BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Etiquette Customer service

I was in a store the other day. We were trying to buy a sandbox with a lid. Eight lids were missing. No one would come to toys to help us. (second time this has happened) We had already bought it in garden. But they were looking for the lids. Anyway, the manager called back to garden and said "We don't have any lids" and hung up. The woman turned and asked if I wanted a refund. I informed her I thought it was rude that he as a manager didn't even come to talk to me about how they had messed up. I wanted him down there now. He came down and talked to my husband because I went to the car. I was livid. Is it too much to ask for people that are taking your money to treat you like a person? I have found that a lot of people don't even say thank you anymore when they are checking you out. Not to mention how they bag groceries these days. I would rather go through self check out then have to get the meats away from the cleaning stuff when we get to the car.

Any Rants?

Most of my customer service problems come from cell phone providers.

They cram charges on the bill that are inaccurate and when you call them on it. You get an 8th grader who tells you that they can't authorize credits and there's no supervisor available and that they'll call you back. But of course, they never call you back so you're stuck calling them again and it just goes on an on until you end up with a recent high school graduate who tells you that they can take of the $18 in minutes that you used to call them, but you'll have to pay the other charges.
It's enough to make you want to throw your cell phone at them. Except that you can only use your phone insurance once, and if your phone breaks you can't get a new one when it REALLY malfunctions.

Oooh, don't get me started on bad customer service....oooohhh....

Actually I can't even talk about it as I'll get too wound up so I'll forget this one.

I worked in customer service for a medical supply company after I left surgery (surgical tech - not a surgeon, LOL).

But it made me pretty valuable to the hospitals, because I knew all of the jargon and could decipher the books - as opposed to some of the other ladies (and guys) whose background was in customer service instead of medicine.

It made me get so mad at my co-workers when they would B***h and moan about what their customers needed and how they always needed stuff at the last minute. Hello? We are talking hospitals and Dr.s offices! They don't exactly know when they are going to have 5 serious car wrecks over 1 weekend, and all their supplies are going to be wiped out.

I always hated Mondays and Tuesdays because that's when we would get the crazy orders and then the crazy mistakes from where everybody screwed up the orders.

My biggest gripe is customer service on the phone. How many of you have called a business (not a home... a business) and the answering party came on with "Yo!" "What?" or "Who's this?" ??? I mean really, doesn't anyone know how to answer the phone any more?

Conversely, how about people making the calls? When you (not, you personally, just a generic you) call someone, although you may reach a wrong number, you at least know who you are calling. When I answer the phone, I have absolutely no idea who is calling.

So, when someone calls and says, "Hello -- Ally?" I find it extremely rude. Who is calling? Is it a telemarketer? Is it a potential burglar wanting to find out if I'm home? Is it an identity thief who is trying to match up a name with a phone number (that isn't being paranoid; it has happened).

I was always taught when making a call to say, "Hello, this is Ally Smith. May I please speak with John?"

I resent it when someone calls and asks questions before even identifying himself. It's doubly worse when a legitimate business does it. They should know better.

Back during my 1st marriage we kept having this telemarketer call and ask to speak to "Bill". I kept informing him no one lived there by that name. After about the third time he goes, "Isn't this the residence of William Young?" (My husband went by his middle name, because he was a Jr., and his dad went by his first name.)

I got so ill!

I told him "First off, you don't know us personally, so you have no right to be calling my husband by his first name, secondly, you definitely don't have the right to be using a nickname of his first name - because you don't know is that is what he goes by. And I know you don't know this, because he doesn't even use his first name at all! Do not call this number again!"

and then I hung up on him while he was still sputtering. <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

I hate it when a person gets the wrong number and just hangs up. No, sorry or anything. I hate when people call and say "Who is this?" I was taught as a child to never tell people your name on the phone when they ask that. We had prank calls and that stop us from answering the "Who is this?" question. But when I call someone, I always tell them who it is. I even do that to my best friend of 20 yrs.

From Ally's post: "I was always taught when making a call to say, "Hello, this is Ally Smith. May I please speak with John?"

I resent it when someone calls and asks questions before even identifying himself. It's doubly worse when a legitimate business does it. They should know better."

I'm with you on this one, Ally.

Of course, my favorite (currently) is when someone calls and asks to speak with the "lady of the house." I hand the phone to my 18 month old. She loves it!

I won't even get started with the customer service thing...it makes me so mad at the lack of customer service...i would settle for a little common decency.

I've worked with the public almost all my life and the best company I ever worked for had a policy...they would not hire anyone who had not, at one time or another been a customer. They simply wanted you to walk in the consumers shoes BEFORE you worked there. They would very commonly have new employees or managers pose as customers on their first day of work. It worked out great because you never knew when that next "customer" was really going to end up being your boss!

As for the phone thing...you all are absolutely right about that. I however, went round and round with my boss about giving people my last name...I simply refuse to do it. People don't need to know my last name...I will happily give them my first name and first initial of my last name but because of issues I had in the past it is a safety precaution for me. Be careful out there everyone...supplied with very little information people can get maps straight to your front door!