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The majority of these aren't necessarily sucky customers (but some are and it fits here better than anywhere else I think) - but are customers which made my day sucky. At the moment I am seeing 9 people each morning I work with customers - from 9.30 onwards. It doesn't sound much but our work is relatively in depth and that 9 can seem like a lot. On a good day I can be finished by 12.30 -to 1pm. Otherwise by 1pm to 1.30. Today I finished at 2.45 and I am shattered.
I do not sympathise
Customer said "I've been waiting out there since 10am !".
I've been seeing people since 9.30, have someone else to see and have been working hard and talking the whole time.
Ideally our service would not have waits like that. Often it doesn't. But even on days like today we meet the 2 out of 3 rule. We're good, we're cheap (free) so don't complain we're not fast.
Patronising
Customer has been seeing a specialist solicitor regarding industrial diseases. They have a legal file the size of a telephone directory. When they start asking me questions it's pretty much a waste of time. I'm not qualified, I don't know the background of the case and I have only 30 minutes maximum - whatever I say my own advice is to give more weight to the solicitor's advice than mine.
I got quite excited when they asked a question I could actually answer.
They were very nice but patronising
I apologised for not being able to help and they said "You tried" and later "We know you tried your best".
Much much better than someone getting angry.
Scottish
I don't much like being called love or dear - but I make an exception for being called "hen" which is so wonderfully Scottish. I have a soft spot for scottish dialect and accent because it reminds me of my grandfather.
Sadly he was a sucky customer in the end. I sent him off to get some paperwork for me and he never came back...
My head hurts
Customer starts of asking about a parking penalty which he has appealed despite being entirely in the wrong. No they do not need to include on the sign giving parking restrictions that you cannot park your wheels on the pavement. It's a given - because it's the law anyway. No it does not make it better that you left your hazard lights on - you weren't broken down and that's a misuse of hazard lights. No, "I was only gone 2 minutes" is not a defence it just means you were particularly unlucky to get ticketed...
Then he asks about benefits and I have to tell him the same stuff about 5 times.
Then he tells me he is ill and "suffers low energy" and has mental health problems. There are many problems he has not taken action about but make him distressed is there any organisation that can help him take action.
Um, no. It will depend very much what the problems are and no organisation will just take everything on. We can go through issues one at a time and suggest who can help. However we only have time for 1 more issue right now (because I am far too nice for my own good - I don't have to deal with 3 different things at all).
He starts on the first of these problems - which is the seperate story below. He starts shaking like he may cry. I hate it when customers cry and even more when male customers cry. At the end I recommend an organisation that will help and he asks if they will deal with ALL his other problems.
No. That depends on the problem. So he starts telling me another problem. He seemed hurt when I stopped him. He may now be coming back and he's taken my name to ask for me regarding all his other problems.
Recursive racism
This is the story he told. Customer is Asian (important to the story).
Customer was going to group therapy at a local mental health centre. One day the group start discussing the sudden explosion of Polish people locally and how many Poles you now see. (I don't know if this discussion was critical or not - it has been a huge change and is in itself a legitimate comment). Then one of the other people there said they thought that was OL because they fitted straight in and didn't stand out because they were white. Customer was not very happy but not hugely concerned either.
Then as he was leaving the psychotherapist said to him "Next week we'll bleach you so you can integrate".
Customer said, with no irony at all, "He's lucky I wasn't African or Caribbean. Those people would have shouted at him !"
Sometimes I don't know whether to or 
or both.
Thankfully said therapist is now retired. Customer had not made a complaint though his doctor (who he had told) had really encouraged him to do so. He was so upset he stopped getting any help for his mental health problems.
I don't need to know...
The problems that led to you seperating from your husband.
The events that led to you taking him back.
His drug use.
Details of all 3 of your dogs.
And your 5 puppies.
And your neighbour...
The details of the 15+ debts you are needing advice on takes enough time.
Bad situation
I'm not shocked anymore when someone has 20 different debts. Or when they owe hundreds of thousands of pounds. In general I'll have seen worse and I'll also be able to understand how you got there because mostly debts aren't caused by people being really stupid or deliberately over extending it's caused by changes in peoples lives they didn't see coming.
However I have never seen anyone with 2 seperate legal attempts going on at the same time to take their house from them (bankruptcy forced sale and mortgage repossession).
I've also never seen anyone who someone is both making bankrupt and has apparently started procedures to make them bankrupt a second time for another debt. That's a spectacular waste of time.
Hugely frustrating as this guy shouldn't have been in this mess at all. Mental health problems meant he was entitled to all sorts of government assistance, but sadly also that he couldn't manage to obtain it. And things have now gone so badly wrong it may not be possible to sort out.
He had a whole box of paperwork. All of which was filthy and stained.
And I still had a better day than my coworker had yesterday
My coworker works on a project where she goes out to advise people at local mental health centres.
She is Asian (important), and saw a customer who was brought in by his mental health caseworker (Black - also possibly important) who promptly disappeared.
The customer was extremely aggressive through out. Extremely indignant because he had been punched by someone and that wasn't right because "it's alright when it happens to balcks and pakis but it shouldn't happen to me" (my coworker says she suddenly understood why he'd been punched in the face). He then spent the rest of the interview picking his nose openly.
Oddly he has no problem at all with my coworker or his caseworker. I guess racism makes no sense anyway so I don't know why that puzzles me.
I like my job - but I wish the bad days weren't quiet so bad. On the plus side I may have nothing to post for months at a time.
Victoria J
I do not sympathise
Customer said "I've been waiting out there since 10am !".
I've been seeing people since 9.30, have someone else to see and have been working hard and talking the whole time.
Ideally our service would not have waits like that. Often it doesn't. But even on days like today we meet the 2 out of 3 rule. We're good, we're cheap (free) so don't complain we're not fast.
Patronising
Customer has been seeing a specialist solicitor regarding industrial diseases. They have a legal file the size of a telephone directory. When they start asking me questions it's pretty much a waste of time. I'm not qualified, I don't know the background of the case and I have only 30 minutes maximum - whatever I say my own advice is to give more weight to the solicitor's advice than mine.
I got quite excited when they asked a question I could actually answer.
They were very nice but patronising
I apologised for not being able to help and they said "You tried" and later "We know you tried your best". Much much better than someone getting angry.
Scottish
I don't much like being called love or dear - but I make an exception for being called "hen" which is so wonderfully Scottish. I have a soft spot for scottish dialect and accent because it reminds me of my grandfather.
Sadly he was a sucky customer in the end. I sent him off to get some paperwork for me and he never came back...
My head hurts
Customer starts of asking about a parking penalty which he has appealed despite being entirely in the wrong. No they do not need to include on the sign giving parking restrictions that you cannot park your wheels on the pavement. It's a given - because it's the law anyway. No it does not make it better that you left your hazard lights on - you weren't broken down and that's a misuse of hazard lights. No, "I was only gone 2 minutes" is not a defence it just means you were particularly unlucky to get ticketed...
Then he asks about benefits and I have to tell him the same stuff about 5 times.
Then he tells me he is ill and "suffers low energy" and has mental health problems. There are many problems he has not taken action about but make him distressed is there any organisation that can help him take action.
Um, no. It will depend very much what the problems are and no organisation will just take everything on. We can go through issues one at a time and suggest who can help. However we only have time for 1 more issue right now (because I am far too nice for my own good - I don't have to deal with 3 different things at all).
He starts on the first of these problems - which is the seperate story below. He starts shaking like he may cry. I hate it when customers cry and even more when male customers cry. At the end I recommend an organisation that will help and he asks if they will deal with ALL his other problems.
No. That depends on the problem. So he starts telling me another problem. He seemed hurt when I stopped him. He may now be coming back and he's taken my name to ask for me regarding all his other problems.
Recursive racism
This is the story he told. Customer is Asian (important to the story).
Customer was going to group therapy at a local mental health centre. One day the group start discussing the sudden explosion of Polish people locally and how many Poles you now see. (I don't know if this discussion was critical or not - it has been a huge change and is in itself a legitimate comment). Then one of the other people there said they thought that was OL because they fitted straight in and didn't stand out because they were white. Customer was not very happy but not hugely concerned either.
Then as he was leaving the psychotherapist said to him "Next week we'll bleach you so you can integrate".
Customer said, with no irony at all, "He's lucky I wasn't African or Caribbean. Those people would have shouted at him !"
Sometimes I don't know whether to
or or both. Thankfully said therapist is now retired. Customer had not made a complaint though his doctor (who he had told) had really encouraged him to do so. He was so upset he stopped getting any help for his mental health problems.
I don't need to know...
The problems that led to you seperating from your husband.
The events that led to you taking him back.
His drug use.
Details of all 3 of your dogs.
And your 5 puppies.
And your neighbour...
The details of the 15+ debts you are needing advice on takes enough time.
Bad situation
I'm not shocked anymore when someone has 20 different debts. Or when they owe hundreds of thousands of pounds. In general I'll have seen worse and I'll also be able to understand how you got there because mostly debts aren't caused by people being really stupid or deliberately over extending it's caused by changes in peoples lives they didn't see coming.
However I have never seen anyone with 2 seperate legal attempts going on at the same time to take their house from them (bankruptcy forced sale and mortgage repossession).
I've also never seen anyone who someone is both making bankrupt and has apparently started procedures to make them bankrupt a second time for another debt. That's a spectacular waste of time.
Hugely frustrating as this guy shouldn't have been in this mess at all. Mental health problems meant he was entitled to all sorts of government assistance, but sadly also that he couldn't manage to obtain it. And things have now gone so badly wrong it may not be possible to sort out.
He had a whole box of paperwork. All of which was filthy and stained.
And I still had a better day than my coworker had yesterday
My coworker works on a project where she goes out to advise people at local mental health centres.
She is Asian (important), and saw a customer who was brought in by his mental health caseworker (Black - also possibly important) who promptly disappeared.
The customer was extremely aggressive through out. Extremely indignant because he had been punched by someone and that wasn't right because "it's alright when it happens to balcks and pakis but it shouldn't happen to me" (my coworker says she suddenly understood why he'd been punched in the face). He then spent the rest of the interview picking his nose openly.
Oddly he has no problem at all with my coworker or his caseworker. I guess racism makes no sense anyway so I don't know why that puzzles me.
I like my job - but I wish the bad days weren't quiet so bad. On the plus side I may have nothing to post for months at a time.
Victoria J
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