Worst customer service | Wooden Spoon Awards 2010 | This is Money

Wooden Spoon Awards 2010: vote now

Voting closes 31 December 2010

Reader comments (75)

It's time for disgruntled consumers everywhere to take their revenge on inept customer services departments.

The Daily Mail's Money Mail team has drawn up a shortlist of the 10 most complained about companies in 2010 but the eventual 'winner' is in your hands.

›› Read how the 10 were selected

›› Vote now: Wooden Spoon Awards 2010

Click on the link above and you can choose from our shortlist and, if you wish, nominate your own contender and tell us the story about what went wrong.

The shortlist

• Europ Assistance
• HMRC
• Nationwide
• nPower
• PayPal
• Royal Mail
• Ryanair
• Santander
• TalkTalk
• Thomas Cook

How each company responded to their nominations

Europ Assistance: did not provide a comment.

HMRC: 'We do many things well but we are acutely aware that when we get things wrong people can be seriously adversely affected. We are very sorry to hear of the problems your readers have experienced and we are determined to improve those areas of our business that are currently not delivering the quality of service to which we aspire.'
- spokesman

Nationwide: 'We know that the service we delivered to some of our customers over the ISA season was below the high standards we set ourselves and we apologise to those who were affected. Going forward, we have been taking steps to ensure that we avoid similar disruption next year. 'Importantly, our customers can feel safe in the knowledge that, following the launch of our Savings Promises, they will now be paid interest from the date we receive their application. 'We are committed to helping customers make informed choices about the right products for their financial needs. 'We have a responsibility to ensure that we make new and existing customers aware of the range of products available to them – helping them to make the right choices for their financial needs. 'Nationwide is committed to delivering excellent customer service for its members. In two surveys released in November by Which? and JD Power, Nationwide was voted third out of all major financial services providers – scoring well above the industry average for customer service.'
- spokesman

nPower: 'We're always looking at ways to improve the service we offer our customers. We have recently invested over £200m in our systems and also dramatically improved our complaints handling processes. We've started seeing results - we've already more than halved the number of complaints to external bodies in the last 12 months.'
- Julie Jaglowski, Residential Customer Services Director

Paypal: 'We'd like to apologise to any Money Mail and This is Money reader who has had a poor experience with PayPal. We try to learn from our customers' feedback and make changes as a result. For example, we've significantly extended our buyer protection cover this year, giving the same cover whether you buy on eBay or from thousands of other websites that accept PayPal. We're also investing heavily in improving our customer service operations. We hope readers will notice the difference.'
- spokesman

Royal Mail: 'Royal Mail and the Post Office always welcome hearing from customers who have any concerns or difficulties about the services and products we provide. Royal Mail's postmen and women deliver on average 68m letters, packets and parcels a day – rising to around 130m on the busiest days in the run-up to Christmas – and the Post Office network of around 11,500 branches serves around 20m customers a week. Of course, the overwhelming majority of all mail arrives safely at the correct destination, and the overwhelming majority of all customer transactions are conducted to our customers' satisfaction. However, every letter matters, every transaction counts, every customer is very important to us. Our aim is to provide the best possible service at all times and if something goes wrong, we will do our utmost to put things right.'
- spokesman

Ryanair did not want to comment (have your say in the comments box below)

Santander: 'Santander takes the quality of service it provides to its customer's extremely seriously. We know that our service has been stretched this year, because of significant demand for our market leading ISA and the integration of Alliance & Leicester. We have worked hard to improve our service, and with the addition of 1,000 extra customer-facing staff, we have seen improvements in our own monthly customer satisfaction surveys.'
- spokesman

TalkTalk: 'We provide phone and broadband to over 4.2m customers and we're committed to providing excellent service alongside great value. This year we have been moving all of the customers we acquired with Tiscali on to a single network and billing platform, a major project that will be completed at the end of this year. This migration has meant regrettable but unavoidable disruption for a limited number of customers and we're working with them to ensure they are now completely satisfied with the service they're receiving.'
- spokesman

Thomas Cook: 'We're clearly very disappointed as each year more than 6m British holidaymakers trust us with their much deserved holiday, and we're delighted that nearly all tell us that they've had a great time - so much so that thousands book again with us year after year. Very occasionally, despite our best efforts, things can go wrong but we have dedicated teams both overseas and in the UK who are there purely to try and fix any issues and ensure holidaymakers can make the most of their sunshine break.'
- spokesman

›› Vote now: Wooden Spoon Awards 2010

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Comments so far (75)

1. Why not National Rail Enquiries. Several times I have phoned them and received no help whatsoever mainly due to the language barrier.
Last week purchased tickets online to pick up next day at Ticket Machine. On arrival machine broken, rang NRE and the they told me to board train and explain to the conductor I had no ticket. When I explained I would receive a penalty surcharge the operator (India) seemed bewildered.
Why should I pay again when I have already paid online.
Finally I was asked for my name and mobile number, Great I thought getting somewhere now. When I asked when was she going to call me back, I was told she wasn`t, this information was for their records only.

- Alan, Bures Posted: 1 December 2010, 5:49am

2. How about including recruitment agencies? Now there is a prime example of how NOT to treat people.

- Effem, Cornwall Posted: 1 December 2010, 8:45am

3. Has anyone ever tried ringing Ryan air for anything?? It's a complete joke! Once when I desperately needed to speak to a 'real' person there, after trying their limited numbers available to no avail I resorted to trawling the internet for a different number and eventually found one on an anti Ryan Air forum. When I got through to someone I was curtly asked 'Where did you get this number from?' The service stinks!

- Gareth, Binding Posted: 1 December 2010, 9:35am

4. Glad to seenpower on your list - it took THREE YEARS to agree that the estimated bills it had sent us belonged in fantasy land, and by that time we owed them so much in reality we had to have a prepayment meter (which took another year of negotiating over where it could be sited). No apology, just continual threats of court action. I ended up in hospital with my asthma over the stress of it all.

- Alison Wytchwood, York Posted: 1 December 2010, 10:11am

5. I have a savings account (Easy Saver) with Alliance and Leicester. I have had no statements now for nearly a year. Recently my accountant wanted the figures for the interest and tax paid on this account in order to complete my tax returns. I went to my local branch and asked if they could give me the figures I required. They told me I would need to order a tax statement. They ordered it for me there and then and told me it would take seven working days. I waited two weeks and telephoned the local branch. They told me that it should have arrived but they would order me another one. That was two weeks ago and neither of the statements have arrived.
I have finally persuaded the branch to look up my account on their computer and give me the figures I require. I wonder whether I shall ever receive the tax certificate.

- Ivan Bonnett, Ely, Cambs Posted: 1 December 2010, 10:13am

6. Why not Currys/Dixons. They have the worst customer service of any company I have ever dealt with. Never mind not calling back, or ling which other companies have. They don't even know what is going on, it as if their customer service doesn't work for Currys. And as for Head Office, they don't respond to complaints.

- S Smith, Hinckley Posted: 1 December 2010, 10:45am

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projectbrainsaver / hightechheadhelper / TellYourPhone concepts were 'built' around being able to hit supercompanies hard whenever what they did to customers was wrong and tended to blow said customers mental stability through stress.