But…but…she was screaming!
Deflect, deflect! Serpentine!
Quite. Not everything that saves the company money is also fucking the customer over. I was speaking of denying *reasonable *requests, in line with the theme of this thread–although reading back, I see that **BT **was talking about the customer *behaving *reasonably, with nothing about the request itself specified.
I heard this pretty much exact line a couple of years ago while trying to get a big company to fix their mistake to my reasonable satisfaction. I was astonished to find that someone who has their paycheck signed by someone else felt they had the power to decide that they weren’t going to fix their mistake and make things right by me. It was kind of shocking to hear that someone who was being paid to help customers, especiallythe customers who had been inconvenienced by a screwup that was the fault of the company and their half-assed employees, would have that attitude. That takes a lot of gall.
I ended up taking my complaint to the attorney general, got a call within 72 hours from someone much higher up than little miss we screwed up but I’m going to make you suffer for it and a $200 gift card.
The drawback for that plan, which I’ve seen at both this company and at others where I’ve worked, is that once you threaten legal action, you stop being a regular customer and start being a ‘special’ customer, who has to be handled by special representatives. As part of my job, I’ve had to deal with customers who are only allowed to speak to one particular person in our company (who then asked me to do one particular task with the customer), who are not allowed on company property, and who are not allowed to be transferred to anyone else without the direct permission of their ‘handler’. As a Security Officer, we had special people who were only allowed on the property with an escort, or who were only authorized to call and speak to one particular person, because they could not be trusted to behave themselves.
And on the other side of it, I too am empowered to offer things to customers who I feel have been treated poorly. But I rarely do it, because most people only want me to fix their issue and aren’t looking for some kind of payment. That and most people who demand some form of compensation from me are foolish enough to demand things I can’t give them, such as credit with a different company or outright cash; for reasons our company very specifically doesn’t compensate for - like the time you spent on the phone talking to us.
Hell, a couple of years ago I was falsely accused of a drive-off at a convenience store that I stopped at pretty much every day. I was vindicated by the surveillance cameras, which clearly showed me paying CASH. All I wanted was an apology, but they sent me a bunch of car wash tokens and a $50 gift card. I never used any of them - I ended up destroying them - because I never asked for any money or compensation, I only wanted an apology, which I got in writing.
You, Chimera, are worse than Hitler.
At least Dolphy would have made an attempt to use the money from the one that should have been cancelled to offset the cost of the new “sale”.
288 posts later. 
The Git-er-done Tough Guys in this thread are impressing and intimidating me with their e-testosterone. Oh wait, no they aren’t.
I worked for a major cell-phone carrier for a couple years. I did everything I could for my customers. I felt it was my duty, and I tried to do for them what I would have wanted done for me. However, if they were out of control and screamed and cursed at length, they got treated accordingly. Personal responsibility, consequences of actions, etc. I’d think the Tough Guys could relate to this. And bootstraps. Something to do with bootstraps.
On the other hand, the company needs to fix the problem CAUSED by another employee to the best of their ability. There’s a lot of incompetence floating around telephone support. I was incompetent for too long, because the fuckers inadequately trained us. Those of us who took an interest in doing a better job kept notebooks, gathered info on-the-job, bugged old-timers, etc. Along the way, we made mistakes, even though we attempted to get help when we ran up against difficult problems. Help wasn’t always available. I eventually got employee-of-the-month twice and was runner-up a few other times, so at least the bosses thought I wasn’t incompetent the whole time I worked there.
The nature of my job was such that I wasn’t allowed to do EVERYTHING. I had to defer to other employees in other departments to get certain things done for my customers, even though I sometimes worked, on and off, in a few of those departments myself. Over time, I had learned what was possible, what wasn’t, and why, but I was not allowed to do these things on the days I wasn’t working that job. I’d contact other departments and tell them what I needed. Often, I’d be told they couldn’t do that. Sometimes I’d hold my ground and say that they could and attempt to explain why they were wrong. Other times, I just said, “OK”, and dialed the department back hoping to get a better-informed employee. The employees that lived & worked in India were particularly bad to deal with if things went a little off-script, as no amount of logic, reasoning, or explanation ever changed their mind. Dunno why, but it didn’t. They were going to do what they were going to do, and nothing else. Language barrier? Cultural differences? Harsh punishments if they overstepped their bounds that made them play it overly safe? Who knows?
Anyway, the customer in the OP would have received every deal, bonus and perk I could lump in without getting called on the carpet, if they stopped screaming long enough to let me lay it out for them and see if they liked it. If they didn’t, well, maybe they needed some time to calm down. I think I only hung up on two, maybe three customers in two+ years, but I was allowed to under those conditions, and it was always an option.
There are some reps that will never deviate from a script, either one that was suggested to them or one they develop for themselves. Others don’t know their job. Some are not interested in you and just want an excuse to get you off the phone ASAP. If you’re lucky, you’ll find one that works hard to learn their job and will try to do the right thing for the customer to the limit of their abilities. Make sure you’re at least yelling at the right type, because it may take several calls to find that last type again. Or many more, if my experience with my cable internet provider is any example.
Thanks for the entertainment, all.
Maybe as an independent business owner–someone for whom customer relations relate directly to the personal bottom line–I can offer my perspective.
It’s only a “bad” (unprofitable) business decision if the company is making errors so frequently that they can’t afford to give an extra token of apology to the customers they’ve screwed with. Control of the opportunity for these situations to arise rests entirely with the company.
It’s required and necessary only if you want to be perceived as a company with excellent customer service, who go beyond the barest minimum in rectifying their screwups.
That reputation is usually worth a lot more than it costs.
A company that can’t afford to do this has bigger problems than listening to irate customers.
Companies which generally follow the model of “the customer does not pay for our mistakes, no way, never” generate more new business (and suffer fewer existing-customer defections) than companies which generally follow the model of “you can’t make us do that for you.”
Thanks for the FTC research, Shot From Guns.
Indeed. And note, scammers in that situation could charge any “price” they wanted. I am really refreshed to know that the law in this case makes perfect sense.
I once had a situation in which it appeared, at first, that my company had made a mistake. It turned out–after I rushed to the scene, apologetic and confused–there was a whole 'nother problem, totally unrelated to anything we’d done. I was able to demonstrate this to the customer. By law, and my company policy, I didn’t owe her anything at all. (Indeed, I could have chosen to feel put out that I’d had to make the trip, just because she wasn’t aware of her other problem.)
I fixed it, for free. This was, effectively, money out of my own pocket.
This same customer called me back later for additional work that totaled many times what I “wasted.” Would she have been so prepared to spend that much money if I had showed her the problem and said, “sorry, not my problem–but you can pay some more and get it again”?
There you go. When people feel they’re well taken care of, they often open their wallets. Contrast that approach with this one,
Oh my god.
I barely can, but yes.
You know, you’re lucky none of them decided to take it out on you personally, like with a gun. Seriously. When you fuck over a large group of people so brazenly, you should be anticipating the possibility that one of them will snap.
If your company has such seriously ticked-off customers, I suspect they’re losing a lot more money than they would by doing the occasional extra favor for folks who’ve had problems with the service.
Not to mention that you, like Nzinga, may need to watch your back. 
Part and parcel of doing business, and it is foolish to think that because a couple of people are upset, most of the customers are.
I worked a truck gate for a major retail distribution chain. We had people who were barred for life from the facility for the way they behaved at the gate, or at the docks once they got through the gates.
I worked Security for a small University. We had people kicked out of school for various reasons, and we regularly had non-students trespassed off the property.
I worked late night security in restaurants and during the days at a cell-phone store. Each had people regularly ejected or trespassed off the property and not allowed to return. (My favorites were the people who would have their cellphone service cut off for non-payment, then would come in and threaten violence and refuse to pay until their service was restored. Not going to happen. It was cut off because you were NOT paying, so we’d be fools to think you’re suddenly going to pay if we reconnect it.)
If you want to be a chicken shit full of fear and think that you have to mollify anyone who gets angry or you’ll lose business, then that’s your choice, but it isn’t going to do serve you all that well. Take good care of the people who are legitimately angry about things you CAN resolve. Do your best to take care of people for things you can’t necessarily resolve in the way they want. Fuck the people who can’t be resolved if it is because they aren’t going to allow you to resolve it in a reasonable manner. As cosmodan pretty much said, fire those customers, they only hurt your bottom line.
Odd coincidence that you seem to be the common denominator in all these environments with a curiously high number of confrontations.
Wow. You solved it. You solved the mystery of the seemingly-unconnected-spat-of-angry-customers that has been puzzling nobody for not very long.
And it turned out to be the OP all along. Who woulda thought?
When you work for a call center/ large company, you tend not to sweat such threats.
But on top of that, it would take a special kind of stupid customer to shoot a call center sales person, particularly the one that after the fact of the damage, is the one who actually was willing to talk to you, give you options and sometimes a fix (albeit at a cost, many jumped on that fix, and thanked us for it…cause they had no other way).
Not to justify it, but just to put things in perspective…I never feared for my safety in that job.
Also, I know it feels good to talk about how businesses with angry customers don’t last long, but they really do. I know lots of big businesses that are notorious for bad customer service, but they are still kicking. That doesn’t excuse bad CS, of course.
I didn’t say “most.” I’m surprised that you think it’s unexceptional to have any customers who are so angry that they need to kept away from the property, or under guard, or whatever.
I’m not full of fear. As for losing business, I have occasionally told people directly that they’d be better off with another contractor, because what they were asking for didn’t fit with the level of work I do and what I charge for it.
I can’t recall any customer ever getting angry with my business, per se, so I guess I have no idea what it’s like for you folks where going to work is going into battle. :rolleyes:
In year one of my degree, we learned that it can be a good thing to give more than you have to, to certain customers, to foster long-term relationships.
In later years, we learned that things are not quite as black and white as that.
Ah, I was picturing you at the counter of a computer store. Apologies if I misinterpreted.
Sure. They’re not in short supply these days, are they? 
Very true… at least, in areas or industries where customers have few alternatives. Still, I believe the worst offenders must be driving some people away, except in essential/monopoly situations, like utility companies in many areas.
The companies might be surviving, but that’s not to say they wouldn’t be more profitable if they didn’t treat people like shit all the time.
No, I wasn’t very clear. I was only giving my story to make a point…sometimes, the customer isn’t going to get their way, no matter how many times they call and firmly ‘make trouble’ or demand CEOs or whatever. This is a misconception, so I thought I would just ramble off my own experience with it.
Yes yes, I’m quite sure that my standing in the back of the Cell Phone store as a Security Officer was what set them off to make physical threats over their phone bill, or my presence as a Security Officer at a University was what caused someone to cause a disturbance clear across campus that resulted in the police being called and them being trespassed from the property. Even sounds reasonable when you put it that way that I was the cause of a truck driver flipping his gourd and throwing things around the warehouse when I was outside at the gate. Yup, had to be all my fault. :rolleyes:
Good god, you’re a dumbass.
Says the guy who is so incompetent at his job that he has to hang up on people 2 times a month. Even worse: the majority of people who read your OP have said you didn’t handle the situation correctly. Rather than think, hey, maybe I need to reevaluate my customer service methods, you go back and insult them. Heck, you couldn’t even pull off starting the OP without insulting everyone on the dope who’s felt ripped off by a telemarketer.
What’s sad is that, like everyone else, you obviously reformatted your OP to try and look like you were the good guy. And you couldn’t even pull that off. If the lady was “wall-to-wall screaming”, that would mean that you, as a customer rep would have been driven temporarily deaf. You’d be sitting here complaining about how you couldn’t hear for a while. No, she likely just raised her voice, which, according to the other people who work in similar jobs, is to be expected.
The point is, having to hang up is not a point of pride. It means you failed to do your job. You didn’t handle the customer. You let them get so unsatisfied as to yell at you. You lost your company business.
In this economy, I’m sure it would be easy to train someone to take your place. Your boss may tell you that you don’t have to take abuse, but I’d bet money that, if they got enough complaints about you, they’d kick you out and raise one of the people under you to your place, and get a college grad (or lower) to cover their place. It’s in YOUR best interest to be liked by the customers.
Hey! Hey! Hey!
Don’t make me come back in here!
This post deserves an award.
What do we give to the dumbest post of the month these days? Anybody?
Whatever it is, have two of them. You earned it.