Adventures In Customer Service

[whirlcool]

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....

 

[andrewinorlando]

So naturally, that makes her "entitled".....

 

[DADoES]

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.

 

[gyrafoam]

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.

 

[twinniefan]

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.

 

[panthera]

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.

 

[oldhouseman]

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.

 

[pekedogs]

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.

 

[dalangdon]

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.

 

[jaxsunst]

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.

 

[oldhouseman]

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.

 

[whirlcool]

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

 

[danemodsandy]

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.

 

[maytagbear]

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

 

[redcarpetdrew]

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

 

[DADoES]

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.

 

[travis]

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,

 

[andrewinorlando]

Just remember everyone, no matter what, no matter where, YOU CAN'T FIX STUPID.

 

[westyslantfront]

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