To start to hate customers?

[worldgonemad72]

Bit of a rant, Most of the general public that i deal with are nice but there is always someone that talks to me like shite, its getting to become a daily experience. I work for a heating company, so can appreciate that there are times when people can get irate that their boiler isn't working, but why shout at me? All it makes me want to do is to put their call at the bottom of my list of priorities.
Im going to look for a job that isn't customer facing as im so sick of it.

[TheInvisibleManDidIt]

I know exactly how you feel. I work for gas maintenance company. Have spent the last 5 winters being called every kind of name under the sun as I can't get an engineer there now.

[OrmRenewed]

My customers are fucking supermarkets and yes, some of the are hateful!

[pommedeterre]

Ha! Orm, snap. Tis a way of life being a supplier.

[choufleur]

YANBU. the general public are horrible in general. It's why I do a back office job.

[TheInvisibleManDidIt]

Opps..pressed post too soone there.

(DH yelling at the football distracting me!)

I had a woman scream hysterically at me for 20 minutes on sunday as her hot water wasn't working and I couldn't promise her an engineer that night.

And half the time it's not working because they haven't turned up the thermostat. Or the meters run out of credit. Or the boilers turned off. But will they check? Noooo. Nor will they accept that vunerable people, the elderly, children, disabled, have to be priotised over them.

I've been accepted to do a 3 month trial for my company which means I'll only be dealing with engineers (just now I deal with engineers in hours and tennants/customers out of hours) and I am so happy I have a winter of not being screamed at.

If I hadn't got this new job I would be looking for something else.

[cumfy]

Most of the general public that i deal with are nice

So, are there other reasons why you're looking elsewhere ?

[TheInvisibleManDidIt]

Sorry, so many typos

Dh is screaming about scotlands come back in the game and it is driving me nuts slightly distracting.

[TheCrackFox]

Most of the general public are nice but the small minority of arseholes ruin most jobs dealing with the public.

[SecretNutellaFix]

cumfy- it is soul destroying as you realise that people are actually getting more and more abusive.

[TheCrackFox]

They are getting more abusive aren't they. I wonder why this is?

[worldgonemad72]

No there arnt any other reasons to be honest cumfy, just one bad phone call seems to ruin my day though.
the invisible man, i know exactly how you feel, the amount of times people dont replace batteries in the remote control fires, thermostats not turned up, rads turned off etc then blame me is endless. ihad one person ring me last week as her rads weren't coming on, i managed get someone to her only to find she kept her remote room stat on her fireplace mantle (her fire was on), all she needed to do is put it in another room. she actually called me a theiving bitch on the phone when she received her bill.

[PawPilot]

YANBU, I'm a travel agent and thanks to inclement weather, volcanos erupting, strikes, delays, building work, swine flu and many other travelling obstacles, I rarely have a day without someone bloody moaning.

[PawPilot]

oops meant volcanoes

[animula]

People can be so nasty, can't they?

I used to work in a bookshop, and a handful of the customers reduced me to tears.

It really is their problem. It really, really is. either something quite out-of-control has happened in their lives that;s made them behave in such a vile way to someone defenceless and undeserving of their nastiness or they have issues with their personality. The former situation is, of course, sad; the latter, somewhat joyful, because if you drag a personality like that around, you're effectively condemning yourself to a life with all the joy bled from it. An apt punishment for crapness. I think Dante would visualise them as wading through a river of shit, carrying a bag of vomit, for eternity.

Apparently, if I was still working there, I could de-magnetise their cards, or something, as a small act of spiteful revenge. I was working there prior to credit cards, and I guess you don't have that option.

Which is probably as well, really. Because it would just make you as mean as them.

Well, on the plus side, you're not going home to them.

[BigBadMummy]

I run a property management and haddock to listen once to a tenant ranting that his washing machine ad stopped working over Christmas and what was I going to "fucking do about it"? We had been closed until 4th Jan and he wanted it fixed NOW.

He literally ranted at me for ten minutes. I remained silent.

After ten minutes I pushed my chair back, stood up and said "have you quite fucking finished? My boss and his girlfriend are missing in Thailand after the tsunami. I don't give a flying shit about your fucking machine. And until you can speak to me properly you can fuck off to the laundrette"

At which point the office cheered

It taught me to always be polite on the phone and also, I don't take any crap from people that phone me and rant.

[BigBadMummy]

Haddock? "company and had to....."

[AngelHMum]

Oh yes I sympathise with so many of these posts.

I always find that the customers who come in and shout and scream and rant and rave are usually the ones that are fully aware of how the problem occurred, and often they caused it. They are cross with themselves or the situation but take it out on me or my staff instead.

The ones who are pleasant and polite and ask for assistance or advice and then take it are the genuine ones. Sometimes even when something is easily rectifiable and can be sorted out we still get abuse because it's not the solution the customer expected or wanted even though it may be perfectly reasonable and fair.

In my job I find that 99.9% of the customers I meet are lovely - but that 0.1% just want to make you close for the day and buy a double in the nearest pub !

I have been sworn at, spat at, threatened, pushed up against walls, had my hair pulled out and even had stock thrown at me. I never ever retaliate, I keep calm and take it even though it's tempting to do the opposite.

However, when I get a "Thank you" or a "You have been so helpful" it makes up for the bad ones.

Customer facing jobs are a lot harder than most people realise.

[Lynli]

I would always say to my assistant manager, could you please help this cuntstomer?

[mumsgotatum]

LOL Lynli...
I worked in retail before maternity leave and started to hate every customer that came through the door....for some reason they all annoyed me

[TethHearseEnd]

Cuntstomers.

[ghosteditor]

you are not alone OP! but maybe this link will cheer you up:

notalwaysright.com/

[AngelHMum]

Lynli - I don't think I've ever heard a better description

One of the best I ever had wasn't happy with my response to his complaint and asked to see the manager.
"I am the manager sir"
"Well I'd like to see the owner then"
"I am also the owner sir"
"I want to speak to whoever is in charge here"
"That would also be me"
"It can't be - you're a woman"

"Sir" was then shown the door and asked to leave with some dignity still intact. In a nice ladylike way of course

[TethHearseEnd]

Arf at x-post lynli

Did you work in the same shop as me? We took ages thinking of that one...

[penguin73]

I do sympathise and know I owe somebody at British Gas an apology for being stroppy on Sat - but with such a stupid system in place (that even the engineers complain about!) I do think some companies don't do themselves any favours. Though still not fair to have a go at the person representing the company I know.... :(