Adventures of the Insane Customer

[Moirae]

I had the worst possible day today.

Started out with the annoying que not getting at all smaller, and auto"bong" all day long (the sound the phone makes). But it's been like that for three weeks so nothing new, though incredibly aggravating. I mean, by god people, it's summer time, why are you playing on your computer instead of enjoying your summer?

Anyway... Fifteen years I've been in customer service and never once have I been treated the way I was treated by a customer today.

Right before lunch, I got this phone call from a woman. She tells me that she just got a new pw for her username and it wasn't working.

So, being part of my job is to find out what's going on with that kind of thing, I elect to troubleshoot.

Only to barely be able to speak a word because she's freaking out, screaming at me about how horrible my company is, and how we have horrible service. Nothing new until she won't listen to a thing I say, and then starts to get personal whenever I try to tell her to do something.

Oh, and get this, her password is working just fine. It's the fact that the pw must have 8-16 alphanumeric letters that she doesn't like. So I get screamed at for that.

Then she starts calling me names and screaming at the top of her lungs. When I tell her that the 8 letters is for her security (instead of 6) she tells me I'm lying a number of times, that I don't know anything (mind you I'm keeping this much more polite than what she was saying it). Then she tells me that she knows more about computers than I do.

Yeah lady, that's why you had to have me walk you through how to change your pw to one you liked better.

Mind you, I didn't say that. But it got so bad that I self escalated to a supervisor. But the sup took too long. Meanwhile, the lady is screaming at me over the phone and I'm getting more upset by the minute, even gripping the arms of my chair hard enough to cause impressions in it.

Finally, just as the sup shows up, she says she's not willing to wait and hangs up.

No sooner does she hang up, than I burst into tears. Not because I was hurt but because I was soooooooo bloody angry, I could have torn her eyes out.

Even the other agents around me were asking if I was ok. My sup patted me on the back and told me to take myself out of the que and go for a walk because I was shaking.

When you listen to some wench tell you that you're the scum of the earth for 45 min screaming at the top of her lungs, it kind of gets to you.

I hate customers. And I hate customer service. I asked to take an upaid day off this week for my own sanity. I need more time, or I'm going to walk out of the place and never look back.

Oh, and get this, another piece of joy today but not so bad.

I had some idiotic woman accuse my company of being responsible for the power outage in her home.

Yes, because I somehow have a magic switch I can hit that will turn your power off in your entire house.

Now thats the first time I've heard that one. When I tried to explain thats something the city is responsible for, not my company, she said "Uh huh" and hung up.

I need to find a new job.

[One-Fang]

Uh ... HANG UP!!!!!!!


Seriously, if this happens again, give them a polite request to tone it down, if you're feeling really service-orientated you can even give them a reminder after than, but if they still continue - hang up on their asses!

[Moirae]

We aren't allowed to hang up. If we're caught doing that, we get written up. Although I was about ready to by that time. "Oops, my finger slipped."

[erik316wttn]

It's times like this one you wish you had a button that could send a 10,000 volt shock through the phone.

[One-Fang]

You aren't allowed to hang up when people are verbally abusing you like that? Work out how much trouble you'd get into for that. Now, how much for just putting the headset on the desk and waiting? Turning the volume right down? What do you do if you're on a call and seriously need to go to the bathroom? Are you allowed to do anything to end the call so you can go? Fake a bathroom need.

In fact, do that one anyway. Even if it's not in the rules, you just say to them "Would you rather I stayed there and shat in the seat?" and see if they push the issue. :D

[chainedbarista]

that sort of crap makes me wish would could do a #69, get their information off of the phone number and CANCEL THEIR SERVICE permanently. can't treat our employees like people? fine, we don't need your patronage-ever.

[Jester]

This is the beautiful thing I have found about being a bartender, after (way too many to admit) years of being a server/waiter....I can tell people to shut up.

No, seriously. The line that makes me the most money is "SHUT UP!" Of course, I can't do this with the super-serious ultra-pain-in-the-ass SC's, but the smartasses, I am all over them. Not only do I get to tell them to shut up, but I get to threaten them with "punishment". If they continue to annoy me, and don't listen to my warnings, eventually I do in fact punish them. What is punishment? Tequila. Warm. No salt, no lime. "Okay, that's it. You have to be punished. Drink that and SHUT UP!" Even the biggest smart asses tend to fall in line after that. And if they complain about it not being chilled, or no salt, or no lime? "I'm sorry....HOW much are you paying for that shot again?" They drink it, 99 out of 100 times.

So, my one smartass friend who LIKES warm tequila got used to this, and one day started smarting off, despite (or perhaps because) my threats of punishment. Dopey dude, he thought he was about to get a free shot of tequila. He was wrong. I punished him....with a room temperature shot of gin. He stopped wising off after that.

I just really wish I could do this sort of stuff to the TRUE assholes out there....sadly, I can only do it to the ones with a sense of humor.

:cheers:

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Awesome, Jester. I almost sprayed my screen with coffee. I got to the part where your friend had gotten used to the tequila, and I was thinking "I'm going to tell him to dose him with gin instead" and you beat me to it!:lol:

[mrtauntaun]

When people do that to me in IT, I put them on speakerphone. It brings great amusement to my coworkers, and especially when they realize they are on speaker. They tend to get even angrier. Look lady, the rules are 8 characters minimum for a password, tough luck!

[Barefootgirl]

Just keep reminding yourself, those people are sad, miserable, powerless little people. They scream at people over the phone because they are too cowardly to go into shops to scream at people face-to-face.

I have done call centre work and it is soul-destroying when you seem to get nothing but evil people. The only way I have ever found to deal with it is to compartmentalise my work self and my real self, which is not easy at all. The person who gets yelled at and cursed on the phone is not the same as me, she lives by the door of the office. Take on her persona on arriving in the morning, put it back by the door when leaving in the evening. That persona never comes out of the office, EVER.

[Phone Jockey]

I'm glad we don't get written up for hanging up on ppl. I'll tell them to stop their swearing & if they don't, they're out of my queue. Are you sure you want to work somewhere that allows you to be verbally abused, m?

[Moirae]

Yeah, we're not allowed to drop the call (hang up) because it's bad customer service. Though I can say that I've seen managers do that. But that's the manager. If I do that, I get a write up.

Saying anything would also be bad customer service, and same problem.

Full time, fair wage, ability to wear my own clothing, and great benefits aren't enough to put up with this.

I'm a trained medical and legal secretary, I don't have to put up with this. I'm having a very hard time finding a job in it (my city is rather small and the markets flooded because of the course in the college), but I've already started looking.

[Dreamstalker]

You mean you're not allowed to warn/disconnect people if they start getting abusive and you're expected to sit there and take it for the sake of customer service? :eek: :mad: :mad:

{{{HUGS}}}

I have done call centre work and it is soul-destroying when you seem to get nothing but evil people.
Jordan was considering working at a call center; I'm so glad he didn't.

This is why I insist that my parents be polite as humanly possible to the tech on the other end of the phone (and I am as well). One of us could be the only person that day who didn't berate the technician who is only doing their job. Even if the solution given isn't the "correct" one, I can often figure out from the information I am given what will work (I never once insinuate that they're wrong as 99% of the time the company training the offshore techs gives poor training). Then I thank them, say that I will try something and call back if it doesn't work, and end the call politely.

Yes, sometimes I wind up beating the crap out of a pillow if the call is longer than it needed to be, but that's what pillows are for ;)

[phillippbo]

You mean you're not allowed to warn/disconnect people if they start getting abusive and you're expected to sit there and take it for the sake of customer service? :eek: :mad: :mad:

It's like that for us as well, and it seems like more and more companies are moving to this type of "customer service". In fact, my stupervisor considers it a personal defeat if the customer isn't happy by the time the call's over. Nevermind the facts that some people will not be happy no matter what you say, I can't be chipper and happy-go-lucky if I just spend 20 minutes getting screamed at by someone who would not listen to anything I had to say, and that some people call for the express purpose of arguing with someone. Personally, I think it invites this kind of behavior.

Uuuuuggggghhhhhh... well, on to the next "bing".... :cry:

[Lace Neil Singer]

That's awful... even Hell's Pizza had a "give them a warning, then hang up" rule for abusive customers. I say, get out of that job quicker than a whippet with a bum full of dynamite.

[Brighid45]

Yeesh! That's totally unfair and ridiculous of your company to expect you to put up with abuse and profanity in the name of spurious 'customer service'. I'd bet the other customers waiting in the queue would take serious issue with the importance of allowing some ignorant entitlement whore to rant and scream at a tech or rep for ages.

At the security call center we had a 'three and out' policy. I only had to enforce it a few times, but each one of those times it was sorely needed. In every case the customer had lost it and needed to be told to calm down, STFU and listen, or get disconnected. I had to hang up in every case--jerks! :rolleyes:

Anyway-here's hoping you can find a better job soon. You deserve better treatment than this! :yes:

[Moirae]

Warn, yes but we're not allowed to disconnect the person unless they're swearing (calling us B**** and the like). She wasn't doing that.

I'll tell you, since I work in customer service, its sure made me look at those clerks differently after all these years. I'd never treat them rudely though I don't tip unless the person deserves it. I'm not giving people anything free for doing their regular old job. If, however, they distinguish themselves, thats when they get a tip.

I'd never ever treat some people the way I've seen customer service people get treated. I don't care how bad a day you've had, how annoyed, angry, frustrated you are, there's nothing in this world that could be bad enough for you to be treating the other person like dirt.

[theredbaron47]

I'd never treat them rudely though I don't tip unless the person deserves it. I'm not giving people anything free for doing their regular old job. If, however, they distinguish themselves, thats when they get a tip.

That is how I feel as well, although most people look at me as if I grew another head whenever I explain it.

Is it really that difficult of a concept to grasp that if you're just going to do your normal job, not distinguish yourself in some out-of-the-ordinary way, I'm not going to give you free money for that? That'd be like if I kept a tip jar next to my cash register at work... it would never fly then, so in my mind, why should it fly at restaurants?

Several times, I've gotten the comeback to that: "You HAVE to tip them, they make next to nothing (read: under minimum wage)!". My thoughts on the matter? That sucks, but doesn't warrant an extra 15-20% added on to my bill.

I'm sorry if that came off as rude. I didn't mean it to... simply trying to express my feelings.

[Tria]

Several times, I've gotten the comeback to that: "You HAVE to tip them, they make next to nothing (read: under minimum wage)!". My thoughts on the matter? That sucks, but doesn't warrant an extra 15-20% added on to my bill.


Management: Okay, in order to offset the additional cost of paying our servers minimum wage, we're laying off servers and raising the price of food.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

You all do realize that servers in restaurants make about 2.13 per hour, and get taxed on a percentage of the food they sell whether or not they actually have recieved tip for said food?

I hope you all are talking about not tipping, say, the bagger or gas guy, who I presume make minimum wage and to tip them is to just be nice (although if I'm wrong about that, somebody please correct me). Because if you are talking about not tipping a guy who brings your food out, then you are forcing him to basically pay to serve you.:(

[Kiwi]

my boyfriends mother worked in a call centre were they werent allowed to hang up on people either

but they were allowed to put them on hold to let them calm down

she would literally say " maam until you stop screaming, being verbally abusive and calm down im putting you on hold"

a minute later she would take them off, if they were still angry they got "time out" for another minute.

perfectly legal in her call centre as well

[Becks]

[QUOTE=Moirae]
I had some idiotic woman accuse my company of being responsible for the power outage in her home.

Yes, because I somehow have a magic switch I can hit that will turn your power off in your entire house.

Now thats the first time I've heard that one. When I tried to explain thats something the city is responsible for, not my company, she said "Uh huh" and hung up.
QUOTE]

They're onto us!!!!!! They know we have mystical, magical powers to do at least one thing to piss them off, because we have a HUGE conspiracy against them!!!!!!!!!

[Moirae]

You all do realize that servers in restaurants make about 2.13 per hour, and get taxed on a percentage of the food they sell whether or not they actually have recieved tip for said food?

I hope you all are talking about not tipping, say, the bagger or gas guy, who I presume make minimum wage and to tip them is to just be nice (although if I'm wrong about that, somebody please correct me). Because if you are talking about not tipping a guy who brings your food out, then you are forcing him to basically pay to serve you.:(
Not in Canada, they don't. They make around $8 an hour plus tips. I don't sympathize. Some of those suckers make more than me and I make around $11 an hour.

And that's without every customer tipping. It isn't simply assumed you'll tip here no matter what. Unless you work in a bar. Then every waitress seems to think she's entitled just because she poored some drinks for you and brought them to the table.

They're onto us!!!!!! They know we have mystical, magical powers to do at least one thing to piss them off, because we have a HUGE conspiracy against them!!!!!!!!!

lol. Apparently, some of them do think they do. I can't tell you the number of times I've been asked "Do you have me on a list that says you can &^%$ with me as much as you want by screwing me over all the time?"

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Moirae, you're right. I'm speaking of American waitstaff. I forgot there are people from all over on here. :)

[Buglady]

It's times like this one you wish you had a button that could send a 10,000 volt shock through the phone.

The only trouble with that is, I'm pretty sure that within a week I'd just be answering the phone with it... :roll:

[Dreamstalker]

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a287/Dreamstalkerwolf/tcppunch.jpg

[Moirae]

Now get this... remember I said that I has asked for tomorrow off too because I was losing it yesterday and needed some time to cool down from everything that happened?

Well, I just called to check on my schedule. Guess what?

The jerks have me scheduled anyway. I have to call tomorrow morning to make sure it's been entered into the system.