Customer facing jobs, what winds you up?

[BigPinkBall]

I just need a bit of a rant

I work in a call centre and part of my job is to ask for customers sort code and account number, and 99 our of 100 people will give me it in that order, but there’s always one who says the account number first without giving me time to move to the box further down the page where that goes, and says the number really fast then gets annoyed when you ask them to repeat it.

Also the people who fail the security questions and say well what have you got for my address/date of birth? It wouldn’t be very secure if I told you, would it?

Oh and -
"Where's X? I can't find X."
"I'm sorry, we don't stock X, but if you..."
"What the hell? Bob from the shop up the road said you do sell X!"
Well, Bob doesn't work here and has no idea about our stock. He should stick to his own stock. Now go away and Google where you can buy X, you ignorant fart.
Usually I am then subjected to a 5 minute rant about the fact that they've come from two towns over to buy X and now I'm saying it's not there and I'm probably lying and what am I going to do about wasting their time?
Well, we have these things called telephones and the internet. You could check yourself before making the trip.

I'd better stop ranting now. A friend once commented, after having been in retail for a month, how much they hated it. I replied: -
"Oh no, what you feel now is a mild dislike. Once you've worked in retail as long as I have, then you will know the true meaning of hate."

People aimlessly wandering around, they see me frantically trying to put out product - I have limited time slot to do it in. Like a magnet they are drawn towards the item I have in my hand trying to put it out, in complete silence not even acknowledging I exist - they will stretch across me, pick up said item, I then have to pause as I can't fill the space as they are in it. They turn the item over, feel it in their hand then always, always put it back IN THE WRONG PLACE. They then drift off again and leave me to it. I am convinced they do it as a little power exercise to remind me they are the customer and therefore very important. I did once say to a rude cow who brushed my face with her fat arm "Isn't it easier to just say excuse me?" Respect peoples ' work space please.

@Sparklingbrook I’d rather live in a bin than work in a bank complaints department! I find people just want to whinge and when you fix whatever their problem was they get more of an attitude because they were enjoying complaining.

I work in retail, and the number of people who think it's appropriate to touch me and get right in my face to ask a question is getting ridiculous. I've started using a stock trolley to act as a barricade and if they step around it, I use an item of stock held in front of me to act as a barrier.

I hate it, and it's happening more and more. To the extent I am having huge anxiety issues and looking for other work. Preferably with a solid barrier between me and the general public.

I've had a bloke come up to me while I was talking to a pair of customers about delivery costs and put his arm around my shoulder. I froze, and wish I had elbowed the twat in the face. Instead, the couple laughed and terminated our discussion (they knew him) and began talking to him so I escaped and called a colleague to deal with him while I went and had a breakdown in the stockroom.

And the oh so funny jokes, usually from older men, about "say one for me when you're down there" or "smile, love" when my arm is stuck retrieving stock that's fallen down the back of the shelving and I'm trying not to rip my arm from my body.

I wish that for one day, one lousy shift we could tell people to fuck off, and not lose our jobs.

Have to say that sounded ranty and hate filled but it's true you have never felt irritation equal to that caused by working with the public.

Secret - I too have started to use a barrier to keep public from touching me - what's going on?

@mrsmorton I work in appointment booking in a hospital now and it's basically the same except the threat of getting a manky fractured denture slapped into your bare hand is lower, so that's a win in my book lol

Before management tightened up, the call centre where I would would give out the direct line to random members of admin (where I work). I particularly hate when you pick up the telephone, say your greeting and they don't say hello, just "3864764" (or whatever their account number is) very quickly. Then get arsey when I ask them to hold on a moment and then repeat themselves. It's rude to me and the call centre, we both have other tasks to complete while waiting for the telephone to ring.

I used to hate facing up, spend ages doing it, only to turn round and find some twat had messed it all up again

I work for a retailer with a rewards card scheme, and if you have a card but don’t have it on you at the time we can look it up on the system and add it to your transaction for you. We usually do this by asking for the postcode and surname and searching those to narrow search results.
The number of people who go ‘oh yes I have a card, it’s under the name of John’ (or any other fairly common name).
My system has every reward card registered in every one of our 300+ stores in the past 15 or so years. Don’t get shirty with me when I tell you I’m going to need more information than that

And the ‘this was priced wrong so you HAVE to sell it to me at this price, it’s the LAW’
I assure you, it is not. I will gladly get my manager though, who keeps a print out of the actual law on this issue purely to show to customers who kick off about this.

dayswithaY

I wish I bloody knew.

Or had a cattle prod to defend myself. Or a small electro magnet that would activate against people when they got within 8 inches of my person.

Customers who say "oh it must be free" when something doesn't scan. Me :Ha ha ha ha ha No.

And some sort of sneeze guard!

I have to say that if the customer came on the phone with a bad attitude I wouldn't go to great lengths to rectify the complaint beyond what was necessary.

If they were all polite and reasonable then I would go the extra mile to make sure they were happy.

We were told we could just tell them and hang up if the customer swore at us. Which happened regularly.

I had a lot of customer facing jobs as a student. Worked in Greggs at one point which was certainly eye opening...

Hated people placing their money on the counter (this happened A LOT in bar work and it’s so fucking rude, especially when it’s lots of coins!)
People querying price when the till literally does it all for me, I wasn’t standing doing mental maths and it was cheap anyway so kindly, get a grip.
In greggs people asked for weirdddd things sometimes such as a pasty inside a bap, baguettes cutting in half (then complained it wasn’t equal enough and insisted on having another...) and one woman said she couldn’t accept a biscuit because my hand had touched it. Please bear in mind all of the products in Greggs are touched by bare hands at one point or another, they are washed.
People complaining about it taking longer than a minute to be served, as if I’m a robot.
The disgrace people leave behind on tables.
Always found being called my first name by customers creepy tbh...

Agh, I couldn’t work in a job like that again if you paid me.

The public is made up of utter cunts!

Honestly - I work in retail and I must be very lucky - lovely customers, polite and friendly - I love my job and genuinely look forward to going to work.

Oh God, the space invaders!

I have no idea why in the last couple of years people seem to want to stand RIGHT NEXT TO ME in order to talk. I just step away now, and if they follow just say quite bluntly " I'm sorry, would you mind taking a step back?"

I do appreciate that some people have difficulty with social norms, but also they may only interact with a few people a day, whereas I deal with hundreds and see the same things again and again.

Me: what’s your full name please?
Them: Smith
Me: I need your full name please mr Smith
Them: Mr J I Smith
Me: your full name, what does the J I stand for?
Them: John Smith.
Me: and what’s the middle name?
Them: John idiot Smith.

You want me to discuss your personal details and think “Smith” is gonna cut it? Seriously?

The “I’m calling on behalf of my wife” is she there? “No, but I don’t want personal information I just want Thing that is actually personal information” that’d be a no then.

People who say they’ll do the customer service survey and then don’t. If you don’t want to do it just say no. Don’t get my hopes up with your false promises!

Calling up to buy something and not having your card details to hand. How did you think this was going to work exactly?

When I was at uni I worked at a call centre. I hated it when customers would try to access say, their parents insurance account, and I couldn’t allow them access due to ‘data protection’ and then I’d have to spend 10 minutes listening to them shout at me about why it was pointless etc.

Also worked in a bar/restaurant. We used to serve food until 10 and I despised people who’d order a 4 course meal at like 9.59pm.

The ones who seem to think they know better than you. I had one who swore blind she bought something last week from my section that we hadn't stocked for years. She got very shouty and demanded to know who I thought I was and described me to my manager as the uppity little bitch who think she knows every single thing you sell.

No sweetheart I'm just the only mug who works on this department and has for the last 3 months. We're chronically understaffed. Literally nothing goes in or out of my department without me knowing about it. Why? Because I might as well fucking live here!

I know where every single piece of discontinued or unranged stock is, how much they are and how long they've been there. And your tacky as fuck metallic gold emulsion IS NOT ONE OF THEM! And hasnt been since 2011. SO FOTTFSOF!

And breathe.

Oh god Canyon I clicked on this thread in order to say that.

They get too close. You take a step back. They advance. You step back again, they step forward. It's like some strange little stepdance

Oh and people who make sexist or racist comments and expect me to laugh or agree

I can’t be outright rude so I generally just refuse to acknowledge it with the telephone equivalent of a Paddington hard stare, and get back to the reason for their call. I won’t do any more than I have to for them.

@LadyOfTheCanyon exactly! You think that everyone knows the basic social norms until you work in customer service and then you wonder how some people make it through the day without someone reminding them to breathe in and out.