But...But...I own a business!!

[Canarr]

she probably did tell him the difference between a personal and a business account and the prices of each but he just heard unlimited and went with the cheapest price. "what? it's a personal account and not a business account? she didn't tell me that!! garblegarblegarble!!! you should train your people better!!! garblegarblegarble!!!"

Not according to the OP:

(I look in the notes and see where the rep did say the guy would get unlimited data. Unfortunately she got her plans mixed up. The unlimited data plan is a business offering that costs more per month)

Again: the caller was definitely a SC for the way he acted. Just saying I see that the suck wasn't quite his alone.

[sstabeler]

OK, I've been in a similar position to the SC in the story (in my case, one line down, the other pending installation- to fully explain would take too long, but if you are in the UK, I would not recommend TalkTalk as an ISP. We recently had a line fault combined with needing a second line put in. The array of problems include engineers claiming to have finished the job and actually doing nothing at all, my boss getting bounced from person-to-person, not to mention people not turning up when they are supposed to to install the second line. Long story short, the sole line at the time went dead mid-november. the second line was installed at the end of december; the line fault was fixed last friday.

do you know what the two big differences between me and the SC are?
1) I was polite on the phone- albeit clearly fustrated with the situation
2) it was a business account.

[yeahwhatev]

You said a Rep promised a customer X. X is not available because it costs more and Rep promised it due to their own error. Customer is pissed and wants X because he was promised it and the promise is logged. I am confuzzled.

[AmbrosiaWriter]

You said a Rep promised a customer X. X is not available because it costs more and Rep promised it due to their own error. Customer is pissed and wants X because he was promised it and the promise is logged. I am confuzzled.

It's not whether or not the customer had a good reason for being upset, it was how he went about it.

Rather than calling up and remaining polite and trying to figure out what was happening, he claims "I'M LOSING THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS" and starts right out of the gate with a huge temper tantrum.

If you get upset that something isn't working out that you feel you're going to just unleash hell on the first person who works for the company that crosses your path, you're better off waiting until you can deal with the problem like a rational person.

[yeahwhatev]

If you get upset that something isn't working out that you feel you're going to just unleash hell on the first person who works for the company that crosses your path, you're better off waiting until you can deal with the problem like a rational person.

Still confuzzled. Company promised X through rep. Helpdesk found problem, protocols not followed by (inexperienced?) rep. No escalation to management. No offers of any recompense or even any change. Verbal apologies are not politeness, they are required. There is nothing that compensates the client for a blatant lie here. What is the basis for your objection to the client's ire?

[protege]

There's plenty of suck here--quite a bit because the SC acted like an asshole...but also because the other rep screwed up and promised something that couldn't be delivered. Then there's the suck where the OP had to *deal* with all of the previous sucking. Those are all facts at hand--let's not resort to the "fail to see the suck," OK folks? Had the SC not decided to play the "money" card, the entire situation could have been taken care of. Even the fee could have been made to disappear or lessened. Also, the OP might not have been able to issue a refund or take care of the issue--not all companies are willing to admit they screwed up. They might even blame the OP for the mistake, even though the OP had no previous involvement with it.

So the guy supposed owns a business. Does he want a cookie? Anyway, I can't stand people who throw the "I'm losing so much money" comment around. Former co-irker J tended to do that quite a bit. If our network was down even 5 seconds, he'd start screaming about it. If I couldn't fix it immediately, he'd start screaming about "incompetence." Then the moment I'd start working on the problem, he'd start bugging me every 5 minutes. I'd have to stop whatever I was doing, attending to his stupid questions, and then getting back to work. So after about the 3rd little "visit," I'd simply draw out the "repairs" as long as I could. Hey, if he wants to be an asshole, I'll put a nice big dent in his wallet

[Dips]

This is venting site folks.

The OP came here to vent about a sucky customer, not listen to lectures justifying SC behavior.

If we see any more failure to see the suck, infractions will be issued.

[emax4]

I thought, "If he claims to be losing as much money as he says he is, wouldn't he have an IT Department to handle such things instead of handling it himself?".

[PepperElf]

Me: Hold one moment for transfer.
SC: Thanks for nothing asshole.

but of course. the SC expected you to cave in ... and instead you called his bluff

ormer co-irker J tended to do that quite a bit. If our network was down even 5 seconds, he'd start screaming about it. If I couldn't fix it immediately, he'd start screaming about "incompetence." Then the moment I'd start working on the problem, he'd start bugging me every 5 minutes.

i hate when people do that. they scream and scream about wanting to be updated on the progress and cannot get it through their fucking skulls that every time they do this the tech has to stop fixing the problem to go over and coddle them with an explanation.

and of course you can't always tell them the truth... "well it'd have been fixed an hour ago but you kept stopping me for an update so... why don't you shut up and let me finish for fucks sake".

at my second ship one of our chiefs put the kibosh on that... when the network went down he insisted on answering the phones. usually it was junior enlisted who called... intending to scream at us as if we were their ISP.
1) If it was a higher-up calling he could give them an update
2) and the junior enlisted... well he'd pretty much pulled rank on them and told them to shut up. and enjoyed it.

seriously Chief S LOVED this.

[wolfie]

back when i worked telco for the big T (the aussies will know this one) i used to have to do this by law.

if you have a business account you can not have a residential service on it - this comes from the tax implications of this.

if i ran across a residential line being charged to a buisness account i'd have to change it to a buisness plan - you can guarantee the custtomers loved that

Just curious, but could you do the reverse (residential account with business service on it)? The way I can see this coming about is that residential customer wants features X, Y, and Z, (probably a high-bandwidth customer - multiple Netflix HD streaming at the same time for different family members), and the only plan you offer that has all these features is offered as a business service.

[Mictor Veldrew]

OK, I've been in a similar position to the SC in the story (in my case, one line down, the other pending installation- to fully explain would take too long, but if you are in the UK, I would not recommend TalkTalk as an ISP. .

Aaaaah TalkTalk.

One of my favourite put downs is the phrase "No man is totally useless - he can always serve as a bad example"

If you were to use this expression when discussing ISPs, then we now have the perfect niche for TalkTalk.

[EricKei]

i hate when people do that. they scream and scream about wanting to be updated on the progress and cannot get it through their fucking skulls that every time they do this the tech has to stop fixing the problem to go over and coddle them with an explanation.

and of course you can't always tell them the truth... "well it'd have been fixed an hour ago but you kept stopping me for an update so... why don't you shut up and let me finish for fucks sake".

My boss at AccountingFirm was like this. Naturally, he was *also* the sort of BadBoss who "is never wrong", so I couldn't call him out on it.

[Moirae]

People like him are why I will never ever do internet tech support again.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I am not going to argue there wasn't a screw up on the ISP's end, because it appears there was. It was probably something as innocent as a sales rep getting plan details confused.

That said, there is no reason to be a dickpickle about things to the helpdesk person, and it is not reasonable to expect the ISP to give business service at residential prices in perpetuity because of the mistake (if his business makes him "thousands of dollars a day!!!!eleventy!" that he's now losing, then he can damn well afford an extra $20 a month to ensure it doesn't happen again.).

Had the caller been nicer and not gone to 11 right off the bat, he probably would've gotten more of an apology, and maybe get a discount on business service for a couple months as a goodwill gesture.

Instead, he gets cold civility, and when he demands to cancel his service the ISP makes no effort to retain him. Now he gets to put his business completely on hold, losing "thousands of dollars a day!!!eleventy-one!" for at least one day, to get set up with a new provider. In other words, pushing on the pull door of life.

[TechieGirl87]

I would have been tempted to cut him off right when he started insulting me. Then again, I'll immediately call someone out on their shit if they start insulting other people I work with that I personally know. I don't give a shit if you don't like that person or not, don't insult them especially to my face because I WILL call you out on it. I've done it quite a few times. Most times customers had apologized right away and a few times I've had customers tell me I have no right to talk to them like that. To which I say "If you're insulting someone who's not physically present to defend themselves then I have ever right to tell you I don't appreciate it. I don't want to hear it and they don't deserve to be called that. You may not like the person but calling them names like that is just immaturity rearing it's ugly head." Oh, I love some of the looks I get for THAT one