Don't take this personally...

[Chanlin]

Bit of background leading up to this story as the actual conversation with this customer was quite long. And he was otherwise a very nice and pleasant person to speak with. So I'm not calling the customer sucky as he is in a situation where he has every right to be a bit miffed.

I work for a prepaid cellular service provider. One aspect to my job is taking calls involving warranty claims and returns. My company does not cover return shipping costs. I am not authorized to promise we will cover return shipping costs. In the past we have done so, but only when the customer really pushed for it. I personally think this sucks for the customer returning a phone, but also in the interest of keeping my job I enforce this policy.

This customer was calling in about a return shipment. He was explaining to me how he did not want to cover the cost of his phone and how we were inconveniencing him for the time that he would be without his phone after I had informed him I would not have an answer until Monday regarding this issue because the person with the authority to make this decision was not present in the call center today and I don't have any way to reach him outside of his office extension or his office e-mail.

Me:
C: Customer, not an SC just a plain old person in this case.

C: If you were in my position would you pay to return a defective product to a company if they asked you to ship it in.

Me: (knowing exactly where this is going): Sir, I understand where you're coming from, but please understand this is the policy I have to follow in order to keep my job. I am not allowed to promise or authorize the payment of return shipping charges. As I have already explained the best I can do is ask my supervisor who will not be in the office again until Monday. We will contact you then to let you know.

C: Look, don't take this personally, but you didn't answer my question.

Me: Sir, as I have already said, this is the policy I must follow.

C: But you didn't answer my question.

Me: Sir, I think the policy sucks, but again, Its not my decision to make and in the interest of keeping my job I follow the policy.

C: Well like I said, I don't want you to take it personally.

Me: (in a stern tone cause I was a bit miffed at this point): Sir, how exactly am I supposed to take a question like that. You made it personal the moment you asked whether you intended it to be or not.

C: Well, I didn't want you to...

Me: Sir, I have explained my position at this point. I am truly sorry that I can't get you an answer any sooner, but in regards to the shipping charges there is nothing I can do further at this immediate point in time.

C: (said sarcastically) Well sorry if I ruffled your feathers. *click*

I would like to stress this was his only real sucky behavior and I don't fault him for being a bit angry over the situation. I do fault him for being a jerk at the end like this. However, he was otherwise polite and civil for the first 15 minutes of the call so that takes quite a bit of the sting out of it.

[Nashida]

Given the situation, yeah, I'd be miffed too. But then again, I'd have the sense to not take it out on a guy who has no control over it.

So he's a semi-SC in this case; legitimate complaint, but terrible way of handling it and finger-pointing.

[Dips]

He had a legitimate complaint but he handled it in true SC fashion. Sometimes the worst SCs are the ones who coat their passive-agression in a veneer of politeness.

The customer who made me want to reach through the phone and strangle him more than anyone else was this dude. He stayed polite thoughout the entire call, but he was still a dick.

[bainsidhe]

From a customer's point of view, the shipping issue sucks. But many many companies require the returner to pay shipping. At the manufacturing company I work for, we receive so many returns for product that *aren't working*, since many of them are user error and abuse. They come back bent, charred (riiiiggghhhtt, so the blackened bits don't clue us in that it was installed, hmmmm), snappen in half, broken, twisted, etc. And then the customer acts shocked, like they had nothing to do with it. So yeah, there's a reason we require the person shipping it back to pay freight costs.

One of my favorite calls was the one where I explained somone appeared to have taken a crowbar to it, shattered the casing, removed pieces, filled it with water, gummed up the workings with some kind of grease, and then spray-painted it. Guess what, hard to tell if it ever used to work at this point. And now it's not under warranty.

[Broomjockey]

I *hate* when people try that stupid "If you were me" or "What do you think about that" stuff. Hi, I'm an employee of the company, and my opinions of the situation are 100% irrelevant, since my only option in the situation is to cite and enforce policy. I don't even have the power to be an arbiter of policy. I have almost ZERO power to make decisions. So stop trying to "get me on your side" and pick an option, ANY OPTION I ALREADY GAVE YOU! I WILL NOT GIVE YOU A NEW ONE! THERE ARE OTHER PEOPLE WAITING FOR HELP FROM ME, SO HURRY THE F%^* UP!!!!!!

[I_Hate_SCs]

I guess these 'OMG I have to pay for return shipping?!?' customers never heard of how most sellers on eBay handle returns: either no returns accepted, or the buyer pays for shipping all ways (receiving the item the first time, returning it back to the seller, then paying a 3rd time for the shipping of the item back to their home.) Unfortunately, as an occasional seller on eBay, this rule is justified: I've had SC buyers buy one thing from me, demand a return because they didn't like the item (even though it was described as it was in the listing) then they want a separate, different item instead after I receive the unwanted item.

Of course if its defective or its my fault (i.e. sent wrong item), I'd pay for the shipping charges, but I'd be damned before I do it for SC buyers who can't make up their mind!