Careful Who You're A Bitch To....

[blas]

...because you might end up being slammed the next day on a local radio show.

One of the local Djs for the Top 40 station uses his own material to talk about for the first hour or so every morning, stuff that happened over the weekend or things that happen after work during the week, etc.

A few weeks back, we had some bad floods in some parts of Wisconsin. His basement flooded, and his carpet was ruined.

A few days later on his morning show, he was going on about this bitchy person on the phone with the garbage company. He didn't mention her name or the name of the business, but he lives in a small town and they only have one business for garbage.

Anyway, the whole deal was that he called just to ask if they'd pick up carpet or if there was a specific place people were supposed to get rid of it, and the woman on the phone actually screamed at him "WE DON'T DEAL WITH CARPET!!!!!" and he was so taken aback, he just said ok and hung up.

It sparked a good show, he wanted everyone to call in about customer service, both sides of the spectrum.

I hope that woman heard the show and felt embarrassed.

[Crossbow]

I hope that woman heard the show and felt embarrassed.

Doubt it. I wouldn't be surprised to hear she called the station and screamed at him on air that they didn't deal with carpet.

Sorry. I'm feeling rather more cynical than usual today. Nice to see the DJ called someone out on their suckiness...

[bainsidhe]

I like that he was giving both sides a chance to respond. Too often I hear only the customer's side, which is of course very biased (aren't we all?) and always talks badly of any company not caving to a customer's whims. Even if you don't agree with the other side, it's nice to gain another perspective.

I hope this gives the company a wake-up call in how to handle customer interactions.

[XCashier]

He probably wasn't the only one with a flooded house and ruined carpet to dispose of. She'd probably been dealing with calls like that all day, getting yelled at, pleaded with and demanded of, and finally flipped. Of course, he wouldn't know that; all he knows is his own experience, not that of the 50 people who called before he did.

Being in customer service is a lot like being an actor (only without the glamour and high pay). You have to present a persona, you have to be believable and you can't break character. It is not easy at all, especially when dealing with a tough crowd, and even the best of us is only human. Everyone has their breaking point, and she broke with the wrong person.

[blas]

I was never allowed to "break" on anyone, even during the Hurricane Katrina Gas Scare when customers were practically insinuating I was the person physically responsible for gas climbing to $3 a gallon. If I'd snapped, I would have been written up or fired.

If he had called and been snippy with her first, it'd be another story. He called just to ask a question and was screamed at. It's not like it floods here very often, we just had several summers of droughts. How should we know if we can take our moldy nasty carpet to this place or that place?