Longest consecutive amount of time spent dealing wtih a customer?

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

I don't mean as in spending a week calling with a customer back and forth or working on a big project for a month.

I mean, what's the longest, single, UNINTERRUPTED stretch where you've had to deal with a customer?

I ask this because I had a customer in my store a couple of days ago for THREE HOURS. He was having a problem with his laptop connection card so he brought his laptop to us and spent some time trying to fix it himself (30 mins or so) before asking me for help. I spend another 30 mins...no luck. So I call our company's tech support department. Get nowhere with tier one tech, on to tier 2.

At about the two hour mark, the customer finally decides he's had it with the connection card that apparently will never work despite all the troubleshooting and wants to cancel...without an early termination fee.

So I have the tech rep transfer me to cancellations and put that department on with the customer. We are well over two hours by now.

Cancellation rep refuses to waive ETF for customer, customer then demands a Supervisor...more waiting...Customer and I spend 15-20 minutes dealing with the Supervisor who eventually agrees to prorate ETF.

Time customer got to store: Around 3:40 PM

Time customer left: About 6:50 PM, 10 mins before close.

That was a marathon and a half.

To compare, my longest ever call at the call center was an hour and 45 minutes.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Longest amount of time I spent on a single customer?

Mr. Massive Shopper.

Came in between 5 and 6pm, was there until we closed at 11pm. And 95% of the time, I was the one ringing up his ginormous order.

[tropicsgoddess]

I spent 4 hours on the phone with this customer trying to get all three computers (one desktop and two laptops) connected online. I did everything under the sun ,even having the modem set to bridged mode, connected the modem directly to the router and set up the PPPoE (I deal with DSL customers, btw) nothing worked...until I found that his router was bad. Then after 4 hours of , rantings on mute on how this guy was trying to pass himself off like he knew about computers when he didn't know jackshit about them, he wanted a supervisor and a refund (we charge for tech support). So, I got my TL on the line for him and then afterwards, transferred him to the DSL store to get a new router.

[Chanlin]

With a single customer at one time, 16 hours. I used to do on site tech work for a company that did restaurant point of sale systems. 16 hours was the longest single install I ever worked which included setting up multiple computers, showing the customers IE resaurant employees and managers how to use it, and then sticking around for the day to work out the first run bugs. It was by far not sucky and one of my favorite jobs. It sucked when that company went under.

[Darkwish]

Way back in the days when Packard Hell was still around (and popular for some reason), I ended up on a call for 6 hours and 47 minutes. One single call (yes, ON THE PHONE), no breaks. I don't even remember what the problem was.

The longest I've ever been at work in one shot was about 4 days. I was working for a telecommunications company (primarily conference calls) and for various reasons I won't get into in this post, we had to move the entire company (support center, network, offices, servers, everything) to another building 30 miles away... and have NO down time! Keep in mind, I *WAS* the IT department, the rest were various contractors or on-site techs from vendors assisting with the move. I went to work Friday morning. I didn't get home until late Monday afternoon (and was back at work the next morning ). To make it all worse? I was on salary at the time so I didn't get paid any overtime! But the whole company got moved without any downtime! The customers didn't even notice!

[Aethian]

If you think of a resident at a disability home a customer... 14 hours.

[Dave1982]

Three hours and forty-five minutes.

Marathon of Stink and Suck (long and ranty and gross)

[Dips]

I'm trying to think if I've had any that lasted longer than my conversation with the IT consultant for the agency which must not be named.

That one was only 45 minutes for my part (he went on to bother two others), but it felt a lot longer.

I had another person who insisted I wait on the phone with her during the 30 minutes it took her to download our software. She got mad because I put her on speaker phone and she could hear me typing and quietly talking to my co-workers ("clacking and yacking" she called it) during the time we were waiting for the download, but I don't think that call went on for more than a total of 45 minutes.

I guess it's a tie?

[MoxisPilot]

Eight hours. I don't want to get into specifics, but it has to do with my old daycare job and a parent who accused me of doing something very illegal (as in, something I would never, EVER DO), and insisted on monitoring me and my coworkers for a full workday.

[JLRodgers]

I don't actually know as, well, I can't wear watches and one workplace didn't have clocks for the floor. All I know is, I had numerous co-workers say "you're still with that customer?" as did one manager (so the customer could hear) -- and it ended with another manager saying "I'm sorry, he has to have a break for legal reasons - I'll help you from now" When I got back from break the manager was still with them, and motioned for me to "hide" basically.

So not sure how long it was... but it must've been an hour or two.

A 45 min help session happened about once a week (and I was only a floor sales associate at a warehouse club).

[digilight]

15 hours. A clients computers were confiscated by the police (long story but it was a snow job). So I got the call on a saturday morning about 9am about it and got to the site by 10 am. I got 4 computers built, the network running, and the network apps installed and running. All in all I was there from 10am on saturday until just after 1 or 130am on sunday.

[BrassCowboy]

Not me, but a coworker:

Back when I was still working LP at Best Buy, this couple comes in and tells me they are picking up a TV they paid for at another store. The other store didn't have it, but we did, so they paid there, and came here for pickup. I direct them to customer service where they talk to "D." This was around 5-6pm.

Well, D looks it up in the computer, and sure enough they had paid for the TV at the other location, but we didn't have it. The other store looked it up on our inventory without calling us, which is a huge mistake because the computers inventory is always off by 1-2 units. So, D calls over a coworker from home theater department. The employee says we could offer free delivery once the TV does show up, but the customer needed the TV immediately (NBA finals, I think). Offered a refund, and they accept saying, they may look around our store for a different one.

Here is where heck breaks lose. When something is paid for at one store to be picked up at another, it doesn't go through regular POS system. It goes through some crappy system designed especially for the company. Well, you can't do refunds on that system, even if the General Manager approves it, which he did. So, D has to call corporate. Corporate gives him the run around, even hanging up on him a few times. This isn't some second party company, either. This is Best Buy's corporate line, that employees have to call when certain transactions happen. Hours and hours pass. The customers even leave to get dinner, while D is left on hold with corporate. Finally, after hours of this, D tells them there is nothing more we can do tonight, since corporate doesn't seem to want to help. He asks them to come in the next day to finish the return.

At 11pm (an hour after close) and only myself, D, and the store manager remaining, they leave without a TV or money. I didn't work the next day but from what I heard, he spent about the same amount of time getting their money back as the night before. All because the employee at the other store didn't call us to see if we actually had the TV in stock.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

^^^We've had similar things to the above happen to our store in the past.

A customer will pay for an item at another store, the other store will turn out not to have it in stock, the other store will diddle with their computer, their computer will say we have, say, 3 of the item in stock, and they will send the customer to our store to pick up their item.

WITHOUT FIRST REFUNDING THEIR MONEY.

Also, our computer only updates once a day; after the store has closed for the night. So in the above example, all of the 3 items we're supposed to have may have been sold already.

End result: We can't give the customer the item they've already paid for, and we can't refund their money because we don't have it. It may surprise you to learn they generally don't take this well.

And then the service desk people contemplate visiting the other store with an Uzi or two, and I can't say I blame them.

[wagegoth]

While working in retail: Over 5 hours.

Law firm: 16 hours straight through on a filing.