The rudest customer I've ever spoken to....

[EricKei]

Pepper - my point exactly. Some people just aren't happy until they're bitching and unhappy.

[Lace Neil Singer]

My managers wouldn't take any notice of such complaints, tho.

[PepperElf]

I dunno... I've seen a few threads here where the customer DID complain that the employee was polite.

[EricKei]

It annoys them and they can hardly complain with, "She was nice to me and polite!". XD

The horror...The horror!

SC: How DARE she! She...she was really REALLY polite to me! Ugh!

[Lace Neil Singer]

Oh, I hate rude people like that. My theory is that they're miserable, pathetic arseholes who like to up their self esteem by being a tosser to someone who can't turn round and tell them to eff off; ie a phone operative or a cashier.

Whenever I encounter one, I tend to go into stiff, polite mode; I don't say anything to them other than the necessary and I ignore their rudeness. Of course, when they leave, I put my hands behind my till and give them the finger, but I won't give them the satisfaction of being able to register a complaint.

Last time I had a rude customer, I was thinking of how he must have discovered his wife running off with the milkman in order to make myself look pleasant, and I could tell that my civil and nice manner was annoying him far more than if I'd returned his rudeness. One of the managers was also on; he said that I dealt with it fantastically and that the best way to deal with a cretin like that was to up the politeness. It annoys them and they can hardly complain with, "She was nice to me and polite!". XD

[Juggler]

While I'm not a fan of prescriptivist bullshit, "can" is more accurate in this situation. By calling you the person is clearly asking for help which eliminates the "may" option. The question is wether you are in a position to help him, hence "can".

[dragon_wings]

That may be the case in some places, but in my city, for instance, all of that has been deprivatised and there are now a lot of companies in competition for the almighty dollar. Sadly, since they all collude, it hasn't meant a reduction in prices.

In my area I know of at least two utilities companies. Though depending on where in town or the surrounding areas you live seems to dictate which utilities company you use. (I've used both. One at each of the apartments I've lived in here in <hometown>.)
Note: I live in East Tennessee. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has a bunch of dams built on the lakes and rivers in this area. I wouldn't be surprised to find out they sold the power they produce to both the utilities.

[KatherineB]

The fact of the matter is, utilies like power, gas, and water are not something you can choose no matter where you live.

That may be the case in some places, but in my city, for instance, all of that has been deprivatised and there are now a lot of companies in competition for the almighty dollar. Sadly, since they all collude, it hasn't meant a reduction in prices.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

A scissors? Amateur.

*hands over machete

*takes machete back and slaps Irv on the butt with it*

Stay outta my bedroom!

*puts machete back behind nightstand beside bed*

Back OT, some people are assholes because they are (just like bullies.) They may not be gettin' any either. Mostly because I don't know of anyone who does charity work. . .

[excuse me??]

I won't play thier games

We all know you can't have any long discussions with abusive customers.
I always direct the conversation right back to the real issue... with as few words as possible.

I won't play their games.

[lvceline]

Sadly that's the case. When I did tech support for satellite tv company, we couldn't hang up on abusive customers. We had to transfer them to an escalations rep who took sup calls. If the customer got nasty with the escalations rep, they would transfer the call to an actual supervisor and that's where the line ended.

Fortunately we are able to hang up on customers if we give them fair warning. Usually if they swear a lot, or start calling names and won't stop we can warn them and then if the continue we can hang up. I've only ever had to do that with one customer and my supervisor was at my desk telling me to do it otherwise I probably wouldn't have. Swearing doesn't bother me but if they do start to get personal with attacks then I'm more inclined. We can transfer the customer to a supervisor if requested, but we aren't supposed to just offer that up front. I wish we did have something in please to transfer these kinds of calls but I feel that a lot of times the supervisors dont' want to deal with that even though I think it's a part of their job moreso than ours.

[lvceline]

It depends. Many of them won't shut off utilities if there is a child, a senior and/or someone who requires medical machinery to stay alive. Otherwise, they'll leave you freezing in the winter or hauling your water from the gas station.

Believe me, customers use this a lot. I hear the word "monopoly" quite often. The fact of the matter is, utilies like power, gas, and water are not something you can choose no matter where you live. It's not the same as a phone company, or cable for example. We have a large power company here in my state, but also a lot of the cities do their own power, but you can't choose which one you go with, if you live in a city that provides their own power, you have to use them.

And I'm not sure about other states, but here, services can be shut off even with children or elderly in the home. We offer a lot of different payment arrangements, and work with customers quite a bit before we shut gas off. There are assistance agencies, and a medical emergency option to restore or prevent shut off in those cases, but really what's to stop someone from just saying they have kids in the home? If that were the case, we'd never be able to shut the service off. People could just not pay their bill and say they have kids and we wouldn't be able to discontinue services.

[PepperElf]

now i know why he was harping about "can" vs "may".
he knew he was in deep shit and wanted to attack someone in revenge.

cos it's easier for him to beat you up over your little mistake
vs acknowledging his HUGE mistake in not paying his bills

[tropicsgoddess]

A
In many call centers of any stripe, the front-liners are "gently encouraged" (read: ordered to on pain of potentially losing their jobs) to escalate as few calls to Supervisors as possible. In some, they aren't even allowed to hang up on SC's for any reason, up to and including overt criminal threats.

Sadly that's the case. When I did tech support for satellite tv company, we couldn't hang up on abusive customers. We had to transfer them to an escalations rep who took sup calls. If the customer got nasty with the escalations rep, they would transfer the call to an actual supervisor and that's where the line ended.

[EricKei]

Gah. If everyone knows the guy is an asshat, why don't they just cut off his account?!

Answered above. In many areas - mine included - utilities are "legalized monopolies". The bigger ones sell power to their own subsidiaries, who sell it to other subs, and it eventually gets repurchased by the original seller for a profit -- all while complaining that they don't have enough power available to meet demand BECAUSE they sold far more than any "excess"....etc etc. Standard industry practice.

Being that his file says ABUSIVE CUSTOMER, shouldn't any calls from this automatically go to a supervisor?

In many call centers of any stripe, the front-liners are "gently encouraged" (read: ordered to on pain of potentially losing their jobs) to escalate as few calls to Supervisors as possible. In some, they aren't even allowed to hang up on SC's for any reason, up to and including overt criminal threats.