To think that customers are behaving in an increasingly unreasonable, rude and aggressive manner?

[TheyBrokeMeToday]

Customer service. Love my wee job. The customers broke me today. So much rudeness, aggressiveness and just general unreasonableness. It seems to be becoming a very regular thing lately. Anyone else? Broken.

I try to remember at all times that the rep I’m talking to is not responsible for the organisations crap systems and stay calm. But sometimes a customer has had enough and like me today, can get assertive and short when being at rough end of some quite shittly bad customer service agrrements
so todays example

my energy company ..put my DD up. I’m in credit. Considerably. Energy companies are sitting on £ billions from doing this. They try very 6 months with this stunt. I know my annual usage and know I’m paying quite enough.

so, I try to contact them

1. I go online- no option to dcrease again, though it’s easy for me to increase it on line 🤦‍♀️
2. first choice “ LIVE chat”. BOT tells me in few minutes to use WhatsApp
3. whatapp is useless…the BOT creates a pop up screen that shows buffering, right over text it’s typing and my responses. Can only read previous comments. So can’t read securities questions…try to type back guessesof which question only to get thrown off to failing security 🙄🤷🏼‍♀️🤦‍♀️
4. ring up - wait 20 mins in queue. Can’t hear the guy - too faint. Have to ask him to try to improve sound quality please ( nicely).
5. He says system is slow…10 mins later my details eventually load . Unless system crashed ( which it hadn’t as I asked) he’s telling me bollocks- slow systems are crashes if they take that long unless he’s work from home with slow mail speeds..in which case why isn’t his company providing employees that wfh with effective speeds? . I say that it’s a bit bad to have to wait that long . He doesn’t respond , in fact it’s silent - he’s clearly on mute and probably multitasking on another bloody call and it’s an excuse
6. he finally says he’s got my details. I explain clearly what I need. The new increased direct d bit will leave my bank in 5 days and it should never have be n raised and he needs to change it back immediately before I go into even more credit. He says he will put me on hold whilst he sorts
7. on hold for 15 bloody minutes
8. he comes on again and proceeds to tell me why they’ve put it up. I say I don’t need to know that, I can see their explanation on my bill, the figures are wrong, just like last time they tried this. Why hasn’t he changed it in 15 mins, why did it take 15 mins just to look at my bill ? He’s just muttering away faintly and offering apology but no explanation as to what exactly he be n doing for last 15 mins and my phone bill. Again I’m pretty sure he’s handling other customers at same time.
9. im pretty forceful now. Do not put me on hold. I am not prepared to run up more balance with their company given what’s there already, and we probably past most expensive month now. I’m paying for this call. So please just get on and change it now , don’t say anything else till you’ve changed it
10. 5 mns silence. Then asks me for my bank details. I say they already have the dd details, and it’s just value. They clearly have details given they put it up without asking me🤷🏼‍♀️🤣. He then says , he wants them to note down while he goes to another screen. I say you are not noting down my bank details anywhere 😱and I won’t provide over phone- use his system
11. he says he will have to go to another system to find out 🤦‍♀️. He puts me on fecking hold again before I can say no
12. 5 minutes later comes back. Says he got my details. I ask if he’s made the change. Not yet he says
13. i repeat do not put me on hold and that I’m extremely annoyed and frustrated that this simple issue has taken over an hour of my time already
14. it goes quite. Too quite. He has muted again
15. 10 minutes later, yes 10 mins, he comes back and says he’s just doing it. I say very shortly “that he needs to stop multi tasking or eating his lunch or whatever it is he is doing “ and just finish the transaction and I would be staying on line for customer survey to say over 1 hour and 15 mins is outrageously bad customer service and their systems are rubbish and call handlers clearly failing to do what they’re paid to do including the one that handled my call. Yep, I was a bit snippy by then
16. he completes it in 2 minutes.
17. I say goodbye
18. i have a cup of tea

quite frankly I don’t care if he thought me impatient and terse and knew I was cross. They’re the ones that keep trying to raise my DD when I’m in credit and then have crap systems and people dealing with it

it wasn’t a complex thing. Last time I called to tell them not to increase DD, they completed it in 10 minutes, no holds, no silences

so, don’t give the old “ everyone’s so rude”, customer service is utter
y unfit for purpose in most companies these days. Emergency measures put in after covid are the norm as companies take the piss and continue with low numbers of staff to save money and an over reliance on BOTS

😖😡🤬🤯

Ok. In that case, some customers are entitled and rude.
And by my experience, some staff members would lie to get out of serving customer asap.
But let's not victimise one side, please.

First rule of customer service. “Really sorry but I’m not able to do that. Let me tell you what I can do and let’s see if we can sort it out”. It really isn’t hard.

There’s still some really brilliant customer service around and when I get it I make a point of telling the person how good they are at their job. I also ask if there’s any way I can provide feedback to their employer.

I’m sure there are many individual rude customers (and some of the shocking stories on here must surely be about customer who are mentally ill?) - but customer service is dire in the sense that it is virtually impossible to achieve anything when you raise an issue. I generally find the actual interaction with customer service personnel fine - but they can’t resolve anything for you because all big companies, almost without exception, are utter bastards. Their systems are complex, impenetrable (some won’t even provide an email address or phone number for contact); if you do get through on the phone they spend ages giving you recorded message after recorded message essentially telling you to fuck off to their useless website.

Basically, if you have an issue or a dispute with a big company, you lose. It’s just screaming into the void.

HAVE AN OFFICIAL GOLDEN STICKER! Well done!

Customer service is non existent, cashiers talk amongst themselves and ignore customers. Covid made it worse and some cashiers expectations to be treated as frontline heroes is not matched by the contempt for customers. How dare customers come and buy things and mess up neatly stacked shelves. I remember during covid one cashier turned to another and said … I thought none had any money..

It’s like everyone forgot their manners after lockdown

Agree with this, except I'd say "too many" rather than "everyone", and IME it applies both to customers and staff

I try never to be rude to anyone, but do a sort of internal groan every time I see that "Why should I?" attitude, and sadly there's just so much of it

[preen]
Thank you! 🌟

Honestly if I can I avoid all human contact when shopping or anything. If I can not chat to fix or self service or just order online I will.

Went into home bargains and got quizzed on why did I want three blankets and how greedy and selfish I must be to buy three blankets… I have three children, but really it’s none of her bloody business even if I wanted 50 blankets I’m not stealing I’m paying full price as on the shelf.

Then there is the time I have to wait at self service because wine and the chap is just chatty chatting away not a care in the world to a work colleague while red light after red light pop up till one lady does actually shout at him. It wasn’t an important chat the work colleague had clocked off they where talking weekend plans.

Im trying to think of a time I actually had good customer service when needed. The closest could me asking a Morrisons staff member where something was, she told me an isle and I thanked her. It wasn’t that isle and I left without the item because I gave up looking like pac man going up and down 😅

We're getting so UTTERLY FUCKED OVER by companies and the poor service staff on minimum wage are getting it in the neck

This is the crux of a lot of it.

But why do people think earning minimum wage means you don’t try as hard at your job? I think almost all of us have been in that position, it’s practically a rite of passage. I’d never have been so arrogant to think that made me entitled to be rude to customers. God I used to earn £3 in crappy clothes shops (MKOne anyone?), doing mostly boring work, I didn’t do passive aggressive sighs every time a customer asked if there were any more sizes, I just went and looked because I’m not a lazy twat.

I noticed that after the covid homeoffice period I partially lost my in-person skills.
I am confident and polite on zoom calls, I understand the dynamics there easily.
When it comes to simple in-person interactions, I can even miss saying hello. It is sometimes hard for me to find the correct moment (if the other person speaks to the group and I don't want to disturb them, but after some time it is too late to say greetings, as I am obviously there). I found a way how to identify "the hello moment" when paying in the supermarket, but I kind of had to learn again.

I'm not proud of it, but it just sometimes happen and paying more attention to it helps only partially.

On the other hand I see more poor services. We came to the art gallery with a friend, it was closed for the day, but the message at ground floor was written in a way which seemed to inform only about one section being closed, not a full gallery. We were confused so I used the phone number, the lady there told me, that they are closed, it is written there in the door (it really wasn't clear), it was decided just a few days ago so they didn't put it on the webpage (WTF?)... So yes, I politely expressed disappointment and disbelief that it seems ok to them.

It's more than just the minimum wage, the staff deal with the systems that don't work and piss customers off (and get the shit for that) on a daily basis, it makes doing their job harder, it makes giving any kind of customer service damn near impossible in some situations.
They feedback and are ignored, you are in a constant negative loop of pissed off customers and management/directors demanding better profits while you can't even turn your heating on.

Companies promise this amazing experience or service and then actively put barriers in the way of that actually being delivered, either by making it impossible for the staff to sort problems out or by punishing them when they do for not following some ridiculous policy created by a suit in an office that's never served a customer in their lives.

It's a sure fire recipe for your staff disengaging and becoming disillusioned and not caring.

It's a society wide culture, we're encouraged to look up to those making millions as role models and at the people actually doing the work as there because they can't do any better, can't be bothered and are pretty much valueless. Until that culture changes then I don't think anything will get any better for customers or staff, either customer service is important and there's a value to doing it well, or it doesn't matter.
You can't insist that it's important enough to kick off when it's wrong but at the same time insist the people delivering it worthless, because what we have now is what you end up with.

I’ve had a lot of frustrating experiences with CS to be honest.
It’s doubly difficult as I’m a) hard of hearing and b) my husband’s carer so I have to speak on his behalf.
I spent 3 hours on the phone to the house insurance company the other day. The first person I spoke to was utterly not only patronising but absolutely misogynistic because despite me having permission to speak on my husband’s behalf, he kept saying ‘I have to speak to your husband’ (he didn’t) and despite me pointing out that said insurance company had made a fairly big error, he said ‘we haven’t made a mistake we don’t make mistakes’
I hung up on him, rang back and spoke to the most lovely lady who was not only happy to speak to me (she agreed I had the necessary authorisation) agreed with me within about 2 minutes that the company had indeed made a massive error and although it took an hour, she sorted it out for me.
Once when I rang British Gas though, I was threatened with having the call terminated because I ‘spoke too loudly and it’s classed as abuse’ I explained, quite tearfully that I am hard of hearing and I can’t tell how loud I am speaking. He metaphorically shrugged and said ‘So?’ I reported him.
I used to be a mental health nurse so in my current job whatever people say just goes over my head. No-one likes ringing the people I work for but I’ve had many people say to me ‘I was dreading this call, I thought I would just get through to a cold unfeeling robot but you’ve been great’ I try not to take anything out on other CS people for that reason. If Ive had particularly great service, I’ll always give them a shout out on social media to their company. I know it’s always appreciated.

@GlitterNotBitter im also hard of hearing and really struggle with customer services. I started a thread the other day about it because I’m pig sick of assistants not pressing the button for the ‘cashier number six’ machine, just whispering “next please” then doing a patronising wave when I cannot hear them.

Have you complained to the store about this? They are not complying with their duties under the Equality Act and should be more aware of people with hearing difficulties.

I disagree, I think the poster sounds assertive and wanting what they pay for.

But of course "assertive" woman equals a spoilt brat, a "Karen" or aggressive.

People are entitled rude pushy selfish arrogant twats who are not responsible for any actions they perform...its never their fault oh....I forgot about lazy!

Customer service has gone done the shitter. It was bad enough pre Covid but Covid has given businesses the excuse not to make it better/ making it actively worse. I’ve got a problem with my tomtom can’t actually speak to anyone at all to fix it. The whole problem came about when they decided to take the ‘free lifetime’ traffic feature away when it wasn’t used for x amount of time! 🤷‍♀️

a lady from boots stuck so closely to a script when I was trying to solve a problem with an order the other day, in the end she hung up on me because I asked her to have an actual discussion with me rather than just repeating the same thing again and again.

it’s not always the fault of the customer service representative, but of course that’s who‘a going to bare the brunt of it if they’re the only person we can speak to!

I actually panic when I have to phone Vodafone as their customer service is the worst I’ve ever come across by far.

it’s not all representatives, I’m sure you do a fab job op. But it’s an overall problem.

yup. this is why i left retail. plenty of thousands other part time jobs for the minimal wage and some much more interesting also like flowers, cooking, arts and crafts etc