I work for a mail order office supply catalog company. We get the STUPIDEST questions you can imagine!! Everything from “How many pencils are in a dozen?” to “What is the difference between white and clear labels?” Umm…come on people!! You couldn’t have left your brain at home…could you have??
I also think people should read the description in the catalog before they call and ask questions. I have answered many questions just by turning to the SAME page in the catalog the customer is looking at…and just reading what the catalog says.
Or another thing…I have just moved into a new department of our company…where I answer customer’s emails. Customer’s emails are so vague it is unbelievable!! We get:
“Hello, I want to return this cartridge. please come pick it up. John” NO account number, NO company name, NO invoice/order number, NO phone number, NO address and NO item number. How can we come pick up this cartridge when we have no idea who you are??? (This is just an example, if you would like some real customer emails just let me know…I can copying them down and post 'em for ya)
Once, while on Mackinac Island in Michigan, I heard the lady next to me ask the woman at the information desk if the island was surrounded on all sides by water. The info lady answered, “by definition, yes”.
Luckily, I don’t work for anyone. But I do get some whacks sometimes. The folks who think I should write something up for them for a pittance because, “if we just sat down we could write it ourselves”. GRAND! I tell them, do so. Be my guest! Don’t come to me expecting me to write something for you that you could jolly well write yourselves!
Same for the stained glass windows. “We could do this ourselves but we’re so pressed for time” hey, GRAND! Don’t let me prevent you from doing so!
Mostly, they don’t want to pay me for doing what they “think” they can do their selves. For the most part, they probably could. And that’s fine. Just don’t come to me expecting me to go, “Oh, yeah, I know you could do this if you only had the time, skills, knowledge that I do so let me do it for you for nothing”.
Get bent.
You come to me because you want to tap into my knowledge, my skills. Don’t come to me thinking you can discount me because you “think” you can do it yourself. If you can, than do so. Why call me?
I have no problem telling a certain part of my clientele to piss off. I know, you can’t do that when you work for someone else.
Sorry to drag up a dead thread, but I thought you guys might appreciate this link: http://www.customerssuck.com
Tiggeril has been there, she’ll probably agree it’s a good place to vent…
I don’t even fucking bother sending people to collection now, I just write it off. My biggest nightmare is that one day the guy I send off to collection loses his job or wife or whatever and decides to end his life and decides to end mine too. Just isn’t fucking worth it. I don’t fucking see no walk ins either. I’d like to be compassionate (and I used to be) but if you are people just fucking walk all over you.
Last summer I worked in a law firm. I do not mean to say every law firm or lawyer is like this, jus that this one guy pissed me off to no end.
I got a call once from one of his clients. I was going to patch it over when I saw him walking past. So I told him who it was and he told me to tell the client he was in a meeting.
Not a minute later I get another call from a different client and without hesitation tell her the lawyer is in a meeting.
For some reason the meeting was only supposed to apply to the previous client, because the lawyer got pissed at me for using what I thought was relevant information. GRRRRRR!!
I’ve worked with convicts for 20+ years. So, already, we’re dealing with a group of folks that have trouble thinking A-B. So, I could waste LOTS of bandwidth on this one, but here’s my personal favorite:
Years ago, I was working at a women’s correctional center. we’d get phone calls for the women, and would simply take the message. (yea, long time ago, bet they don’t do that anymore, nor would they give out times due back but, it was a LOOOOONG time ago). Series went like this: Caller- Is Gwen There? me “I’ll take a message”, caller -when’s she due back? “within the next two hours” caller “I’ll call back”.
Gwen would return and leave again, sooner than expected, caller would call back, “Is Gwen there?” me “no, can I take a message” etc etc. etc. same thing over and over - to say that this guy called back 14 times within one 8 hour shift was NOT an exaggeration, always saying he’d call back and not leave a message. Finally, he got frustrated “You keep telling me she’s due back and I call back and she’s not there again!” “Well, I can’t MAKE her stay for your call, if you want to leave a message…” no, I’ll call back me, “Ok”.
But then he calls RIGHT back and says “I’ve decided to leave a message” Me(thinking, well, I’ll sleep tonight) Ok, and the message is?" Him “tell her to stop calling me! I don’t want her calling me anymore and she has to stop calling me”. Me “Ok, whom should I tell her NOT to call???” sheesh.
The “in a meeting” thing is widely practiced in the business world, and means someone is actually in a meeting probably about 75% of the time. I have no qualms about using it when I’ve got something more pressing to deal with than taking a particular individual’s call - it’s a bit more considerate of the caller’s feelings than saying “he doesn’t want to talk to you at the moment.” And I’ll return the call as soon as the situation allows.
If you get “in a meeting” 2 or 3 times over a week, and no return calls, it usually means that person is not going to take your call anytime soon. It’s a two-way street.
Beatle, I can totally see that. I’ve told people I was busy or doing other things when I didn’t want to talk to them. Thing is that this guy was going to his office alone: nobody else in there. I suppose it’s possible he was doing a phone meeting but the light indicating his phone was busy never went on, meaning he wasn’t on the phone. So he basically lied to me so I would lie to a client, then was surprised when I took his lie as the truth.