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So, my company offers occasionally gift cards for customers who sign up for 2 year contracts with their cable/phone/internet bundle. There are a few conditions, however, to get the gift card, the main one being that your account must be in good standing for the first 3 months, and you would receive it approx 3-5 weeks after the 90 day mark.
Well, this was not explained to a lot of customers, so the company made a change to that: As long as we can review the account and see that the cust was no more than 30 days past due during the first 3 months, we can manually request the card be sent out, which takes approx 3-5 weeks from the time of request.
Most people understand this, and are even grudgingly thankful when this is explained in full.
MOST.
I'll skip the meat of the beginning of the convo, but during it the sc acknowledged that she had been told that the account could not be past due and that the card should arrive between Nov and mid Dec.
I review the account, see that she was 30 days past due the 2nd and 3rd months, so I explain what I'll be doing and the wait.
SC –“ Wait, so I have to wait ANOTHER month to get MY gift card?!? Blarghety!!”
Me – Again, I’m sorry, but that is the procedure, your account was past due twice during he first 3 months, so I have to
SC – (cutting me off) “IT WAS NOT!!! I paid on time!!!”
Me – Ma’am, here are the dates and the amounts ..
SC – (Cutting me off again) “I don’t care what you say! I am the customer, I say it was on time, and the customer is always right!!”
At this point, I’d had about enough of this, and when she tries to rewrite history? No.
Me – “Actually ma’am, I’m sorry, but NO. The customer is not always right. “
SC – “SO YOU WILL..wait, what did you say?”
Me – “The customer is not always right.”
SC – splutter splutter “Well…how do you expect to keep customers then?”
I kid you not 120 to 0 in less than 5 seconds. I could HEAR the deer in the headlights look!
Me – “With courtesy and compassion, ma’am. If I could get you taken care of, I would. But this is a process and I have no control over it.”
SC – “but….”
Me – “I understand, you probably wanted the card for extra Christmas shopping, I can hear the little ones having fun back there” (And I could, not sucky kids, just happy and noisy like kid playing)
SC – “ Yeah, I did” (laughs a little)
The rest of the call was pretty mellow and laid back, but in the middle there.. WOW.
Felt good though!
Well, this was not explained to a lot of customers, so the company made a change to that: As long as we can review the account and see that the cust was no more than 30 days past due during the first 3 months, we can manually request the card be sent out, which takes approx 3-5 weeks from the time of request.
Most people understand this, and are even grudgingly thankful when this is explained in full.
MOST.
I'll skip the meat of the beginning of the convo, but during it the sc acknowledged that she had been told that the account could not be past due and that the card should arrive between Nov and mid Dec.
I review the account, see that she was 30 days past due the 2nd and 3rd months, so I explain what I'll be doing and the wait.
SC –“ Wait, so I have to wait ANOTHER month to get MY gift card?!? Blarghety!!”
Me – Again, I’m sorry, but that is the procedure, your account was past due twice during he first 3 months, so I have to
SC – (cutting me off) “IT WAS NOT!!! I paid on time!!!”
Me – Ma’am, here are the dates and the amounts ..
SC – (Cutting me off again) “I don’t care what you say! I am the customer, I say it was on time, and the customer is always right!!”
At this point, I’d had about enough of this, and when she tries to rewrite history? No.
Me – “Actually ma’am, I’m sorry, but NO. The customer is not always right. “
SC – “SO YOU WILL..wait, what did you say?”
Me – “The customer is not always right.”
SC – splutter splutter “Well…how do you expect to keep customers then?”
I kid you not 120 to 0 in less than 5 seconds. I could HEAR the deer in the headlights look!
Me – “With courtesy and compassion, ma’am. If I could get you taken care of, I would. But this is a process and I have no control over it.”
SC – “but….”
Me – “I understand, you probably wanted the card for extra Christmas shopping, I can hear the little ones having fun back there” (And I could, not sucky kids, just happy and noisy like kid playing)
SC – “ Yeah, I did” (laughs a little)
The rest of the call was pretty mellow and laid back, but in the middle there.. WOW.
Felt good though!
I wish I could get away with saying things like that to my callers. Unfortunately, even if the situation was defused and everything turned out great, I'd probably get dinged for not following proper SOP. Oh well, glad it's not like that everywhere 
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