Why do some customers think they can **** you off?

[Bengaboy]

And that is a customer's fault? You work for the same company as that other store, there must be some in-company procedure for aquiring goods from one store to the another, or for reserving items in another store for a customer. If there isn't then the customer is correct in slagging you off for failing to provide the best POSSIBLE service, even if you tried to provide service to the best of your ability.

If it is a problem with inter-store communication then perhaps calling the manager to sort it out would have been a good idea.

In this day and age it is not an unreasonable request to go into one store, see they don't have something in stock and to then get them to get it from another near-by store that does have it, that would be a service I would expect were I buying something personally.

(And btw I hate excuses from customer services that say "oh we can't do that, our system won't let us". If it's a sensible request, as this was, then it is not my fault your system is so antiquated that you can't do it.)

God, I hate people like you who think they know it all...

I know every in and out of that job, even the fact that I'm getting a promotion in the following few months (touch wood) , and it's not my fault that I can't reserve the stock unless I ring the store by any other means.

Imagine we did have a system where we could request stock without ringing up the store - it would be chaos! One store would get a big bulk of all the good selling laptops where the store that had them in the 1st place would then have very little. How would that be fair?

So please next time don't insult my inteligence, and make out as though I wasn't trying when I tried every possible way...

 

[Sanguinnus]

I'm feeling continued anger towards our customer's atm, i've wished every caller today a merry christmas and not one has wished me the same back. Admittedly i've only been here half an hour so far but still.......

RAGE

 

[sunama]

It's like when sometimes I goto a chippy and say bag of chips please. .. and they say - 'yeah couple of minutes for the chips' WTF! your're a bleedin chippy you sell chips .how can you not have any chips to sell.

Or a big mac in macdonalds. I should NEVER have to wait for a big mac..

Too right. If you want to give yourself coronary heart disease, then its your God given right to do so. In fact, there is clearly an urgent need for heart failure.

I guess the goal is get your own business, throw out anyone who acts like a retarded child having a hissy fit ...

If you have your own business, then customer service will be even more important to you. Initially, you will want to hold onto every single customer who is willing to buy your product/service. You simply cant afford to be choosy. Of course, once you become a larger organisation, with profits in 7 figures, then you can decide to throw angry customers out, however, at this point, you will be wanting to make your business grow and once again, you will want to hang onto every single customer. The idea being that the badly behaved customer today will bring in big business, later on down the line.

The guys who can get away with it, are the people who dont own the business or who have vested interest in it.

 

[Memphis]

snip

What a stuck-up ****.

I would love to provide a better constructed post in response to your replies, but I truly can't be bothered.

 

[romperstomper]

I'm feeling continued anger towards our customer's atm, i've wished every caller today a merry christmas and not one has wished me the same back. Admittedly i've only been here half an hour so far but still.......

RAGE

Thats because you're a machine not a real person !

 

[Sanguinnus]

Thats because you're a machine not a real person !

too mean!

 

[matthew_o50]

I work in a large toy retailer and this time of year is a nightmare! Last night for example it was the busiest it's every been this year and it just happened to be the night we were short staffed plus I have the flu at the minute . I even got stopped outside leaving almost half an hour after the shop and my shift finished, by a customer who wanted to know if I'd serve her! I had great delight in telling her there was no chance.

Working on checkouts and customer service I come across all sorts of customers and from being told I've scarred the lifes of their young children to being reported to trading standards for no aparent reason I've seen it all! All you can really do is apologise, bite your tongue and smile whilst cursing them under your breath.

I just don't know why customers expect to get gifts at the last minute for their children then blame it on the staff in shops because their lazyness means we're out of stock!

 

[ChrisJSY]

I have worked retail in two jobs, moved into a customer relations/support role and now work in accounts for an IT Company.

The first two weren't that bad, you'd have the odd drunk people and whiney people that you can read about in this thread but sometimes I'd have threats of physical violence.

My manager at the time was a girl so she asked me to confront someone she thought stole something, so I stopped the guy (verbally) and asked him to open his bag because we caught him on camera stealing stuff. Now, i'm sure he doesn't have to or anything (law/freedom/rights etc), short story is that he said "If there's nothing in the bag, im going to punch you in the face". I told him he was "such a big man" making threats like that and that if he even tried to lay a finger on me, he'd have the entire store on him. Even shorter story, yes, he tried to steal things, no I did not get punched.

Thankfully as I moved on higher in the job chain I get to deal with less and less grade A **** hats.

Even working in accounts I get engineering queries come through and even if I try to explain I am not a engineer/ in a technical role, I work in accounts they still expect me to help them.

Sure, I *COULD* help them but it's not my job and if you even TRY to help them briefly before logging a call they expect resolution immediatly. Contracts seem to mean nothing these days, 2hour response time to them means NOW.


The ones that lose it, i've simply either tried to keep calm or I just walk away and help someone else. I've hung up on people on the phone to and refuse to make any contact with them unless they calm down.

I think that's my main problem I have now, dealing with people like this but you can't do much but bend over, because you don't want the company to lose clients. They know you can't do anything. Just, in the past... i've gone a bit off the rails and could have lost my job with some customers.

But that was years ago, i've learned to actually not care or respond to it anymore.
Some days I like to have fun with it actually.

Can I speak to support please?
Sorry, they are all on calls right now, would you like to leave a message(set up a support ticket)?
Can't you just put me through to one of them?
Not if all the lines are busy.
Can you not help me?
I work in accounts, I am picking up this call because all the lines are busy and so I can log a support ticket for you.
Insert swear words/whining/ random noises/breathing noises/umm's/ahhh's
........
Look just put me through to a support guy!!!!
There.Are.No.Physical.Free.Connections.To.Forward.Your.Call.
....what???

Play on for another minute of explaining.
Waste of time!!!!

 

[sunama]

I'm shocked that this thread has died a death so easily.

Ive worked in train stations and believe me, the threats of violence and irrational behaviour are so over the top, you wont believe it.

Passnger1 arrives at 19:46hrs
Passenger1: "Where is the 1944 gone?"
Me: "Its left. The next one is in half an hour."
Passenger1: "So why is the 1944 still showing on the screen?"
Me: "The screen hasnt updated yet, but the 1944 has gone, you arrived too late, sorry."
...Customer starts f'ing and blinding.
Me: "Right, as you are using bad language, I am no longer going to speak to you."
...I move away.
Passenger1: "OK then, do you want me to hit you instead?"

This male passenger was wearing a suit and probably works in a decent place, yet was talking in a manner which was quite surprising.

Here's where it gets interesting:

Passenger2 who was standing next to him was listening to this conversation.

Passenger2: "Hang on, its not his [my] fault. You've missed the train now wait for the next one."
Passenger1: "It is his fault. If he wants he can shut down the screen."

Bear in mind that the screen shows all the departure times, platform numbers and destinations. Shutting it down would be madness and only an anarchist would do that.

Passenger2: "Look mate, you've missed the train. Just wait for the next one. Shutting down the screen isnt going to help you."
Passenger1: Lots of swearing. "(*&^)*(&)(*&)*(. Do you want me to hit you?"
Passenger2: "OK then. Come on. Lets see what you've got? Go on."

Passenger2 now begins to move towards the aggressive passenger and starts pushing him. Passenger1, is full of hot air and basically begins to back off. Incidentally, Passenger1, is in his mid 40s, overweight, is totally out of shape and would probably end up in hospital, if he were pushed. I'm not exaggerrating. He is not built for fighting.

The scuffle is now broken up by myself and the other passengers.

Passenger1 is then embarrassed that his bluff was called swiftly vanishes.

The above situation is actually quite normal when dealing with trains and transportation. People become totally irrational and sometimes get themselves arrested for something as silly as a £2 ticket.

I can give you many more examples, such as when a young lad got himself arrested for assaulting a Police Officer, carrying a weapon and resisting arrest, after initially not having the right ticket. If he had simply walked out of the station after being told his ticket was invalid, he would've been fine, but he decided that he was above the law and spent a few hours in a cell and was subsequently given a Court date.

 

[Dark_Angel]

Have to admit, I would hate to be a bus driver thinking about it. The amount of abuse they must get on occasions must be mind boggling

 

[sunama]

Have to admit, I would hate to be a bus driver thinking about it. The amount of abuse they must get on occasions must be mind boggling

That would be brutal.
This is the reason why they have to sit behind the thick safety glass.

 

[riddler]

It happens blud chill out.

 

[snail1]

Is anyone here a Driving Test Examiner?

I have often thought that they must get loads of abuse for telling Jonny Chav that he has failed so cannot (legally) drive his modded Corsa round the block all night.

 

[SKaRT]

I have had items reserved plenty a few times, I'm also sure that the purple shirted place can do it. I've even had a company owned by same people as purple shirts do it at other store for me, so there is no problem there.

Any open box items should not be shown on the system as in stock though, or they should be shown as B grade, if the system is unable to do that then it is as I said antiquated.

There are limitations and general assumptions that are made on stock levels. If a store is showing stock of 10 of a certain product then you can make a reasonable assumption that probably 7-8 of those are in perfect condition boxed and sealed. If a store is showing 3 or less you cannot make that same assumption. Products are regularly held for a day by the store itself by a person requesting it to be held, they can't reserve items on their own stock file through any method besides sticking a label on it. If another store was then able to reserve that same item and hadn't contacted the store then there would be at least 1 extremely annoyed customer. There is also always going to be 1 on display and due to stock discrepancies you cannot assume that the number is even accurate when it is a low number.

Why is it that Toyota or MB or Honda, through their dealership network, can let me buy a car at my local dealer, even if the car is located in Scotland and they'll still gladly deliver it to local dealer; and yet this place can't get an item from 2 miles away?

You are comparing a £10,000+ product with a 20-30% product margin in a company that nationwide probably has an entire stock of several thousand items to a £400 laptop with less than 10% in a company that has a stockfile of millions of products? Utterly ridiculous comparison.

I think the OP got exactly what he deserved, perhaps he did not personally deserve it, but as a representitive of the company in question he got what the company in question deserved.

There is no situation where any staff member deserves to be treated that way, he is doing everything he is able to do to solve the issue. No member of staff would intentionally try to make things more difficult just for the sake of it. If it's not possible for him to do what is requested then that is that, shouting and screaming doesn't make it possible, it just makes you a moron.

You sound like exactly the kind of customer no retail staff member wants to deal with. You evidently don't know much about the way retail and large companies work. If you carry your self righteous know-it-all attitude into a shop and ask for help most members of staff are, rightly so, going to give you the absolute minimum amount of help they are required to give.

At the end of the day to an individual salesperson in the shop it doesn't matter whether you go off and buy x product somewhere else. What matters is whether you treat them with the respect they deserve as a person trying to help you. If you're not prepared to do that then don't go to the shop in the first place.

 

[sunama]

At the end of the day to an individual salesperson in the shop it doesn't matter whether you go off and buy x product somewhere else.

What I found amusing when I used to work at Sainsburys, is when a customer wass disgusted with the level of service and in that disgust said that he would now shop at a competitor instead and would never shop in my store again.

I would think to myself, "Hmmmm...I'm a student. I come here to earn a little pocket money. I dont own the company. Whether you shop in this store or another, wont make any difference to me at all."

Of course, a week later, you would see them queuing up at the checkout, in the very store they swore they would not use again.

If any customer wishes to get the best possible service, I would advise them to use a little charm and be polite. If you behave in a confrontational manner, you will most likely get the customer service assistant doing that absolute bear minimum for you, which usually will not get you anywhere. On the other hand if you can sweet talk the assistant, you have a VERY high chance of getting them to do what you want...even if it means bending/breaking the rules for you.

I think the most pointless thing you can say to a customer service assistant, is that you will goto a competitor instead.

If however, it is a very small independent shop, then its a totally different story as they wont want to lose customers to competitors.

 

[UnusualSuspect]

If you think general retail is bad, try working in a Post Office where you're giving out the money that those people take into your shops. Some of it can be so stressful and annoying you wish the windows weren't in the way, just so you could lay some smackdown on the person.

Like a few days ago, I was doing some work in the office while the other staff were on the counters. I heard a bit of shouting then one of the staff called me out to deal with it (me being manager n' all). Some guy had come in trying to cash a girocheque that we had been told by the DSS not to cash. He had no ID and was ranting about how it was the only money he'd have over Christmas and he'd been waiting for it for days. It got so bad I had to call over the guy who deals with the shop security to have him thrown out.

They also expect us to be robots that deal with their request and move on to the next customer. I was dealing with some banking for a Greggs customer, getting change for their shop and whatnot, and having an amusing chat in the process. Suddenly some guy in the queue pipes up that we should both shut up and hurry up, that he'd been waiting for ages. Well, excuse me for not working in 0's and 1's but I do spend most of my time at work so I do actually want to be.. you know.. human.. while I'm there.

Some customers are just a pain in the ***. But at least I'm in the position to tell them they'll have to find another Post Office, because we won't be serving them.

 

[SiD the Turtle]

I'm shocked that this thread has died a death so easily.

Ive worked in train stations and believe me, the threats of violence and irrational behaviour are so over the top, you wont believe it.

I see a lot of rude behaviour from people at train stations having spent a fair portion of my time standing around in them waiting for trains to arrive! Best example though has to be the Underground. You're on the platform and some guy in a suit comes tearing down the escalators, pushing people out of the way and barges into the train doors as they are closing and tries to force his way on. When he fails he has a go at the platform staff and doesn't seem to understand the argument that if he waits three minutes there's another tube train coming.

 

[Andypandy333]

Man!!

I totally love your rant. I work part time in a large supermarket and get the same abuse all the time cos I deal with customers problems at the tills.

I went xmas shopping with my mam the other week in Toys R Us and she wanted a certain toy for my niece. She was asking the young lass if they had any of these toys in stock but the manner she was speaking to this young lass was unreal, speaking down to her and blaming everything on this one girl. By the end I had to pull my mam aside and i told that she was the type of people i hate with a passion at work haha.

After that she was saying her please and thank yous to this young lass.

Merry Xmas!

 

[rypt]

That would be brutal.
This is the reason why they have to sit behind the thick safety glass.

Not round here they dont, atleast not on the better routes that dont go past the chav infested areas.

There are limitations and general assumptions that are made on stock levels. ....

A stock system can have a "reserved" flag, that removes it from available stock for x days.
The whole point of stock control system is that they should ACCURATELY represent the current stock, if this system doesn't then perhaps they need a better system.

Equally, why is it so difficult for the other store to answer the phone? If you have to, get the manager to phone the other manager.

You are comparing a £10,000+ product with a 20-30% product margin in a company that nationwide probably has an entire stock of several thousand items to a £400 laptop with less than 10% in a company that has a stockfile of millions of products? Utterly ridiculous comparison.

I was talking about their used car section, where I can buy a used Toyota that is currently at a dealer in Scotland and it will be brought to local dealer, serviced and given to me.

If it's not possible for him to do what is requested then that is that, shouting and screaming doesn't make it possible, it just makes you a moron.

From the OP it seems she didn't shout but rather commented on the pathetic customer service offered by the store chain.

You sound like exactly the kind of customer no retail staff member wants to deal with. You evidently don't know much about the way retail and large companies work.

I expect to get proper service, and I do not see the idea of reserving an item at other store to be overly complex. This is the 21st century with computers, internet and stock systems.

I know every in and out of that job, even the fact that I'm getting a promotion in the following few months (touch wood) , and it's not my fault that I can't reserve the stock unless I ring the store by any other means.

Imagine we did have a system where we could request stock without ringing up the store - it would be chaos! One store would get a big bulk of all the good selling laptops where the store that had them in the 1st place would then have very little. How would that be fair?

Read the above about the 1st part. Even if you have to call the other store, it is a reasonable expecation that they should be able to pick up the phone.

However re: part 2 - here's an idea, if the good laptops are so popular at a particular store .. order some more / have more in stock.

 

[rypt]

it wouldn't be up to the station staff to find a driver, they just keep the station itself running.
it would be up to the line operators to find a driver.

Even if you do phone the line operators, arguing with them isn't going to do anything. Are you expecting them to turn around and say "oh we never thought of that, lets do that"

My local station is run by the same company that runs the majority of trains there.

Even if they are different departments of same company, in my eyes it's the same company and the left hand should be able to talk to the right hand.

They should also be able to know of problems in advance, in this case they had a train but the driver for the train was maent to come from another train that was delayed by 5 hours. They should have seen this problem the 5 hours of a delay, and never let people board the train in the first place.