Work frustration

[Marc]

I had a person who bought clearance x-mas tags. Two sets. She goes through her receipt huffing, "Are you ****** stupid? Do I need to watch you scan my stuff? I didn't have two in my basket!"
Without a word, I go through her bag, pull out TWO items. Said nothing. my line of customers smirk "Dumbass" on her. And she was flustered and obviously embarrassed but decided to abuse me further. " Get your manager. I'm done with you."

And then what happened?

Come on you can't leave us hanging in suspense

I know from experience that the problem with managers is they can reward a customer for bad behaviour.

Did care billing for a cellphone carrier for 11 months and knew that company policy was that charges not challenged withing 90 days were deemed as accepted.

Had one customer who'd been incorrectly charged for text messages - 6 months previously so I rightly refused a credit. The rules are there on the bill and had she called in the 90 day time frame I'd have no problem crediting. She then asked for a manager transfer and which she got, and a credit for the messages.

And my take away from the 11 months was that the corporations are bad but the customers are just as bad.

 

[Marynator]

I was a supervisor in our call center in 2010, and I'd always back up my representatives unless they were flat out wrong. Sometimes agents can really be terrible, like they'd sort of lie to their customer just so they could pass it off and not deal, and I always felt such sympathy for my customer at those times. I'd usually also ask my representative what she thought, because she might feel for her customer but just not have enough authority to make changes, and we'd usually be much better to someone who's sorry for their mistake rather than yelling and belligerent.

 

[Sophie74656]

I don't like my coworkers or managers, but most of the Operations Managers & Engineers I support are OK. Plus the job is 50 miles away.

Ugh the long commute sucks. My drive is about 40 miles.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Ugh the long commute sucks. My drive is about 40 miles.

My commute is through Chicago, which makes it extra-fun. Luckily I'm inbound at 4am.

 

[Catarina]

And then what happened?

Come on you can't leave us hanging in suspense

I know from experience that the problem with managers is they can reward a customer for bad behaviour.

Did care billing for a cellphone carrier for 11 months and knew that company policy was that charges not challenged withing 90 days were deemed as accepted.

Had one customer who'd been incorrectly charged for text messages - 6 months previously so I rightly refused a credit. The rules are there on the bill and had she called in the 90 day time frame I'd have no problem crediting. She then asked for a manager transfer and which she got, and a credit for the messages.

And my take away from the 11 months was that the corporations are bad but the customers are just as bad.

Customer wanted a .98cent refund off her Discover Card. She came unglued for 0.98cents. Which I understand if I had mis-scanned but I hadn't.
I lost my professionalism the moment I heard her utter, "little brat." as I went to retrieve my super.
Which perplexed me at the time. I got angry instantly. I got about 12 feet away from her and said "There's a b**** on register 1" (oh man, grown-up me would never say that today) Now an adult I am surmising
she probably wanted me to be take ownership and beg her forgiveness on behalf of the company. At the very least say something. It was probably taken as attitude. I stood my ground because I hadn't yet learned companies reward it to get them out.
My boss "SHHHH" as she walked past and I went to go take a deep breath and return.
My super keyed in a refund and only said, "Hope you have a better day." YES!!! Oh yes! No taking on guilt. WHOOT.
customer: "Train your employees to make sure what's in the basket is what we intend to purchase."

The woman walked out. Collective eye rolls. My favorite was the line of the big mama. I'll never forget it.
"The woman was whack. It ain't her job to go "Did you mean to buy this?" for every dang item!"
It was nice to hear them say nice things like, "She gets me through lunch hour fast. She's not what that lady says."
I miss my regulars. That was 18 years ago.

On a positive story: I had an old man come in every Tuesday to collect the paper, milk, and OJ. He always called me by the wrong name. It was adorable. "You forgot to cut the ties off the papers this morning, Annabelle." "of course! Silly me. I always remember for you! Must have been a bad night."

Another was a man he said he always loved my kind face and discretion of his purchases. He said it wasn't easy to buy items for incontinence from a female cashier but I was always graceful and discreet and he felt treated like a normal person.

One lady was a hoot.
I believe 82 years old, would walk up trying to blend in. She was lousy at it. She'd open her purse and whisper, "Pall Mall toss it in my bag honey before my daughter sees me." I'd chuckle wonder how she got away with that for long. I acquiesced.

 

[Marynator]

Oh that's just so terribly awful @Catarina. I've seen customers be so very rude to cashiers and I had some weirdos when I was a teller, but never really anything so silly as what you said she did, and I do feel to me at least it helps when your other customers support you? I just loved hearing your stories about good customers, they always made my job worth it for me, and thankfully they outnumber my rude customers quite a bit. I loved my regulars and was sad to leave just because of them.

My worst experience facing customers was this guy, who was sort of a semi regular I guess, called out to me across the teller line saying "I had a dream about you last night" and had a creepy smile. No one did or said anything, and I wanted to crawl into a hole and die. I spoke to my manager later, and they didn't ban him or anything, but she took care of things so I'd never have to interact with him again. I was twenty five, and many customers thought I looked like a high school student, so maybe that makes him even creepier? Ugh, not a happy memory.

 

[Sophie74656]

The worst customer i ever dealt with called us trying to make a warranty claim on an item he bought from Ebay. I explained to him we do not warranty items purchased through third party sellers and he started screaming and cursing. Even called me the C word....over an item he purshed for less than $20.

 

[Marynator]

The worst customer i ever dealt with called us trying to make a warranty claim on an item he bought from Ebay. I explained to him we do not warranty items purchased through third party sellers and he started screaming and cursing. Even called me the C word....over an item he purshed for less than $20.

Oh dear, at the bank I'd get things similar, where like someone took cash out of his account, then he went and bought something he found like on craigslist, and he totally got scammed, and wanted us to do something, and I'm just thinking I'm so sorry but really it's all on you.

This manager in my company who didn't offer me a promotion had to come crawling back to me today, he doesn't know I know and am frustrated, but he needs something now. It's like for these managers are thinking, whenever you need something important go to Mary, but if you have a nice job opening offer to her [male] colleagues.

 

[UncleRogi]

I too spent some time taking customer service calls, for DialAmerica. Now, these were the
folks pissed that they had been charged 14 months at $29.95 for buying a something off the
TV, and did NOT cancel after receiving their $50 Walmart Card. Our rules were this:
Be polite and professional, but if they escalate on you , go with them. THEY are at fault,
not the company. Also took calls for those trying to get on the "Do not call " list, and same rules.
As they escalate, you just say louder and louder "It takes 90 days for your request
to be processed, please excuse any further calls" And you can only cut the call
if they use profanity. But it was more fun not to cut the call....
That Corp has serious ethics concerns...

EDIT: this one call went like this:
"------, How may I assist you?"
"What is your physical address?"
"Excuse me?"
"What is the address of the building your ass is sitting in?"
"Weeell, I don't know" I didn't.
"You need to tell me..."
"Why , Ma'am?"
"Cuz I'm sicking the police on your ass for FRAUD"
"And how did we do that, Ma'am?"
"you've been charging my CC $29.95 for 3 YEARS"
"It says here that you bought a Dustbuster, and got a Bonus Walmart
card, but never cancelled. Did you get the DustBuster?"
"Well, Yes...."
"the Bonus card included a monthly fee for the Club."
"What?"
"were you paying attention to the Terms?"
"...Terms?...."
"Thank You Ma'am. Good Day."

 

[Marynator]

Uggghhh when I was a fraud analyst I used to hate you guys, lol.

 

[Pondwater]

Breaks that go by too fast.

 

[Butters]

Thankfully, my customer service hell days are largely behind me, aside from the occasional ‘can you please talk to this guy...’

My biggest frustration at work, aside from the endless restructures and crippling job insecurity, is getting pulled up for something utterly trivial and genuinely inconsequential when I know darn well that the boss has been royally bollocked big time for an actual major fuck up. That pisses me off.

 

[Sophie74656]

My main job is taking customer service calls/live chat. Mostly people just looking for advise on what to buy or starting a warranty claim. 90% of my calls are rather nice

 

[Marynator]

My main job is taking customer service calls/live chat. Mostly people just looking for advise on what to buy or starting a warranty claim. 90% of my calls are rather nice

I felt just like you when I did customer service, mostly I spoke to lovely people who just needed help with his or her account and they were so very pleasant, it's so terribly unfortunate you get angry people sometimes who aren't happy unless they feel they've ruined your day.

 

[Sophie74656]

I felt just like you when I did customer service, mostly I spoke to lovely people who just needed help with his or her account and they were so very pleasant, it's so terribly unfortunate you get angry people sometimes who aren't happy unless they feel they've ruined your day.

You occasionally get people who think you need to start off being aggressive to get anything done but that's not as common. I've certainly changed how i deal with customer service agents if i ever have to call anywhere.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

yep. Customer service people are humans - many customers forget about that.
However, there are the black sheep as well: cold calls are strictly forbidden here in Germany, yet I keep getting tons (some even in the night!). I keep a log and report them to the authorities. Takes a week or so and then their phones get very suddenly switched off

I really like my job and most of my co-workers, but our staff manager is a complete [insert un-ladylike vocabulary here]. He does what he wants, makes everyone's lives a misery and his boss doesn't manage to rein him in. Why is there never a Russian agent with something toxic when you need one?! (well, not necessarily toxic - a thorough diarrhoea or a highly persistent itch in some place he can't reach would be nice, though )

 

[MacLeod]

You occasionally get people who think you need to start off being aggressive to get anything done but that's not as common. I've certainly changed how i deal with customer service agents if i ever have to call anywhere.

You should treat others how you expect to be treated. The person dealing with your complaint/issue might do more for you if you are polite rather than the bare minimum if your are being rude/aggressive.

 

[Sophie74656]

You should treat others how you expect to be treated. The person dealing with your complaint/issue might do more for you if you are polite rather than the bare minimum if your are being rude/aggressive.

Oh yes, i definately try to do more for the nice person

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

The biggest problem with most customer service, it's been outsourced to India, Pakistan, Mexico, etc. to people that don't work for the company in question. They have zero investment and zero ability to deal with actual problems.

Even Chase Bank, during off hours, ships you to someone somewhere that doesn't work for Chase.

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[Sophie74656]

The biggest problem with most customer service, it's been outsourced to India, Pakistan, Mexico, etc. to people that don't work for the company in question. They have zero investment and zero ability to deal with actual problems.

Even Chase Bank, during off hours, ships you to someone somewhere that doesn't work for Chase.

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Yes unfortunately this is true. My company still has not outsourced anything but you never know.