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Was this customer right to shout at me?
allthatyouwant
Posts: 1,381 Forum Member
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I work in retail and today a customer rang up ranting and raving that his daughter bought a loaf of bread with a best before date 13/11
i asked politely what was the issue and he was shouting that he was sick of supermarkets thinking we can rip off customers! He said we was conning him by selling him bread that goes off today
he said that we should have got rid of all the bread last night but i explained it was standard practise everywhere to thrown out of date products at the end of the day
dp you think the customer was over the top because i was a bit shaken by his attitude and aggressiveness on thebphone
i asked politely what was the issue and he was shouting that he was sick of supermarkets thinking we can rip off customers! He said we was conning him by selling him bread that goes off today
he said that we should have got rid of all the bread last night but i explained it was standard practise everywhere to thrown out of date products at the end of the day
dp you think the customer was over the top because i was a bit shaken by his attitude and aggressiveness on thebphone
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His daughter was at fault for buying short-dated bread, but he chose to vent his anger on you. Don't worry about it one bit, he is the one shortening his own life.
I thought most people check the dates on what they buy. You should've told him you'd refund the loaf of bread, and let his daughter have the life lesson for free. :cool:
you can't do that or you would lose your job you have to be professional. You fake smile and be polite and explain and think "**** off penis in your head and slag him off to your workmates later":D
About the best "excuse" I can think of would be that if that loaf had been sent as part of a home-delivery a customer might have a right to be a bit upset cos they'd be buying it sight-unseen with no way to check the date before purchase.
If the person came into the shop and bought it they had every opportunity to look at the date and choose not to buy the loaf if they didn't want it.
I would have been tempted to tell him to send his daughter to Specsavers for some glasses before sending her shopping again.
Not over something so small, but if it had been something more serious I don't see why not.
The customer is always right - except when they're being downright abusive, but shouting doesn't necessarily infer being abusive. I've shouted at people before now out of sheer frustration/emotion rather than due to malice or nastiness. If you work in CS you must remember that if a customer is shouting it's probably because they're pretty damn upset.
It seems some people also refuse to listen/take complaints seriously unless they're being shouted at, which makes it sadly necessary.
Hello this is literally what children do and you should feel ashamed of yourself.
Er, no.
You've never, ever once lost control of your emotions as an adult?
Nothing has EVER happened in your life from the age of 18, which pushed you over the edge?
Never had anyone die suddenly? Never lost your job? Etc etc.
Don't be so silly. Your view is far, far too simple. Adults aren't infallible robots, they're people with emotions too.
Well yes, but like an adult I felt ashamed of it when I cooled down and either apologised or slunk away like a cur with my tail between my legs. I didn't try and justify being a stupendous man baby because WAAH CUSTOMER SERVICE NO LISTEN.
Well yeah sure, things happen, tempers flare, emotions fray.
But there's a huge difference between acting out because you're upset by something actually real, and freaking out at some anonymous low-level customer service drone because BLAAH MY NAPPY'S WET THEY WON'T LISTEEEEEN.
Plus, like, most people will go "Oh god, I freaked out at that poor fellow, I feel so bad". Not OH HEY IT'S COOL CS DUDE SUCK IT UP IT'S WHAT YOU'RE THERE FOR.
Haha I have to say trying to justify being a big manbaby bully via hippy-dippy "Hey man we're all just people" is a beautiful and ironic twist on an old classic.
I usually hold my tongue but I don't let anyone shout at me. At the end of the day its a job and no customer has the right to make me feel threatened.
Shouting may not always be abusive but its certainly threatening. I've been shouted at over a tin of Quality Street and I told him just how pathetic I thought he was.
Wow
You clearly completely missed the point of my post, so it's a waste of time discussing it further but as per the examples I gave, I was clearly talking about serious events and situations, not the.. odd.. trivial examples you've capitalized above.
You also missed the perspective of my argument. I run a business. My job is CS. I take crap from people all the time, because it's my job. I just wish I could sometimes receive anything approaching the level of service and tolerance I offer.
You're the one that sounds like a bloody great baby, which is reflective of exactly what I was talking about. You get on with your job and you bend over backwards for the customer. The only exception is if they're being actually abusive.
Go on then, Senor Manbaby, give a couple of examples of times when it's okay to throw a wobbler at an underpaid and totally uncaring stranger.
Particularly this vague, sketchy Eastenders plot you hinted at, where somehow the CS fella is responsible for your dead loved ones and your lost job. I'm really curious to see how that one went.
p.s - "I know you are, but what am I?" is also A Thing Literal Children Do.
You know, the irony of all of this is you clearly don't understand people at all. You're trying to make yourself sound as if you have some sort of moral high-ground, but what I'm hearing is you wouldn't take an adults anger or upset seriously and you wouldn't consider them a real person with feelings.
If you work in CS you have to empathise with people, if you don't, well, you end up with the views you have.
When you call up virtually any business or public service, wouldn't you rather have someone on the end of the phone who listens to you and takes your upset seriously? And listens to your complaint no matter how angry you are? And tries to put things right?
Sometimes I agree with the right-wingers, and I say that with a terribly heavy heart. Brits seem to expect to be wrapped in cotton wool. I hate the USA, but at least over there the customer is king. :cool:
You need to get out more because it's not just kids.
I once took a rather expensive Sony hifi back to a Sony centre for repair.
I sat it on the counter, the guy typed the model and serial number into a computer, did some quick tests and told me it'd be £70 for a service and I'd also have to pay for any parts required.
I agreed, paid the £70 and, a couple of days later he phoned me up to say that the service had been carried out but Sony don't stock spare parts for that hifi and so it couldn't be repaired.
When I went to pick it up, me and him had words.
*EDIT*
I once took a perfectly functional Toyota into a garage for a service prior to MOT time and, after several weeks delay it came out again, I drove it down the road and the ABS failed.
I drove it back to the garage, told them about the ABS fault and they then took another couple of weeks to repair it.
I had words with the people there too.
Also, FWIW, after getting through the test the ABS failed almost immediately afterwards again and I ended up repairing the f**king problem properly myself.
Oh puh-leez.
I empathise plenty. It's why, when I'm feeling a bit narked at a company, I maybe don't shit my pants and freak the **** out at the first person I can get a hold of. I don't release the steaming contents of my neurotic brain onto someone who may, in fact, have their own troubles. And if I do, I feel bad because I made someone feel bad. I don't go "Ra ra, customer is king!"
Hahaha, oh my GOD.
"People here want to be treated like they're fragile! Why won't they just toughen up and treat me like I'm fragile, dammit?"
p.s - Eastenders story where it's Totally Okay You Threw A Child's Tantrum plz kthx manbaby
I am with Hypnodisc on this. I work in a customer service environment (have done all my working life) and you are paid to be helpful, polite and courteous at all times because there is no business without customers. You are free to bitch about rude customers in private all you want but when dealing with them, you must be professional at all times.
I think you're trying to be so quick to reply, again, you've missed my point.
I wouldn't shout at the first person I spoke too, immediately - or whatever else you've got into your head.
All I'm saying is that if you've been passed from pillar to post, you've had a bad day and you're supposedly paying money for a product or service you cannot blame people for being highly strung when things are going wrong and they feel like they're getting NO help or support from the business in question.
Can you not understand that?
If anything, the CS agent should of course be even MORE accommodating and apologetic; but what you have nowadays, especially in the UK are official policies whereby phone calls, contracts and the like are terminated if the customer raised their voice :eek:
Just never start a business, or work in customer service, or deal with people, or go out of the house..