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  • When they say "This isn't directed at you..."

    but it may as well be because they make you feel like crap.

    So I get this call from some guy working at a hotel, or for a hotel company, or whatever. Idk, I wasn't impressed. Anyway, they have had one of our machines for years and something about it's analog and hasn't been used for months and they want to cancel.
    So while he's ranting and raving I'm looking at the notes in the system and find he's already talked to 6 other people beside me. It's a lease so they're obligated to pay off all remaining terms even if they cancel now. He wants the quote lower, which is the whole thing, really. At some point before he came to me in billing he had already talked to retention dept. and they had lowered their quote by 30%, which they absolutely did not have to. He still didn't want to pay it. It was the principal of the thing! eleventy!

    Some things I remember that made me feel mocked by proxy, I guess:
    --He asked me if I'd ever stayed in this hotel or that. I humored him and answered that perhaps I had at some point, whatever. He was trying to make the point that his company is huge [as if I'm unaware that there are big hotel companies] and it's not that they can't pay the settlement; they have the money but won't do it. This was all because some email stated they were "unable to pay" the settlement and he was offended at the wording. Yeah, they were being polite by saying you couldn't pay it and not stating that you were being a jackass and refusing to pay your bill.
    --I saw in the notes somewhere a copy of a demand letter from 1 1/2 months ago ordering them to surrender the equipment for repossession. If it was already at this point, why argue the settlement now? BTW, the new quote is like $700 or something.
    --He wanted me to keep going up the chain to find a person who could lower the settlement. I did reach out via messaging but every sup was in a meeting. No one was answering. Meanwhile he kept goading me into my boss' boss' name, which I wasn't gonna give him. I just kept saying that I needed to find out who was the best person to help him and that above my boss, I don't know how the company is structured, which is true. I don't have time to look at the management tree chart; I have work to do. He literally laughed mockingly. I was not about to tell him I'm new because that was ammunition.
    --We have supervisors but we also have senior agents who are our floor help. They can take sup calls. S had taken this guy's call earlier and now I was being asked if S was really a supervisor. To be honest, I'm not sure exactly what S's status is; I just know he comes over to help us from time to time. I don't lie so I had to explain that I wasn't sure what position he is. It doesn't matter anyway; he's obviously qualified enough to take supervisor requests because he does it frequently. When talking to customers I just refer to those people as supervisors because for all intents and purposes they are, and I don't need to explain company structure to callers.

    The bottom line is that this guy spent over 4 hours on the phone trying to wear us down into writing off the lease. What did he get for his efforts? I double-checked the case after lunch and saw he was sent to collections. And the people rejoiced.
    "Is it hot in here to you? It's very warm, isn't it?"--Nero, probably

  • #2
    Reading this reminded me of the posts made by people who work at cell phone companies. Yeah, that's how insane this guy sounds. So he doesn't want to pay, and the logical conclusion to that is to waste his own time by insulting random people over the phone, because he's apparently never learned that being a dick tends to make people want to throw you off a cliff, not help you.
    Replace anger management with stupidity management.

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    • #3
      But it's the PRINCIPLE, don't you know?

      Exactly WHY is this guy doing this? The company has the money, and it's no skin off his nose to pay it. Does he think he'll get a promotion or bonus for saving huge company a measly $700? And how much company time is he wasting fighting this legit charge?

      And collections charges hurt your company the next time you make any business transactions, even such a small charge against a big company...

      Comment


      • #4
        Quoth eltf177 View Post
        But it's the PRINCIPLE, don't you know?

        Exactly WHY is this guy doing this? The company has the money, and it's no skin off his nose to pay it. Does he think he'll get a promotion or bonus for saving huge company a measly $700? And how much company time is he wasting fighting this legit charge?

        And collections charges hurt your company the next time you make any business transactions, even such a small charge against a big company...
        Because it very well MAY cut into his bottom line. Many companies offer incentives or bonuses for keeping expenses down, and it often comes in the form of a percentage of the money saved. Say a department has a quarterly expense budget of $100K. The manager of that department on a particular quarter cuts expenses wherever he can and manages to keep the actual expenses under $90K The difference, $10K, is split between the company and the manager; $5K goes back to corporate, $5K is that manager's bonus.

        The split isn't always 50/50, often it's like 70/30, but even so, it would be a $3K bonus in our example. And every little expense he can cut only feeds his bottom line.
        Last edited by CyberLurch; 12-03-2016, 12:46 PM. Reason: my math sucks.

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        • #5
          Quoth CyberLurch View Post
          Many companies offer incentives or bonuses for keeping expenses down, and it often comes in the form of a percentage of the money saved.
          This should have occurred to me because it's exactly the same where I work - the Town Manager gets a bonus if he keeps the budget down. So every year it's the same thing: make sure the bigwigs are taken care of along with the police and pets. Then that every ridiculous project the Town Council proposes is fully funded. Then go to Public Works and slash their already low funding so he gets his bonus and we can't even replace equipment that's older than some of the people working there...

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          • #6
            Quoth eltf177 View Post
            This should have occurred to me because it's exactly the same where I work - the Town Manager gets a bonus if he keeps the budget down. So every year it's the same thing: make sure the bigwigs are taken care of along with the police and pets. Then that every ridiculous project the Town Council proposes is fully funded. Then go to Public Works and slash their already low funding so he gets his bonus and we can't even replace equipment that's older than some of the people working there...
            Exactly the sort of shenanigans this practice encourages - and why many retail stores are so tragically understaffed, since payroll is one more thing that's part of the budget.

            Then carry this whole process forward through two or three levels of middle and upper management. Everybody has their fingers in incentive plans like this, except the people doing the actual work and using the broken/outdated equipment.

            Comment


            • #7
              Quoth eltf177 View Post
              ... the Town Manager gets a bonus if he keeps the budget down...
              I remember when I was a youngster (winter of '61-62) my parents commenting on how proud Columbus, OH was about their low expenditures on snow removal.

              They didn't do any.
              I am not an a**hole. I am a hemorrhoid. I irritate a**holes!
              Procrastination: Forward planning to insure there is something to do tomorrow.
              Derails threads faster than a pocket nuke.

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              • #8
                Quoth CyberLurch View Post
                Exactly the sort of shenanigans this practice encourages - and why many retail stores are so tragically understaffed, since payroll is one more thing that's part of the budget.
                Yes, and why essential items aren't ordered. Under New Manager's control, we constantly ran out of things like the long cardboard tubes for home dec fabric, scotch tape for store use, soap for both employee and customer bathrooms, etc. Because these came out of the budget, and she got a bonus if she came in under budget. These things are very inexpensive, yet that's how small a margin the SMs are working with. That's why I liked Scary being the SM because she could budget very well, and even found money to order us giant containers of Folgers sometimes. Because she understood that taking care of her crew would pay off for everyone. And coffee (even cheap coffee) is good for moral.
                Replace anger management with stupidity management.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Oh god, the principle of the thing... I guarantee that you will come to loathe that phrase. It's code word for 'I'm going to torture you over something dumb as hell until you crack under the strain.'

                  I'm so glad I'm not customer facing anymore.

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                  • #10
                    Quoth notalwaysright View Post
                    Because she understood that taking care of her crew would pay off for everyone. And coffee (even cheap coffee) is good for moral.
                    Yes, that is the sign of a good manager. The problem with much of management today is they only see the bonus. It's a shame that the people who cook these ideas up can't see the harm they're doing.
                    Last edited by CyberLurch; 12-04-2016, 09:46 AM. Reason: refined the thought

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                    • #11
                      Quoth CyberLurch View Post
                      The problem with much of management today is they only see the bonus. It's a shame that the people who cook these ideas up can't see the harm they're doing.
                      This exactly. But even worse are those who see the harm but don't give a damn...

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Kind of reminds me of when I worked for MajorBank, in loans and lines, before I moved over to a different department. We didn't take customer calls, but trouble tickets and calls from branch employees. At least ten times a day we'd get a banker calling in to ask about getting the annual fee waived from a home equity account. They'd use the whole "principle of the thing" excuse. My general response was, "well, the principle of the thing is that the customer signed a contract that clearly stated an annual fee of $75, regardless of whether or not the account was used. If they thought that was too high, they shouldn't have signed the contract. It's a legitimate fee that they agreed to, and it won't be waived."
                        At the conclusion of an Irish wedding, the priest said "Everybody please hug the person who has made your life worth living. The bartender was nearly crushed to death.

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                        • #13
                          Quoth eltf177 View Post
                          This exactly. But even worse are those who see the harm but don't give a damn...
                          And THAT is one reason why companies that have stood for decades suddenly fail. The obsessive cost-cutting measures taken mean they cannot respond to their customers, or changes in the market, as effectively as they did before the bonus programs were implemented. Of course, upper management flies away with all sorts of cash, and the company ends up in bankruptcy.

                          It is this short-sighted "Me, me, ME!" nature over the last 20 or 30 years that has caused much of the problems that eventually lead to the economic collapse a few years ago. Of course, it is but one factor, but a significant one.

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