Failing to see the suck!

[StanFlouride]

Quoth Lace Neil Singer

attacked by the Flying Spaghetti Monster while at work
XD

The FSM does not attack people, He touches and blesses them with His noodly appendage.

[Rapscallion]

Just so you know, folks, we've started to hand out infractions for this.

Rapscallion

[unholypet]

My reason for return-to-lurking being rectified, I'm sure I'll be back now =p

Yay Admin crew!

[powerboy]

I will admit, I did call some posts not being sucky. Because to me, they weren't. That is my opinion.

Now with that said

Whenever I make a post, I tell it - how I lived it. I do not really care, if someone thinks that it is false/not sucky enough or what have you.

I am glad that we do have a brain burps forum. It is a nice addition to the boards.

[friendofjimmyk]

I will also admit that I have stated a customer in a story didn't sound all that sucky to me. I guess I haven't done it in awhile because I have never gotten a spank er, I mean, slap on the wrist because of it.

I remember the first time I read Vinegar Boy. I couldn't believe it. However, I've come to know that the mods on this board don't mess around and if it weren't true one of them would've picked up on it and it would've never made the "war stories".

I think that there are some people on this forum who are very good writers and can relay a story of suck with pure poetry and its very entertaining. However, I believe, for some, it can create a standard that they think they can't live up to with their own posts. That's my theory for all these folks that come on here with their first post and say, "Long time lurker, first time posting". My theory is they think they haven't experienced something they feel is sensational enough to post. I say, "to hell with that! Post away!"

On a side note - Unholy Pet - I like your posts! I'm glad to see you back.

[Ree]

Quoth powerboy

I will admit, I did call some posts not being sucky. Because to me, they weren't. That is my opinion.

Explain to me again why you feel you have a right to call them out, then, just because you didn't think they were sucky?

The 'not sucky' thing got way out of hand. There was a time when I would call people on things if I felt their own behaviour contributed to the problem, or if I thought they were simply complaining about being asked to do the job they were paid to do.
Unfortunately, that seems to be a fine line, and people have ended up being called out when they are coming here to vent because the job is getting to them.

There's a big difference in someone complaining because customers keep cleaning out a shelf of bread that one just finished filling, and in someone venting because of repeated customer behaviour that they may find annoying, even if we don't personally see it as all that sucky.

In the first case, the customer is buying the product, and it's the clerk's job to fill the shelf. It's kind of stupid to complain about a customer buying our product, since that's really the point of the job.

In the second case, while we may think it's nitpicky for a clerk to complain because a customer doesn't know the correct way to put their card in the reader, or which buttons to press, if that happens often enough in a day, it can get frustrating, especially when there are usually guides showing the correct way.

I still read posts and I am so tempted to point out that the person needs to get the heck out of retail because of their attitude, but, because I am a mod, and have a duty to set an example, I find myself reining it in a bit. If I go back to offering advice like that, it can be perceived as my giving permission to other members to call out all and sundry as they see fit.

I don't know if that makes sense. I may be rambling due to a lack of caffeine.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Sometimes I think it depends on whether or not you've actually experienced that job. I've never done call centre work, so something that a call centre person might see as sucky wouldn't seem so to me. However, I don't call it out, cuz it's on something that I know sod all about, so I can't judge. Just as someone else who's never worked in a petrol station might say that a customer not putting the nozzle in the car isn't a sucky customer, but a petrol station worker might disagree.

For the record, on that situation, it depends on the customer's reaction to being told that they're doing it wrong. Whereas some people might say "Oh, sorry" and comply, others might be rude and obnoxious... and that's the difference between the brain burp and the sucky, at least, in my opinion.

[sms001]

My best touchstone on the topic is purplecat's stories. The ONLY way to know that a customer in them is sucky is if you fill in the details and give PC the benefit of the doubt right from the get-go. That's why I defended PC so vigorously a few months ago; because writing style DOES make a big difference in what is and isn't perceived as 'suck.' (Which is what I think you were getting at a couple of posts ago Ree.)
So after reading PC's post for a few months and finding myself about to say "WTF? What's sucky about that?' I started to fill in from my own experiences, and then carried that to other posts.

As a quick addendum, another thing a good CSer keeps in mind is that human interaction is extremely subjective. I can deal with a failed scan "Must be free yuk yuk yuk." all day, but tossed change really gets to me. Others are the opposite, some are bothered by neither, and some by both. Amongst my friends, bodily injury is fairly laughable (Any crash you walk away from is a good one!) but Ree was upset by my initial photos to the CS album. I hope we don't end up appeasing the most common denominator here, but I hope we don't chase people away either. Tough line.

[Dave1982]

As someone who's had their threads closed because of this issue, I'd like to say I whole-heartedly agree. It's been said already, but it's worth repeating:

Suckiness is largely subjective. While there are some things we can all agree are sucky, others may be specific to a particular "sub-genre" of Customer Service, or to a certain company, or may just be a member's pet peeve. Still others require you to have been there to fully understand.

My personal policy is that if I don't like a story, I just leave the thread and don't continue reading it, as there's more than enough here to keep me interested. Sometimes I'll ask a question, but usually I read and move on, unless I feel I have something substantive or funny to add. That's why you seldom see me posting replies to threads other than my own.

[Rapscallion]

We're in the process of handing out another infraction.

Rapscallion