Ya know, if either of the companies involved have a training budget, this would make a most excellent segment in a “For the love of Og don’t do this” training video…
Once I had a gig programming the lighting for a show, but the lighting vendor had suppplied an old, out-dated, obsolete controller for the moving lights. He was anxious to bill the client for lighting design work, so he programmed that controller. Each day he would come and program that days show or shows, and then leave me to run the boards during the shows.
Every day his crappy controller would bollocks up the programming, and leave me to figure out how to correct it live, during the shows. After 2 days of this, I was pretty good with the shitastic controller.
The client, the stage manager, and my union steward approached me at the end of day 2 to ask wtf the problem was. I told them what was going on. They were skeptical, but since the stage manager actually sat behind me, I told him to watch me the next day during a show.
I’ll skip the long part, and get to the end: On day 4, when the show ended, the vendor tried to present a bill for $20,000 for his equipment, design, and programming time. When questioned about why the gear didn’t work properly he tried to blame me, as I knew he would.
Unfortunately for him, all 3 had watched me during rehearsals and shows, and saw that I was not only telling the truth, I was the one who had saved the shows. So, there I am in a nice suit and tie, having a finger pointed at me by a guy in jeans and t-shirt, who was lying. I didn’t smile, but I did say “No, that’s not true.” That was all I said, then the stage manager and client backed me up (my steward never said a word). The client tore the vendor’s bill up, told him to submit a new bill but that he wouldn’t be paying a cent until he ran it past his legal department. After the vendor and everyone else left, I smiled at my steward and thanked her and the others for their support.
When I left the venue and was in my truck, I let out a big ol’ WOOT!
But during, it was great to know that I looked more respectable than the vendor, and that I didn’t give him the opportunity to make it personal by appearing to gloat in anyway.
My advice to you is to do the same.
Be polite and professional. Address the original problem first, and then one of your team (not you) should follow up with something along the lines of “Mr. Smith, it might be beneficial to both our companies in the future if someone more capable of communicating professionally and accurately were responsible for support-related communications. I believe this would allow us to remedy any further problems you might encounter expediently and with minimal disruption.” Very politely call Mr. Jones incapable, unprofessional, a liar, and disruptive to Mr. Smith’s business.
I don’t get it. Why is a meeting being called at all if the recording obviously shows Mr Jones being a dick and that your behaviour was courteous?
Surely it should be left at that?
Since the two companies appear to have a pretty close relationship, and the call was made while Mr. Jones was on the clock for IniTech, Mr. Smith is probably pretty pissed at Jonesy’s highly unprofessional behavior. Still not sure why a meeting is necessary, either, but that’s my presumption. Probably Jones will be squeezed until he apologizes and ExTank will be asked to fix the issue on-site so the managers feel everything has been neatly resolved. That’s all a total inferential WAG on my part, though.
Had I done something like that at my workplace, the meeting would be to announce that Mr. Jones is no longer with us, and we’re pleased to introduce you to Ms. Elderberries, our new dedicated contact with you.
"Good morning, Mr. Jones, I’m Rob from St. Louis. I’m going to see what I can do to assist you with your techinical problem today. I’m sorry we weren’t able to make much progress when we spoke on the telephone. Anyway, before we begin, I’d just like to thank you for taking the initiative to get this escalated, becausehey, free airplane ride for me! Wheeeee! I love airplane rides, don’t you?"
Good advice, I’ll try to (who am I kidding? I will) keep it “front-and-center” in my thinking.
This customer (the company, not the particular individual we’re talking about here) is one of our big$$$ customers locally. If we lost them, someone would be out of a job purely for financial reasons. If Mr. Jones* (who is probably, at best, a mid-level floor supervisor-type flunky) is pulling this kind of behavior, what else might he be saying about us to his bosses?
His bosses (one of which is the aforementioned Mr. Smith*, whose name I do recognize as an upper management mucky-muck) are at the level where they can say to us, “We’re sorry, but we’ll no longer be requiring your services. We’ll be switching service providers to another vendor. Thank you for your past work, my secretary will see you out the door.”
You’re damned tootin’ we’re getting a gunsel in town stat to straighten this out. In all seriousness, this is the reason I will be as buttoned-down professional as humanly possible tomorrow.
I was just kinda “high on victory” earlier, from having this asshole busted red-handed, in-the-act, with recorded proof to back me up. So if I came across overly glib, or pretended I was taking this less seriously than the situation truly warrants, well, let’s just say I was savoring the moment.
Again, names have been changed, and all that stuff.
Our Area Service Manager (my immediate boss) called around to the various departmental contacts at IniTech, and found out which piece of equipment was down. Our after-hours guy this week (it rotates, coming around every 5-6 weeks; my turn’s up in two weeks) went out around 5 PM and fixed it already. It was a “loose wire/connection” situation. The ethernet cable connector was loose, and as it was an old cable, he just replaced it. A 5-minute fix.
I know this is difficult to imagine, but if possible try not to make this guy look like an ass. Don’t sugar coat anything but don’t focus on his behavior. Instead, try to focus on how to make the relationship between the companies easier and less stress filled. If that means this guy should never contact you, fine, but don’t make it about his behavior.
Why? Because the goal is to strengthen the relationship not piss someone off or get them fired. That’s not going to make people happy on the other side and frankly, that’s not your problem. You want that behavior to stop and the communications between the companies to be smooth.
I’m in customer support and deal with stuff like this from time to time. You should be clear that his behavior isn’t acceptable, but once that has been addressed move on to productive topics.
Can you get a copy of the recording? Will the recording be played for Mr. Smith? Also I agree with Telemark’s suggestion on how to comport yourself.
I read you, Telemark. As I’ve said, they are major$$$ for us, and now that I’ve camed down considerably from the “Holy Shit! He tried to get me fired” reaction, I fully realize that smooth(er, est) relations are in our best interests.
Well, have fun, Oh, and… good luck.
The guy has some major psychological issues and probably needs to take some medication. He was most likely frustrated, frustrated with your company, and decided to take it out on you, and then make everyone at your company even more miserable by yelling at your boss.
My experience has been people are often different in person than on the phone, hopefully that will be the case when you make your visit.
As far as I can tell, you don’t need to post to a thread to subscribe to it. Just click on “thread tools” located in the blue bar at the top of the thread, below where the page numbers show up, if there are any.
On the other hand, if they get the full and unvarnished truth from your people they might be able to tie it to other incidents with other vendors. If this has come up before, where he has made accusations that have ruined reputations, they might decide that he isn’t worth protecting anymore.
We were supposed to process 40 calls per hour and use some name when we answered them. Guy next to me was a history major and used the US Presidents through that date, from Mr Washington through Mr Ford.
If it were me, I would point out to Mr. Smith that you were unable to solve IniTech’s problem because of Mr. Jones’ actions. Emphasize that you know how important IniTech’s business is to your company, which is why you were so perplexed when Mr. Jones prevented you from doing your job. Surely Mr. Jones cares as much about IniTech as you do, since he is on their payroll.
Mr Smith will probably get the underlying message, which is that he should consider firing Jones, who is costing IniTech money. Jones will get this message, too, but what will he be able to say about it?
In a support role you really don’t want to be involved in that. It’s not your business to be suggesting how they handle their staff, and it can backfire very quickly.
I echo posters who say you should simply act professionally. I know it’s hard, but don’t do 1, 2 or 3.
Sit quietly, don’t stare, have any answers ready (if needed). Let your supportive managers lead the meeting. They know what happened and have spent serious money and time to confront him on your behalf. Let them do it.
I’m sorry this guy acted like a turd (and showed the brains and manners of one :rolleyes:), but as soon as the tape is played it will be obvious you were 100% right and that he acted really, really stupidly. Let his company deal with him.
So stay calm and get a reputation for being a wonderful employee, even under extreme pressure.
If it helps, give silent thanks for the recording. Imagine if it was just your word against his (and the turd lied about everything…)