Bad customer service or just bad customers.

System

My peeve is when someone comes in for a refund with a partners card as our refunds require a signature or they say will my cards for the same account refund onto my card then err no can do !

robatwork

There's a big difference between a "call centre" making cold sales calls and a "customer service" centre receiving calls.

Need to keep them separate when discussing this, as the former deserves our opprobrium.

kwikbreaks

daytona0 wrote: »

Skeptical about that site only because the sort o things said as the "punchline" tend to be things which agents THINK rather than SAY.

Still good though

I don't doubt that some of the stories are made up or embellished. Some appear to be pure fantasy. I still find it amusing though.

hugheskevi

I was once in a small, local cafe/restaurant in China. The staff didn't speak English (I wouldn't have expected them to) and I don't speak Chinese.

I wasn't fussy, just wanted food, so simply pointed at what someone else was eating. Unfortunately, it seemed the dish could be done in a number of ways (eg, the equivalent of 'how would you like your steak cooked?'). That led to confusion on both sides, but I thought I had communicated the message that I didn't mind, anything would do.

Five minutes later, the waitress came over with a mobile phone....she had found a friend who spoke English and asked her to do some translation for the order.

That remains by far and away the best customer service I've ever experienced

gunsandbanjos

Having worked in retail for 2 years and hospitality for 13 I feel confident in saying that about 90% of the time it's the customer being a douche.

You do get people who are bad at their job in these professions and they account for the small percentage of times where it's not the customer at fault.

My long spell in hospitality showed an ever increasing trend year on year of customers getting more demanding and less polite. I'm glad I'm out of that now, I'm not required to speak to the general public in my current job and for that I am very grateful!

bluenoseam

I've had some colleagues who's idea of customer service was not telling the customer to F off, needless to say they don't tend to last very long! Some people just aren't cut out for it, but unfortunately you rarely remember the person who'll go the distance for you, but you will always remember the person who was a jerk!

DCFC79

Part of it is how the customer speaks to the member of staff or vice versa which can determine how well the conversation goes. I've had things go faulty and had to return them whether in store or via postal system and nopt had any problems yet, yes ive been peeved that I have had to return an item but I stay calm about it. There are of course times where people are still rude even if Im not.

Littlestars_2

Chickabiddybex wrote: »

It's horrible sometimes. There is no reason to swear at people. No reason to shout. I know it's frustrating when you don't get your way but it's not solved by being mean. What satisfaction do you get from trying to upset other people?

As bad as I have been treated by companies in the past myself, I never find pleasure from the misfortune of an innocent employee. It just doesn't help me. Hearing them be sad gives me nothing.

To anyone out there who has screamed down the phone at a customer service rep, or maybe even just got super arsey with them... You damn coward! They're not allowed to argue back! They can't call you a ***** or they get fired! You probably made them cry after you hung up. Made them embarrassed in front of their coworkers. Maybe even quit their job. Or just added to their stress and when they got home they thought about it for ages. "What's wrong honey? Why aren't you eating? You seem sad." "Oh, nothing. Just... tired"

DON'T DO IT

If you think I'm exaggerating: congratulations! You've never worked in customer service!

That sums it up really you see countless people in tears and on the verge of walking out because of the way they have been spoken to and i've been that way myself. Many people will say they are angry at the situation and not you and that you understand but there are many people that are just rude for the sake of it even when its a simple enquire. I even got told by one customer once why i am in this job as she could see at least 5 points i failed at customer service on and that someone else is far more deserving at my job, and spent about 15 mins of the call telling me what an awful agent i was all because they didn't read the terms and conditions about the disposal service on an appliance so it wasn't ready to be taken away and demanded it to be done the next day which we could not do.

Many times you get told you are awful and have no customer service skills is when the customer is not getting their own way/hearing what they want. The best one the other day was a customer who was given a purse as a present about a year ago and the zip went and wanted a replacement but had no proof of purchase nor could get this and was appalled by my customer service skills as all i can tell her is to take it into a store and see if they can do anything but its up to their discretion, but without any proof of purchase we don't even know it was bought from us. Cue 5 mins of shouting before hanging up...

But with all the bad customers at least you get the few a day that are thankful you do go out of your way to help them.

marywooyeah

bluenoseam wrote: »

I am guilty however of being a jerk to telesales people, my number is registered with TPS though, so far as I'm concerned unsolicited calls are fair game. I have a lot of fun with the "microsoft" ones and I'm close to the point where I'm going to start playing Gerry Bednob sound clips to the ones from abroad - check him out on YouTube!

Yeah I do this too - I muck about with them as I'm on the TPS (although it seems to be a bit of a toothless tiger). I had one the other day asking if I'd ever suffered hearing loss from working in an industrial environment. Cue me pretending I couldn't hear them and asking the caller to keep repeating themselves louder!

the way I see it if they're going to cold call me I might as well waste their time as they're wasting mine!

marlot wrote: »

The thing that really annoys me is CS staff who are more interested in speaking to each other than serving their customer.

I've no problem with someone just wrapping up what they're saying, but I regularly give up after waiting 15-30 seconds and not being acknowledged. I simply leave the items I was going to buy on the counter and walk out. Most CS staff don't blink an eye even then.

I think this is very rude - I've actually "apologised" to sales assistants for "interupting" their conversation by needing to be served. It usually embarrasses them into stopping talking and getting on with serving customers properly instead.

vyle

marywooyeah wrote: »

I think this is very rude - I've actually "apologised" to sales assistants for "interupting" their conversation by needing to be served. It usually embarrasses them into stopping talking and getting on with serving customers properly instead.

The only thing that does bug me on the other side, is when customers can't tell the difference between a personal chat, and a business discussion, where, say, one is with a customer who is standing 5 ft away, and the other has the information to sort a situation out.

When a customer gets antsy they arent being served because staff are "chatting" when theyre serving someone else, it totally winds me up.

But staff shouldnt be having personal conversations when they should be serving... that's just them sucking at their job.

I have had two examples of customers from different ends of the spectrum this week:

One was in the shop for 4 hours, not listening to a word she was being told, insisting her pc was faulty (it wasn't) and that she had a legal right for us to back up her data (she didn't).

She thought that her email account was stored on her one computer, and that it could not be accessed from anywhere else, and when i showed her her hotmail account on a work machine to show that it wasn't the case, she thought her laptop was now stored on my pc.

Long story short, she'd forgotten her BT email password and blamed us for selling her a "faulty PC" and refused to speak to BT because it was full of indians.

The other guy had a virus on his pc. his pc was not faulty. he accepted this, was charming, and listened to and welcomed the pc security tips we gave him, then gave me a bottle of beer as thanks for the useful info.

I would have happily fixed his pc problems for him as he was so nice, but he insisted that he needed to do it to learn :O.