Aibu to be annoyed with these customers/ bugbears in work

[mollymaid16]

I work for a large financial business and although I'm super nice to customers I have some real bugbears for example.

Me: Thanks for calling 'your bank' can I have your sort code and account number
Cust: oh I didn't think I'd need that (huff & puff), I'll just go get it

Cust: I typed my security details in correctly and it's blocked me I definitely typed them correctly there's something wrong with your system, your bank always does this I want to complain.
Me internally: am no everyone makes mistakes and you typed it wrong ffs just like you done last month.

Cust: you've blocked a large payment I am so angry about this etc etc
Me internally: ok in future if you get scammed or hacked we will just let them take large payments ok brilliant.

How I understand people can be fed up with things the lack of common sense pickles me.

Me: can I have your account number
Cust: reads out card number
Me: no your account number
Cust: is my online Id ok
Me: NO Your account number

Any bugbears from your work place.
Or if your bank is annoying interested to know.

I thought of another one. "Oh I'm calling about my credit card." I'm sorry sir this department deals with mortgages I have no access to information about your credit card but I can put you through to the right team now "oh but I just want the balance". Yes but I don't have that information. I can put you through to someone now

A decent company with a decent computer system should be able to get at all the accounts for one person in my view.

And it's entirely possible to phone a restaurant where people are there but it's not open! Presumably you get in before opening to get things ready? And are around after closing to tidy up?

I also think that mobiles should be able to cope with being used in the rain. Not dropped down toilets though, which seems to be a common problem.

Ive had crappy little things happen to me as a customer before.

I went to a bar and asked for a coke. Small or large? Large please. The bar tender then spent about 5 mins debating which glass constituted a Large and consulted her supervisor too! She asked me at the end which glass I wanted to which I responded "Im just thirsty, I dont care"

Honestly! There was about a millimetre in it between these glasses.

I work for the Council. I don't think that anyone is just slightly miffed or mildly upset about anything, ever. Everything is an "OUTRAGE" or "DISGRACEFUL" or the person dealing from the Councils side "must be on the take".

In the last 6 months I have seen people accused of being;

Cocksucking fascists
Cunts (regularly)
Corrupt
Paedophiles

And all of those have been repeated on social media often naming the individual. Some people appear to be completely obsessive about a perceived injustice that they believe that they have suffered which really doesn't have any basis in reality.

justspeaksense when I worked in a library that sort of thing used to happen occasionally but it wasn't a town centre library so most people had gone by the time we came to close up. What used to annoy me was when people didn't bring their library cards with them but they knew we could look them up so they got uppity if we said they needed their library cards. I used to look people up but it was against the rules. But there is a balance between being a jobsworth and being helpful - especially if you recognise them so know they are not trying to put the books on the wrong name.

Actually the worst thing I ever had was from a colleague. All the calls went to a call centre rather than the library. One day a week the library was open until 7 and I did the late shift. The phone goes at 6.55. I pick up and it's someone in the call centre who wants me to deal with a customer query. Wasn't a quick one. I needed to get away on time because I was coaching with my running club. So I asked if they could leave the details and my colleague would look into the next day as we were about to close. Person in call centre reported me to my boss! I'd already handed in my notice to that stage but was deeply unimpressed. People on £7 something an hour are not paid enough to work late when they have other commitments.

Boss said I should have dealt and took time in lieu. I disagreed.

Fairweathetcyclist this would be impossible to do as a bank for example has so many different areas that to be a specialist in every area for every customer would involved months and month of training, loads of mistakes, extremely
Long call times making customers hold time even worse.

The reason for specialist departments is so the job can be done quickly and efficiently for the customer by a specialist. I'm sure you'll agree.

The only exemption in my bank is customers who have a tonne of money in the bank who get assigned their own banking advisor who even then still didn't know Everytime.

The reason someone is a specialist in their area is because they do that particular job everyday, for example if a customer wants to transfer money into another account I have flick between 3 or 4 systems to do this it's not just a flick of a button what you would seem. So to do everything i.e. Mortgages, loans, bonds, savings, account opening , closures, credits cards it would be impossible

Ring ring, ring, ring...
"Good morning, Themeparkinthemidlandsholidays, Joan speaking, how can I help

"Hiya love, yeah what it is right is me and the missus were coming to you at the weekend and going into the park and stoppin over at the hotel and going to the waterpark on Sunday, the weather is looking terrible, I want to cancel.

"Can I take your name and booking ref, the ref will start with a 6 and consists of 6 digits".

"errr, hold on, errr, um......TA3421"

"That's not quite the right one, have you your invoice to hand, it's 6 digits and will begin with a 6"

Gets correct ref.

"You can of course cancel Mr Tumnus but as it's 4 days before departure there will be cancellation fees. It's unfortunate the £9.99 cancellation protection was not taken at the time of booking as you could have had a full refund at this point".

"Right, well I never thought the weather would be so bad"

"I can look at doing a date change for you but any difference in cost between now and June would be applicable"

Tells him it's £105.00 more in total.

"Oh come on love, you can do me a deal can't you, say another £60.00."

"I'm afraid not Mr Tumnus, would you like to go ahead and change the date?".

"No, we'll just go this weekend, if it's ruined I'll just complain and get my money back. Oh, can I add the cancellation protection on today?"

Me inside (yeah, so you can phone back tomorrow and cancel with a full refund).

I'm a doctor, and the amount of people who can't answer a question sometimes drives me batty!

Pt: I keep getting tummy pain
Me: how long has this been going on?
Pt: oh I couldn't tell you
Me: approximately?
Pt: ages
Me: days, weeks, months, years?

Then repeat for how often they get it, how often they have other symptoms, does anything set it off (answer. Yeah. Me: what sort of things pt: loads of things) and so on until I'm ready to scream.

Disclaimer: if you're an old confused person, I will have all the time in the world for you. But if you're 23 with chronic constipation coming to A&E on Friday night, then just give me a guesstimate!

Use to work in retail. A few

1. (Christmas Eve) Do you have X (whatever is the most popular thing that year) No I am sorry we are sold out. When are you getting more in? After Christmas. That is disgraceful

1. I need a refund. I'm sorry you bought this 4 months ago, our return policy is 30 days. But you have to refund it I don't need it anymore

1. Do you know if (different) store has this is stock, this is pre internet, No I am sorry, you have to ring them. Well their line is engaged. Can you transfer me. No I am sorry, we don't have that facility

OP, your post made me laugh. My mantra, when I worked in retail when I was younger, was all customers are Wankers. It served me well

OP regarding blocked fraudulent transactions, how financial institutions handle fraud varies massively - I left Natwest for First Direct and MBNA so I could deal with organisations that handled fraud without screwing me over

Natwest left me stranded in work trips after blocking my debit and credit cards for being abroad, as I had to wait for ages and nearly missed a flight to get through to the call centre to tell them it was me and please PLEASE let the transaction through so I could pay my bill

Know my travel plans in advance - can't I tell you which countries I'm going to be in so you don't flag a new transaction in country A / B / C as fraudulent. Well you can but our systems will ignore it. It's for your protection

MBNA I simply send a text before I travel to tell them where I'm going and amazingly they know that if I say I'm going to X country between Y and X dates, they don't automatically block me for being in a new country

Natwest used to block online transactions ALL the time, but wouldn't tell me. I'd get failed payments, but no courtesy call to say they'd blocked me in case it was suspicious

MBNA have a very simple system. If a transaction looks suspicious they text me and ask me to confirm if it was a genuine transaction. If I say yes, they don't block it. If I say no, they block it. If I don't reply then they block it as a precaution. But they give me the chance to let them know if it is in fact me and not a fraudster, before they block the transaction

If they do block it, I get a call from the fraud department almost immediately to tell me there's been some unusual activity and asking me to confirm security details to unblock the card.

It IS possible to handle fraud in such a way that doesn't massively inconvenience the customer whilst maintaining security. Other banks and providers do it. I would try very hard not to express my frustration to the call centre person as they don't make the rules, but when you KNOW other institutions don't have some draconian fraud policies and you're stranded trying to pay a hotel bill, it's exasperating

I left Natwest and have never had an issue managing suspected fraud ever since.

I'm an estate agent, people wanting to book viewings KILL me.

Viewer: I'd like to view 20 Smith St
Me: lovely, when are you free?
V: when can you do?
Me: We're open 9-5 Mon to Sat, or we can offer some evenings if that's easier
V: well any day is fine
Me: ok Tuesday at 3?
V: oh no I can't do Tuesday.
Me: Wednesday morning?
V: no I'm watching paint dry on Wednesday mornings
Me: bangs head on desk

Generally I'll manage to finally book someone in for x date 2 weeks away. Inevitably we will then agree a sale and ring the viewer to cancel the appointment and they will kick off to high heaven that we never gave them the chance to view these people are always the ones who want to put in a formal complaint as well.

I do enjoy complainers though, I'm by far the youngest in the office and when they ask for the manager and I get to say I am the manager I like to see their faces drop as some people think you can be horribly rude to estate agents.

I work in m&s cafe and the list of bug bares is too long. Bit here is a couple of examples :
Staring at the coffee menu. Then saying "just a coffee normal size" .... Which coffee and is small or medium your normal?
.. "oh a skinny latte half shot with vanilla medium".... THEN ASK FOR THE INSTEAD OF A COFFEE 'NORMAL' SIZED!

standing queuing at an empty till. Instead of the till I'm stood at waiting to serve people

Why does everyone need pots of hot water with their hot drinks?!

Not getting a tray on their way in

Leaving tables in that much of a mess it resembles a scene out of TWD when they go scavenging

I don't work for either of those banks but my bank also do the text thing when a transaction if fraudulent.

Also if going on holiday you can add a holiday note to the account so your. Are isn't blocked whilst away.

There is some things I am unhappy about and would love to improve for the customers but the big boss just don't listen they are too busy trying to bring in a new technology to show off about without getting the basics right. I always try my best for a customer who is stuck and speak to other departments to try resolve the problem.

The thing with security though is we can't broadcast the procedure because it caused more fraud problems. For example if we advertised how to stop a block then fraudsters would obviously use it. So unfortunately it's the way it is or else people would have a lot of fraud payments on their accounts. I speak to so many people in which payments have been stopped and how grateful they are so next time a genuine payment it stopped they don't care as they understand it's part and parcel or else keep your money under a mattress.

Another one

Cust: hi it's John smith
Me: ok mr smith I need to do some security so can I have this and this please
Cust: is thy not enough I mean it's my own account god sake this is a disgrace, my balance is 2000 so see it's me ( could easily have been seen from a lost bank statement as is a fraudster
Me: sorry my laser vision wasn't working for a second I can see you over the phone now your definitly mr smith

Working in NHS hospital

patient on phone: you have sent me an appointment for X date
me: yes that's right
Patient: Well any fool should be able to see that's the day after my birthday, so I can't possibly come in then

Private hospital in posh bit of London

patient on phone: Where is the car park for the hospital
me: sorry we don't have parking for patients, only the consultants
patient: But it's a private hospital, this is what we pay for

It goes both ways:
why do we have to type all our account details before speaking to a human being who will ask exactly the same thing again?

I am very grateful my bank flag or even stop foreign payments to protect me from fraud, but LET ME KNOW! I also have several bank accounts to make sure I don't end up stranded abroad because of a stupid cock up from the bank.

How on earth can my bank knows if it's my daughter or me who is calling? They haven't got voice recognition yet, have they? the fact that she is 5 years old might be a clue in my case

Bank refusing to book an appointment for your partner because of "date protection". It's a joint bank account, a joint mortgage, a joint saving account. It's an appointment, I am not discussing any details, which I could do anyway because it's a joint account! How bloody stupid is that.

Joint accounts- even though you may have a joint account your partner may have other single accounts you may not be aware of, when we do security we can see all accounts in your name regardless if single or joint so no we can't go to your husbands side of the account without doing security with him, this really winds me up. Some people have joint accounts but are split up etc we can't just take your word for it, we do security on your own side of the account end of.

In regards to someone pretending to be their daughter we take a lot into account ie age does he voice sound like this age are they hesistant when asking questions, most times the daughters in the background whispering answers so yes we aren't stupid, and previous notes stating mums tried before

iWork for the council & my favourite is
'I pay your wages'
Funnily enough I pay tax too so do I pay my own wages? Loved the look of confusion when I said that to someone

Fine Molly but I only want to book an appointment with a person! How is that a security risk! It's ridiculous.

You should be able to see if my account is a joint account or not, I have no idea of what half the transactions are, which only makes sense if it's not a single one.

Some banks are better than others for common sense to be fair. Otherwise, no PA would be able to deal with her boss bank, private or business.

My favourite one about "security" is when the bank calls you, and ask you to confirm details and answer security questions.
YOU are calling ME, you could be anyone, no I won't give you my mother's date of birth! I also happen to be in a public place, so no, I am not giving you my account number/ card number/ security code and share this information with the entire train carriage.
Unless it's someone from Coutts, who are lovely and not daft, the operator gets really irate when you refuse to answer questions.

Drives me up the wall when someone purporting to be my bank or credit card provider calls ME and then asks me to confirm my security details. I know they have to verify who I am for data protection, but asking for my details is exactly what a scammer would do, and I have no way of knowing if the person calling me is who they say they are. Some institutions get round this by having a secret code word which they'll say so you know it's a genuine call. But without that, why on earth would I give my details to someone I have no idea if they're genuine or not. If I gave them out to a scammer who then used them to get money from my account, the bank would blame me for giving away my details. But they're asking customers to do exactly that without any way to verify they are who they say they are. After ending up in a standoff with neither side willing to give up details to prove their identity, I now tell them I'll hang up and call the line on my card - so I know I'm not giving my details to a scammer!

The reason for specialist departments is so the job can be done quickly and efficiently for the customer by a specialist. I'm sure you'll agree.

Then companies should transfer you to the correct department, and not make it so bloody hard to get through to the right department in the first place. Customers won't necessarily know that you need to select option 1 (Billing enquiries) to speak to someone about moving house.

And there is nothing "quick and efficient" about being on hold for 15 fucking minutes.

why do banks advertise 24/7 customer service when half your queries can only be resolved between 9 and 5 because the 24h adviser team is not qualified to do anything?
I don't mind the working hours, I don't mind a call center based in the UK, just bloody let me know instead of wasting my time when I try to call in the evening.

So here you go on one hand people are annoyed that we don't call if there's a block or fraud on their account but when we do call you sent happy about that either.

If your not happy end the call and call the normal number end off what's the problem with that.

Our company have over 30 different departments and sub departments would you like that many option on the phone don't be silly.

Also certain Fraud departments don't speak to customers unless they've come through an advisor first as 9 times out of 10 it's not a fraud issue it was just them being a dumbass so we have to filter these calls or else in an actual emergency when's there's fraud by the time you spoke to them yous have all your money's stolen as too many customers on the same hold line with irrelevant fraud issues

Our company have over 30 different departments and sub departments would you like that many option on the phone don't be silly.

If you've got that many departments to deal with customer queries then yes, I would expect that many options. Or a single point of contact who can answer the phone within three rings and then transfer you to the right department.

Leaving customers to guess their way through the options then getting annoyed because they got it wrong is stupid. And expecting them to be sunshine and light when they've been on hold for in excess of 15 minutes is pretty stupid too.