Adventures In Customer Service

[58limited]

As a veterinarian, my clients are usually great. However, I do have my problems too (often around full moon time). Mostly, the problem I encounter is either senior citizens who get upset if we forget to give them a senior citizen discount (which is really a courtesy, not a right by the way) or this: I can tell someone face to face the diagnosis, give reasons the problem might have occurred, and recommend a treatment plan. But instead of believing the doctor whom they are talking with face to face, they want to believe some crap they read on the internet written by someone they don't know and whose credentials are questionable. My favorite are vomiting cases - they read on the internet about some rare disease that only rarely causes vomiting, really harp on the subject, but then usually quiet down when I pull out my internal medicine book and show them a table that lists over 100 common causes of vomiting.

Every now and then I get someone who just doesn't believe my diagnosis and wants to argue with me. I have always advised them to get a second opinion if they don't believe me. I have almost (but not quite yet) asked them how many years of vet school they have had in order to arrive at their opinion?

The worst by far are doctor's wives - no schooling but they think they know everything, or think they should get special treatment since their husband is Chief of Neurology at the big hospital in town. OK, your husband is a big time doctor - what are you? Do you work or contribute to society in any way? Why are you important just because your husband is a good Doc?

 

[jamiel]

Update on the Hoover vacuum...vac store was able to locate a dust bin so I'm good to go.

 

[runematic]

Adventures in customer service

Where to begin?

From the business side: You would not believe how many people yelled at my brother & I for going on our 1st vacation in 6 years. People could not believe we would be going away and they could not get something taken care of instantly. My dad (all 67 3/4 years of him) was doing the road work, running the store & doing deliveries (with a buddy of ours who is currently "between jobs again"). He was busting his a$$ to keep everything going. Most folks were fine, but there were many that just were a*holes. I took a real beating before we left from one lady that we couldn't get to her washer for 4 days. I finally could not take it anymore. I asked her how long she waited for her doctor the last time she was sick. She was quiet and then said 5 weeks, but that doesn't mean anything. Ok, 4 days for a washer that worked but was really noisey, or 5 weeks for an illness. HMMM. I really must be missing something.

On the customer side: I absolutely despise the genealogy site "One Great Family." I joined for a free 14 day trial and cancelled that same day because the site was not what I was looking for. They had a yearly special for $59 for the year as well. Supposedly when you cancel, they send an email with a special 1-800# to finish the cancelation. It seems that part was buried. I never got an email from them. I assumed it was cancelled. When I got my CC bill for $79 (that's right, not $59 anymore) I called right in. They said I never called in & I politely told the guy on the line that I never received any emails from them. Well basically I was told tough shit. I did not call in. I talked to a "supervisor" and he confirmed that I emailed in my cancellation but never called in and that's too bad, enjoy the website. I went through many ugly emails from them for 2 weeks and got nowhere. Ugly customer skills and they ripped me off for an additional $20 to boot. My CC company investigated but did nothing. Stay away from One Great Family. Ripoff artists and horrible customer service reps.

Well I've gone on long enough, now I'm mad at that website again. LOL.

 

[toggleswitch2]

~Why are you important just because your husband is a good Doc?

Status by injection. That's easy; she channels his money out. and she MUST be important if she can find a catch that makes that much money. HA!

 

[oldhouseman]

Runematic

Don't pay for those genealogy websites. They are a ripoff.

You are better off to contact various State Archives direct for information. Genealogy websites charge you for information that is free if you visit an archives to look the information up yourself (they may charge for photocopies) and if you don't live in the state and can't visit there is usually a small fee to have something looked up for you through mail reference services.

Please email me and I will be happy to assist you with genealogy work. I work in a State Archives and have access to various records and websites that may be of help to you.

 

[toggleswitch2]

~Don't pay for those genealogy websites. They are a ripoff.

Te he he he.

My father legally changed his name (including his surname) to Anglicize it and otherwise make it pronouncable in English. (Well also to get into an Ivy-league school).

I laugh like hell when my legal/real last name gets some B/S story attached to it via those sites. Honey, it goes back two generations, period.

 

[runematic]

Oldhouseman, thanks. One day when I get a few free moments I'll take you up on that.

Here's another good customer service story. When I got back from vacation last week I was talking with a freind of mine who is a teller at my local bank. I was telling her about my being flogged by customers and she said well here's one that happened yesterday. She was being yelled at by a customer for the bank "stealing" here money. This went on for 10 minutes. She was ranting and raving. She didn't know her acount number but remembered she had her checkbook along. My teller friend looked at it and said M'am your looking for the bank across the street, not us. She said the customer stormed out and didn't even apologize. Some people.

 

[neptunebob]

So are you still there Panthera? I can tell more but that is about it.

 

[panthera]

Yup,

Sorry, Bob, my flights to the US were rather complicated. I kind of signed out on Saturday - preparing for finals - and won't really be back 'on line' 'till tomorrow. You'll hear more from me then and I do appreciate your writing back.
Have an interesting customer service tale to tell right now, tho'.

When I called to confirm my flights, the rep. I got was fighting a bad head cold or serious hay-fever. We worked through everything and I said thanks, get better soon.
She nearly cried. Said I was the first person all day to say anything nice to her - she'd been bitched at all day 'cause of being hard to understand. When the automated "quality assurance" asked me to evaluate my "experience" after our call, I said I had been very well taken care of.

Fast forward. I got to the airport on time - on time to hear that I had been bumped 'cause of overbooking. But not to worry, as a 'thank-you' for my feedback, the airline had up graded me to first-class and the special lounge.

Wow! Would have cost nearly $10,000 more (current price for that flight, I looked) and I got it for my $1700 ticket and being nothing more than polite and courteous.

There's certainly an interesting feeling in the air in the US right now - I don't think I've seen folks this 'questioning' in decades. Not going to comment on it here.

 

[neptunebob]

I believe you did the right thing, but from the things I hear in the news, I am almost afraid to fly because of the experience, not the safety. I would like to go to Disney World some time and wonder if the airline situation will get any better. Have you ever flown into Pittsburgh International Airport? USAirways used to have a Pittsburgh to Frankfurt flight but I don't think they do anymore.

Since you teach English, I have a question about actors: Have you noticed a difference between a regular actor and a Shakesperean actor/actress? The Shakeperean ones are more dramatic and I wonder if you helped with training them?

 

[jakeseacrest]

I work in an ER in Rhode Island that for some reason gets more than its share of drunks. Customer service goes out the window with us when they are spitting, swearing, and peeing all over my floors in the drunk tank. One nurse who finally had enough whispered to a completely beligerant patient the other day and he got very quiet after that. She told me that she simply stated that he was being a bad boy and showed him a LONG catheter that she was going to insert if he couldn't stop wetting his bed!