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?

Waitress here- holding a load of boiling hot plates and you get to the table and no one can remember what they ordered! FFS please it’s the meal you just chose!

People who try to scam me as i work in a currency exchange bureau....you are on cctv love you are never going to get away with it !!!

Patients who turn up early (fair enough) and the patient before them doesn't. There is a 10 minute 'leeway' so I wait.
Patient who is waiting usually wants to be seen 2 minutes after the other ones time.
Then if they get in early they think they can absorb the other appointment time too rather than think "Oh the other person might be outside" .

If someone is breaking sweat/speed limits/their neck to get there and I have given up after 2 minutes they won't bother again.

I used to work in a library in my youth. It was a real case of 'I pay your wages so I can talk to you how I want'.
The worst thing though was the people in the queue waiting to have their books checked out. Library card in their mouth while they sorted their stuff out and rifled through their bags. When they reached the top of the queue they'd take said card out of their mouth and hand it to me to put their books through
And don't get me started on the twats who'd roll up 5 minutes before closing time expecting a good old browse. They were inevitably the I pay your wages arseholes.

People who turn up one minute before i close wanting something complicated....no chance...ive been open 9 hours so if you cant organise your time better...tough shit !!!

Oh god... I work from 7am to 9pm. Seriously, if you can't organise yourself to come to the shop in the FOURTEEN HOURS we are open I have no sympathy.

Top marks to men ( always men) who turn up on the dot of closing and give me hell because it's their anniversary and they need flowers and therefore I should stay open/ miss my train home because they forgot to organise anything.
A) you have had ALL DAY to organise this shit. We have a phone, and a webshop, and twitter and Instagram.

B) isn't your wife/partner going to have hoped for something earlier than three hours before the anniversary is officially over?

C) The way to go about it is " Oh my God I'm SO SORRY. Please can you help me, I know I'm being a pain in the arse- thank you so much for staying open ( missing your train home). You've just saved my marriage!"

I don't know if its relevant to this thread, but I have to share it.
A gentleman phoned my place of work this morning to ask if his wife, who was brought into us last night, is ok.

My work place is a funeral parlour. I have never been asked that in all the years of working here.
I seriously struggled for an appropriate answer.

I had someone call me crap today and throw their appointment letter at me (dental practice).

Teutonic aww, I think that’s quite sweet really. But I wouldn’t have a clue what to say!

Ah Teutonic I guess all you can say is "I am taking care of her like she was my own"

Not so lighthearted but happened to me this week and was an unhappy reminder that this happens.

Every couple of months I get men call through who ask me a series of inappropriate questions on the call. "What do you look like" "are you single" "where do you live" (when I tell them I work in they push for where I live) "would you marry me" "what do you think I look like" "will you sing/dance for me" "I bet you have beautiful eyes"

Always men. And it always makes me feel disgusting. If you wouldn't say it to a man, don't say it to a woman.

@Hippobottymus that’s awful, can’t you end the call if they start being inappropriate? Every call centre I’ve worked in has had a policy that you warn them once then hang up, you shouldn’t have to put up with that.

I'm a substitute teacher (left a full time job to work more flexible hours so I can see my son more) and I'm used to teenagers swearing at me, being generally rude, starting fights or threatening me. Nothing fazes me anymore. My blood pressure doesn't rise one bit when I get told to fuck off. I always think t's ok, because most teenagers grow up to be polite, considerate people...However now I feel sorry for people working in retail. You can't even shrug it off and hope they will grow out of it.

I never call anyone by their first name if I see it on a badge. It's not polite as they don't know my name. Name badges are so unnecessary. If someone introduces themselves to me, (on the phone usually), then I will try to say their name when saying goodbye. To use their name throughout the conversation feels a bit slimy and something a pushy salesperson would do.

Just to add, people are so rude to retail employees/reception staff etc! Employees are just following the rules set by management/CEO. I don't understand why customers fail to remember that. If customers have a problem they should try venting at the big cats and see how much their opinion matters then.

When I was in the bank I regularly asked arsey customers if they wanted to speak to a manager.

Funnily enough most didn't. Was better to take it out on me.

Always good on the odd occasion they said yes, when the manager repeated word for word what I had just told them.

Just remembered the time a man screamed at me over the phone how disgraceful it was his mother hadn't been sent for for an appointment. We had no record of her and upon digging further it turned out the consultant has given the woman the referral letter to hand deliver to us (a ward or 2 down) and she had taken it home, and yes actually the son currently had it on his hand as he was tearing me a new one over the phone. Did he crawl up his own backside to apologise when I pointed out if we didn't have the referral then we had no knowledge that his mother was to be sent for? Of course not. Did he thank me later when I made sure she wasn't penalised by going to the bottom of the waiting list? Of course not. All my fault and the nhs is a joke, obv.

I worked for a fashion retailer back in the day, both at head office and in one of the sale outlets on a weekend to help out.

Almost every time (always the same mother and daughter) would change the sale prices on items and demand I sold them it - I would calmly refuse and remove every one of the item to the stock room and explain that we would check all the prices and return to shop floor after 24 hours - as required by trading standards at the time (or something) EVERY WEEK they tried again!!!

The worst was dealing with branch returns and we would get trainers back reeking of washing powder and the customer would curse at me on the phone and swear blind they had never been near a washing machine.

Don't miss a bit of retail work!

That said - I think it has made me a wonderful customer!

@BigPinkBall I'm very lucky in my workplace that I would never be expected I have to talk to customers like this. For this one time I didn't cut the call, but also answered each question with "I don't feel that's appropriate/relevant" I had a target to hit to be quite frank and I just wanted to get it done with. Plus I know I can deal with that whereas he may have called through and got through to another woman for whom it may be much worse.

Saying that, I have previously told customers that the way they're talking is inappropriate and disgusting and I've certainly cut calls with people like this previously.

I had 15 years in retail and I'm just dipping a toe back into it in a very small way by starting doing holiday lets. So far all guests have been lovely, thankfully.

Amazed to see no-one's linked to notalwaysright.com/ yet - great place to vent

Pervy customers.

Peoole who have been been waiting in a queue but still have to empty half their bag out to get their purse.

People who don't even crack a smile or a small hello.

Sweaty change.

Customers who will sneeze then try and hand me money.

Ah god, bar work.
Them " busy tonight then"
Me " yep, what can I get you"
Them " er, ( looks over at friend, lost in a crowd 3 deep) "what do you want Jeff"?
Repeat for rest of group.
One drink at a time...
Last drink..."I'll have a Guiness" .Seriously if you drink Guiness you know it'll takes a fucking age to pour. Why not ask for it FIRST idiot.

Booking an appointment with customer

Customer : I want an urgent appointment, any day is fine , I'm home all day everyday, so whenever .

Me: shall we book it for Tuesday morning ?
Customer : no , I've got the hairdressers that morning. But any other time is fine.
Me: how about Tuesday afternoon?
Customer : No, I can't do Tuesday afternoons. But any other time would be fine.
Me: okay , how about Wednesday morning ?
Customer: no , not Wednesday mornings because I go shopping then. But I'm in all the rest of the time.
Me: Wednesday afternoon?
Customer: No, I've got the pet groomers that afternoon. I'm in all the rest of the time.
Me: Thursday?
Customer: No,I'm out for lunch that day so can't do Thursday.
Me: well.....is there a day or time that would work for you ?
Customer: I can do Friday *insert an exact time they are only available.

Call/Contact Centre here
‘Well my husband gave authorisation last time’
Well that was last time wasn’t it, not now. I need to speak to him again please
Beeeeep as the phone goes dead.

I used to work in a naice dress shop. Usually on a Friday we’d get groups of 4/5 ladies who’d clearly been on the sauce in the John Lewis foodhall. Without fail they’d treat us like we were lepers, throw stuff all over the changing rooms, sometimes need to get cut out of too-small dresses and comment about our appearance. Then as they flounced out invariably one gobshite would have a totally unjustified moan about our service and call Head office to get a cast iron 25% discount.