Customer service horror stories

[La Femme Fatale]

So, alot of people here work in the service sector... let's share stories about our worst experiences either with customers or customer service reps. I'll start...

Just in the month and a half or so I've been working front desk...
-had a guy who barely spoke English call in at 11:30 pm to talk about prepping the handicapp room for his arrival. I had only been working there a few days and took the call, and assface kept me on the phone for 25 minutes, rambling away and occasionally asking a question about how to get there from TO. Then, when he asked if I wanted his name, I told him I had his name as it was on his reservation, and he responded that he sees that I don't want to help him and he hangs up. He then proceeds to write a 2-pg letter to the general manager complaining about me, saying I was using racial slurs against him. I didn't get into any trouble at all though, the front desk manager Fernando thought it was hilarious, especially because he was standing next to me half the time during the call and knew I said nothing of the sort. I just get annoyed when people use the 'you're a racist' thing EVERYTIME something doesn't go their way.

-dickheads who pretend to know the insides and outsides of the hotel bizz, and do everything they can to make your life more difficult. I had to show said dickhead three different rooms DESPITE the fact he already had a reservation and has stayed at our hotel before. Then he comes to the desk to check out about an hour and a half after check-out time, and complains about the DPF, an extra tax that Niagara Falls charged to promote the tourism, fund fireworks, etc etc. He goes on a spiel about how he argued with the Denny's waitress about it... and got a whole .26 cents back. WOW. All that fuss over .26.

-when you check-in, every desk agent MUST go over the pre authorization procedures with you. (IE - it's not a charge, just a hold on the amount of the room plus a security deposit that gets released after check-out). They say they understand and rush you to shut up because they want their keys, and then at check-out get all huffy and puffy because they thought the pre-auth was an actual charge and don't understand why they have to hand over their cc again.

-and then, there's dumbasses who don't bring ANYTHING to pay for the room with, and then proceed to get angry at ME because I can't give them a room.

Whew, that was long. Anyway, I want to hear your stories! What annoys you about customer service or working in customer service?
[/color]

 

[tremor]

Great thread love We've already gone over the things that bother me about MY job lol, which are pretty much the same things.

For those who don't know, I'm a phone operator for a transportation service (taxi cab company). A lot of people do not understand why some things happen when you ride in a taxi. They don't understand why it takes so long sometimes, or why we can't do certain things.

1. Don't freagin' ask me how many minutes it's going to take for your taxi to reach your location. I don't know. We don't have cameras attached to the vehicles. I can only give you an estimated time of arrival. So quit claiming I'm being shady.

2. Stop asking me why it takes so long to get a taxi to you. We don't have taxis just sitting around WAITING for you to call. They're all over town, and are very very busy..and always full. So wait your turn..or if you don't like that - cut yourself a fast walking stick pal.

3. No offense to anyone here, but these Indian guys who come to America, and then think it's okay to treat America's women just like they treat their women. Wrong. If you talk down to me, you're going to wish to God you didn't. I don't take that ****. I'm not stupid, so don't speak to me like I am.

4. Why call for a taxi when you're not even sure what your damn address of where you are is?! I don't have time to sit on the telephone with you while you either: run outside to find the address or run around your house asking family members what the address is. Have your information ready BEFORE you call please.

5. An "estimated price" is just that: an ESTIMATE. You HAVE to pay whatever comes up on the meter in the taxi. So don't call me, complaining because the price of the ride was more than what I told you. I told you it was an ESTIMATE for a reason.

That's all I can think of for now lol. Someone else's turn....

 

[La Femme Fatale]

Lol, are Tremor and I the only people who worked in customer service?

I also hate when people get angry and yell at YOU for something that is completely and entirely out of your control. Like, last night our entire parking lot was full - not a single spot left, it got to the point we were putting people in no parking fire zones and whatnot. But for goodness sakes, don't bitch ME out - what the **** do you want me to do about it? Like, am I suppose to go out there with a bucket of cement and yellow tape to make more? Chill the **** out, we'll do what we can to park you somewhere asshole.

 

[tremor]

I guess so Femme..or atleast we're the only two who bitch about what gets on our nerves lmao.

I had this chick call today...apparently, she was trying to ask me something while I was getting off the phone with her. She called back and said something along the lines of "You were so busy talking to whoever you were talking to, that you hung up on me and didn't hear what I said." That ****ed me off...my job requires me to talk to a lot of people lol. Anyway, she asked me how long was it going to be before her ride arrived..so I took a second to ask the dispatcher about an ETA. Well, while I'm trying to find out what's going on, the bitch on the phone is steadily complaining about how long it's taking. So I politely say "Well, while your busy complaining..your ride is about to pull up ma'am." and I hung up on her, before I had time to say something nasty.

So what happens next? She calls me and tells me "**** you and your cab."

Oh really now?? Let's see you try calling this company again. I just so happen to know where you live...so yeah, I got your "**** you."

No offense, but anyone that calls out of the ghetto...nine times out of ten, they're going to be extremely rude. That's okay though...if they want to be like that, they can walk their asses to wherever they want to go. Half the time, where they're going is only down the street from where they get picked up from.

Walk bitch.

 

[Angel]

I used to man the front desk of a large hotel and it was without compare the worst job ever. Everything is your fault just because you're the first face they see when they walk in. This is my little moan from back in the day:

1. Customers who insist on blagging for credit - this isn't some dinky B&B in a local village, love, this is a major hotel chain which clearly states it requires a refundable deposit of £250 to get a booking and if your card is no good then please come back later with a valid one and stop holding up the queue. I don't care how many times you've stayed here before - rules is rules.

2. Customers who think I'm a bellhop, chambermaid and chef all in one - demanding room service, turning down service and that I carry their bags to their rooms all because they have to wait three minutes for the current employees who actually hold the aforementioned positions to finish with people who were there first.

3. Overbooking used to be a huge problem in certain months - standard practice for the reservations teams was to overbook knowing that people would cancel and then there would be enough rooms available for everyone. Only one time it didn't work out that way and a group booking arrived to find they had to wait an hour for their rooms to be vacated, cleaned and set up for them. The leader of this group purposely kept mispronouncing my name (which isn't even a difficult name), patting me on the head calling me "little girl" and talking very very loudly in the lobby about how you just can't get decent staff these days. I gave him automated wake up calls at 3am every morning he was there as payback - cheap but effective.

4. One woman came out of her room in the morning and actually tipped her breakfast into my lap saying it wasn't good enough and I needed to fix it now. She then proceeded to rant abuse at me when I explained it wasn't something I was even qualified to sort out but I'd speak with the kitchen staff and made a formal complaint to the manager about me saying I'd cussed her out, overcharged her on her bill and (this was my favourite) spat in her breakfast.

Mind you, I don't hold back meself when I get shoddy service - but I do make sure it's worth complaining about first. I only ever get snippy if the other person is being rude; it's not their fault if so and so hasn't arrived on time or something has gone wrong, so I don't take it out on them. But if they are rude to me, so help them because I will not put up with that from a phone monkey. I managed to stay pleasant to people on the switchboard so it's not impossible to return the favour. The worst encounter was when I had to call our local council to sort out the tenancy after my ex died, leaving me in the lurch about our property we shared. The guy on the phone had the nerve to tell me off for not knowing the correct procedure before saying "look love, I thought this was the 21st century and you birds wore the trousers now. Still playing at being the little woman, are we? Then to be honest you're getting what you deserve for not being more aware of your contract and housing situation." Then he hung up on me. Within thirty minutes I had him sacked, which was rather fun I must admit.

 

[tremor]

Well I succeeded in making a woman feel like an idiot today. You can reserve a ride, for a certain time...but you have to give us an hours notice so we can ensure that you will be picked up on time. Don't call us at 10:40am and expect us to have a cab to you at 11am. Not gonna happen lady. It's going to be a few minutes late...not because we feel like being late, but because you didn't give us an hours notice.

Anyway, at 11:16am she calls, raising hell with the dispatcher (I have no idea what the lady said to the dispatcher, all I know is that she was nice and riled up when she got off the phone with the lady). All I was told is that the lady said she was going to call another company, which just so happens to be a part of our company now, and is owned by the very same people. The company I work for is a combination of three different taxi companies that have been bought by my boss over the course of the last couple of years.

So, when the lady DOES call back, she apparently thought she was talking to a completely different cab company. I politely told her that the company she was looking for has been integrated into the same company she had originally put in her reservation with. And I also told her that if she'd look outside her window, she would find that pretty red vehicle sitting right outside..waiting for her to take her stupid ass outside and get in it.

I love it when a complaining customer suddenly turns into a customer who feels cheesier than a block of cheese itself. All she could manage to say was "oh.....thank you".

Mission accomplished.

 

[La Femme Fatale]

I used to man the front desk of a large hotel and it was without compare the worst job ever. Everything is your fault just because you're the first face they see when they walk in. This is my little moan from back in the day:

1. Customers who insist on blagging for credit - this isn't some dinky B&B in a local village, love, this is a major hotel chain which clearly states it requires a refundable deposit of £250 to get a booking and if your card is no good then please come back later with a valid one and stop holding up the queue. I don't care how many times you've stayed here before - rules is rules.

2. Customers who think I'm a bellhop, chambermaid and chef all in one - demanding room service, turning down service and that I carry their bags to their rooms all because they have to wait three minutes for the current employees who actually hold the aforementioned positions to finish with people who were there first.

3. Overbooking used to be a huge problem in certain months - standard practice for the reservations teams was to overbook knowing that people would cancel and then there would be enough rooms available for everyone. Only one time it didn't work out that way and a group booking arrived to find they had to wait an hour for their rooms to be vacated, cleaned and set up for them. The leader of this group purposely kept mispronouncing my name (which isn't even a difficult name), patting me on the head calling me "little girl" and talking very very loudly in the lobby about how you just can't get decent staff these days. I gave him automated wake up calls at 3am every morning he was there as payback - cheap but effective.

4. One woman came out of her room in the morning and actually tipped her breakfast into my lap saying it wasn't good enough and I needed to fix it now. She then proceeded to rant abuse at me when I explained it wasn't something I was even qualified to sort out but I'd speak with the kitchen staff and made a formal complaint to the manager about me saying I'd cussed her out, overcharged her on her bill and (this was my favourite) spat in her breakfast.

Mind you, I don't hold back meself when I get shoddy service - but I do make sure it's worth complaining about first. I only ever get snippy if the other person is being rude; it's not their fault if so and so hasn't arrived on time or something has gone wrong, so I don't take it out on them. But if they are rude to me, so help them because I will not put up with that from a phone monkey. I managed to stay pleasant to people on the switchboard so it's not impossible to return the favour. The worst encounter was when I had to call our local council to sort out the tenancy after my ex died, leaving me in the lurch about our property we shared. The guy on the phone had the nerve to tell me off for not knowing the correct procedure before saying "look love, I thought this was the 21st century and you birds wore the trousers now. Still playing at being the little woman, are we? Then to be honest you're getting what you deserve for not being more aware of your contract and housing situation." Then he hung up on me. Within thirty minutes I had him sacked, which was rather fun I must admit.

Oh man, I could write a book about working front desk at a hotel! I don't know why I keep subjecting myself to this torture!

One thing that also ****es me the **** off is when customers are under the impression that the tiniest little mishap in their room entitles them to a complementary room. Like when one ****tard today plugged his toilet, and subsequently thought his night should be free because of it.

 

[tremor]

This thread is quite therapeutic..I appreciate you coming up with the idea for it lol. I come home from work and the first thing I want to do is come bitch in this thread xD

 

[Meg]

Oh wow this thread is gonna get an earful from me. xD

So I work at Best Buy. I qualified for a blue shirt weeks ago. I'm fully certified in every area of the department (its a big department), I took all the computer training I needed, I did the new employee training, all that. So I was supposed to get a blue shirt a week ago, but they were out of my size. (OF COURSE!!!) So I wait. Then yesterday I ask one of the managers about it and he said he'll check for me, but to remind him. Later in the day he saw me make a mistake during a sale I was doing. After I was finished with the customer he gave me some tips to improve. I asked him about my blue shirt again and he said he wanted to see "sales proficiency" from me first.

What.

The.

Hell!!!!!!!!

I was SUPPOSED to get a damn uniform weeks ago, but no. No one could be bothered to give me one. Now I make one mistake (goodness forbid I'm human) and now I don't get one. Are you KIDDING me? Never mind the fact that I was beyond exhausted at the time from not being able to sleep thanks in part to my painful sunburn. Oh yeah. And the fact that said painful sunburn hurt like crap all day to which made concentrating hard. I have a high pain tolerance, but if something just hurts non-stop its going to effect you. There's allso the tiny detail that if I had gotten a blue shirt when I was supposed to my mistake wouldn't have mattered. But no you're right, Mr. Manager, I suck. Because everyone who isn't perfect just sucks. Right.

 

[KennedyShot02]

Oh Boy horror stories from K-mart.... More like Why I hated the day shift in retail Chapter 1:
Ok now I mostly worked Night shift at K-mart but the few times I worked Day shift I always seemed to get the most arrogant Full of him/herself Jacka$$ customer of the Day.
1. Arrogant a$$es: So this was my 1st week on the job. I'm just out of high school and saving up money for college. I was helping with cleaning shelves and remodeling areas for a new set when this guy walks up to me while I'm kneeling re-stocking the bottom shelves and literally steps on my left hand. As I look up with a "Get the F#$% off of my hand" look clearly on my face. He then while still standing on my hand demands that I "get off of my lazy behind" and help him find some spray paint. Now this is the real funny part. We are in the Paint isle and he is standing right next to the spray paint. I told him "Sir if you would please stop standing on my hand and look to your left". He glared at me and called me an arrogant prick. He stood their for a good 5 minutes ranting about how I am a prime example of what is wrong with my generation as well. Now by this time he finally took his foot off of my hand and I told him "sir I must ask you to please calm down or leave this store". Apparently my calm response to his little out burst really ticked him off as he started shouting I was stereotyping and accusing him of shop lifting. Needless to say I was getting frustrated as I had a job to do and this man was wasting my time and wearing on my nerves. Luckily there was a manager in the next isle who came to offer his assistance. Now even he was annoyed as this arrogant man started ranting that I needed to be fired for racial stereotyping and refusing to do my job. Thankfully the manager had been in the other isle to hear the whole thing. So I was safe however it took us 45 minutes of insisting he leave or we call the police with him stamping around the store ranting about discrimination for us to finally get him out. The whole While I was bombarded with threats from this guy. It was probably the most frustrating of my days in day shift.
2. Wanna be con artists: Now this next tale was one where I was doing my job while working a double shift during Black Friday. I was helping someone carry a couple items to the back for layaway. Now as I was walking this girl walks right into me and when I stopped to help her She started screaming at me for assaulting her. I tried to apologize as I wasn't really watching where I was going and I should have paid more attention but that didn't stop her from screaming and yelling for security. She ranted and raved that she was gonna F me up and that I'm not a real man and blah blah blah. Now I have a strict code of honor and it forbids hitting women even in self defense. So naturally I took some offense yet tried to talk to her so she would calm down. I tried explaining I had no idea she was walking down that isle yet she wouldn't listen. She had it set in her head for some reason that I had intended to attack her. She threatened me with lawyers and everything. When Security got their they had asked her to leave or the cops would be called on her. I was kinda confused till I found out that this girl had tried this several times. She tries to run into a sales associate and scream thinking they will give her money in order to shut her up. However what she fails to realize is that she is caught on camera following employees and running into them at what she feels is the Perfect time.
3. Wannabe con artists part 2: This one is more hilarious then aggravating do to the sheer stupidity displayed this time around. Ok so we had this women who came in with her husband. They came in with a cart filled it up with items they had from a prior shopping trip. They then tried to take this cart up to customer service and "return" these items. Now at the time we were all ****ed cause we just watched them put these things in their cart and expected us to give them their money back. This was insulting to our intelligence and infuriating at the time. We kicked them out and banned them from the store. A few days later we found out they tried reporting us to the main company and the BBB(Better Business Bureau). However since they were on camera this didn't go very far. Now that I look back at that one it is funny yet still insulting that they were ignorant enough to assume we were really that stupid.
I'll stop here before I really do write a book lol

 

[La Femme Fatale]

I also hate it when people think because they show up late, they're entitled to stay however extra many hours. No, if you check in 4 hours past check in time, you're check out time is STILL noon the next day, not 4 hours after noon. And best yet, the dip**** who gave me a hard time about checking out late the other day.

"Listen lady, I need a late check out."
"The latest I can do is 12:30 without cost, we have a full house checking in tonight.
"But I checked-in late! This isn't fair! Whine whine whine, blah blah blah."
"What time did you check-in?"
"3:00pm."
"Check in time isn't until 4:00."
"Oh, okay. *click*"

 

[Springhosen]

Today some guy came in, sat at the counter, we were busy and he ordered a waffle and sausage. You SAW me total your ticket, hand it to the expeditor and WATCHED her call it in. How is it my fault how and when your food comes out? You HEARD her call me to get it and you WATCHED me bring it to you. I told you I would make you a darker waffle if you wanted and you said: "NO! It's fine, it took you long enough anyway." You cut into it and decided it wasn't done enough so you THROW ten dollars at another waitress to pay for the ticket and walk out. She follows you to hand you your money back because the manager said you didn't have to pay and you tell her to pocekt it it because: "It's not your fault."

[cue the yelling]

LIKE IT'S MINE!?

When you were ordering, you watched me write everything you said down on the ticket including "waffle well." You saw everything that happened after I totaled your ticket and saw that I had nothing to do with calling your order or cooking it! I offered to change it and you yelled at me for something that was completely out of my control!!! I'm not paid to be yelled at; I don't care what kind of mood you're in, take that attitude to the people who were responsible for the mess up. When you sit at the counter you see everything yet you completely overlooked that fact that none of your troubles were my fault? Not to mention that you wanted your order to come before everyone who came in before you, because there WERE people before you! The expeditor calls the orders in the order she gets them - NO CUT-SIES! And let's FORGET the fact that you didn't leave me anything for the time you took up, time I could have spent with a tipping customer because, as hard as it is to believe, I have bills too! Because I'm not even mad about that, you tip lousy when things are fine, why tip at all when you cop a 'tude? But let's focus on how you unjustly YELLED AT ME!!!

[/immature yelling]

Yes, I have waitress rage and no, there's no ten step program for it.

 

[tremor]

Woowee..that man better be glad I don't work there. I woulda followed him outside and whooped his ass all over the pavement and then some. I probably would've gotten fired...but hey, it isn't my fault I've got a badass temper You don't yell at people when something isn't their fault.

I don't even want to get into what happened to me Friday. I had this guy call and tell me about a driver that was driving recklessly on the highway. Okay..I understand that's a big no no...but uhm...there's not much I can do when you can't give me a description of the driver or even his car number. So don't give that "you obviously don't care" bull****. I promptly told him to take a flying leap

 

[Hoady]

I hate customer service...i don't like trying to uphold a companies stupid image.

Anyway I did work at a cafe about 3 years ago.Twas directly in the middle of a big shopping center.I had to take out an old couples food and i tripped and dropped all of it.Hot coffee, eggs,toast, the works!A 16 year old boy new at the job, everyone staring,never waitressed before.Lucky they were nice and didn't mind me mutilating them with food

 

[cheezMcNASTY]

The best - and worst - job I ever had was a small community privately-owned movie theater. The downside was that I was paid under the table. The other problem with this place is just that the community they were in was inhabitted by LOTS and LOTS of angry, stupid, annoying customers.

So anyway, the Jonas Brothers movie came out and we were trying to make a few extra bucks selling t-shirts. Some old woman comes in and sits in the chair i was selling shirts from when my back was turned. Everyone starts telling her to please get up but she says there's no seats in the concession area and she was tired so she needed the chair. it's ridiculous that we have no place for an old woman to sit in, and she's therefore justified in sitting down while we're trying to do our jobs.
eventually she says to get the manager. he would understand.

oh yes, i must have been hired by mistake because clearly the manager will shine her shoes, give her a free ticket, and wrap the chair in a ribbon for her to take home.

WRONG

Thing is, the customer is never right in this place. Employees are hired on the basis of whether or not the boss likes them, which brings out some protective favoritism. If someone thinks they can get their way by speaking to the supervisor they are dead wrong. If things escalate they'll get banned from the place. Some people push further and get into fist fights with the owner. he never leaves his office because he hates people. Your primary goal working there is to see that he never gets bothered. When asked for by someone who (no doubt) has a major stick up their ass, he'll deal with them. Bottom line is, if someone asks to speak to the manager, he's already annoyed he had to leave his seat.

So he comes out and walks over to this woman, she starts talking - trying to (of course) make me look like the bad guy and ending with something along the lines of
"i have the right to sit don't i?"
and "is this how you expect your employees to behave?!"

his response was something like "ma'am, you have the right to get a refund and leave. we're trying to sell t-shirts here and you are not only bothering me, but you are crippling my business and harassing my people. gtfo my theater. nao."

she replies with "well i never...! etc *rant* *rant* *rant*" all the while he's nodding his head, rolling his eyes.
long story short he denied her a refund and banned her from the theater. if she was a guy and a bit younger and made a personal attack she would have been assaulted to top it all off.

it was always fun watching that fat little guy rolling on the floor and trading blows with whatever asshole gave me a hard time.

 

[AsterikeSage]

I've worked in customer service for five years, at a photo shop, and two supermarkets IGA and Woolies. I had a few stories from then. I'll select my worst. First thing, I am good at my job. I always have a positive attitude when dealing with customers, so I have a lot of people who like me as a result. But then, there are still the bad apples of every bunch =(

First job (Kodak)- Okies, this one was just weird. I had some African guy come in wanting me to merge two pictures together. Guess what they were, a picture of his penis and his casual lady buddy. He wanted me to merge them so it looked like she was giving him oral. Ewwww... yeah so I told him I couldn't do it and he pestered me for ten minutes before I gave in. Thank god they were on his phone and low resolution. The whole time, he began hitting on me too. Anyway, he got his blurry picture in the end and I never saw him again (Thank god!) Thinking about it now, I was an awkward innocent teenager then. if that happened to me, I'd tell him to **** off before I'd call security.

Second job (IGA)- Around my last year, I was on lunch break and noticed three aboriginal girls while I was lining up at express. They looked pretty shifty so I was keeping an eye on them to make sure they didn't walk off without paying for their stuff. They noticed and lined up, paid for their stuff and threatened to bash my front end manager in the process. When I went to the deli to get my lunch, they were there. Immediately they claimed I was following them, saying "A black person can't walk through this store without being followed and blah blah" calling me names, and threatening me saying they would be waiting outside to bash me after work. They ended up following me back to my shop until I turned around the threatened to call security. I told my boss what happened and they were banned from the shop. Sure enough, one girl returned the next day, was told she was banned and went home to her mum who came to the shop upset and complaining. According to my colleague, the woman was actually decent and had no idea of her daughter's horrible personality. Her daughters claimed I was harassing and following them. WTF. Paranoid asses. My manager was too lazy to deal with this so we never saw them again. Thank god for that.

Third job (Woolies)- I've only been here a few months. I work in self serve here so frustration levels are quite high at times. You get people who have no idea what the **** they're doing and decide to come in with huge loads at the busiest times, so I have to help, which is hard when you have to also make sure other customers are alright and makes sure certain asses don't just walk off without paying. Which happens often. Anyways one particular day, one obese caucasian woman tried walking off without paying but I caught her before she left and reminded her "Excuse me darl, you haven't paid yet" so she went back to pay. While helping another customer I heard her say to two indian guys "I wasn't stealing it you ****in niggers!" and instinctively I turned and said "Excuse me, don't say that!" Then she walked over to me and leered in my face saying "Don't tell me that, I'll rip your ****en face off! I'm an Australian I can say what I want!" btw I'm a mix, half chinese, half british but born here in Australia. At that point, another customer needed help so I couldn't say what I was going to say (Which was "I'm Australian too, but that doesn't give me a right to use words like that") but other customers were giving that woman **** for me before she ****ed off. I then made sure the two customers she racially slurred were OK before continuing my job. Stupid bitch. I got a call later on in the day from one of the customers who was there when that woman threatened me, claiming i handled the situation really well, which made my boss happy. So that was one story... another was a woman trying to get away without scanning items even though I was watching here, then claiming she didn't know how to use the self serve checkouts properly when I caught her. Yeah not scanning $200 worth of stuff? Well tough luck there missy...

Anyways those are my stories. At the moment lol

 

[KKAAIIG]

Well I've recently started a new college course, Kitchen and Restaurant Skill's I have to cook on a Thursday and be a waiter on Tuesday.. Any tips for dealing with the public? lol