# Reality doesn't change because you don't want to hear it **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 26, 2010, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-doesnt-change-because-you-dont-want-to-hear-it/533816 "2010-03-26T00:07:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-doesnt-change-because-you-dont-want-to-hear-it/533816/181 "2010-03-29T19:28:35Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Your reading comprehension is as low as your character. Well, everything looks low when you’re on a horse that high. ---
**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-doesnt-change-because-you-dont-want-to-hear-it/533816/182 "2010-03-29T19:29:35Z")
I actually find it so funny it hurts, the idea that certain people would expect the company CEO to personally get his ass down here and “FIX MY GODDAMN PROBLEM RIGHT NOW GRRRRRRRR”. Yes sir, the CEO of this large company will be here shortly to process your $90 claim, thank you for shouting at us and showing us the error of our heavily out-sourced ways… ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-doesnt-change-because-you-dont-want-to-hear-it/533816/183 "2010-03-29T19:30:06Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Your reading comprehension is as low as your character. What a lovely compliment, thank you! And so refreshing to see you admit that you were wrong all along. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-doesnt-change-because-you-dont-want-to-hear-it/533816/184 "2010-03-29T19:30:25Z")
Well, this thread has been a whole boatload of bullshit, but I’ll give you guys this: the ripostes have been funny. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-doesnt-change-because-you-dont-want-to-hear-it/533816/185 "2010-03-29T20:26:29Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > People who think Customer Service people can or should never say NO, or that we should never tell anyone something isn’t possible, or that we have to learn how to say things that won’t ever upset anyone obviously have never worked in Customer Service. Probably. They also haven’t posted in this thread, probably because their arms are made of straw. > [@bucketybuck](#): > > I actually find it so funny it hurts, the idea that certain people would expect the company CEO to personally get his ass down here and “FIX MY GODDAMN PROBLEM RIGHT NOW GRRRRRRRR”. And yet another moron attempts a daredevil leap over the cavernous excluded middle. ---
**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-doesnt-change-because-you-dont-want-to-hear-it/533816/186 "2010-03-29T20:44:10Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > And yet another moron attempts a daredevil leap over the cavernous excluded middle. > [@villa](#): > > Rectifying an error at the expense of the company is **always** possible, even if only the CEO has the authority to sign off on it. > Don’t tell me it isn’t possible. Tell me, if you want, that you cannot do that, and you are not willing to transfer me to someone who can. > [@Shodan](#): > > It is not impossible. > > As **villa** says, if the CEO called customer service up and said, “Fix this issue immediately at no cost to the customer” it would happen. Therefore it is possible, and (as I said) it is merely a matter of finding the person who has the necessary authority. > [@Duckster](#): > > Otherwise, expect a call from your CEO to fix the problem your company created for itself, plus the public flogging it will receive on the Consumer Reports blog > [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > I once had the pleasure of writing to the CEO of a large Canadian software company, telling him how bad his technical support department was. > [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > Meaning, the CEO is aware of this particular situation, he has been faced with it enough times… > > Times when the big bosses and CEOs were reached ended in customers being very upset that they were not getting thier pcs fixed for free, I read threads see… ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-doesnt-change-because-you-dont-want-to-hear-it/533816/187 "2010-03-29T20:48:13Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Your reading comprehension is as low as your character. Sometimes people have to expand their comprehension when they don’t get adequate information. I lost interest in this subject when you wouldn’t answer my questions about the transaction. I happen to agree with you that you shouldn’t be a punching bag upon which somebody vents their frustrations. However, from you initial statements it appears as if your company sets you up to be just that. Of course that’s all I had to go on. For much of this thread it appeared as if your company slighted the customer and then created rules which made you the interface to tell the customer that more time and money was required by them to get the service they had already paid for. It took you a long time to reply that the customer would incur no additional time or cost. I _wasn’t_ trying to determine if the customer was in the right for going ballistic on you. They weren’t. I _was_ trying to determine if the customer had a legitimate reason to be angry. (again, not abusive. Angry) From your OP and comments in this thread it looks to me like you are in the wrong line of work and with the wrong company. You seem to take affront too easily and use your ability to cut off communications as a defense mechanism. Neither of those character traits is helpful to somebody in your vocation. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-doesnt-change-because-you-dont-want-to-hear-it/533816/188 "2010-03-29T21:03:00Z")
They’re handy for posting here, though. ---
**Author:** ![Risha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5fc32e/32.png) [@Risha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Risha)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-doesnt-change-because-you-dont-want-to-hear-it/533816/189 "2010-03-29T21:05:19Z")
> [@bucketybuck](#): > > Yes sir, the CEO of this large company will be here shortly to process your $90 claim, thank you for shouting at us and showing us the error of our heavily out-sourced ways… HAHAHAHAH! Oh to be someone who has never had a call from someone who had a call from a CEO who wants someone’ account fixed RIGHT NOW. _cries_ ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-doesnt-change-because-you-dont-want-to-hear-it/533816/190 "2010-03-29T21:15:38Z")
> [@BubbaDog](#): > > Sometimes people have to expand their comprehension when they don’t get adequate information. > > I lost interest in this subject when you wouldn’t answer my questions about the transaction. Sometimes people are quick to ‘imagine’ that something else occured, or draw wrong conclusions and lash out in recreational punishment. Fact is, some questions I can’t answer because it would give away too much information. Beyond that, I’ve never had much sympathy for the idea that anonymous people on message boards are instantly proven wrong if they fail to answer questions from other anonymous people on message boards. This isn’t a trial, it isn’t a hearing, you don’t have any power over me nor I over you. Therefore you have no ‘right’ to expect that I (or anyone else) will answer any of your questions and, should you then decide that I am in the wrong because I won’t, your opinion of this is really of no consequence to anyone but yourself. > [@](#): > > I happen to agree with you that you shouldn’t be a punching bag upon which somebody vents their frustrations. However, from you initial statements it appears as if your company sets you up to be just that. We’re not, and my company is very good about making sure that we know that we don’t have to be. Some people don’t understand that and think that we have to be in order to provide good customer service. No, we don’t. We will provide much better service in the long run if both we and our customers know that we won’t sit quietly while they abuse us. For one thing, our turn-over rate (of employees) will be much lower, resulting in more experienced agents able to provide better quality of support. > [@](#): > > For much of this thread it appeared as if your company slighted the customer and then created rules which made you the interface to tell the customer that more time and money was required by them to get the service they had already paid for. It took you a long time to reply that the customer would incur no additional time or cost. I think you are mistaken. I merely clarified the original position. > [@](#): > > From your OP and comments in this thread it looks to me like you are in the wrong line of work and with the wrong company. You seem to take affront too easily and use your ability to cut off communications as a defense mechanism. Neither of those character traits is helpful to somebody in your vocation. This again is an error in understanding the OP. I did not cut off communications. The customer did that when she decided to scream at me non-stop without giving me a chance to COMMUNICATE with her. It is not about taking affront either. It is about knowing when to end an unproductive situation. Therefore, the rest of your conclusions about me and my suitability for this work are also of dubious accuracy. Easy to throw out harsh conclusions like that, but you don’t know me, you don’t know my work history, nor my performance with this job and this company. Telling someone they are not suited for their job over one incident in which you clearly misunderstood quite a bit of it is just not cool. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-doesnt-change-because-you-dont-want-to-hear-it/533816/191 "2010-03-29T21:26:59Z")
> [@bucketybuck](#): > > I read threads see… Point taken, and I withdraw the accusation of moronism… for now. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-doesnt-change-because-you-dont-want-to-hear-it/533816/192 "2010-03-29T22:07:13Z")
**Chimera** : I have one and only one question for you. Would the new policy you offered to sell the customer cost her more than the amount that was refunded to her on the old policy? ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-doesnt-change-because-you-dont-want-to-hear-it/533816/193 "2010-03-29T22:18:09Z")
[QUOTE=sinjin;12281013Would the new policy you offered to sell the customer cost her more than the amount that was refunded to her on the old policy?[/QUOTE] Depends on how that department is willing to process it. The default would be to cancel the old plan (on the incorrect unit), which would result in less than a full refund (it is a pro-rated refund), so that yes, the new plan would cost more than they got back. But as per my earlier statement, it would easily be argued that since we made the error, we needed to discount the new plan to be the same cost as the cancellation. Fact is, if the ‘proper department’ failed to do this over my objections or recommendations, or over customer objections, it is well within my authority and ability to send a notification to the billing department (yet a third department) with a request for a refund of the difference, completely over-riding the ‘proper department’. But like has been driven into the ground, no one can help you if you won’t shut up long enough for them to do so. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-doesnt-change-because-you-dont-want-to-hear-it/533816/194 "2010-03-29T22:27:36Z")
> [@](#): > > you can never predict ‘No I can’t…, But I can Sell…’ An eight year old could predict here, jeesh. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-doesnt-change-because-you-dont-want-to-hear-it/533816/195 "2010-03-29T22:35:56Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > An eight year old could predict here, jeesh. Do you masturbate furiously while you type your invective? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-doesnt-change-because-you-dont-want-to-hear-it/533816/196 "2010-03-29T23:19:44Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Depends on how that department is willing to process it. > > The default would be to cancel the old plan (on the incorrect unit), which would result in less than a full refund (it is a pro-rated refund), so that yes, the new plan would cost more than they got back. But as per my earlier statement, it would easily be argued that since we made the error, we needed to discount the new plan to be the same cost as the cancellation. Was the customer told that she wouldn’t have to pay more when you offered to sell her a new plan or was she just given the default offer prior to going ballistic? ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-doesnt-change-because-you-dont-want-to-hear-it/533816/197 "2010-03-30T00:18:54Z")
> [@sinjin](#): > > Was the customer told that she wouldn’t have to pay more when you offered to sell her a new plan or was she just given the default offer prior to going ballistic? She was told that it wasn’t possible to cancel the cancellation because it had already been processed and refunded to her credit card. I got about halfway into the next sentence, which yes, I did use the word ‘sell’, when she blew up. Her screaming was all about how I wasn’t doing what she wanted, which was to back out the cancellation (hence the title of the thread) and how she wanted to speak to someone above me. Despite the protestations of others in this thread (who don’t know and are thus just pulling shit out of their asses), the procedure for when people ask to speak to someone above us is to say NO. You deal with us or you call back and deal with someone else at the same level. Hell, we’re specifically prohibited from transfering to someone in our same department (passing the buck), so if you refuse to work with me and want to speak to someone else, I can only advise you to call back and then hang up! Having gone back over the previous agent’s notes, I’m not entirely sure where that the fault doesn’t lie on both sides of the equation. She had two items with an extended warranty and wanted to cancel on one of them, because it had been stolen. The serial number provided was for the NEW product, not the old one, which she may or may not have known. How much effort the first agent went through to verify that the serial number being provided was the proper one is a complete unknown. I don’t have access to call recordings and that is a matter for that person’s supervisor, not me, should it ever come to that. ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-doesnt-change-because-you-dont-want-to-hear-it/533816/198 "2010-03-30T01:26:09Z")
Thank you for your answers **Chimera**. I think I can now see both sides of the story. 1. Sucks to be CS. 2. Sucks to be customer. 3. Life is too short for both. Cheers! ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-doesnt-change-because-you-dont-want-to-hear-it/533816/199 "2010-03-30T03:17:12Z")
I have to say, when I was in customer service, we had the policy that if you weren’t (ahem) connecting with the customer, you were REQUIRED to transfer the customer to someone else at your level (best) or to a manager (less good, but sometimes that was the only thing to do). Because sometimes there are just personality conflicts and failures to communicate. ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-doesnt-change-because-you-dont-want-to-hear-it/533816/200 "2010-03-30T12:13:39Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > I have to say, when I was in customer service, we had the policy that if you weren’t (ahem) connecting with the customer, you were REQUIRED to transfer the customer to someone else at your level (best) or to a manager (less good, but sometimes that was the only thing to do). > > Because sometimes there are just personality conflicts and failures to communicate. It depends on where you are in the chain and specific company policy. \*\*Chimera \*\*explained that she is the last line and instructed not to forward it because she had all the authority she needs to fix it. It does sometimes help to simply send in a new voice or face when a customer has decided someone was rude or whatever. Not in this case. She called back to talk to someone else and the same thing happened. This customer simply refused to listen to a perfectly reasonable and relatively simple solution. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-doesnt-change-because-you-dont-want-to-hear-it/533816.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-doesnt-change-because-you-dont-want-to-hear-it/533816.md?page=11)