The Worst Customer Service Stories of 2025: A Year of Epic Fails

As a consumer champion, I've spent the year wrestling with airlines, insurance firms, and energy providers who seem intent on making life difficult for their customers. While some things change, others remain constant: you can still count on certain industries to deliver billing psychodramas, phantom accounts, and stalled claims.

This year has revealed some truly astonishing cases of poor customer service across multiple sectors.

The "Dishonours Awards" Winners

Sensitivity Ambassador Award

Three Mobile takes this prize for suggesting a customer should "kill off" her sick father to change her mobile phone contract ownership. When CF wanted to become the primary account holder on her own phone (originally set up under her father when she was a teenager), Three's customer service team had no process for this. Instead, they suggested marking her father as deceased through their bereavement service, warning it could affect his credit rating but promising to tell credit agencies he was still alive afterward. Three later said it would review its processes and offer a goodwill payment.

Good Hygiene Award

Premier Inn and Vrbo share this award for hygiene-related disasters. An elderly couple discovered strangers had sex in their Premier Inn room while they were out, finding condoms, knickers, and a party hat as evidence. Premier Inn initially apologized for "any inconvenience" and declared the case closed, only offering a refund after Guardian intervention.

Meanwhile, Vrbo told a family who found their holiday rental was a bloodstained sex den that their complaint was "minor" and refused compensation until the Guardian stepped in.

An elderly couple was at least expecting a refund after finding evidence that strangers had sex in their Premier Inn room while they were out.

Good Samaritan Award

Ryanair wins this for its heart of solid granite. When a doctor stopped to help an injured passenger and arrived late at her departure gate, Ryanair refused to let her board the waiting plane and charged her a £100 admin fee to rebook. The airline insisted it could not waive the fee as a goodwill gesture, maintaining it's passengers' responsibility to be punctual—even if it means not helping bleeding pensioners.

Nurture Prize

L&Q housing association takes this award for leaving residents without running water for 12 days with no warning while belatedly fixing a leak. London's Southwark council deserves an honorable mention for leaving a 91-year-old cancer patient with damp, mould, and insects for a year while pondering how to address a leak elsewhere in the building.

The housing association L&Q left residents, without warning, with no running water for 12 days as it belatedly fixed a leak.

Philosopher's Prize

Airbnb shares this with one of its hosts. When a 100-year-old oak tree fell onto a French gite, narrowly missing occupants who'd been having breakfast on the terrace minutes earlier, the host refused to refund their aborted stay, telling them: "You have chosen to remember the worry and trauma instead of celebrating a unique memory." Airbnb was similarly philosophical, saying "We understand this may have caused some inconvenience to you," then closing their complaint without a refund and telling them: "Keep safe. Stay healthy." Airbnb eventually issued a full refund plus a £500 voucher after Guardian intervention.

Airbnb eventually paid a full refund and a £500 voucher to customers after Guardian Money intervened.

Social Justice Warrior Award

The London borough of Ealing wins this for potentially taking a driver to court for confusing an "O" with a zero on his car number plate when entering digits into a parking app. Despite Os and 0s being identical on car number plates and the driver having paid for his parking, Ealing gave him the option of an £80 fine or legal action, ignoring government guidance on parking penalty enforcement that requires councils to exercise discretion "sensibly and reasonably."

Corporate Contrition Award

Multiple companies share this award for their use of the platitude "We're sorry for any inconvenience" in situations involving significant failures:

• Capita demanded a retiree refund £25,000 worth of pension overpayments it had accidentally made over 11 years
• Virgin Atlantic failed to refund the cost of a honeymoon it cancelled
• TSB confused a victim of ID fraud with the fraudster, applied fraud markers to his name, and caused the closure of his bank accounts
• Airbnb banned a customer because it seemingly decided they were associated with the criminal underworld
• Sky failed to cancel the package of a family whose house was wrecked by a gas explosion next door

AA Intrepid Travel Award

The AA itself wins this award. One woman's car was towed by the AA to an approved garage for repair but wasn't returned for six months—only after she reported it as stolen. When finally returned, it had a coating of bird dirt, a £70 penalty charge notice for a parking breach, and 15,000 extra miles on the clock. The AA said its relationship with the garage was "under review."

Applause, perhaps for the AA, over its treatment of one member's car?

Bereavement Support Award

Insurance companies collectively earn this prize for hitting bereaved partners with huge premium hikes for home and car cover after being informed of a policyholder's death. One provider explained to a new widow that now she lives alone, her home is more at risk of break-ins.

The Common Thread

Throughout these cases, several patterns emerge: companies using bureaucratic processes to avoid responsibility, offering empty apologies without meaningful action, and demonstrating a lack of empathy in situations where customers are vulnerable. Many of these issues were only resolved after media intervention, suggesting that without external pressure, these poor customer service practices would continue unchecked.

The year has also revealed how certain industries—particularly airlines, insurance providers, and accommodation services—consistently deliver poor customer experiences, often hiding behind corporate policies rather than addressing individual circumstances.