Tweet
Been a while since I've posted anything, but with the lunatics this past week, I figured it was time get back on the site.
For those that don't remember, I work for a large online auction site, dealing with all the bad/illegal stuff people try to sell. They've also added "live help" (aka chat) support to the department.
Things people have tried to sell recently:
A harrier jet. Yes, a real military aircraft. Those of you in the UK may have even heard about this on the news where some guy's kid tried to buy it. This would make for great commute.
A military rocket. This was not some kind of handheld rocket or a model or anything simple like that. This was a REAL rocket that had to be pulled on a trailer and was capable of reaching orbit. My coworkers agree that it would look awesome in the yard.
An anotomically correct cabbage patch doll with the head of a teddy bear and lots and lots of body hair. The included pictures had it in inappropriate poses with other dolls/toys. To quote one coworker: "Poor Elmo!"
How to piss off the entire department:
It's a normal day with the usual stupid people contacting us, nothing out of the ordinary when my coworker who sits behind me suddenly asks "How do we report threats?"
This instantly gets everyone's attention. While waiting for the guy to type stuff into the chat, she started looking at their previous chat history, which included threats to kill themselves, calling the previous rep a slut and telling the rep to go kill themselves. It goes downhill from there.
(The previous chat was from a couple days prior, so we couldn't really report the suicide threat unless they did it again, but we helped her get the info just in case.)
From what happened previously she at least knew what to expect, but tried to help the guy anyway. It was a relatively minor policy violation and she explained why we removed it and told them what they could do if they wanted to list it again. This set the guy off. He starts arguing about everything and using nasty language to the point where she disconnected on him.
So he comes back into chat and gets another rep (there's about a half dozen people working chat and we all sit near each other and like to warn each other about the nasty ones). He gets told the exact same thing: "no, we won't reinstate it, but here's what you can do". He get's even nastier. The rep tries to be patient and help them but there's no helping some people and the guy disconnects in a huff.
He comes back into chat AGAIN and gets yet another rep (by now, everyone in the department knows what's going on with this guy) and they still try to help him. The rep remains polite and professional despite the abuse from the customer, just like all the previous reps (far more patient with this guy than I would have been).
Then the customer lets loose with racist comments.
Customer: "Stop treating me like a black person! They're the only ones that sell counterfeits!" Exact quote.
Employee: "Skin color has nothing to do with it. We are a global and diverse company and we have tried to help you, but it seems this is not the appropriate venue for you to use." Not sure exact words, but it was very professional and eloquant.
<Disconnect>
By now this has the attention of multiple supervisors who then instruct us that if the customer comes back into chat they are to be notified immediately.
About a minute later, they come back into chat get another rep. Supervisor walks over, talks to the rep and walks back to his desk.
Before the customer can even type anything to this new rep they tell him:
"A manager will be contacting you shortly."
<Disconnect>
Of course, this is not the end of it.
A few minutes later after reviewing all the notes and the chat transcripts, the supervisor calls the customer.
The customer is all sweetness and rainbows, acting like nothing is wrong and even has the balls to say they never contacted us.
The supervisor doesn't buy it and just rips into the guy. (Very professional, but not the least bit nice.) After calling him out on all his lies and his behavior tells the guy "We will NOT have our employees treated this way!"
Then in no uncertain terms tells the guy that he is not allowed to relist his items, no matter what, even if he does what the reps told him to do and if he ever comes back into chat again or is anything but professional when contacting us (email, etc.), he will be permanently suspended. (He then noted the account.)
========
I have many more, but this is enough for one post.
For those that don't remember, I work for a large online auction site, dealing with all the bad/illegal stuff people try to sell. They've also added "live help" (aka chat) support to the department.
Things people have tried to sell recently:
A harrier jet. Yes, a real military aircraft. Those of you in the UK may have even heard about this on the news where some guy's kid tried to buy it. This would make for great commute.
A military rocket. This was not some kind of handheld rocket or a model or anything simple like that. This was a REAL rocket that had to be pulled on a trailer and was capable of reaching orbit. My coworkers agree that it would look awesome in the yard.
An anotomically correct cabbage patch doll with the head of a teddy bear and lots and lots of body hair. The included pictures had it in inappropriate poses with other dolls/toys. To quote one coworker: "Poor Elmo!"
How to piss off the entire department:
It's a normal day with the usual stupid people contacting us, nothing out of the ordinary when my coworker who sits behind me suddenly asks "How do we report threats?"
This instantly gets everyone's attention. While waiting for the guy to type stuff into the chat, she started looking at their previous chat history, which included threats to kill themselves, calling the previous rep a slut and telling the rep to go kill themselves. It goes downhill from there.
(The previous chat was from a couple days prior, so we couldn't really report the suicide threat unless they did it again, but we helped her get the info just in case.)
From what happened previously she at least knew what to expect, but tried to help the guy anyway. It was a relatively minor policy violation and she explained why we removed it and told them what they could do if they wanted to list it again. This set the guy off. He starts arguing about everything and using nasty language to the point where she disconnected on him.
So he comes back into chat and gets another rep (there's about a half dozen people working chat and we all sit near each other and like to warn each other about the nasty ones). He gets told the exact same thing: "no, we won't reinstate it, but here's what you can do". He get's even nastier. The rep tries to be patient and help them but there's no helping some people and the guy disconnects in a huff.
He comes back into chat AGAIN and gets yet another rep (by now, everyone in the department knows what's going on with this guy) and they still try to help him. The rep remains polite and professional despite the abuse from the customer, just like all the previous reps (far more patient with this guy than I would have been).
Then the customer lets loose with racist comments.
Customer: "Stop treating me like a black person! They're the only ones that sell counterfeits!" Exact quote.
Employee: "Skin color has nothing to do with it. We are a global and diverse company and we have tried to help you, but it seems this is not the appropriate venue for you to use." Not sure exact words, but it was very professional and eloquant.
<Disconnect>
By now this has the attention of multiple supervisors who then instruct us that if the customer comes back into chat they are to be notified immediately.
About a minute later, they come back into chat get another rep. Supervisor walks over, talks to the rep and walks back to his desk.
Before the customer can even type anything to this new rep they tell him:
"A manager will be contacting you shortly."
<Disconnect>
Of course, this is not the end of it.
A few minutes later after reviewing all the notes and the chat transcripts, the supervisor calls the customer.
The customer is all sweetness and rainbows, acting like nothing is wrong and even has the balls to say they never contacted us.
The supervisor doesn't buy it and just rips into the guy. (Very professional, but not the least bit nice.) After calling him out on all his lies and his behavior tells the guy "We will NOT have our employees treated this way!"
Then in no uncertain terms tells the guy that he is not allowed to relist his items, no matter what, even if he does what the reps told him to do and if he ever comes back into chat again or is anything but professional when contacting us (email, etc.), he will be permanently suspended. (He then noted the account.)
========
I have many more, but this is enough for one post.
Comment