Anyone work in customer service?

I have done, but no-one has ever behaved like that to me. Some people wanted to vent, and when they had done so then they usually simmered down. People do seem to be getting more angry and impatient however, and tbh in some instances I can't say I blame them. There is no excuse, ever, for taking out frustrations on customer service staff. However everthing is so much more difficult these days than it used to be and we are all busy so it is very frustrating when you have to wait half a day to get through to an actual person who can help you, and some staff don't seem to have a flare for good customer service.

Been on both sides of this fence.. with the added bonus of of being a highly regulated industry.

As in there’s a joke in the US that something will take ‘an act of congress’ to do usually meaning it would be hugely difficult and very unlikely (replace congress with parliament and you get the meaning). In my case people would ask for things that would literally take an act of congress to allow (so a little more oomph than ‘computer says no’).

And I would get yelled at. So yes people suck.

On the other hand companies suck and some customer service people suck. Like the one who told me I shouldn’t have lost my wallet/had my wallet stolen. Well yes fucking Captain Obvious, that would be the ideal situation, but here I am in a different city with no way to pay my hotel , why can’t I pay you extra to overnight me a new card. I’m not going to lie I said those exact words to her and yes when I calmed down and called back I was able to arrange for a card to be overnighted to me … so yeah as much as customers suck… customer service sucks just as bad.

But kudos to Sandals customer service, It’s very much part of the pleasure of their vacations, Their customer service is amazing!

I've worked in various calls centres and been called every swear word you can think of. Honestly sometimes it would be a relief for hen the name calling started so I could disconnect the call 😀 I remember one customer telling me I was probably really ugly and that's why I had to get a job in a call centre... Oh and really stupid too. Not sure how he wasn't smart enough to realise that would ensure I gave him as little help as I could get away with 🤣

Now I work in online customer service (primarily emails). In a way its better because you don't have to talk to horrible customers, but they are often ruder and nastier. Still it definitely isn't as upsetting and since I can prioritise who I help I tend to leave them for as long as possible. Petty but very satisfying!

I do this too ..

I had a lady swear at me - what she wanted me to do broke the law - she came back and apologised but I was on my lunch so missed her but the other member is f staff did as the law stated

I’ve worked in lots of customer service roles. What has always baffled me is that when a customer is lovely and sweet to me I would bend over backwards to help them, but when they are rude I would do the bare minimum to cover my job description. I don’t get why people think being personal or aggressive gets better results, I’m obviously more likely to help someone that acknowledges they’re asking for something difficult!

I think you need to find another job OP. You don’t seem to have any empathy, or any understanding that not everyone is capable of navigating phone / web systems.

I’ve been in customer service for a long time, over the phone, in person, retail at Christmas. Yes people can be arseholes but you’re being just as bad. You’re mainly taking the piss out of people who are trying to ask for your help in this post, not the ones being vicious bastards.

*I also think that people have completely unrealistic expectations of timelines.

For example a woman called in, and was told by someone else in the company that we would look at her issue, and call her back.

She rang in again one hour later to me to complain that she hadn't been called back, and that it was terrible customer service.

I said to her "but you only called in one hour ago. We get hundreds of customers calling in every day. We usually get through callbacks in 2-3 working days".*

Would it perhaps be helpful (for both customers and the next staff member) for your staff to give out a rough idea of that timeline when saying someone will get back to them?

Also repeating F or S louder is still just as hard to hear. I really don't mind if you say F for fuck rather than just getting cross and louder as long as I can tell what letter it is

I didn't realise how many people don't know their phone number or postcode

"Can you not just search by my name?"
"Ok what's your surname?"
"Smith"

Yeah. I'll need more than that!

I pay yout wages

No you don't idiot

Definitely
"The whole world has gone mad" is a phrase I hear every week from people in the same business

I think there may be another factor caused by internet. 20 years ago, everyone phoned up for this stuff, so most of your queries were the run of the mill easily solved things. Now most of those are solved by internet, so a far higher proportion of queries are things where it's complicated, something has gone wrong, or the customer simply doesn't understand how to do a simple thing.

And if you've been waiting on hold on a loop that constantly distracts you with a message making you think your call's being picked up, but actually it's a patronising message telling you to go to the website, when the whole reason you are on the phone is because the website didn't help, then you are unlikely to be in the best of moods. Of course that doesn't excuse some of the abuse people have listed here, but I'm trying to answer the OP's question and work out what's changed.

And some companies have terrible systems! I moved house last year and ended up on the phone to companies far more than usual. Some were great, but some were genuinely bemusingly awful. I had one sign me up to package, with my consent that was never activated. Did they have a record of the call? No. Could they see what offers had been active when I signed up? No. I had to sign up to a completely new offer. My bank were awful and kept giving me conflicting advice about transferring money. Luckily I'd done stuff well in advance, but they wasted hours of my time and could have delayed completion, which is no joke.

In contrast my solicitors were great, my LISA people were great. So are my ISA people.

I think the average level of intelligence in this country is decreasing rapidly. And half of people are even more stupid than that.

I used to do web chat and it's amazing how many people will type out something full of swearing and abuse before deleting it and rewording it a bit more politely. They don't realise that we can see what they're typing before they press enter!

The best is when you get a customer on the live chat platform who is completely angry about a product they have received and then it turns out they bought it from your competitor. They abandon the chat pretty quick!

I once had a woman call and start screaming at me down the phone. I was pregnant at the time and I didn't mean to but I let loose and gave it her back. It felt great lmao