Adventures In Customer Service

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whirlcool

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 29, 2005
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I figured this would make an interesting thread.
How many people here have dealt with customers or salepersons who haven't a clue. The people I am talking about are the ones who think that the rules aren't for them. It's like they are above and beyond the great unwashed.

Well here is a thread for you to relate these horror stories!

Last Sunday we had a slight delay at LGA because of a difficult passenger. She brought on a large purse and carry on bag and promptly put them ON the seat next to her. When the flight attendant told her that those items must be stowed for take off the woman got belligerent. She said that she needs those items there as it is too difficult for her to take the items out of the overhead or from under the seat during flight, may I tell you that she was about 300lbs?
So we had a Mexican standoff. She wouldn't stow her bags, and the more F/A told her that the aircraft can't get going until those bags were stowed the nastier she became. So I had to go back there and tell her that either she stows the bags and can stay on the flight, or she and her beloved bags will be removed from the flight. The F/A grabbed her bags and put them away and we were able prepare for departure. She explained that she is handicapped with a disability due to her size and that we have to accomodate her wishes. I am sure that we are going to get a letter from this one.

Next story....
 
Been there, done that with difficult customers so many times over the years at both of the jobs that I couldn't even start to cover them all.
 
I'm surprised you didn't just have the police throw a rope around her neck and escort her off of the plane, although I know that would have caused delay and an incident report.

F/A should have cut to the chase, informed the lady it was an FAA regulation for take-off and landing and those are the rules-----PERIOD END!

I really have sympathy for anyone who deals with the public in the workplace these days.
Due to all the changes it is going to take for the airlines to be able to survive, as the airlines re-invent themselves----again---they are going to face angry and hostile pax like they have never had before and the incidents are going to skyrocket.

Better tighten your seat-belt! Again.
 
Too numerous to mention them all

Like some of you good folk, I have worked all my life in retail jobs as both a worker and in supervisory roles, I could not begin to tell you the number of difficult people I have had to deal with over the years.
When I came to work for a leading charity welfare organization as a store supervisor and now manager, I thought I had found employment heaven, a nice but full-on job, and the vast majority of customers were really nice, however there have been and still are quite difficult customers around,the main problem is people expecting us to hold items for them until either the next day or longer and abusing us when we point out that holding items is not permitted,they find it incredulous that a charity organization actually has policies and procedures to follow and the trouble with holding items is that in 99% of the time, they do not ever come back to but the item, and so we miss out on a much needed sale to help fund our welfare programmes.
Oh well that is life I suppose I have just learnt to roll with the punches and not let such incidents worry me, otherwise I would end up a nervous wreck.
I will finsh though by saying these days,it seems to me that the public are more demanding and seem to treat service industry workers as though they are beneath them,anyone agree?.
Cheers people. Steve.
 
Yup

Steve, I completely agree.
Was in the hard-bound book section of the local antiques store last week. Absolute bitch comes up to me and demands I bring her the entire Encyclopedia set (leather bound, antique, a steal at 300€) from behind the locked glass and "right now" because she has had to wait two minutes on me already.
I am a customer, not a clerk and I don't let anybody push me around, so I told her that her tone of voice was inappropriate and her deportment that of the neu Reich, a serious insult in Germany.
Was fun to see her explode.
Suggested she shouldn't strain her face lift quite so much, took my book and walked over to the service desk.
Poor clerk (the real one) was having a serious time of it not losing it...got the book for free, the show was worth it.

I worked my way through school, I know exactly how the waiters and waitresses took care of rude patrons. It is a privilege to be served, and one which needs to be honored not abused. Sure, there are clueless shop assistants out there (can you say "Sears?", sure you can), but 99% of the problems are the customers, 99% of the time.
 
I wish

people would really stop and think about expectations and responsibilities. Having worked with the public in a government office has really changed how I look at and deal with retail, restaurant and really any form of public service.

We have very strict guidelines on how we deal with the public. I have seen the extreme on both sides. I had a supervisor up until last year that had no clue how to deal with people -the public or employees. Thankfully that witch is gone. She used to tick people off and then refer them to me to deal with.

I have had a woman, from Alabama, send her childrens birth certificates (originals not copies) with a demanding letter that we put them on official record so they would be residents of Georgia and not Alabama. ??? WT....

Three years ago a young man called our telephopne reference line because he took his Dad's viagra and his errection would not go away and he wanted to know what to do about it.

History questions I have received:

When did Martin Luther King end slavery?

Where in the Bible does it say America was invented?

When did the United States incorporate itself?

I need to find adoption records because I think my fiancee is really my son I gave up for adoption 20 years ago (turned out he was and she blamed me for ruining her happiness -not my fault she was boffing her own kid).

When does the Confederacy hold their elections? And how can I vote in them?

Would my ancestors land deed tell who his grandparents and great-grandparents are?

My ancestor moved to Georgia from Ireland during the Civil War, would the State of Georgia still have his naturalization papers as a United States citizen?

I want to get a copy of my 4th great grandfathers Revolutionary War service record, he was born in 1822.

I need televion news film footage of Civil War battles, do you have any?

My great-great grandfather fought with the 9th Georgia Infantry and was killed at Fredricksburg during the Civil War, do you think he may have got a pension after the war?

Do you have a DNA bank there so I can find out who I'm really related to?

I could write a book about the strange, odd and angry people who come into this office everyday. And they do have expectations of good service as they should. Sometimes it is very hard to keep a straight face when posed with some of the questions we get. Trying to explain the answer can sometimes be hard and a ceratin level of diplomacy is needed to not make the person feel bad or short of basic intelligence for asking some of the things they ask.

I have noticed an increase in people having an angry and aggressive attitude when they come in wanting records. "You WILL give me the information I want".

That makes me go silent sometimes. I have to stop and take a breath before I can respond.

I engage with 60 to 100 people a day depending on traffic and time of the year (holidays, etc).

When I leave the job I really don't want to see, hear from or talk to anybody for the rest of the evening. Sometimes that's hard for friends and family to understand -and I see their point too. On those days I make myself engage with friends so I can change the pace of the day.

As I have my house in shape and the restoration is getting in place I am looking for a job closer to home. My partner can retire anytime and plans on it next year. I still have a number of years ahead to work and I am looking for a position that has minimal public contact. I am way over dealing with "customer service". I also bear in mind how I need to deal with anyone working in customer service when I'm on the other side of the counter. It's all a balancing act.
 
Customers from Hell

You all have cited most of the reasons that I retired from GTE/Verizon as a customer service rep. Customers these days seem to feel that they can run their bills up and then be granted payment arrangements with no interruption of service. They all say that things are "not their fault". So many times I wanted to ask them if their mothers had any children who lived. Since retiring, my blood pressure has normalized and my diabetes is under much better control.
 
I blame a lot of the boorish behavior on all those "make a stink" books and seminars they used to have back in the 80's. People think if they are a******s, they'll get what they want. Unfortunately, many times they do. When I worked at the Four Seasons, we regularly gave the house away to people for some of the dumbest things. One guy actually had the nerve to claim that he was unable to consummate his wedding on his honeymoon night because of a missed turn-down.

That's why I like working for a utility. Customers may whine at us, but they pretty much have to do what we tell them to do. Although I do have a few builders that I work with who are very high-maintenance divas.
 
When did lard-a** become a disability?

I do not mean to be insensitive, but I have been there. My life got undearable and I lost the weight. I'm still fat, I have health problems because of it, but I'm working my way to making it better.
 
Thank you

Jackson, I'm glad somebody said it. I appreciate your comment very much. We all know there are people who have weight issues that are complex and not as easy to solve as just changing eating habits.

There are also some who use weight as an excuse for a bad attitude about everything in life.

My late brother in-law was a case in point. I absolutely refused to go anywhere with him and my sister because of how he treated anybody in any form of customer service. His idea was he knew he would get bad service because they were prejudiced about his weight so he took the offensive stand.

We had a lady come in who got stuck in a chair she was so big. That witch of a supervisor I used to have sent me to help her. I blamed the problem on "cheap furniture" as I helped her out. I could tell she was embarrassed so I downplayed it all and directed her to a chair without arms. I didn't see her for a long while after that but when she did come back she had lost so much weight I barely recognized her. She smiled and winked at me as she pulled up an armchair to sit in.

Right now I'm dealing with a difficult at best researcher who will not come in to do his own research. Granted he is in North Carolina and doesn't want to make the trip. That I understand. So he uses our mail reference service. God what a nightmare. Everything I look up and copy for him is never enough or he disputes the record. He has even gone so far as to look up my home contact information and call me late on a weekend night to discuss his research. And he got offended that I refused to take his call and asked him not to contact me at home. He accused me of not doing my job because I would discuss his research at 11pm on a friday night!! I have another request on my desk now from this guy and I just dread having to talk to him again.

A couple of years ago I was in the local news because of a specific document I discovered here in our holdings. Since then I have people who just show up at my house with items for me to look at like I'm someone on Antiques Road Show. That really is difficult to handle at times. My partner gets really peeved about it -understandably. My supervisor expects me to take it in stride and roll with it. Not easy.

I firmly believe it is an unreasonable expectation from my boss and the public who do it.

On the other side of that coin I try to be polite and understanding when I am the customer. I always leave a very generous tip when I go to a restaurant if I get reasonable service. I worked as a waiter when I was in school and remember how hard it could be at times.

I envy people who have retired and don't have it to deal with anymore on the job front.
 
I'd forgotten about those "How to Get Good Service By Being Nasty" books from the 80's. What about all the "It's All About ME!" books from the late 70's?

BTW, we explained to our problem passenger that the FAA requires all carry on items to be stowed before we leave the gate. It's not our rule, all the airlines have to follow them. The F/A even asked her if her bags contain any medication she may need during flight, and she responded no.

Does anyone remember the pig on USAir story? See story in the link. The damn thing went beserk on final approach, ran around, crapped everywhere, bit a few people.

Even though my stories here are air travel related, it's just because that's the industry I am in.

Carry on, gentlemen!

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0CWU/is_/ai_67163512
 
Emily Said It Best:

This is not a new problem. In the first edition of Emily Post's Etiquette published after WWII, Mrs. Post wrote about the epidemic of rudeness to those in service positions, and said (I'm quoting as exactly as memory allows): "If you see someone in diamonds and mink treating a servant like the dirt under her feet, you can be sure that she's not very far up from the ground herself."

Most people who lord it over others in public forget one simple fact: almost no one in America is more than three generations removed from the farm or the assembly line. It's very amusing to see people's insecurities on such blatant display.
 
It's about relationships

I go to the main office of my bank, mostly because it's closest. I am polite, and cheerful to the tellers and the branch manager. I ask them about their children/pets/grandchildren.

They ask me about Boris T. Catt.

I get great service.

However, a few weeks ago, I needed to conduct banking on a Saturday, and "my bank" is closed on Saturdays, so I had to go to a branch. I was treated very poorly, though I was polite, had all my forms filled out.....it's because I was a stranger to the teller. (Not going to go back to that branch any time soon, though!)

It's about relationships. And the Golden Rule. I find that if I am polite and cheerful, I usually (not always) get that back.

Life is too dammed short to be unpleasant all the time. Yes, there are times when I am overwhelmed and under unusual stress, and want to choke the living daylights out of the next person who looks at me the wrong way, but I try not to be like that. Other peoples' feet hurt too, at times.

Lawremce/Maytagbear
 
The times aren't helping...

I'm a appliance tech (big surprise) and in these times of hardship, everyone wants it cheap or free. We get lots of calls from do it yourselfer's, trying to save a buck. Now, I don't mind answering the odd call from a D.I.Y. but more and more want me to sit on the phone with them while they get out the toolkit and start to diagnose and/or fix the problem. When I remind them that I don't mind answering a question but do not have the available time to do the whole repair over the phone, I'm yelled at and told that I have lousy customer service skills because I'm not willing to spend over an hour coaching them when I have paying customers waiting for me to show up. One customer wanted to have me coach him on the phone while he took apart a G.E. clamshell timer and examine the contacts as his unit wouldn't shift speeds. After he told me about his wife, who liked to shift speeds mid cycle, I suggested he look at his shifter arm/solenoid assy. He the proceeded to tell me how I 'obviously didn't care to help him tear his timer apart and he'd find someone else more considerate...' Arrghhh...

RCD
 
Years ago at the theater, I had a customer "accost" me, demanding to know why Crocodile Dundee is not running HERE, TODAY, because she saw a preview HERE that said it started HERE, TODAY. I explained that film companies often include previews on their movies for other titles that are coming later, and may state a specific playdate even if the particular theater does not open that picture on that date. Contract terms require that the material be run as received, it's "free" advertising for the distributor. She didn't think so.

Another time, on a sell-out, I was trying to get people seated and asked a woman and her husband to move a couple seats over so another couple folks could sit together. She did move without any fuss. Then after the show she chewed me out for "making" them move, which put them next to some children, which ruined, TOTALLY RUINED the movie for her, because she's a teacher, having to deal with kids all day, and does NOT need to be dealing with them when trying to enjoy a movie, and WHAT would I have done if she had REFUSED to move? One of the employees told me her name. I called her a few days later, apologized further, explained the difficulty of seating when empty seats are scattered between groups, and asked how could I have better handled the situation? She laughed and said she had totally forgotten about the incident. Sheesh.

Many times at the Internet service, people with past-due bills refused to pay, claiming they had not used the service. It was fun to see their outrage when presented with network access logs recording their connections and online sessions by username, date/time and duration. A significant number of them still refused pay. It's amazing and distressing how many deadbeats there are around here, and I suppose everywhere.
 
Theatre patrons...

Oh dear, where do I begin? Aside from the usual, "the paper said", or "the website said" issues, there are two moments that stick out in my mind.

Some years ago while managing the Hi-Pointe Theatre, the box office cashier came to me and asked me if I had accepted a phone reservation. I said no. The customer at the window then got furious at the cashier with me behind him and stated, "I called it in, this is the Tivoli!". Before I could catch my breath, the line of people behind him started correcting him and giving him directions. They did a much better job handling him than I ever could have.

Last year, we received an email from a customer that have their evening ruined here coming to see ROCKY HORROR. At first glance it seemed that they had bought tickets on-line and arrived at the theatre to a sold-out show and were denied admission. In reality, they had bought tickets(2) on-line. They later met another couple and came down to the theatre and were told they couldn't buy two more tickets. Somehow the fact that we had a sold out show was a bad thing.

I do agree that people, including myself are busier and under more stress than in the past, but it's not that hard to think of one another when making a purchase or just passing on the street,
 
I worked for Lufthansa German Airlines for 26 years in the offices in Long Island and also in Los Angeles. In my later years, many of my colleagues said it was more like working for the bus company.

Ross
 
When dealing with the public

one has to always be ready for anything, and I mean 'anything.'

My working life is based on lots of public contact and I must say that most of the time people are fine. Unfortunately it is the tiny minority who are not, that tend to invade the consciousness.

I am also a great customer, the best there is in fact. Unless people try to put one over me, are disinterested, take me and my money for granted, or act like they are doing me a favor by doing their job.

We all have tales to tell, but everything cuts both ways. When people come into my workplace they deserve my undivided attention, professionalism and respect, even if they are rude. I have found that approaching every situation with a professional attitude and confidence in my work puts people like that in their place every time.
 
well said repunzel....

It DOES work both ways.

Since the day I started the adulthood adventure of working I have dealt with over the counter costomer service in one way or another and believe me there is puh-lenty of stupidity on both sides..

...but more over most people are smart and friendly, Most transactions go down fairly smoothly and most people are generally patient.

Having said that I cant resist adding a few zingers I have seen or been involved in.

Do you folks need help or are you beyonde help?

Is this place closed?

I am a costomer bitch!!!

said about supervisor as she was walking away "She can really be a bitch, uhm I mean jerk."
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!!!"
"I said were itching to get to work!!!"

walmart is going down and your going down with it

what is the qualifications for your job?breathing?

the list can be endless but my most recent favorite comes from a 19 year old clerk who thought a woman buying a douche was actually buying some kind of pet deorderizer and in the way of making friendly conversation says in a loud booming voice "Oh, got a stinky one, huh?"

Were still having trouble talking about that one........
lols somewhat painfully
 
I worked at Sears for 3 months TOO LONG!

I was laid off from my corporate job in Feb. 2002. Went to work in Sears Lawn and garden department part time in April 2002. I had a lot of good customers and gained a lot of respect from them. Most of them were Latinos.

The thing I learned from the Latino culture is you treat one Latino with excellant customer service they will bring their parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, grandparents, friends, co-workers to do business with you. I was referred to as Senoir David. They never argued, never knew more then you did, everything was always please and thank you.

The Americans were another story. Give me a discount, always knew more then you <the sales person>, I can get it cheaper somewhere else and you just don't know anything or you just don't care do you? The best was when they would try to use out dated coupons. I had an American woman literally tear her Sears credit card in half with her bare hands because I could not accept her coupon. It clearly said on the back of the coupon "use on anything except lawn and garden". She was buying lawn mower blades. Call the manager, I turning you over to the BBB, I'm going to get you fired, or they would stand around for an hour just fussing and cussing. I was just stand there and smile when I really felt like punching them out!

I'll tell you one thing it made me a better customer. Now if you really want me to go up in smoke give me that "I'm doing you a favor serving you" type attitude and I will call over the manager. My wife and I tip very well for good service. But give us poor service and you will be luckly to get pocket lint from me.

The other thing I literally can't stand is when you call the 1-800-GOTOHELL numbers with the endless list of recordings. Then get to a "HUMAN" and have them say "I'm sorry I'll have to transfer you to another department. At the bank we use to bank at we wanted to upgrade our credit cards for a cheaper rate. I was transferred 6 times. We changed banks after that!
 
I have worked in restaurants since 1985. A couple of my stories...
1. we used to have a regular customer who ate there almost every day. She was as real complainer, her main argument was that we always had a "special of the day" and she would want another day's special. She could not understand that the ingredients were bought in for that day's special and when it was gone, it was gone. She used to say, "do you know how much money I spend in this place?" as if knowing that would cause some special ingredient for the Friday special to suddenly materialize on a Tuesday.
As she was there so often I invented a pet name for her. She had a huge piled up hairdo of plain white hair. (She was an older woman.) I called her Mrs. White as she reminded me of the character in the board game Cluedo (Clue in USA). The name caught on, we would say to waiters, "could you get Mrs. White's order" and so on. One day the inevitable happened and a waitress said to her, "Hello Mrs. White, how are you today?" The lady was NOT amused.

2. The same place had (still has) a company logo of a lady holding up a fork with the word "lovely" written underneath. At the time the staff uniform for waiters included a t-shirt with the logo approximately over the left breast. One taxi driver called Ivan was known for being sleazy with the waitresses (naturally nicknamed Ivan the Terrible). One day he said to a waitress "the left one is lovely, what do you call the right one?" He was asked never to return after that.

Chris
 
See what happens when pigs fly------------

I LOVE that story. That would have been hilarious although cabin service was not too happy I'm sure.

Has anyone ever wondered what part caffeine plays in our overstressed world? More and more studies are concluding that people driven by the daily ups and downs of caffeine addiction are the ones who tend to "snap".
Suppossedly so many of the morning and late afternoon (i.e. "rush-hour") "road-rage" incidents are because stressed-out people are consuming waaaaay too much caffeine.And that usually occurs beginning in the morning (how many cups?) and then that late afternoon cup 'o Joe, Iced Tea or Cola.
Even worse are those new "super-energy" drinks that contain ridiculous amounts of caffeine. Hell, just a Mountain Dew is loaded with it and the Coca-Cola Company is famous for lacing their drinks with it. Why should an Orange soda contain caffeine? Fanta does!!!

Oh, and then there are the super-caffeine "hustlers" your neighborhood "pushers" like Starbucks,etc.
I'm telling 'ya------it is having a negative effect on us!
Have you noticed how many people's hands are shaking especially in the mornings!
 
I'm in the middle of an interesting one with Hoover. I bought, a little over a year ago, a Hoover "Z" vacuum on a 75% closeout at Home Depot (still, it was $99). It was Hoover's answer to Dyson...anyway it worked well (but is rather clumsy to use), but I bought it as a curiosity more than a daily-driver. It had a 2 year warranty. It's my upstairs (bedrooms) vacuum.

Fast forward to now. I'm busily vacuuming away and find that one of the screens has pulled away (very slightly) from the mounting, causing a dust leak into the filter. Fixable, with a little epoxy or silicone. I called the local vac repair who said "bring it in". They've had it 2 weeks and have called back to say that there are no parts available for this and that the Hoover rep was out this week on vacation but would be back next week and would call to make a settlement with me...this should be interesting.

Problem is, this is more a curiosity/historical oddity than anything.
 
he list can be endless but my most recent favorite comes from a 19 year old clerk who thought a woman buying a douche was actually buying some kind of pet deorderizer and in the way of making friendly conversation says in a loud booming voice "Oh, got a stinky one, huh?"

I loved this one. I would have given ANYTHING to have been there to see the look on the woman's face!

The Pig:
Well, the woman eventually wanted to fly the pig and herself back to PHL on US as they had a round trip ticket. When she arived at the airport she was told that she could NOT take the pig onboard. So she sued US, and had to rent a U-Haul to drive her and the pig back home. US countersued for damage done to their aircraft. It turned out that some of the pig crap couldn't be cleaned and a lot of the carpet and several cushions and wall panels that were damaged had to be replaced.

I told a freind of mine this story, and I got no further than asking him if he had heard of pig onboard the aircraft story. He said no he hadn't heard of it before but had this horrified look on his face. I asked him what was wrong and he said obviously the people at the airport had never dealt with pigs before as if they had they would never had let the pig onboard.
He said "They are like little bulldozers, and when they get angry they can be really mean!"

Has anyone here ever smelled pig poo? Yuck!

Keep em' coming!
 
Wal-mart! need i say more

Years ago when i was a manager for Wally-World (I'm talkin 25 years ago) it was routine for people to bring in clothes that had clearly been worn for some "special" occasion and demanded that they get their money back because they said they didn't fit! (Hello!! that's why there are dressing rooms people!) Now what was really disgusting is the fact that we would have people actually bring back "used" underwear! Complete with racing stripes! It was DISGUSTING! The customer service counter kept a pair of tongs underneath the counter just for these occasions.........no way were they going to touch a pair of nasty underwear that had been worn..

Like the saying goes "It takes all kinds to make the world go'round" LOL

Thank God I no longer work in retail. I don't have any idea how i survived it for 20 years.....I'll take factory work any day!

Mark
 
The end of the week

is here for me since tomorrow is a holiday. I had only about a half dozen nasty attitudes to deal with this week. Not bad considering the large number of people I work with on a daily basis.

We keep a calendar in the office and mark when it's a full moon. It may sound crazy but we get a high number of difficult and odd people on the week of a full moon.

My most odd case this week was a woman who wanted a copy of her ancestor's confederate service record so she could join the united daughters of the confederacy. Her ancestor deserted shortly after being conscripted in 1862. He came home after the war. Smart fellow I think. Well, that ruined her chances for membership. Now she wants the record closed. HA! Fat chance!

On another note I now have a washer to repair. I got a phone call from my partner today (he had the day off). He broke the door on my Danby frontloading washer. How does one break the door exactly? That should be an interesting story. I hope ordering the part won't be to difficult.
 
Well after reading this thread yesterday I decided today I would be happy and as polite as I could when dealing with people today. This is my usual practice. Besides my home job we own a hair salon also with 10 stylists, so I get to meet some real "interesting people" as I will put it. The issue today wasn't there but at the state liquor store. I went in to pick up a few bottles for a party were going to on the 4th. This poor cashier is being read a riot act by her manager along with a laudry list of issues to take care of. She had just gotten back from lunch and I was her 1st customer. Well he said did you get all that and when can you get it done. I couldn't hold myself back anymore! I looked at him with a samantha look and said in a loud and demeening voice "AS SOON AS SHE GETS THE BROOM OUT OF HER ASS! He looked at me and was speechless, turned his ass and headed to the back of the store. That poor woman wanted to kiss me. She thanked me several times and said I just made her weekend and after that she had such a big smile on her face. She was going to tell everybody at work and over the 4th about it. I felt good to help her out. What an ass this guy was.
Jon
 
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