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Post by jklinders on Nov 10, 2014 22:44:54 GMT 1
I think he had many things to say about Chariots of the Gods. I should really pick up a copy of both Chariots and the Space Gods Revealed for the lols.
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Post by Lily Ariel Linders on Nov 10, 2014 23:49:36 GMT 1
Yeah, I suppose the anonymity of just another voice on the other end makes it easier for the jerks to be themselves. You really have no idea. I've been called every name in the book. I've had customers scream various curses and threats at me for not giving them free shit on their cell phone accounts / car insurance policies / pick your poison depending on the company I've worked for. I even had one nut-job yell at me over the phone that he hopes I get cancer and die. So no, working in a "phone bank" (commonly known around here as "call centers") is not safer from customer abuse. It's worse. As for a negative reaction, if this woman tells others, I can't imagine too much of a reaction. The development she lives in orders all the time and gets great service for the most part because it's very easy to get to. Funny. I seem to recall a certain Chinese restaurant in my city disappearing not long after my cousin and I ordered from them, got shitty service and a staple and a shard of ceramic in the rice, absolutely no attempt by the restaurant to rectify the situation, and proceeded to tell everyone we knew about the experience. Now, I am in no way suggesting they went under due to my cousin and myself telling people about it, but... if it happened to us, it must have happened to others, and the combined loss of reputation and therefore service must have taken its toll. Also, a certain Bus Line that services people wishing to travel across province and to other provinces in the Maritimes used to have a location in a Convenience Store next door to where I used to live with my best friend. After the cashier in that store treated my friend with appalling disrespect and threw his credit card on the floor in front of him for no reason when he was trying to buy a ticket to go to his hometown to visit his recently widowed father, my friend proceeded to tell her that he'd have her job for treating him that way. He then complained far enough up the chain of command there that (maybe coincidentally, maybe not), she was no longer working there when I went in a week or two later. And shortly after that, the Bus Line pulled their patronage from that store so that that store could no longer sell that Bus Lines' tickets. So, you never know. Maybe y'all have more of a feeling of social responsibility than I do. Try being stiffed at the door a few times and see how long that lasts. Maybe y'all think it's okay for people in customer service to be smug snakes to the customers and get away with it. Try getting called into the manager's office and roasted alive for not saying "Sorry for the inconvenience" enough times when a customer complains about the price of insurance after you've already cut their premium in half for them and see how long that lasts.
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Post by Clint Johnston on Nov 11, 2014 2:43:56 GMT 1
Fortunately, my managers have worked their way through the ranks and know what kind of idiots we're dealing with. I've gotten complaints before. I've more than made up for them in my rate of compliments.
I was hasty in my dismissal of call center customers as less than what I deal with.
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Post by Lily Ariel Linders on Nov 11, 2014 3:08:46 GMT 1
The last complaint I had against me was (as noted in the policy by the manager who took the call after it escalated above me) completely unjustified against me. I had been misinformed by my idiot ex-manager, and it led to the customer demanding to speak to a manager. So my best friend's manager (not the same as mine, as I was on a different team in the same department and reported to a different manager) took the call, since my own manager who misinformed me took off as soon as shift ended even though his team member was still stuck on an abusive phone call.
I was upset at how the customer was treating me, but I was more angry at my former manager who had caused the whole situation by giving me misinformation that led to a more upset customer.
Gods bless J's manager for taking the call and reporting fairly in the notes that I was blameless for the escalation, and that feedback was being given against my former manager for misinforming me. The misinformation he gave me was no simple error; it was an answer that was completely opposite to what the answer should have been, and meant the difference between the customer getting a full refund of over £800.00 within 24 hours, or having to pay money (and suffer an unexpectedly empty bank account due to the system mistakenly taking money that should not have been taken) for something that was a mistake on our end that she should not have been charged for to begin with.
In that case, the customer's attitude was completely understandable and my manager was the complete idiot who needed a tune-up. But using your logic, the customer's attitude would have justified me doing something to deliberately make her life even harder. And that's the part that got to me regarding your comments.
Yes, I understand that some customers are jerks. But you never know what made them that way.
As for the difference between complaints and compliments, I get infinitely more compliments than complaints. Because I treat all of my customers with respect, and I actively try to help them, and I do not pull petty pranks on them for my own petty satisfaction and a short-lived giggle.
If a customer is acting like an idiot, it still does not justify deliberately making their life difficult. Not in the service industry.
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Post by Clint Johnston on Nov 11, 2014 3:28:54 GMT 1
I treat most of my customers just fine. The assholes get treated as they deserve. The people who lie to me to get free food get it even worse.
If anyone is acting like an idiot, be they customer or co-worker, they are treated politely until their idiocy is unbearable. When I have 2 lines on hold for a legit customer, I'm not waiting around for joe slow to decide what toppings he wants. I put the sucker on hold. Then he hangs up and dials in again, to be put at the back of the line. That's not petty, that's practical.
And when someone deliberately treats me like dirt, despite the issue being their fault, and this has been fully explained to them, then it's no holds barred. I'm in the service industry but that doesn't make me anybody's slave.
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Post by CAPT Issac R. Madden on Nov 11, 2014 3:37:09 GMT 1
I think he had many things to say about Chariots of the Gods. I should really pick up a copy of both Chariots and the Space Gods Revealed for the lols. Sagan was a brilliant man and by all accounts very agreeable, but he wasn't one to suffer fools easily. By this, I mean he was willing to teach people who simply didn't understand, but someone who should obviously know better being an idiot was something that seriously tried his patience from what I know.
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Post by Lily Ariel Linders on Nov 11, 2014 3:52:51 GMT 1
I treat most of my customers just fine. The assholes get treated as they deserve. The people who lie to me to get free food get it even worse. If anyone is acting like an idiot, be they customer or co-worker, they are treated politely until their idiocy is unbearable. When I have 2 lines on hold for a legit customer, I'm not waiting around for joe slow to decide what toppings he wants. I put the sucker on hold. Then he hangs up and dials in again, to be put at the back of the line. That's not petty, that's practical. And when someone deliberately treats me like dirt, despite the issue being their fault, and this has been fully explained to them, then it's no holds barred. I'm in the service industry but that doesn't make me anybody's slave. Well, I suppose if that works for you then power to ya. Just be careful, because one wrong (or perhaps one wrong move caught) could spell a firing. I understand practicality, I practice the same thing in my own job. But, I do not treat "assholes" the way they deserve, because as I've stated, the CSR (that's Customer Service Rep) does not know what is going on in the customer's life. Using my example from my previous post - customer was mistakenly charged more than £800.00, the day before her rent was due. Now, to most people I know, that amount of money cannot be easily replaced, and is no chump change. I know if I lost the equivalent of a month's rent unexpectedly due to a clerical error, I'd be pissed too - especially if the rent was due the next day, and I'd be charged a penalty for being late. If I'd employed your attitude about treating irate customers the way I might think they 'deserve', I could be an arse and say "Sorry, no can do, that payment was valid and we're keeping the money." But then what happens to the innocent person who is now left without a month's rent? By the way, I wasn't referring to putting someone on hold to answer another customer calling in as petty, I was referring to the 'revenge' of denying a replacement the coworker had already promised, and then calling the customer back at 1:40 in the morning (which is pretty damned inconsiderate, even if it's not illegal) just to say "No can do, the order's been voided." And then taking smug satisfaction in saying "I hope I woke her from a sound sleep too." That's the petty part. The description of what you did to that one customer seems petty and unnecessary. I was referring to that one particular example in my criticism, not all the other customers that you did not mention in your little revenge story.
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Post by Clint Johnston on Nov 11, 2014 5:24:20 GMT 1
You missed the part where I called her as soon as I found out (about 11) to tell her the deal was not possible, the call from her one half hour later where she berated me for 10 minutes because I wouldn't give her everything she wanted simply because she wanted it.
Her reasoning was that her wings were not cooked. Her wings were cooked before we got them, then heated up twice in the big oven, exactly the way she'd asked for them. I told her this, and she demanded a refund. I denied her this, then called at 1:40 to give it to her after all. That was when I got petty. I hope she was as confused as I was annoyed.
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Post by Lily Ariel Linders on Nov 11, 2014 11:19:59 GMT 1
At least you admit you got petty.
Anyway, I'm done with this argument.
I've always been of the mind that, as Customer Service agents, we need to rise above petty revenge acts and the like. But I guess that's just me.
So that's it.
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Post by Lily Ariel Linders on Nov 13, 2014 12:41:04 GMT 1
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Post by jklinders on Nov 13, 2014 22:10:37 GMT 1
Did some digging as with every story like this there is always a bit of extra smelly sewage sitting under the surface. And ho boy, were we ever in for a treat here. the mayor pissed off not the police department, but their union. There have been numerous reports of misconduct and large cash settlements paid out for same in the police force and she wrote an open letter last month calling for reform in the police union. john Delmonico the leader of that union took exception to that (check out a picture of that guy, he looks like a fucking motorcycle gang member himself I would feel as safe as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs with that guy in uniform) and wrote a counter letter full to the brim with strawman arguments and wild accusations. This is about someone trying to get the thin blue line to stop abusing their power and old boys club and nothing more. I sourced this from a relatively local source. It's an op-ed but pretty comprehensive and very unfavorable to the police union, not the local police but the union itself. www.startribune.com/opinion/editorials/282499861.html
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Post by jklinders on Jan 28, 2015 11:31:15 GMT 1
I'm getting tired of shit like this on both sides of the Canada US border. Cops have power. They need to be taught it's proper application and putting a female suspect in handcuffs in the backseat of a police cruiser next to a repeat rapist who is not cuffed and leaving them alone together is not the proper application of that power. There is so much wrong with this I barely know where to start. Canada has a massive racism problem with the Inuit in the north so i think that must at least be a bit of the issue. the police officer was neither fully armed, trained nor accompanied by a partner. the police officer was not named in the article but both of the other 2 involved were (just try to tell me that was not another element of victim shaming while protecting the guilty) and finally nothing criminal was found in the police officer's actions and therefore no charges. Why the ever sweet loving fuck are there still people who insist that these assholes should be trusted with power, authority and firearms in the name of the state? They should not be permitted to police us as long as they refuse to police themselves with no outlet to properly review them. that's my rant for this morning so help me Beelzebub.
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Post by Lily Ariel Linders on Jan 29, 2015 0:19:46 GMT 1
Probably a bad idea for me to click the link. I don't feel like having nightmares. Linders already told me I don't want to know more than what he typed in the post.
I just hope the poor woman can get some justice.
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Post by jklinders on Feb 4, 2015 11:01:57 GMT 1
I wish the above comic was simply taking the piss, but it's actually based on a real event. Of course this Texas we are talking about.If we are truly in such a dark place that a school cannot handle something like this in house without a suspension then there is no place for a public school system at all. maybe that is what some people are after. this shit is pathetic. Edit: Not mentioned in the article, the boy was also suspended for bringing a child's book about pregnancy to school (sex ed is the devils work, BEGONE DEMON CHILD!!) and for referring to an African American classmate as "black." I don't know if this school board is really this stunned or if it's because this family just moved in and they "don't appreciate their type around here."
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Post by Mr. Glow on Feb 4, 2015 14:34:22 GMT 1
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