’t let me leave without the struts installed. I’d have walked out right then, but they were the only shop in town with the right size tires. Instead, I called B.S. on the guy. He whined a bit but backed down.
We left the shop and drove across the parking lot to grab dinner before heading home. About two miles into the drive home, the car starts to shake bad. I pulled over and checked the wheels. I had to tighten them all up on the side of the road before we could drive. Mr. Tire is closed for the night, so I take some time off from work and go back the next morning.
When I confronted that employee, he said, ‘I guess you should have let us install those struts,’ and started to walk away. It took every ounce of willpower I had to not shove my boot up that guy’s butt. I don’t yell at service workers as a rule, but this guy got to listen to me chew gum out for a good half hour in front of his customers about how he could have killed my wife and I over my not wanting him to install some parts for us.”
“Rearrange her snotty face”
“My mom had gone into Lush upon my recommendation to buy a Henna hair dye block. She was in a hurry and forgot her purchase at the register when she left the store, and she didn’t realize it until she got home. I called the store and spoke with the manager on my mom’s behalf, asking her if she had seen anything left behind at the counter. She assured me that if my mom came back to the store, they would give her another Henna bar.
So my mom goes to the store, and the manager pretends like she doesn’t remember the conversation. She totally dismissed my mom and made her feel stupid. I wanted to go in there and rearrange her snotty face. I used to buy my hair dye there quarterly. I have boycotted that store ever since.”
“Watching It Burn Until The Fire Department Got There”
“My parents will never buy a Chrysler vehicle, specifically Dodge. This happened when I was a wee baby in the early 90s. My mom bought a brand-new Dodge Intrepid. As she was driving it out the dealership with me in the back seat, the transmission fell out the car. Literally dropped completely out. And because she was off the dealer property (barely), she had to pay for some part of the repairs.
A couple years later, my dad purchased a new truck from them. This time, one of the gas lines ruptured, spraying fuel onto a hot engine. It burned to the ground. However, it was on the dealership property and thus they gave him an equivalent truck, albeit in a color he didn’t like. That one broke down 3 days later. Cracked engine block.
Then in ’98, my dad risked it and purchased a new Dodge Stratus. That one actually worked and was a fairly good car for about a month before the wires fried and it burned too. I was 7 and in the back seat. I remember watching it burn until the fire department got there. I was happy because our neighbor, who was in the sheriff’s department, gave us a ride home and I got to ride in the front seat of a police car.”
Fighting For His Daughter’s Life
“This is a little specific, but Fallon Community Health Plan is an atrocious business that nearly disregarded my daughter’s life.
She was born with food allergies (milk, rice, soy) and acid reflux. When she was young (0m-9m), she wasn’t gaining weight, vomited and cried constantly, with bloody stool. We tried 5 different acid reflux medications and 6 formulas, many in the order of 40 dollars or more a can.
After finally working with a fantastic GI, we narrowed down a formula that worked, Elacare, which was the same formula that is used in feeding tubes because its so broken down (like 1 protein chain vs. the next up was 16). Our daughter stopped crying, kept food down, became really happy, and gained some weight.
Because we’re parents, we switched to the formula right away. When we went to the insurance company, we showed them how much better she was doing and asked to have the formula approved. They approved the other ones to their credit.
A few weeks later, we were denied coverage. The formula costs 50 dollars a can, so we couldn’t afford it, but we weren’t going to keep feeding her something that clearly made her in pain. When we asked why, they said we didn’t meet the criteria of ‘malabsorption,’ meaning she wasn’t absorbing food correctly.
Here’s the problem: because we just used the formula provided by the GI, the insurance company thought that she was gaining weight with what they okayed. So because she was gaining weight, she didn’t have malabsorption. But she only gained weight because we switched formulas. The next step if Elacare didn’t work would have been to talk to an endocrinologist, trying to figure out why she wasn’t absorbing nutrients correctly, hence looking for malabsorption.
I spoke with the company many times, and they refused to listen to myself, our doctor, our GI, all of which said the formula was a necessity for my daughter’s growth and well-being.
As a work around, we drove 2 hours to our GI every 2 weeks to get a sample amount of the formula, since they were so generous to help us out in our time of need. And eventually, we were able to work out getting the formula through state care, since my wife and myself don’t make a lot. Over half my wife’s weekly paycheck went to paying for Fallon.
The whole ordeal cemented my hatred of the American health care system, and in particular, Fallon Community Health Plan. Certain industries shouldn’t be private, and doctors shouldn’t be arguing with insurers about what care is needed. I’m happy to say we’re no longer on Fallon, and my daughter has grown out of her allergies (although she’s now seeing an endocrinologist infrequently because she’s so short). Regardless of how you feel about the health care industry, do not ever purchase Fallon Community Health Plan. It’s a waste of money for care that doesn’t come through when you need it most.”