To still be upset with this vile comment?

[ilovewelshrarebit123]

I work in customer services for a well known retailer.

A customer called today ten minutes before my shift finished. He wanted an argument from the beginning, and was utterly vile and I was literally shaking in my seat.

He wanted a question answering that I couldn't possibly answer without speaking to the store.

I told him I'd get the answer tomorrow and he wouldn't accept it. This question was the most ridiculous question I've ever heard and didn't need an immediate answer.

20 minutes later we were no further forward as everything I said he would just not accept. In the time we spent on the call I could have called the store! He also picked me apart. I was stupid, uneducated, a little girl ( I'm in my 40's)!

I'm an experienced advisor, never get rattled but he was something else.

I ended our call when he actually said this to me 'I think you must be retarded as you're not understanding me' 'are you retarded, you aren't you' I'm just so shocked that an adult can say something so offensive to someone they don't know, and who actually uses that word anymore, it's so nasty.

I know it's trivial, and I should just forget it but I'm beating myself up now wondering if I could have had handled him differently.

I do feel better for a rant though!

I'm a GP receptionist, me and my colleagues have been useless, slag, fucking cunt. On a training course, a girl told the tale of having a patient threatened to come a stab her.

When dealing with Joe Public, you'll always deal with a abusive cockwomble. If people are shitty to me for no reason, then I wont help.

Sadly the world was s full of muppets

Of course. The traditional "stressed by Christmas so takes it out on the nearest waiter/call centre worker/receptionist/ health care professional/ retail person/ (insert innocent person just doing their job)" wanker.
Every year, as sure as panic buying and traffic jams.
I had mine on Tuesday when I was fighting norovirus and in no mood for that shit. He threatened to go elsewhere and I just said "by all means, do" and stared the fucker out.

It wasn't you OP, it was him addressing his feelings of powerlessness by jerking round someone who he knows has to sit and take it. Made him feel all mighty, the strutting wee peacock. Pathetic. Know that you are better than him. You are a decent person who doesn't treat people like that. He is just a fuck-knuckle.

Try not to dwell on it

Some people are just horrendous arseholes. I've seen it all in my career -including a teenage checkout girl being physically assaulted by a middle aged, middle class women chucking a frozen turkey at her. Actually throwing it at her head and hurting her quite badly. Some people go out for an arguement and the easiest target is the retail worker who can't argue back. You just have to remind yourself it is entirely their issue and is really nothing to do with you. I tend to nod and tune out until they finish their rage -they do wear themselves out eventually. Then I ask what they would like me to do to resolve things and we go from there. If they continue to scream I say that I can't resolve anything until they calm down and walk off or hang up. ITS NOT YOU

My god what a prize prick. He is a shit bag and has absolutely no right to call you names just because he is unhappy with a transaction. Who do these people think they are? What gives him the right to talk to you like that? Get a supervisor to listen to the call, then explain that you are not prepared to allow 'customers ' to speak to you like that & ask them what they are going to do about it. You don't get paid to be abused, good luck

You're more patient than me, I'd have told him to fuck off call back when he was in control of his mouth emotions. Long, long, long, before you closed the call.

To quote Elsa though 'Let it go, let it go....'

He's not worth your head space!

I am not criticisng at all , but I dont understand why it went on for 20 minutes?

"I am sorry sir but as you have stated that you do not wish to wait while I contact the store I am afraid I cannot answer your query. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

I used to work in a similar job and I found that "computer says no" type disinterst works best. Repeat the "is there anything else I can help you with" and when he is screaming down the phone "Thank you for calling Couldntgiveafuck.com" and hang up.

Seriously, I was never paid enough to deal with abusive twats, so I didnt!

I feel for you. People are nasty sometimes and it can get to you. But he shouldn't have spoken to you like that - he was out of order. I'm not surprised you're still upset about it.
One day he will get his come-uppance so enjoy a wonderful fantasy about all the nasty things that could happen to him.

Ugh customers like him deserve all the bad things

I work in a call centre so of course you have my sympathy. Even the most experienced people will get the odd customer that just gets to them. I agree with telling your manager in case he ends up complaining about you (cunts like that often do), and do they can hopefully reassure you that it wasn't you!

Unfortunately when dealing with the public sometimes you get nasty pieces of work like this. It sounds as though he had decided on an argument and nothing you were going to say or do would have made any difference. I dealt with the public in a previous role, but as the manager when my staff had tried their best and the customer wasn't getting what they wanted and was now demanding to speak to a manager. I am very experienced in dealing with people and it wasn't often I would get someone like your customer but I did occasionally, usually very sarcastic and superior. I was never called retarded though - but most other names at some point. I occasionally got told my staff were useless and didn't know what they were doing, which was far from the case but sometimes, often actually, we just couldn't do what the customer wanted ( I work for a large government department and not a very well liked one). Just remember - it's not you it's him and if he ever comes on again tell him at the start that you will not tolerate him behaving like last time. If he is prepared to conduct the conversation in a reasonable manner - fine, if not tell him you will terminate the call and your manager should back you up in that.

The customer is not always right, and you don't have to put up with anyone being abusive to you. If anyone starts on you again, put the phone down/walk away. People only act like this because they get away with it.

There is usually procedures though - I know people are saying just hang up but you can't always do that! It's horrible, I have had a few that have left me shaking, the one that threatened to break my face with an iron bar was a particular treasure

The best way to deal with calls like this;
You: 'Excuse me, but do you know who you're speaking to?'
Him 'No'
You : 'Good, well fuck off.'
< end call>

You did no wrong wrong and dealt with the call in a professional manner.

He was the muppet

Have a great Christmas and all the best forv2017

I worked in a call centre for one of the main banks for years and I would get some horrid bastards on the other end. At first I would be polite and try my best to help the customer but after a while on the same call getting nowhere I couldn't help but retaliate. For example, if they told me to 'go fuck myself' I would reply with 'yes and you', I wouldn't actually tell them to fuck off. Thankfully those calls never got listened to and I left that job over two years ago. You have my sympathies OP.

I had a few vile calls when I worked in inbound collections, I really do think some people ring up and want to take their cuntishness out on someone rather than need anything sorting. I remember they all seemed unhinged as their arguments didn't make sense and they wouldn't let me solve their problem. They wanted to put someone down and didn't have anyone in real life they could abuse. I used to write down their customer ID and keep an eye on their account so I could see if they made a habit of it (would be written in notes) which would make me feel it wasn't personal... They'd shake me up but the next day I'd be thinking "you sad twat" and pity them. I also used to hang up a lot if they got abusive. Thankfully most people were nice!

I'd have hung up on him alot sooner, why didnt you?

He wouldnt have got anywhere with a complaint.

To those asking why the OP didn't hang end the call sooner, it's not always that simple (which in fairness, I know you wouldn't know if you've not worked in a similar role). When I worked in customer support, we had a 'three strikes' rule. Only when we'd warned the customer three times that if they continued to be abusive we would terminate the call, were we allowed to actually terminate the call. I was told that I was stupid, uneducated, clearly too dumb to get a proper job. Even worse, another section of the same company had a rule that calls could never be terminated, no matter how abusive the caller became. Which was why, when a colleague had a caller tell her that if she didn't do exactly as he wanted, right now, he was going to get on an airplane and come rape her stupid fucking Irish ass (we were in Ireland but providing customer support to another country). On Christmas day, no less.

YANBU, OP. People can be utterly vile to you when you work in customer service. Especially when it's over the phone. They get all brave and say horrible things that they'd never say face to face .

I'm sorry you had such a horrible experience. Anyone who speaks to someone just doing their job like this is clearly an arsehole who needs to tear down other people to make themselves feel better.

Ugh vile language, that is normally reserved for pouring hatred on people who are disabled or have special educational needs.

At least he wasn't doing that. Though it sounds like he wouldn't have a problem stooping so low.

He was an offensive idiot and I hope you'd be able to find a way of getting his voice off the line whilst following the set rules you'll be having to abide by. Ideally that kind of person should be deprived of attention before he can use it as fuel.

Part of that didn't make sense . Should read, which was why, when a colleague had a caller tell her... Etc, that she had to stay on the call. Had she ended the call, and it happened to be one that was selected for call quality monitoring, she'd have been disciplined for ending the call. Awful, I know, but that's how it was.

Oh sorry OP, but seriously, it's not you. It's him. I work in a job where when the call gets to us, the callers are at the end of their tether and they just rant and rave. It's horrible and when I was new to the job, I had a caller, who I have never forgotten about. He was the biggest arsehole I have ever encountered. I didn't want to hang up as I didn't want to be the new girl who couldn't handle this type of call. I was like you, literally shaking. Heart pumping. In fact, I was close to tears, but I didn't want to show it as I wanted to look like I could handle it, but I have NEVER been spoken to like that before. It's shit, but that one call taught me a lot. Turn the negative into a positive and think if it happens again, how could you handle it better.

Yep, been there, it's beyond vile.
Even worse when you can't end the call/stop talking to them even though they are so offensive to you
Some people are offensive creatures in general

Because sometimes you can't end the call or walk away from the gits even when they are abusive as somehow you'll be the one who gets the complaint.

A bellend isn't just for Christmas, it's for life.

OP, the man was all the bad things everyone here has said and also a putrid bucket of arse slime. You, on the other hand, deserve better than to be sitting around letting him get to you. You have a wonderful Christmas in the secure knowledge that he'll still be a miserable, angry, bitter fucker next year and you won't.

Oof been there done that. I feel for you OP. In the call centre I worked in we were only allowed to hang up on a customer if they'd sworn at us 3 times and we'd warned them each time that we would end the call. That only covered actual swearing so the customer could be abusive and offensive without actually swearing and we would just have to sit there and take it (unless we were able to get a line manager to take over the call as they could get away with more than us lowly advisors!).