Yeah, I have a recommendation: drown your children and shoot yourself. Thanks!

[CanvasShoes]

@wring

if customers were doing this specifically to annoy the OP or other customer service reps, I’d agree. otherwise it’s rather like janitors complaining about cleaning up after other folks.

if customers knew exactly what they wanted, the OP and others of their ilk would be cashiers and nothing else.
(coding)

Um…huh?

So, in your view, unless a customer is being stupid on purpose a CS has no right to complain about their stupidity?

Your analogy about janitors is not very apt. It would be quite valid for janitors to complain about people spilling soda, leaving papers all over the floor (instead of a trash can where it belongs) and other unreasonable “beyond the cleanup person’s real duties” behaviour. Just because it’s their job to sweep, mop and clean up doesn’t mean that they should be subject to any whim of “trashing” behaviour on the parts of people they clean up after.

For instance, in my building there are after hours janitors. Some of the folks on my floor don’t have an office kitchen, so they clean their dishes and coffee stuff in the bathroom. I water my plants in there. Both the lawyers, and venture company folks who share our floor and our office all clean up after themselves, we rinse the sink and if we spill something obnoxious on the floor we either call the day staff (if it’s too much for paper towels), or we clean it up. We could very well leave it, but that would be stupid and inconsiderate to not only others on our floor, but to the nighttime janitorial staff.

That is not to say that the janitors shouldn’t do their jobs, but they are well within their rights to complain, and it is a valid complaint, if the daytime office dwellers are being pigs above and beyond normal wear and tear type stuff.

And it is quite valid for the OP to complain about idiots who, despite his best efforts, refused to be assisted in a reasonable way. You act as if any customer, no matter how clueless (as long as they’re not doing it “on purpose”)is entitled to anything and everything they want from a CS including mind-reading, merely because they are the customer, and the CS is a CS.

[wring]

customer service reps are expected to deal with customers. Apparently, this is a surprise to both you & the OP. Customers are quite often not fully informed about products. That is why they need assistance, and why companies hires folks to be “customer service reps” Now if the customer asks for assistance about products not provided at that place of business you & the OP ** might have a point.

but, the OP works at a store providing rentals of DVD’s and VHS’s of TV’s and movies. If they don’t want to help people with those purchases/rentals,they ** should** seek other employment.
If customers were seeking assistance with produce puchaces, the OP and you, would have a point.

If you don’t want to get the sort of questions the OP posted, working at a video rental place is a very stupid career choice.

[valleyofthedolls]

@wring

It’s a given that custmers will be unable to easily articulate their desires reasonably. And they often behave in clueless, stupid and obtuse ways. If this surprises or offends you, you should, in fact, seek out other career options. Are you truely surprised by this, or are you just pissed off at me, personally?

I regularly see people bitch and moan about their jobs on this board but the “get another job” crowd only seems to come out with retail workers. Why is that?

The other day, I was putting some books away in the bookstore I work for. As I walked into an aisle, I noticed a customer looking at a row of Vince Flynn books. He saw me, walked over and demanded to know where the William Faulkner titles were.

I showed him where they were located, three shelves before Vince Flynn because, oddly enough, when you use the alphabet Fau comes before Fly. Before beginning to browse the titles, he told me “I should really be more organized about things.”

I get this kind of treatment all the time. It’s annoying to have people angry at you and it’s even more annoying when people are angry at you and it’s not your fault.

I’m sure this happens in every facet of the work environment but when a lawyer or doctor bitches about a particularly difficult client, do you tell them to get another job?

[wring]

@valleyofthedolls

I regularly see people bitch and moan about their jobs on this board but the “get another job” crowd only seems to come out with retail workers. Why is that?
(snip)
I’m sure this happens in every facet of the work environment but when a lawyer or doctor bitches about a particularly difficult client, do you tell them to get another job?

If dealing w/members of the general public is a major function of your job and you find that so onerous that you must bitch about it at length (as in the OP who lists a number of encounters), then, yes, I’d suggest you get a different job.

the essentials are “major function of your job” and “you find it onerous”.

See?

[WhyNot]

@wring

If dealing w/members of the general public is a major function of your job and you find that so onerous that you must bitch about it at length (as in the OP who lists a number of encounters), then, yes, I’d suggest you get a different job.

the essentials are “major function of your job” and “you find it onerous”.

See?

Bitching about your job on an (semi)anonymous message board is no indication of all of whether someone is well-suited for that job. Bitching lets off steam, builds camaraderie, and lets those who actually like their jobs let go of all this shit in a non-imploding manner.

I loved retail, really. I enjoyed 98% of my customers and 99% of my bosses, employees and coworkers. I really enjoyed and excelled at customer service 99.9% of the time, and I even liked helping clueless idiots find the perfect movie for a 6 year old who chronically wets the bed.

But that doesn’t mean I didn’t think they were clueless idiots, or share the story with other likeminded people in the field who could get a good laugh/groan out of it.

Seriously, if you don’t think your doctor ever told his family about Some Guy who came in with a rectally inserted rodent, or your college professor never shared your atrocious writing attempts with his snickering wife, you are deluding yourself. We snicker and bitch in private so that we can continue doing a good job in public.

[Cartooniverse]

What she said. I took patient privacy quite seriously when I worked as an E.M.T. but gosh that didn’t stop me from relating the most amazing cases and calls to my friends and family. Two rules:

1. Never in the area where someone might discern the patients name.

2. Never HINT at the patients name.

[wring]

@WhyNot

Seriously, if you don’t think your doctor ever told his family about Some Guy who came in with a rectally inserted rodent, or your college professor never shared your atrocious writing attempts with his snickering wife, you are deluding yourself. We snicker and bitch in private so that we can continue doing a good job in public.

and I don’t think so. my co-workers and I often joke about such stuff. Recently, the g-f/ex g-f/wife (depending on which phone call it was) called yelling at me about how my staff and I rudely were not doing something she thought we should do for her b/f slash ex slash husband, even though, as I repeatedly told both of them “That’s not what we do”, she finally screamed “You Bitch” at me at the top of her lungs several times, then hung up and called my other line to complain how rude I was. I chuckled all afternoon about it, and decided I should be refered to as “Ms. Bitch”.
the OP’s list seemed to me to be:

1. pretty fucking **mild ** irritants
2. a major portion of his job
3. looking at the title of this rant, um, a “little over the top” on the anger portion.

and (though I could be wrong), seemed also to me that the OP complains about it a lot.

[Freudian_Slit]

Personally, I’m just sick of DVD rental employees who act like they’re doing you a huge favor by deigning to recommend you a film or even talk to you. (Yes, for those of you in the Manhattan area, it’s Kim’s. And yes, I have switched over to Netflix.)

[Cervaise]

@wring

the OP’s list seemed to me to be:

1. pretty fucking **mild ** irritants
2. a major portion of his job

The mildest annoyance in the world will become a major annoyance if it happens over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

3. looking at the title of this rant, um, a “little over the top” on the anger portion.

It’s the Pit. You wanted a boring rant perhaps?

[wring]

@Cervaise

The mildest annoyance in the world will become a major annoyance if it happens over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

hence the suggestion of a different job.

We’ve come full circle, I get that some disagree w/me. ::shrug:: We’ll continue to disagree.

[VinylTurnip]

@Cervaise

The mildest annoyance in the world will become a major annoyance if it happens over and over and over…

I used to deliver pizzas. Occasionally I would deliver to office buildings and would have to ride up in the elevator with employees of the business.

I grew so fucking sick of hearing the same comments and jokes over and over again that I nearly ground my teeth into powder.

“Mmm, that smells good! Got any free slices in there for me? Heh heh!”
“Hey, let’s all gang up on the pizza boy and take his pizza! Har har!”
“That’s going to my floor… you can just leave it with me! Yuk yuk!”

I realized the people were just trying to be affable and couldn’t know that I’d heard some variation of those comments dozens upon dozens of times already— but I swear to God, after a while it was really hard to force a smile and not scream “will you just shut the FUCK UP!”

So yeah. Minor irritant x frequent occurrence = almost unbearable, sometimes.

[CanvasShoes]

@wring

customer service reps are expected to deal with customers. Apparently, this is a surprise to both you & the OP.

This is not a surprise to me at all, as I said, I have worked in customer service. I don’t think it’s a surprise to the OP either, and if you think so, then you didn’t read what he said at all.

Customers are quite often not fully informed about products. That is why they need assistance, and why companies hires folks to be “customer service reps” Now if the customer asks for assistance about products not provided at that place of business you & the OP ** might have a point.

Again, you apparently didn’t read the OP, because that is EXACTLY what the customers in question did in his case. They weren’t asking about assistance on “products” they were asking for assistance on knowing their own idiot tastes.

He spent a great deal of time attempting to help them, but they refused to be helped. No one is a mind reader. There’s a huge difference between “tell me how Y stereo system compares to X brand stereo system” and “tell me what movie I want to watch” or (as happened to me once upon a time) “tell me what I want to eat”.

but, the OP works at a store providing rentals of DVD’s and VHS’s of TV’s and movies. If they don’t want to help people with those purchases/rentals,they ** should** seek other employment. If customers were seeking assistance with produce puchaces, the OP and you, would have a point.

Now I KNOW you didn’t read the OP.

Nowhere did he say he didn’t want to help, he was helping to the best of his ability. How would you suggest he tell them what they wanted when each of his suggestions was “no, no not that one”?

These weren’t customers “seeking advice on product (I think that’s what you meant, not produce?) purchases”. This was customers wanting to be told what they wanted.

Are you really trying to contend here that "Customer, merely by virtue of being a customer, does not do things that are outside the realm of what they can rightfully expect as customers? Such as the aforementioned insistence on having their minds read for them?

If you don’t want to get the sort of questions the OP posted, working at a video rental place is a very stupid career choice.

Oh please! First off, who chooses working in a video store as a “career”? (whole 'nother thread I’m sure).

Secondly, You really don’t see the difference between “explain the virtues of this product to me” and “make up my mind for me, no wait, don’t make up my mind THAT way…no, not that way either…no, no, CAN’T you tell me what I want?!?”?

Insisting that someone to choose a video for you, (and the customers in the OP didn’t just ask for a suggestion, they kept ON insisting that the clerk tell them what they wanted to see), someone who likely has completely different tastes, cultural references, upbringing and sense of humor as you, when they don’t know anything about you (and certainly aren’t GOING to know in the few minutes you are their customer in the video store) is moronic in the extreme.

And expecting a video clerk to figure out who you are, without actually knowing you and to the point that one can choose a perfect movie for you is lobotomy stupid and completely different than helping them purchase a product by telling them about it.

[wring]

I read the OP We disagree, as noted in my last post.

[Jamaika_a_jamaikaiake]

@Johanna

Or the entire way through The World of Apu, set in Bengal where all the guys wore the traditional white kurtas in bright sunshine.

I wonder if that was that the name of the movie my Indian friend tried to show me. He says he’s going to show me the Citizen Kane of India, so to speak. As a movie buff, I’m excited. Naturally, I don’t speak no Dravidian or Indo-Aryan languages, and it’s a black-and-white movie with white (or maybe yellow) subtitles and everyone is wearing white! We turn it off after 5 minutes and hope there’s a version with some other color of subtitles.