customers, as a general rule

[Archon]

unless they are low.

but if they still fail to meet them, then it is especially so when they are low. Dealing with the intelligence of the average high school student, you learn that pretty quickly.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

being as cynical as I am about most things means that that rarely happens... after all I work for the government.

[fuzzyoctopus]

Took a supervisor call from the worst customer ever today.  After I hung up I cried for an hour and I'm still shaking thinking about it.  I can't post it here in too much detail because of the language (all of it hers), but AFTER I broke policy to refund her, gave her free coupons and apologized, she told me she was going to have both me and my agent fired for christmas and she hoped my agent's children had enough to eat because she was never going to work again.


Even the massive amounts of profanity I used before I broke down in tears does not describe how mean and horrible this woman was.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Wow, are you ok now? That occasionally happens at my job, and when I get a threatening call or one laced with profanity on the other side it is often enough to explain to the person that yelling profanity it someone constitutes assault and unlikely to result in anyone getting fired. Of course in my job assault has a bigger implication. When I put on my Coast Guard hat Im a federal officer. Hence a federal charge of assault.

Still it takes a lot out of you, like I said I deal with it often enough (usually when someone outside of industry calls their upset already because their boat sank and an Marine Safety Office officer is there, or they've found out that a company has been dumping chemical waste on their property) The really mad ones get me more angry than anything else. I mean angry to the point of shaking with rage.

Generally though the threat of assault charges backed up with the assurance that the call is indeed recorded so that supervisors can hear the amount of abuse we are taking.

More than likely the person was trying to goad you into saying something you shouldn't.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Wow, that sounds horrible! Is it like that only rarely?

[stacer]

Fuzzy, I wouldn't work in your job for the world. I think you've got a lot of strength to be able to stick it out for so long. It's the bad ones like that that probably sour it for the rest of the time.

[42]

When I worked customer service for Sears, I remember a few customer like that. Just remember that you have the right to hang up, no matter what company policy is. It is your legal right and no company policy can supersede that.

Also, it is not the right of a customer to decide who is employed at a company, that right resides exclusively in the hands of the company owners.

And if someone swears at you, you do have the right to have them arrested for harrassment or indecent behavior. It's a misdemenor usually, though people who usually lose there temper like that often get fined with abuse and are required to undergo treatment.

[42]

It makes me sick to think that there are people like that in the world.

[Skar]

Wow, fuzzy.  I'm sorry that happened to you.

Sounds like someone else who could use a punch in the mouth.  Lots of those these days.

[fuzzyoctopus]

Wow, that sounds horrible! Is it like that only rarely?

Fortunately it is.  Christmas is making it a lot worse I think.  I do not ever want anyone in my family to think that any material aspect of Christmas (gifts, parties whatever) is ANY sort of any excuse to behave like that.

And you're probably right, Jeffe- she probably WAS trying to get me to say something I shouldn't have.  Sometimes that's my one victory over these people. I can behave like a responsible adult and they behave like screaming spoiled children.

And thanks, to all of you.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

my sympathies, Fuzzy. You know I have plenty of stories like that. But 42 is right. You DON'T have to take that. As soon as someone is agressive I wait for the first curse word. As soon as they say it I interrupt to explain to them that I'm not required to listen to the abuse and that I will hang up, forcing them to start all over if they continue it. You boss would be in for a big lawsuit if he tried to fire you over that, and there are organizations that will help you with the lawyer in order to do it.

One trick that was commonly used at Microsoft, and it's really really funny that this works, is to start counting. It's like an instinctual response. They think mother is talking to them or something. Most often, by the time you get to three they stop. Amazing.

ANyway, it pisses me off enough to get up from my desk and have to walk around the building when crap like that happens. So yeah, I totally understand and empathize.

[fuzzyoctopus]

You boss would be in for a big lawsuit if he tried to fire you over that, and there are organizations that will help you with the lawyer in order to do it.

*snort*
My direct boss totally has my back.  The bosses above him and the Corporate people on the other hand. . . .  All it takes is one whiny letter to the CEO and I get written up.

I had to write up my mentor Thursday (the supervisor just below me) because some piece of crap wrote a big sob letter about how he had been mistreated and Josh ended the call by hanging up on him.

I listened to the call.  They don't have time to. He hung UP on him because the jerk had ceased to complain about our company and had spent the last 10 minutes insulting Josh personally.  Josh warned him 3 times before hanging up.  But that's not important, because I was told two bosses up that I had to write him up.

Pisses me off.

[House of Mustard]

For four years I worked for a health care company, as a supervisor at a physician's answering service.  We'd get people calling at three in the morning, demanding pain medication.  If they were on our substance abuse list, we could do nothing for them, but we weren't ever allowed to hang up, ever.  There were people who would argue for 45 minutes or an hour, and we'd just have to keep on saying no.

At my new job, I don't answer phones, and it makes me happy.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

 The bosses above him and the Corporate people on the other hand. . . .  All it takes is one whiny letter to the CEO and I get written up.

That kind of stuff really burns me up... I see it as a backdoor way to keep employees down more than anything... Theres a perception in the buisness community that the customer is always right, but anyone who has ever worked with customers knows that they are frequently wrong, rude anad stupid. Nobody should be forced to take the abuse that these horrible people dish out, so they can get some free service, or a coupon or something else. The minute the person starts cursing, or makes a threat you should be able to hang up on them with impunity but some egghead at corporate feels like its your fault. What the companies and employees ought to do have the person who was rude or offensive charged with the crime they committed (either assault or lewdness depending on the jurisdiction). I always saw the tape as a defense against people like that. And it should be...

Anyhow sorry... It just makes me angry...

[fuzzyoctopus]

http://www.livejournal.com/community/customers_suck/8847625.html

This is why I wont' be able to stay in customer service for the rest of my life.