"I've been with you for X years....."

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

I absolutely HATE it when customers bust this out on a call to try and get me to bend some rule or override some policy just to suit their needs.

This is probably more common for companies that have customers on contract, but no doubt customers will pull this card in stores they've apparently been going to for years.

One of things I like is that I can see in my system EXACTLY how long you've been a customer of ours so even though you can TRY to BS me and say you've been with us for "over three years now", I can easily your sorry behind has only been with the company for a year and a half.

The other thing that irritates me about these folks is quite often they'll only claim to have been with us for two or three years and then expect all kinds of freebies and deals.

HELLO??? A standard contract is two years. You've managed to last longer than that? Good for you, but only one year longer is not going to faze me much.

Five years? I might consider it. Six or Seven years? Ok, that's a pretty long time. Eight to Ten years? Yeah, ok NOW you've been around long enough to pull out the tenure card.

And the worst part of it all is that some of these people who have "been with us for three years" have have repeatedly:

- had their services shut off
- been late on payments
- been given undeserved credits
- called us to bitch about goodness knows what

and yet they STILL believe that because they have been under contract to us for so long they qualify for some special deal.

We actually do give deals to some of our BEST customers, but just because you've hung around awhile doesn't automatically make you a "valued" or "preferred" customer (and I DESPISE when customers pull those terms out to but that's another rant for another thread.

[rerant]

I love that I get nice little perks from my provider for being with them for like 3.5 years without even having to ask.
Even if those perks are completely useless to me, the fact that I get them is enough to placate me.

[Soulstealer]

I love that I get nice little perks from my provider for being with them for like 3.5 years without even having to ask.
Even if those perks are completely useless to me, the fact that I get them is enough to placate me.

Yeah, but you probably do little things to earn their respect. You know like pay your bill on time.

[smileyeagle1021]

you know, my mother is one of those tenured customers at verizon (and by tenured, I meen she's been with that company sense before it was verizon ) ... and to date the only entitlement whorish thing she's done is ask to change contracts before the 2 years were up (she wanted to seperate a family contact into 2 individual contracts... oddly enough sense she was civil about it there wasn't that big of a problem... hmm I wonder if SCs could learn about that).

[Nakajo]

This is one of my BIGGEST pet peeves. As soon as I pick up the phone, or someone walks up to me, if I hear....

"I've been with you so-and-so-many years..."

...I KNOW it's going to end up with them screaming at me over something.

[CancelMyService]

Cell phone companies get beat up on a lot, but whenever I call T-Mobile they always mention to me how long I've been a customer (4 years, which is apparently a millenium in cell phone years).

I ended up getting a Sidekick iD for free because I mentioned I missed my old Nokia phone that had a fold out keyboard, but didn't want to drop the cash for a Blackberry just yet. I didn't even ask for any freebies, the guy was all "hey you want the new Sidekick, I can give it to you for $50" and this is when it was going for $100 in stores. There was a $50 rebate on their website which ended up making it an awesome deal for me.

When I had to call in to have them un-screw something one of the monkeys in the store did to my account, they credited $150 to me (again without asking me) because I was with them for so long.

[Gurndigarn]

Yeah, but is there any way to convince your cell phone company to lower your rates because you've been with them for four-five years and never once bugged them for a new phone, other than insurance replacement (and not upgrade)?

[greensinestro]

I like to compare this with the way insurance companies operate. They don't care how long you've been with them, but if you pay your premiums on time, are never in any accidents, and have a good driving record, they'll qualify you for lower premiums. Not one time have I missed a payment, although I have made one claim in my life when my car was broken into. Still, I held up my end.

On the other hand, you have these dirt bag, deadbeat customers who don't pay on time, who go up the line to get credits they're not entitled to, and are always ugly, and it's all because they've been a customer for so many years. I only wish we could say something like, "No, sir, you have not been a customer because you don't pay your bills, and the company seems to be paying it for you!"

[Silas G. T. Brontë]

I get a lot of that mostly from older customers, some of whom have had their accounts for 30-40 years and our bank used to be locally-owned.

Because of all the new regulation and privacy laws in the financial services industry, we have become more restrictive in some activities or some we aren't allowed to do anymore. Of course when you try to explain it to them, they get all whiny and pulling out the "Oh! I've been on this bank for 40 years! This is getting ridiculous!"

My "favorite" one was the time an 80ish year-old woman called us to make a transfer from her savings to checking over the phone. Since company policy now didn't allow it for privacy and ID theft issues, I told her why we weren't allowed to do it anymore. She just got mad saying, "Oh, no you don't! I've been with XYZ Bank for over 100 years [she did say that] and nobody told me that! I have several accounts with y'all! Maybe I should just close them all and move to another bank!"

I transfered her to my manager, who despite being so strict about rules, she bent over her demand only because she knew her personally. She later explained to me that she knew her and was a poor sweet 80-year-old lady. She didn't sound sweet to me!

[LifeCarnie]

This is one of my BIGGEST pet peeves. As soon as I pick up the phone, or someone walks up to me, if I hear....

"I've been with you so-and-so-many years..."

...I KNOW it's going to end up with them screaming at me over something.

I bet I can guess another pet peeve.

The People who are constantly late with their payments or have constant issues with their service and who also constantly threaten to take their business elsewhere.

It's always the dirtbags who threaten to take their business elsewhere. If the good customers are upset about something, they're either flexible enough to work with you to resolve issues or they just leave without the drama.

Cell phone companies get beat up on a lot, but whenever I call T-Mobile they always mention to me how long I've been a customer (4 years, which is apparently a millenium in cell phone years).

4 years is probably a record for anybody to stay with T-Mobile. Their service sucks A$$.

[earl colby pottinger]

Big Brother

One of things I like is that I can see in my system EXACTLY how long you've been a customer of ours so even though you can TRY to BS me and say you've been with us for "over three years now", I can easily your sorry behind has only been with the company for a year and a half.

These same people scream about 'Big Brother' when you ask for personal details to ID over the phone but never seem to realize that this also means you have all their financial dealings with the company on the same system.

[edicius]

See, I mention how long I've been under contract with/ordering from a company...but I do it in a positive way.

For instance, I've been ordering items from this online vendor for a good number of years and I've actually met the owner on a couple occasions. Great guy, great service. Whenever problems arise, he goes above and beyond to make them right (sometimes eating costs in the process). I've even given him a heads-up on changed release dates for items that I'd discovered, but he had been unaware of (suppliers not notifying him, etc.) just so he doesn't get any SC e-mails complaining about it.

Most recently, I had a pre-order item ordered and initially, the item had noted a November shipping date. December rolled around and I hadn't heard any updates on the item, so I just e-mailed them to see if there were any status updates for it. It turned out the the supplier switched the release on them and that even December is still a "tentative" release date. I e-mailed them back, thanked them for their prompt reply and let them know that it's not a problem, these things happen, etc. and that I've been ordering from them for X number of years and they're the best around.

Probably doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things, but when people do a good job, I like to let them know that they're appreciated.