No one has trouble coming up with bad examples of customer service.

Here's mine . . .  I had a problem with my car and decided to try a new mechanic.  The company gave me eleven reasons to not come back.

The gentleman handling the front desk didn't seem particularly glad to see me (1), which is surprising because new customers can be hard to come by these days.  He didn't smile (2), thank me for coming in (3) or to establish any sort of positive expectation (4).

I had to leave the vehicle at the garage, but my new vendor didn't tell me when he would contact me with a repair plan until prompted (5).  

He said would call me before noon, but I didn't hear from him until 2 PM (6). I expected to receive details of the problem, a recommended course of action and a request for repair authorization, but didn't learn any of these details (7-9).  Instead, the representative told me he had already fixed it. 

The dollar amount of the repair was only in the $50 dollar range, but I was prepared to pay more (10).

I was happy with the inexpensive fix, but because of all the missed cues I had lingering doubts about whether he knew what he was doing (11). 

The "safety check" section of the invoice listed some specific recommendations, i.e., transmission flush, battery replacement.  He didn't go over any of these safety issues with me verbally and of course, I didn't take time to read the fine print at the service counter. 

Here's my point– the guy did all the hard stuff correctly.  He properly diagnosed the problem and fixed it.

It's the easy stuff he messed up, like communication and dialog–the essence of customer service.  Granted, I'm a little sensitive about being treated badly because I teach customer service, but it seems like the situation is getting worse all the time.

What's your recent example of poor customer service?