Customer Experience and Customer Expieriences?

[Black Eye Guy]

Thought I'd see other peoples thoughts are on this, I imagine there'll be people on both sides.

I work part time in a call center for mobile phones and landlines, so deal with customers nonstop, and the one thing I've learned is that whoever came up with the saying 'The customer is always right' was a fracking moron, and clearly never worked in customer care in anyway.

Im my expierience the customer is wrong almost all the time. Some times you get the customer who is right and goes about it the right. It's come across to me that people who think they are right get nervous before they actually complain so prepare what their going to say and becasue they have prepared it, when you correct them they actually can't see it becasue they have convinced themselves they are right.

I was at a take away tonight and this guy came in yelling a screaming at this two girls at the counter becasue his food was undercooked. He was in the right to complain, but there was no manager there to actually give him a refund, and he was going crazy. He had such a valid point but totally ruined it the way he handled it.

Eventually they gave him the refund and said they'd depose of the food, but he said he was taking it, as he wanted to complain. The girls were like we'll we've given you a refund and apologized, he started threatening them and they advised him we have a tape of this, with you yelling at us and everything.

Now I'd been sitting there for like 10 mins, totally switched from his side to the girls because the dude was a douche. And working in customer service and this just brought back up all the stupid customers I've dealt with, and I am so bad at miding my own business, so I chimed in. And was like 'They also have a witness'

He thought I was siding with him and was like thank you, and I was turned to the girls and said 'Im on their side, your being a jerk'. He took out the food and asked if I would eat it, now the food looked fine to me, so I said yes. This pissed him off loads and we started yelling at each other, while the girls looked like they were caught in headlights before chiming back in. He kept calling me and idiot and swearing, I swore back and then my food got done, and I said bye and left (the staff were super friendly to me after lol)

Anyone else found they have the same or been on the other side?

 

[Blondie Bear]

I agree with the comment about the frakking idiot. For one thing, customers don't always know the rules/policies/laws, and they try to get customer service people to do stuff they're not allowed to do. I saw it all the time when I worked the returns desk at Wal-Mart. You wouldn't BELIEVE the stuff people tried to pull on me. I think my very favorite was the couple who brought in a 6-year-old microwave and wanted to return it because it stopped working. When we wouldn't do it (they didn't have a receipt AND it was WAY out of warranty), they went "fine, well, you might as well throw it away, then" and LEFT IT WITH ME.

I have stories that would blister your ears.

 

[xaphania]

The customer is almost never right, lol.

I work in a shop and I'm on the shop floor most of the time and some of the customers - ugh.

The only thing coming to mind right now is when I was on the tills, and we had been told by the manager to offer every customer the special offer. One woman's response was along the lines of: "Why the f*** would I want that? You stupid f***ing shop people, always offering me stuff I don't need." I couldn't believe that, there was no need for it at all!

A lot of the time the customer does have a valid reason for their complaint or whatever, but the way they go about trying to sort it leaves a lot to be desired. I mean, take my example above, wouldn't a simple 'no, thank you', have sufficed?

Ugh. Now I don't want to go in to work tomorrow even more. XD

 

[Blondie Bear]

Of course, on the other side of that, I had a really bad experience with Dell and Best Buy. My computer had an issue about six months after I bought it. It's supposed to be in warranty for a year. I contacted the Dell people about fixing it, and they said they don't do that; Geek Squad fixes their computers. Fine. I took it back to the store where I bought it. They wouldn't honor the warranty because I couldn't find my receipt and they couldn't find any evidence of my purchase in their system. I could just go on the Dell website and physically see the amount of time left on my warranty because I'd registered the machine, but God knows Geek Squad couldn't do the same thing. *headdesk*

 

[GrrArghx]

Oh man, people piss me off! lol I worked as a Housekeeper at a hotel a few months ago. And, I was pulling sheets.
This woman is all the way at the other end of the hallway, screaming at me "Where is the maintence man?! He told me he'd be here! I'm talking to you!!!!"
I mean, c'mon! I am not screaming down the hallway to answer your question, especially because you're being rude.
It was so annoying.

Another time, I had to get everyone's dirty towels. I knocked on this guy's door, and he opened it and said "I need clean towels!"
I tried to tell him I needed his dirty ones and he slammed the door in my face.

I seriously hated working there. lol

 

[Kean]

Seven years of working in a school uniform shop, yeah I got MAD stories about insane/stupid/evil customers.

Also there was my summer working in Disney and this HUGE Marine who was literally the size of Texas screamed at me because I didn't know what a latrine was! It's a funny story now, everyone at home loved it when I told them lol

I was working custodial in the Magic Kingdom in Orlando and I was working away minding my own business when a man called me over and asked me where the latrine was. Of course me being Irish and thus having no notion of military terminology whatsoever just stared at him blankly. He took that as me being deaf and repeated the same question, just louder. By now people were looking and I still had no idea what he was talking about. So I said, "I'm sorry Sir, I'm not sure what you mean". His reply: "THE LATRINE!!". Blank!Face Kean strikes again and he looks at me as if I was the dimmest thing he ever had the misfortune to encounter and with total exasperation he threw his hands out and said "The BATHROOM!". Realisation dawns on me and I get kinda excited that I finally understand until I feel his eyes burning throught me. I blush and couldn't have been more lame if I tried when I told him "...Um...it's to your left, just behind Ariel's Grotto."

FAIL!

Oh, and to make this story extra special...this was the "costume" I was wearing throughout the entire conversation.

I view it as my version of Buffy's Doublemeat Palace "ensemble".

 

[Joan the Vampire Slayer]

Oh, I feel your pain, BEG. I work for a big chain coffee shop, and you wouldn't believe how picky people are about their coffee around here. And the company I work for has very strict policies that bother me. Prior to this, I'd only worked in little local coffee shops, where I had more freedom.

Our policy is that if a customer complains about their drink, we're just supposed to apologize, take the "bad" drink, and then offer them a new one. We're supposed to give a refund only as a last resort.

What I hate is when customers are passive-aggressive.
*tries to think of an example*

Like when someone orders something that they've never tried before, and then mutter something under their breath about how it's too "weak" for whatever and complain that they wanted a double-shot when it clearly states on our menu that all of our short drinks come with a single unless a double is requested.

We have a lot of regular customers too who for some reason expect me to remember their drinks, which are all really frilly and complicated. This one woman comes in every day and orders a Vienti triple shot non-fat 1 pump hazelnut and vanilla latte with one splenda with split shot and double-cupped with whip. I kid you not. I'm like, how the HELL am I supposed to remember that along with everyone elses' "usual" drinks?

I'm hoping to find a job for the summer in education with kids or possibly in retail. I am SO over being a Barista.

What happened to the days when people just ordered a reg coffee?

I've never worked in sales, but I can imagine that must be difficult to be on the phones all day. If you don't mind me asking, what carrier do you work for? I have been with TMobile for 6 years, and I must say their customer service is always excellent.

 

[Kean]

What I hate is when customers are passive-aggressive.
*tries to think of an example*

Oh, I HATE that! We get it all the time, especially during the summer months.

Actually I had a customer like that on Saturday. When schoolwear isn't the priority we turn our shop over to our "regular" stock which is Ladies/Men's/Babies wear. So this woman comes in and asks if we have uniforms anymore. I ask her what she's looking for and she immediately gets thicki with me, she tuts (which is a pet peeve of mine, I hate it!) and says "Jumpers!" like that was the most obvious thing in the world! and I got thick right back and say "Yeah, well you didn't specify and do we skirts, trousers, shirts etc." and then I ask her what school she wanted it for (which she really didn't like but we cater to almost one hundred schools!), she tuts again and then tells me the school and then I ask what size she wanted. She had her daughter with her and I could easily tell what size she needed but I just wanted to piss her off, which it did. 😀 Anyway I had to go upstairs for the jumper and when I came back down the bitca had left!

 

[xaphania]

Anyway I had to go upstairs for the jumper and when I came back down the bitca had left!

Oh that gets on my nerves, when the customers disappear on you. I have to go out back sometimes to fetch a pair of shoes, and as it's quite a big shop, if the customer has wandered off - it makes it really difficult to find them! Then they get angry with you for 'taking so long'. Grr!

 

[Kean]

Oh that gets on my nerves, when the customers disappear on you. I have to go out back sometimes to fetch a pair of shoes, and as it's quite a big shop, if the customer has wandered off - it makes it really difficult to find them! Then they get angry with you for 'taking so long'. Grr!

I know! I get that all the time! But our shop is ALL stairs! Just for that jumper I had to go up 6 flights and then look for it. In all we have eight flights. It takes time people!

Ya know what is really annoying when you go to fetch something for a customer and they ask "You don't have two do you?". Why didn't they ask that when I was going the first time!

 

[xaphania]

This topic is quite cathartic, lol.

Another thing that gets on my nerves - when the parents let their kids run riot all over the shop. I know it's probably stressful if you're out shopping with small children, but when the kid picks up one shoe, throws it at the shoe display, knocking half the shoes off the wall - and the parent just laughs? :mad30:

 

[Kean]

This topic is quite cathartic, lol.

Another thing that gets on my nerves - when the parents let their kids run riot all over the shop. I know it's probably stressful if you're out shopping with small children, but when the kid picks up one shoe, throws it at the shoe display, knocking half the shoes off the wall - and the parent just laughs? :mad30:

Or when they climb the ladder? GAH! Also, our changing rooms have swinging doors and we are gauranteed to have a child who either catches their fingers in the door or get slapped in the face when it swings back at them.

And then the parents glare at you like the child getting hurt was a carefully laid out plan you cooked up just for them!

 

[Allie]

OMG! I work in a pharmacy, in the bad part of town. I handle people's drugs. Try telling someone that they can't get their Lortabs yet, scary!!!

 

[Black Eye Guy]

Todays was the only day I've ever had a yelling match with someone in person (and I had no connection the to business!)

But I'm lucky, if someone gets really annoying with me I can hang up on them.

The best is when they hang up on you, and you can call them back and be all nice like, "oh you got cut off, sorry about that" they usually curse and hang up again, but it's hilarious!

 

[Fake Shemp]

a drunk customer sang to me last night,..... and i chat to old people a lot. good times.

 

[Sweetescape]

I work in a cafe and I think it's safe to say I pretty much hate customers. Last week I got groped/my ass got slapped by an OLD WOMAN.

Here's how it went

/me goes to clean table
Old woman: "oh don't take my scone or I'll slap your bum"
Me: "don't wory I wont" I had SEEN that she still had food left, I was just clearing the dirty stuff away so it'd be better for her!
/old woman SLAPS then slightly grabs my ass!

*dies*

Then we get a lot of old people in, one woman who comes in every day is slowly losing it. Kind of sad to watch,however she comes over to me and says that there isn't any loo roll in the toilets upstairs. So I'm all "okay thank you for tell us,I'll put some in". I go upstairs and there CLEARLY a mountain of the stuff :|.
Another old woman came down and said "there's a load of blood in your toilet" So obviously we rush to check, it's pen..just plain old ink. ffs!
We also have a rather tight alcoholic who leaves big bottles of vodka in the women's loos and doesn't come and share it with the staff!. Another person likes to graffiti BNP all over the mens bathrooms and of course we had the man who got caught looking over the top of the women's toliets AT WOMEN peeing!.

Plus you get the usual people asking for things that aren't on the menu! if we sold it it'd be on the menu!

yes....I HATE customers!

 

[ILLYRIAN]

I do have a problem with a certain telemarketting company at the moment, I cannot disclose who they are, or which 'laws' they broke - as they are being taken to court at the present.
Admittedly most companies do adhere to the communications 'laws', unfortunately some do not.
When complaining about an item that has been bought by the customer, generally speaking, the customer is unaware of the 'law' and stuffs it up, verbally abusing the assistant usually doesn't help. But that's the thing with fool proof measures; as Fred said in AI, 'some fool is bound to come along and ruin it'. [S5, just before the office party, about the trigger mechanism on the gadget given to Angel to use.]
As I have found, it is not only the customer who is ignorant of the complexities of the law, often the bosses of a business are at fault. In Australia there is goverment legislation of a warranty for items bought that covers the item, so that it should last a decent length of time with consideration as to the cost of the item. And yet the bosses offer an extended warranty for an item.
It makes me wonder who is at fault, the boss for being ignorant of the 'laws'. Or if the boss knows of that 'law' but, in effect, causes the problems with the sales assistant.

 

[BuffyElevated]

I worked in customer service for AT&T for 3 years... Some days it would be a wonderful experience, but most days it was awful. People would call in screaming obscenities at you, calling you every name in the book because they went over their minutes or they wanted a credit on their account for something they felt they were entitled to, or they wanted a free phone. And we had to sit there and take it like little bitcas, and it SUCKED. I got into fights a couple times with customers who got a little too personal, but for the most part I was a good professional. 😀

 

[Hero]

I work at a grocery store, so you can imagine what I hear and deal with. I actually have a write up for losing it on a customer. For me, the way I'm approached by a customer will directly indicate how I'm going to answer them back. If someone's mad, I'm not guna be too friendly either. People who just walk up and say "umbrellas?" will get "15" as their response. I won't be friendly with a customer unless they are friendly to me in greeting. If they're quite, I'll be quite as well. When I worked in a Starbucks it was like torture trying to get some of these people to answer. They'd walk up and just be like "can i get a late?" and I'd have to go through "what size?" 'hot or cold?" "what kind of milk?" It was rediculous. Only reason I stayed there was because the tips were good. At my current job at the grocery store...yeah tonight I think I said "next person who pisses me off is getting spit on." It's just not the job for me, so glad I'm only staying there til I'm done with college. One semester left!!! The customer is always right thing is complete BS. 75% of the time they're wrong, and I'll gladly explain to them where there mistake was without making them feel stupid. It's the ones who get angry at ME when THEY are wrong. I could keep going for like the next 30 minutes so I'm just guna stop now lol Thank god I'm off tomorrow!

 

[Frketson]

I work at a technical call centre and do email enquiries as well, and the customer is always wrong.

Always.