For me, it was during an apartment shop. While discussing pest control, the consultant said she wondered why bed bugs are more common in the US now than they were a few decades ago. Then she said, "I bet it's because of people from other countries." Yikes!

A bank shop. The employees ignored me in the waiting area. A regular customer came in and a banker immediately came over to help him. The customer told him I was there first. The banker spent 3 minutes with me and gave me this little pamphlet. They got a really bad report.

We were seated. Nobody came to our table and we had been there for 20 minutes. The manager was walking around the dining room. I made eye contact with him and spoke to him. A waitress was sent over, she said we were a "pickup table," but she "would help us anyway." She messed up my order. She brought the missing items in a red and white paper holder (this was a nice place), she said, "Watch out," and she dumped the food over my shoulder. It was laughable at that point.

A few days ago, we had a waiter who did not check on us, overall bad service. He took my card, said their machine was down, had my card for over ten minutes, he then asked for (demanded) cash. I had no cash. My card had been charged three times. He said it was only charged once. I later called the restaurant twice, they said they would fix it. Called again, the manager said I had only been charged twice. They had removed one of the charges. I was charged three times and am still charged twice on my card. The manager gave me the name for corporate and told me to take care of it there. I have not heard back. I have still been charged twice. There were no apologies, they did not act like this was a problem, they offered me nothing.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/18/2019 12:50PM by Niner.

I was portraying a small business owner who was seeking a business loan of about $40,000. The banker, who was not their business banker, proceeded to tell me, first, that there was no market for refilled toner cartridges and, second, that I was operating illegally under MD law. He was, of course, wrong on both counts. Moreover, giving legal advice, especially in the way that he did it, may have cost him, at least, a demotion. He told me to go away until I had done what he said would make my business legal and then, maybe, they would look at my qualifications.

Note: I have owned and operated several businesses, both as an IC and as a licensed small corporation, for nearly 50 years. And, I have taken legal advice along the way. The MSC's project manager told me that she was stunned, as was the (major bank) client.

Yikes!! I almost forgot. I was touring a senior living facility and the manager showed me a display of clubs and activities by and for the residents. She touted the fact that resident volunteers led language learning classes and named several foreign languages. I stated that I had always wanted to learn Spanish. The sort of "huffed" at that and said, "Well, I am quite certain that we have no native speakers of Spanish here!" The emphatic tone of voice and the look on her face were on video and audio.

Side note: I overheard about half of her nurse assistant, catering and cleaning staff speaking Spanish to one another. She had praised the staff, from top to bottom, for dedication and talent. But, for sure, a lot of staff members would never be considered, by her, for residence there. sigh

I had an open audit to take pictures of a restaurant. I told the manager I had a letter of authorization. The manager didn't care and told me to leave. He said if the company wants pictures taken, they would have to clear it through him first. I didn't argue with him, but I know corporate was going to have a few words with him.

This one happened last week. I signed up to open a checking account at a bank. The rotation/rules for these account opening shops are every six months and no more than 3. Since I last did these a year ago, I was in the clear. I used a scenario listed in my guidelines as to why I wanted to open a second checking account and the branch manager, who helped me while we waited for a banker to become available, was nice about it, but the banker, oh my, she was a big pain and so rude. She asked me a ton of questions and challenged everything I said and made comments that she shouldn't, etc. If it wasn't a $60 shop, I would have left and told her where to go. I was thinking to myself as I sat there "is this worth being treated like this?" and I just kept replying "get through it for $60." I understand due diligence, especially since this bank has a bad reputation regarding account openings, but there's a level of acceptability. I tell ya, though, it took all of my restraint to not get an attitude back with her.

Niner - Man, that would chap my hide, too. Gotta tell you, I SWEAR by my Chase card - they stand behind the cardholder and fix it when merchants don't make it right. Disputes are never a problem with Chase.

Nothing seriously bad, but a restaurant manager gave me a free drink once. It was against the rules.

@Niner wrote:

, she said, "Watch out," and she dumped the food over my shoulder.

That's horrific!

Mine was a JD Power comparison shop of two big box companies. One went ok but the second one I was ignored for 30 minutes. I even tried to engage an employee without success. I turned in the report and it was rejected because I did not stay 40 minutes - NO WHERE ON THE REPORT DOES IT STATE YOU MUST STAY 40 MINUTES. The shop was rejected and I was out 2 hours and 30 miles for the shop plus the time to do the report. I have removed the MSC from my bank of companies to work for.

I did a tire shop not long ago (low pay only did it because I was looking for tires) and after my 3rd relevant question, the guy tells me that the info can be found on the company website. So, we did NOT buy 4 new Michelin tires from that chain.

I was told by a pest control company that treats bedbugs that when people ship their belongings from foreign countries, the boxes are often transporting bedbugs here.

@spiralofsilence wrote:

For me, it was during an apartment shop. While discussing pest control, the consultant said she wondered why bed bugs are more common in the US now than they were a few decades ago. Then she said, "I bet it's because of people from other countries." Yikes!

@Monk-N-Nut wrote:

Niner - Man, that would chap my hide, too. Gotta tell you, I SWEAR by my Chase card - they stand behind the cardholder and fix it when merchants don't make it right. Disputes are never a problem with Chase.

Since this was for a mystery shop, I wanted to give them a chance to fix it first. With this card, I get 4% back at restaurants. My Chase card has 5% rotating categories. Chase is a good company to work with though.

@shoptastic wrote:

@Niner wrote:

, she said, "Watch out," and she dumped the food over my shoulder.

That's horrific!

I was at a loss. The last time I saw a food container like that was at an animal shelter. It became ridiculous at that point. I think I posted about it here when it happened since the whole thing was farcical.

I was doing a retail shop in a casino. It was by the valet, so it was tiny and had very little to browse while waiting for the associate to engage so I could ask a question. I was in that store for 15 minutes (I had walked the entire store half a dozen times while three employees spoke about company business and not one was paying any attention to anyone in the store. I was afraid they were going to think I was casing the joint, so I decided to just get my purchase and headed to the register to start the interaction myself. As soon as I got there, the phone rang and he was on it for the entire time. I tried to pull my item off the counter and he grabbed it from me and rang it up. I fumbled with my wallet a bit to try to waste time and for him to get off the phone. He never spoke to me once, no thank you, nothing. I stood there after so I could salvage the shop, but there was no inclination that he'd be getting off the phone anytime soon. I couldn't report any interactions because there weren't any. I thought for sure the shop would be rejected, and it was, but the editor actually paid for my reimbursement and half of the payment, which I thought was very generous.

A few years ago, I had to go look at new cars to buy for a shop. I took my husb along because we were going on a date afterward. He went into the dealership, sat down, opened his legal pad to work, and made it clear to the salesman that the car was all my decision.

That salesman REFUSED to speak to me, engage me, ask me questions, etc. My husb kept saying it was my car. The salesman wouldn't make eye contact or shake my hand or anything and when it was time for a test drive, he wouldn't take my license. When I handed it to him, he actually refused it. He asked for my husband's license and my husband told him, for the umpteenth time, that he didn't want anything to do with the car. He took my license grudgingly and we went on the test drive. I was a "distracted driver" at that point, because I knew that I needed to be able to put exactly into words the feeling with the nonverbal cues and body language, so I watched him closely. He sneered at me when I was unsure about where to turn. Literally. Sat in the passenger seat, slumped down and didn't converse. Looked out his window most of the time with a half smile, stroking his moustache. He berated me for the way I drove; how I stopped "too close to the car in front" of me for a red light and how I asked where I was supposed to go for the test drive.

When I put it in my report, the scheduler and editor (both females) called and apologized for his behavior.

Husb and I WERE looking for a car. And it was a few months later that we DID buy. We had gone back to this dealership, and others....and he was gone (fired, I'm assuming)

That is so crazy, Jill. No manager in their right mind would want you to contact corporate!

@johnb974 wrote:

I had an open audit to take pictures of a restaurant. I told the manager I had a letter of authorization. The manager didn't care and told me to leave. He said if the company wants pictures taken, they would have to clear it through him first. I didn't argue with him, but I know corporate was going to have a few words with him.

same thing happened to me at a taco stand too.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/18/2019 06:47PM by atan134340.

Last night I had one of those nice server, did a job I did not mind but missed 90% of what he was supposed to do points at a chain sit down restaurant shop. I did not look forward to writing it up but hopefully put enough good words for his personal charm and delivery style in that they will not get rid of him. Aside from not really wanting to paint such a terrible picture in my report of someone I suspect was rather new to the job I also had to explain about 40 no's in those small paragraph spaces that expand. All the while I was writing explanations for the numerous no and n/a answers I was dreading trying to submit at the end for fear I was going to get a message telling me I can only type in 150 characters. Turned out this msc report was okay with more than a few words.

I was in a shop for a clothes dryer in a big box store a couple of weeks ago and the sales associate told me about the soap that it needed for some cycles.....

One of my first gas station shops, I walked into the c~store and the employee was discussing a vendor with someone not in uniform. He said, "(Name) trades product for ~~~~ jobs." I was floored.

This actually happened several years ago. I was doing an apartment shop. It was a small community in the DC area. I walked into the leasing office. I had seen no one at this point, residents or employees. Looking around I noticed a lady with her head down on the desk. My first thought was, oh no, maybe she is dead. But then I heard a soft snoring coming from her direction. I coughed, I shuffled my feet and coughed again. Slowly this pretty head with dropping eyes and a little drool comes up from the desk and ask if she could help me. I said I was looking for a two bedroom apartment. Did she act sheepishly or extra nice because I found her asleep at the switch? Oh no, she got ruder and ruder as the meeting went on. I chuckled all the way home and could not wait to write my report on sleeping beauty. OctoberGal

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/18/2019 11:54PM by OctoberGal.

I hate having to write really bad reports. I start asking myself if it was really as bad as I thought. Perhaps I was in a foul mood and misconstrued something? Will the MSC (and client!!) really believe it? Etc. I'm always thankful when the really bad ones are either audio or video recorded. A list of a few other whoppers I had - most of which I've mentioned on this forum previously:

* An apartment manager with extremely obscene and sexual language.
* A (different) drunk apartment manager.
* An apartment manager (the drunk one) who insisted on showing me an occupied apartment in a rough neighborhood who said, as she opened the door, "I hope they don't have a gun."
* A leasing professional who nearly had a head-on collusion with an F-150 - while driving me in a golf cart. Think: Air off speed bumps.
* A banker who refused to help me - because I was speaking Spanish.
* A Realtor who pointed me to the competition's community - because I was not Latino.
* A targeted apartment manager who said that it was not her job to give tours - I have had this happen multiple times.
* A TV salesperson who, after I asked for a discount on a $300 television, insisted that the $300 television was really "low end" and not very good, pushed me to look at TV's that were $2000-$7000.
* A car salesman who insisted that I test drive alone because he was too busy with other customers and the other salespeople (who were just standing around) were "useless."

A restaurant server who dropped the check and said, “Sorry it sucked.”

Oh that reminds me (SoCalMama) of the pregnant server who spent almost my entire meal laughing it up with the table nearby and not paying any attention to mine. At the end of the meal she finally came over and the bill for two people had one entree on it and the other entree which should have been $19 was listed as a side order at only $8. She pointedly turned to the side to show us her belly when she handed it over and mentioned that she was going out on maternity leave soon and would not be able to work. If she was not screaming "give me a big tip" I am not sure what was going on. It took her a long time to mosey on over for me to have her fix the bill. I had two reasons...maybe three....I hate to cheat in places even if it benefits me, I was required to have 2 entrees and was not sure how the msc would handle it, and I was not enamored of the lack of service and then a bid for a big tip. It took over 20 minutes for her to return with the correct bill.

At today's business account bank shop the assistant manager sat in with the new employee, but basically ran the whole thing. She didn't know the business products at all (and even made some honking factual mistakes like misrepresenting the requirements to waive the monthly fee), but tried to bluff her way through. I felt bad for the new employee who was looking to her manager for training and guidance.

I did a new vehicle shop a few months ago and had an awesome experience with the sales guy. He was courteous, passionate and knowledgeable, not your regular pushy salesman. During the test drive he shared that he was new to sales and had started a few months after his Dad passed away. He seemed really genuine and I was ready to award him full points depending on his sales technique when we got back. But when we got back to the dealership, his Sales Manager totally stole his sale. She came over to his desk and made him leave. She sort of stage-whispered "He doesn't really know anything - he's new," and then proceeded to bully me into a sale. She wasn't even a sales person. Her technique was to just wear the customer down until they signed the paperwork. The guidelines said we were not to get a credit check but she kept the pressure so high, I had to feign a phone call to get out of there! I included the way she treated the rookie in my report as an example of unprofessional behavior observed during my shop. A couple of days later, a Reviewer contacted me and said the dealership was disputing my report. I wasn't surprised and told her the cameras would support my story. I never heard back after that and got paid my full fee, plus bonus!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/2019 06:33AM by Cece-sasktel.

This doesn't even come close to the original poster's experience (holy smokes!), but I had an amusing grocery store encounter where it was my turn in the checkout lane, and instead of greeting me or excusing herself, the cashier left the register, went over to the bagger, and asked her to scratch her back. Came back, didn't excuse herself, didn't greet me, and checked me out as though I were the Invisible Grocery Shopper.

amyann2 You need to patent that invisibility cloak But in all seriousness, sometimes the rudeness is beyond belief.

@amyann2 wrote:

This doesn't even come close to the original poster's experience (holy smokes!), but I had an amusing grocery store encounter where it was my turn in the checkout lane, and instead of greeting me or excusing herself, the cashier left the register, went over to the bagger, and asked her to scratch her back. Came back, didn't excuse herself, didn't greet me, and checked me out as though I were the Invisible Grocery Shopper.