I work for a certain industry where the customer is always right and I have to apologize for any little thing that goes wrong even if it has nothing to do with me or my department. The bastards come in and want special treatment when they are huffing and puffing in my face, calling me names and I have to smile and take it. Usually their problems are so small and insignificant that I can fix it in either one phone call or 10 seconds on a computer. This makes them even more angry because they didn’t let out all their steam yet so I have to hear it some more…One day I’m going to lose it and jump over the desk and make them wish they never left their house. Anyone else have a job like this?
-M
I suppose everyone has, but you didn’t give details. You can’t pit a non-specific group for non-specific trangressions! I wanna hear something like…
“These doofuses drove up in this rusty VW, and asked for 10$ of propane - and only after putting a few litres of the cold stuff in did they mention they had two filling tanks, one of which went to the accessory section and dripped liquid propane all over the ground - so I had to fill the right valve as fast as I could so they could take their rickety death trap away from my recently scrubbed gleaming gas pumps! WTF!”
See, then someone can say “Oh man! You really do have to work with major mental misanthropes!” 
When I was in retail, I hated the notion of the customer is always right. Because sometimes they aren’t. I sold big ticket items (photo equip*) that had a low profit margin and hard to meet vendor return policies.
So, I often tried to reach a compremise which made all three parties happy. (3= cust, store, vendor)
Some dick wads, however, could never be pleased. When I got over ridden by the owner of the chain (in a really shitty way, I might add) when all I was doing was following company policy was the day I quit.
Yes. That day.
Tho I was always pleasent to the customer, even the dick heads, I had an epiphany at that moment: Retail is not for me!
If you’re getting that pissed on a daily basis, look for a different carreer.
*photo accssy’s is where the profit was. 50% to 100% mark up. Camera bodies and lenses were often 2% to 10% mark up
You know, I often have complaints about a company. And I may call and get mad – but I only get mad at the person I’m talking to if (a) they act like I’m insulting them personally and get all defensive and self-righteous the moment I suggest there’s something wrong with the service/product their company delivered, or (b) they are just plain rude and obnoxious. And I’ll often tell them point-blank, “I’m angry at your company, not you, so don’t take this personally.” Good customer service reps grasp the difference.
Also, I’ve discovered that 90% of the time, my anger is almost INSTANTLY defused if I am immediately met with an apologetic, “I’m SO sorry – let me help you resolve this issue.” Not “You’re right, of course, and my company is completely wrong and we’ll do everything you demand forthwith,” but just, “I’m sorry, let’s try to get this resolved.”
I realize that you’re saying most people get upset over virtually nothing, but hey, someone has to be available to help fix the problem or at least troubleshoot it. If you can keep smiiling and saying, “I’m so sorry this happened, but aren’t you glad we’ve got it fixed now,” hopefully you can survive long enough to find a job where you don’t have to be in that position any more!
Yeah, that’s pretty much what I say. I’m actually trying to stay away from giving out too many details. Last time I was on the SDMB and posted a complaint about my job and my boss, some fucking asshole loser, actually researched my name, got my AOL screename, searched my proile, found my place of employment and emailed them about what I had said. Too bad I never heard anything about it. I can probably remember his SD name if I saw it again.
-M
The sooner everyone realizes that this is bullshit, the better the world will be.
When I hire new employees I always tell them the customer isn’t always right, but the customer is always the customer.
I also let them know that if they get a complaint to let me know right away. I will take care of things so that my employees don’t have to deal with assholes. They don’t get paid enough to get treated like crap.
I don’t normally get dumb ass people on my line but when I was working in “the pit” that is Customer Service, everyday, without fail, we’d get shit heads on the lines. I can understand if a mistake was our fault, I’ll be more than nice in fixing it ASAP and compensating you for your time (I work for a cell phone company).
But when you start to bitch about going to a competitor, I always come back with “it’s your right to choose any company you want”. I never act like I don’t want them to stay. It’s thrown off plenty of people. This one chick got so mad at me (while I was perfectly calm) she tried to call back! Fuck that! I left notes on her account stating exactly why she didn’t deserve anything and prevented her from calling back all day trying to find someone new who would give her what she wanted.
Fuck, people suck. I like my new position better. I get to talk to pre-active people and deny them if they have poor credit. I really like it since there is no one over me (no manager to talk to if you’re not activate with us). If they don’t agree with their credit check, call Equifax…don’t bitch at me!
Um, according to that thread, you were asking how to sabotage your office’s computer system with a virus, not “posting a complaint about your job and your boss.” Dumbass.
The customer is rarely right, but is, indeed, the customer.
Retail floral has so many chances for screw-ups. Last week, we sent out a dozen pink roses. The guy calls. His complaints are (1) no babies breath–we don’t use babies breath, it is cheap and smelly, we NEVER have used babies breath, unless specifically demanded, and we charge extra for it because we don’t stock it; we used queen anne’s lace, which is expensive and beautiful (2) the flowers were late–no, the flowers got there at 1:25 pm, and no delivery time had been requested or promised (3) the roses weren’t pink–yes, they were pink, I have the other half of the bunch in the cooler and THEY are pink, so I doubt that the ones in that vase were transubstantiated into another color (4) the flowers sat at the security desk for half an hour before she got them–OK, so YOU call security at her company and complain to them, as we called from the security desk AND on a cell phone from outside the building to tell her (voicemail both times) that they were there.
I tried the ‘what can we de to make it better’ route, but there WAS no make it better.
Next day, SHE calls. Do not ever deliver flowers to her from him again, please. He came for their date that night, and wanted to pour bleach in the roses so he could claim they were bad and get his money back. He found out he could have gotten roses from the grocery store for ten bucks less, and wanted to go the cheap route. I have had her fax me a note to that effect, and filed it with the complaint form. We’ll use it when he tries to refuse payment through his credit card.
You cannot win with some people.
Well Sherlock, wrong thread. ( and a different username. ) I believe I said it about a complaint of my boss. If you read the previous one, you would have understood the whole joke about the virus one. Don’t call people a dumbass when your the one who doesn’t know what they are talking about.
-M
Geez, I thought I could escape the stupidity from my job in here but I guess the chance of that is slim and none…and slim just left the building, right Fang?
-M
Oooh, this thread may be turning nasty, but being a customer service LIFER (groan), here’s my experience.
The company I worked for before my present job went bankrupt. I answered the phone one day and this guy asked “is XYZ company really going out of business?” When I replied that indeed it was, he went into a rant directed personally at ME, that he was delighted that my co workers and I would soon be unemployed. What a short sighted jerk.
The company I currently am employed with has the motto “do what is right for the customer”. That’s fine, I have a lot of patience with people and realize that most people who don’t have retail experience have no clue. I truely want people to be happy with their decision to purchase our product. However, I have mused that “doing what is right for the customer” might involve the use of deadly force…would I be justified in following our company directive?