31 replies to this topic

[akira4444]

How on earth can you give good customer service, when the customer themselves treats you like a piece of shit? I work at a servo... and I cop abuse all the time, quite frankly it's hard to keep a straight face when someone calls you a lying bitch when they think they know your job better than you do o.O

Anyone else have this problem? Hopefully it's the right place to post this here...

[jcrdude]

How on earth can you give good customer service, when the customer themselves treats you like a piece of shit? I work at a servo... and I cop abuse all the time, quite frankly it's hard to keep a straight face when someone calls you a lying bitch when they think they know your job better than you do o.O

Anyone else have this problem? Hopefully it's the right place to post this here...

I worked Comcast (internet/phone tech support)... and it's tough to deal with people who think you're an idiot...

I just worked hard to make 75% of the customers respect me by getting the job done every time... and did the job right for the other 25% but to hell with what they thought of me.

[akira4444]

Thanks, the regulars we get are really lovely people and they play with us and we give it right back, but random people are just... yargh. I'm tempted to have BGC just to smash their heads in sometimes at least if they're not happy I can give em a customer care line... I feel even more sorry for the people at that end of the phone.

I also hate it when customers try to be smart, you know... you ask them a simple question: "What cookies would you like?" They get the packet and THROW it at you, then when they finally get their coffee they go "Well done", as if to say fark you. I shoulda told the cafe lady to spill it on his crotch by accident *lol*

Then again you're right... it's best to focus on the people that really appreciated your help instead of the dipshits that couldn't give a rats behind about any other living being but themselves

[MasterJunpei]

I think this is rather humorous. I get treated like crap by the inmates at the prison. I'm a Correctional Officer, or guard as you might call it. At one point in time Texas called the inmates clients. Does that count as me being in CS?

[whatwhat]

I think this is rather humorous. I get treated like crap by the inmates at the prison. I'm a Correctional Officer, or guard as you might call it. At one point in time Texas called the inmates clients. Does that count as me being in CS?

Oh wow. I used to want to be a correctional officer as a job while attending college.

How did you get into this line of work?

[permeability]

This is the reason why I'll never work in CS. I have a fairly bad temper and would probably lash out at the customer, then get fired. Ahaha xD

[akira4444]

Wow... I guess however you interact with other people in your job counts as CS... would love to hear others opinons on this Kinda glad I started this topic... thanks for your input all Good luck in your lines of work <3

[gaelle]

I worked Comcast (internet/phone tech support)... and it's tough to deal with people who think you're an idiot...

It's my father's job and I know how it is hard ! People always think you phone them to annoy them and that you are not polite etc =(

[Sasha]

It's tough, but indifference is the easiest way out...
Be nice to nice customers, feign nice towards the rest.

[nerdgirl]

My philosophy on customer service has always been that the customers don't matter enough to get all worked up about. Not that I'll do a bad job; I don't, because I take pride in my work and I am NOT incompetent. It's just that it's not worth it getting annoyed at somebody you're only going to see for two minutes.

It can get kind of amusing, though. Some guy tried a shortchange scam on me a while ago, and I made him stand there for thirty minutes while I counted out all the cash in my till, and had my manager pull up the program to count the cash in the safe, and matched them, and deliberately lost count a few times... boy did we have fun watching that guy squirm.

[Hydrogen]

There is a site about stupid customers and customer service representatives . It's quite good.

[Sasha]

Haha, that site just cracked me up...
The "Yukon See It On A Map" entry is hilarious.

[yanks]

I used to work at Costco customer service, and it seemed as though the higher-ups didn't give a shit about taking returns, and I was fired because I followed their lead and gave too many refunds... lol

[iargue]

Thankfully in my line of business people dont know anything about computers, so I just smile and say, I'll make it work again. And they are happy. Plus my boss wants me to measure my time and if I cant get anything out of them, then to drop the conversation and move on. So I dont have to deal with customers treating my like shit. Though I have to deal with shitty customer service every 10 mins ( HP FTL).

The worst I have had is a customer that got pissed off because we recovered the data on his bad hardrive, reinstalled windows, updated it, and transferred the data over for 150 dollars (Thats a shitload of saves). He started cussing at me, and threatening to call mall security. So I just handed him his check back and said that we will just keep the computer. And then I also picked up the phone to call security on him for being a disturbance.

[Tetiel]

This comparison may not even make sense, but just go with it. I worked in a cat shelter for several months. You would not believe the amount of asshole cats I used to deal with - cats that I KNEW would never get adopted. I give them food, water, I clean their litter box and they give me hell for putting them back in their cage. I pet them, I scratch the back of their ears and at the end of the day they scratch me up and/or bite me. But you know what, it's not really their fault. These cats have shitty lives and they're taking it out on me because I'm the only one they can take it out on. They barely have enough time outside their cages to destroy anything so they decide to destroy me. Humans aren't much different than these cats. They're stuck in jail cell like cages called cubicles all day. They're constantly under stress and while that gives them no real excuse to be assholes I understand it and tolerate it. At least your customers aren't causing you physical harm and just yelling at you. I had to go to the doctor and shell out $200 because a cat bit me so badly that I got cat scratch fever and the cat had to be isolated for 10 days to check for rabies. Things could be worse.

[Georgina]

Aw i know how you feel.

I was a manager for an insurance company here but I took complaints off my team and started on the phones initialy so i have been though them all lol.

I didnt mind the abuse to be honest, I found that keeping calm and being overly nice usualy calmed them down but there was allways one or two that got personal and started talking about you directly, and its SO difficult not to chat back at them with things like "how do you know" and "how would you feel being called that" etc. But I found just dissassociating yourself slightly helps and leave them rant on for a little.

One advantage we did have though is if the customer got really abusive or swore then we were able to give the customers a warning and if they continued we would terminate the call.

The main thing that got on the nerves of my team though was a customer going absolutley crazy at them and demanding a manager and as soon as they spoke to me they were really nice, and I only told them the same things my team members did.

Hope my tips maybe can help you a little Good luck!

[jcrdude]

The main thing that got on the nerves of my team though was a customer going absolutley crazy at them and demanding a manager and as soon as they spoke to me they were really nice, and I only told them the same things my team members did.

I did this before. I was the same level as someone else on the floor, but they would "escalate" problems to me. Sometimes people just feel better when they're talking to a "manager." ><

[MaidenOfMercy]

Some customers may suck and I get where you are coming from because I've had my share of annoying pricks, but everyone has a bad day sometimes. Whenever something like that happens I try to calm myself down by remembering that I've had some pretty bad times in life and may not have always handled simple things the best either when that stuff was going on.

[ShinaDutchAD]

This isn't customer service....per say

I work at a McDonalds, and customers try to lie ALL THE TIME to get free food.

Oh dear GOD it just makes me angry just thinking about it *shivers*

They expect us to give them good service when they treat us like poop.

Not cool beans man.....not cool beans...

[BillyMays]

I worked Comcast (internet/phone tech support)... and it's tough to deal with people who think you're an idiot...

I just worked hard to make 75% of the customers respect me by getting the job done every time... and did the job right for the other 25% but to hell with what they thought of me.

[jcrdude]

Comcast gives me 6mbps downspeeds. I can't really complain TOO much about them even though they fired me

[ShinaDutchAD]

I've always had really nice customer service with Comcast, so I can't complain.

Worst I've ever had was AOL.

They made me want to punch someone D:

[ShadowLink64]

There is a site about stupid customers and customer service representatives . It's quite good.

Thank you for reducing my faith in humanity with that link.

[akira4444]

LOL. That site is pure gold, I always get customers like that in there. Someone was having a whinge the other day at why our bottles of coke cost more than the supermarkets. I didn't know the answer, because I react badly to people who are abusive to me, and the lady I was working with gave the answer that was so obvious: "because supermarkets buy them in massive bulk prices, they sell more, therefore, that is why they are cheaper". This lady was really getting quite abusive with me, and when she got that answer, the customer answered behind her: "Gee, you really didn't need that just before you went home did you?"

I said to her: "I get it all the time".

Not to mention there IS a supermarket about a five minute drive up the road.

Then a guy was having problems swiping his card. I was giving him tips on how to swipe it since I've seen many different methods, and he ended up THROWING the card at me and said: "Fine. You do it". I was only trying to be helpful because obviously it happens to him in other stores, and the customer behind him said "You should've thrown it right back".

It's funny how customers behind the line react to the idiot ones. It makes me feel better that there are some sane people in this world.

[akira4444]

Yup, we do all of that. We also clean the stripe with an alcohol swap that's used to clean and sanitise pie tag timers. Sometimes it works, but if it's plain credit we just input the numbers manually through the system.

Hopefully going to be getting that new system where the customer who has a card with a chip just puts it in the bottom. We also have a sign clearly marked on the machine that says "swipe stripe THIS way", with arrows pointing in a big, highlighted, tag. Still, they can't see it. But at least they're not the rude ones. They chuckle about it and whinge about why card machines can't be the same way... ahh well, no one is perfect, but... you just gotta appreciate the regulars who appreciate the job you do