The customer is always right? I don't think so!

[Enjis]

Usually, when I call any kind of call center, I hear a recording that says something to the effect of : "This call may be monitored for Quality Assurance".
Weren't any of these calls recorded? Couldn't any of them prove how sucky the customer was?

Geeze...I feel for you, I really do. No one should have to put up with such abuse.
And a customer who never pays is NOT A CUSTOMER! That person is a THIEF!

[greensinestro]

Usually, when I call any kind of call center, I hear a recording that says something to the effect of : "This call may be monitored for Quality Assurance".
Weren't any of these calls recorded? Couldn't any of them prove how sucky the customer was?

Geeze...I feel for you, I really do. No one should have to put up with such abuse.
And a customer who never pays is NOT A CUSTOMER! That person is a THIEF!

When Valerie called in, it was the year 1995, long before they really started observing and recording calls. They would observe the calls, but your ass saver mostly came when a supervisor (in the office, not 500 miles away like today) was observing and could back you up. As for the other guy, the one who pays his bill when he feels like it and gets free things out of it.....well, it just happened that nobody was monitoring the call, nor was it recorded. However, because I treat each call as if I am being monitored, I could not simply connect him to collections, which is where he needed to go in the first place. This call lasted twenty minutes or so, and had that bastard allowed me to connect him, I could have handled more calls.

[Pinkie]

I work in a call center and I'd say 10% of our calls each day are recorded. It's very random as to which calls are recorded. We do have a record feature on our phones for recording customers who are threatening violence to the company or our field workers. The recorded calls are used by our supervisors when they do monthly "monitoring" with us. We sit with the supervisor and listen to our own calls and get feedback about what we could have done differently, or should have done. I've never had a "difficult" customer show up on one of those "monitored" calls. The only ones that seem to get recorded are those where I've forgotten to mention our "value added services"...ie web site, online bill payment, products and services that we sell. Maybe they "preview" the calls they use when we are "monitored". I don't know.

[Anakah]

I'm sick of hearing that line. It has to go both ways. Make them happy to a certain extent that doesn't interfere with the store's policy or make the cashier feel like crap and look stupid. I HATE it when the supervisor sides with the clearly wrong customer.

Yes, I understand that we must make the customer happy but there are limitations that need to be set and NOT ignored! There are rules for a reason. I love one of my supervisors, he's awesome and will tell the customer off (nicely and professionally) and back me up. I'm sad he's leaving next week for a new job.

It's not right that they make you sound like crap "I'll deal with her accordingly." I know what they're doing, they think they'll make the customer happy about giving you some sort of write up or get you into trouble. I guess it's some sort of sick satisfaction due to their inability to pay their bills on time and make it okay to resort back to five years old and blame someone else.

I am also sick of the bastards who throw a HUGE fit and get what they want. I hate rewarding the jerks!

You know if your supervisor is that much of a dumbass, I'd look for a new job. But I know that is easiler said than done. I hope karma bites all those jerks in the ass.

[SnapAddict218]

Anakah: I completly agree. They [managment] apease the customer by saying "I'll deal with them accordingly", thinking that it's an empty phrase. Just something to say, that's meaningless, just to calm them down. But it's not. How many posts are on here about customers making a special trip back to a store (or a special call in to the call center) just to let you know that they were the ones that "got you in trouble with your boss"? It makes the rep look like a jerk, and the customer honestly believes that their little scheme worked, so that next time if they get the same rep (or even if they don't, we know how SC news travels), there wont be a "fight" about the rules. Tales like Greensinestro's make my blood boil.

Pinkie: Yea, they said our call audits were "random" too, but anything under a minute or over 6 minutes wasn't considered. Never failed either, you have a rough call and BAM! That's the one the audit you on, but the ones that go just peachy you never heard a thing on.

[SCSlave]

It kills me that some managers allow the customer to get away with everything, and then blame the employee...who was following company policy!! Where I work...if it's company policy...it's company freaking policy and that's that. I've heard a few people say "What about 'The Customer is Always Right'?!?!" That never ever flies in our store.

Ever.

That phrase should be abolished. Or modified to "The customer thinks he's always right"

And Managers who allow the customers to get away with everything by pitching a fit should be dealt with by the higher ups. They are not following the rules, they are deliberately defying company policy. If you don't have a backbone, you shouldn't be Management.

And greensinestro? I hope you don't still work for those jerks. I'm sorry...but that's just wrong. It's bad enough you have to deal with crappy customers all day, but when your management also makes you look stupid, that makes it doubly hard. I worked in a call center for a few years (As God is my witness, I shall never do it again) and the management was pretty much the same way. I hated that job---not so much for all the SC's calling in, but the way we were treated by managers.

Now, the job I have now...the SC's are just as bad as in the call center, but now I get to deal with them face to face (yay for me) So, obviously, it sucks. BUT I'd never leave it because the supervisor and my co-workers are the best on Earth. We all have each other's backs. If anyone complains to a supervisor about one of us....(always an embellished story) and says "So and so said this...or said that...blah blah" She either says "Well I don't blame her." Or "Oh now I don't believe that for a second" And she always has the sweetest smile on her face as she says it.

[shelly2jn]

One of our cashiers called me over from the CSD to verify the price of a pair of shoes. The shoes were ringing at full price but had a very dodgy looking sale sticker on them. The sticker was torn and tatty and had in all likelyhood been ripped off something else. So I told the customer to hang on while I checked with someone from the clothing dept. As I thought, the shoes were new in and most certainly not in the sale. Explain to customer that "someone" had put the sticker on there from another sale item and the shoes were not on sale. So she trots out the line.....my response "Not when the situation involves attempted theft....now if you just hang on I'll go and rewind the security cameras to double check how this "mistake" happened.

SC can you do that?
Me: yeah, should only take a few minutes
SC: I changed my mind, forget it, don't look at the cameras! - runs for the door
Me:

[Pinkie]

[QUOTE=shelly2jn;72764].my response "Not when the situation involves attempted theft....now if you just hang on I'll go and rewind the security cameras to double check how this "mistake" happened.

Great response Shelly2jn!!! I wish I had thought of that during my days at Pier1. That sort of crap happened all the time.

[SuperB]

*My* response to that asinine phrase.... "The customer is usually a pain in the ass".
(and I have said that to customers)

[Rapscallion]

I've laughed in someone's face before. In fact, I once managed to do this in the bakery along the way from us when the customer said it to the staff there. Mind you, they were laughing at said customer as well.

Rapscallion

[ArenaBoy]

Again, I hate that phrase as it just translates to "I have every right to be an asshole and get whatever the hell I want!" I have that phrase thrown at me now and then and RK is right, it's somewhat of a last resort when folks aren't getting what they want.

I've laughed in someone's face before. In fact, I once managed to do this in the bakery along the way from us when the customer said it to the staff there. Mind you, they were laughing at said customer as well.

Rapscallion

One of my many perks of my job is I'm allowed to laugh at customer's idiocy. I usually reserve it for the stupidest things such as when they throw that phrase or when someone tries to bribe me $5. That has happened by the way.

[Enjis]

When it comes to ticket switching, if I can catch it, I will usually RIP the ticket in half in front of the customer, saying "Oh, I'm sorry, this isn't the right ticket for this piece. SOMEONE must have switched it."
Customer then says "Well, it wasn't me! I just found it on the rack that way."
Me "I'm not saying that you did this (sir/madam), I'm just saying that SOMEONE did. Sorry"
"You have to give it to me at this price!"
"No, I don't, not when it is attemped theft...even tho YOU didn't do it."
(most theives will leave pretty quickly upon being discovered, so an arguement seldom happens.)

Do they think I will believe that some 'magical' ticket-switching faerie goes around switching high price tags for low ones, and them leaving them on racks for good little customers to find?

[greensinestro]

Ouch, those were some painful stories to read . . . My condolences with having to deal with those SCs, greensinestro. Those SCs need to get over themselves and realize that they're other people in the world other than themselves. Trying to get people fired over a phone call . . . how asinine is that?

And the phone bill? Wow, I didn't think a person could get away with stuff like that . . . That's not fair to the rest of us who do pay our bills . . .

I, too, think that phrase should be banned . . . it's no way to run a business. Or used only when the customer truly is right . . .

Thanks for your support on that. Yeah, I just don't think customers like this "get over themselves" as you and I think they should. You cannot change a person's nasty, shitty behavior no matter how polite you are to them. What also aggravated me with these stories, particularly with Valerie, was the fact that although I fought the write ups and won, the damage had still been done by these customers, and they were still free to commit their spree of "crimes". Now, to this day, I have no idea what's up with them being I no longer work for Bellsouth, but last I checked, which was about two years ago, they were both up to their scheming ways. Valerie is just a nasty person in general (I never had her full account info, since operators don't have access to that information), and this second guy was up to his usual scheming, but some managers stopped giving in to him. One even flagged his account for "abuse", and the claim was that the company was not profiting from this guy. In other words, someone finally saw that this guy would be better off with a competitor, ripping them off.

[greensinestro]

And on top of that, now they're encouraged to try the same tactics wherever they go. They think they're paying too much for a hotel room, bitch about it! French fries a little on the cold side, bitch about it! And i'm certain they're telling their friends and family about how they "told off" the pissant employee and "intimidated" the manager into getting them what they want.

And good employees being blamed for it? That's another injustice.

Dammit! I hate it when customers get away with it!!!

Florida Power and Light, our power company in South Florida, has a way of "biting back" at customers that behave the same way with other companies other than just their phone service. A while back, many customers, particularly the rich retirees, were calling in about how their meter readers were inaccurately reading the wrong numbers and demanding them to be re-read. Now, when I get a bill from FPL, it states a $20 fee will be charged for a re-reading. After this came about, I believe the calls tapered off tremendously being the first few times, they would send out a different meter reader, and the guy would come up with the same results.

I also believe the water companies have this same rule in place due to this. But, yes, I am sure some of these people still call, and somehow bitch the charges out of existance. However, water and power companies right now do not have the competition that the phone and cable companies have.

[Sliceanddice]

I know what i would have done with the your second guy, greensinestro.
As soon as he was done reading his bill, i would have just sat there and not said a word. And would have done this for as long as possible.
Until the guy yelled "Well, what do you have to say about this"
and then i would have just said "Oh I'm sorry i was waiting for you to finish. Here let me connect to someone one who knows when your done talking." and just transfer him over to collections... but then he would just hang up.