Got Carded

[mitzi]

There are ways for business people to calm a customer down and win him over. I must have been a little grumpy after navigating the customer support computer voice menu at one of my banks and finally getting to the man. He (a young guy, I would guess in his 20s) must have noted it in my voice and after probably 15 seconds he was my best friend and I was ready to take him out for a few beers after work. You just have to be trained in how to handle people. The last thing you want to do is be insulting or dismissive. Negative word of mouth travels much faster than does the positive.

Agree. Not saying a manager should be insulting or dismissive. I'm saying I still wouldn't cave in to his demands of not showing an ID, in a polite way.

 

[Goldenhawk]

That's exactly why the policy is posted. If you want service, you abide by the policy. Period. If not? See ya.

 

[David]

OMG! Talk about the universe making you put your money where your mouth is. So, a few minutes ago I get a call from this woman who is visibly angry. I'm not going to regurgitate the entire conversation, just some of the key points:

(imaging some older woman's angry, sniveling, condescending voice like in this video)



I just spent an hour trying to register on your site and it is the worst experience I have ever had. On a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is the worst, you are a 100. Typical Southern Maryland business!

You said you were going to send an me an email and here it is an hour later and I have no email. When other people send me email, bang, I get it right away. But. not you!

Me: Which email service are you using?

Her: Hotmail.

Me: Sometimes mail sent to Hotmail gets stuck in the spam folder.

Her: Well, why didn't you tell me that in the first place? Now do you want to help me or not?

(at this point I am actually a bit shaken because I don't think I have ever had someone be so nasty to me in my life. Sensing trouble no matter what I tried to do...)

Me. Maybe since you're so unhappy with the service it may not be a good idea for you to use us. I don't want you to be unhappy.

Her: Don't be a smartass! Now, do you want the money or don't you?

(at this point I am thinking, well, no, I really don't want your money)

Anyway, I didn't do quite as well as my young friend at the bank. This is definitely something you need professional training for and practice with real life examples. Aye carumba.

I'm sitting here hoping she doesn't call back.

 

[GWguy]

So, a few minutes ago I get a call from this woman who is visibly angry.

I feel for ya. I used to be the IT tech who got all the irate calls from the users,, at least a dozen a day. No one was ever happy, and in a lot of cases they were demanding things that just weren't possible under the corporate umbrella. When the conversation is over, they can make comments on the trouble ticket they created, and their dissatisfaction went straight to my bosses. Had to defend myself on a daily basis, because the customer is always right. Except when they are wrong.

SO GLAD I retired early and put all that behind me.

 

[RoseRed]

Only an unhinged person gets angry with an EMPLOYEE that is following management direction and THE LAW.

 

[David]

I feel for ya.

Thankfully, I think that is only the 2nd angry call I have ever had to personally deal with (I know DJ had one that had her visibly shaken). On the first one, I was able to make the lady happy and at the end she told me that's how customer service should be done.

If I had to deal with that several times/day every day like you were saying, I would quit. So many of my jobs have been as the troubleshooter, and after awhile when you hear the phone ring you just want to go and hide. Trouble can happen at any time of the day and the buck stops here, either I fix it or no one does. One company I was at they made support from all departments stay on the call, even if there was nothing you could contribute. Never failed to hear someone snoring in the phone on one of those 3am calls. (The problem was that you had to go work an 8hr shift and then be on call the other 16 hours. Some guys I knew at other companies just stayed home and went on calls when/if they came in.)

One system we used had memory leaks. So, after awhile it had to be rebooted or it would lose its mind. Management couldn't accept that and wouldn't allow a reboot because we would lose visibility of the network. Well dude, we've already lost partial visibility and its only going to get worst. Love being on those calls. They beat the vendor's rep up so bad one day that I thought he was ready to start throwing punches (I was always nice to him)

 

[mitzi]

Every job I've ever had involved dealing with complaining, angry, yelling people on the phone. Add to that, part time jobs in retail with complaining, angry, yelling people, insulting people in person. The worst was in retail. People seem to think they are above you in retail and can really talk down to you. I always did my best to be polite and helpful but in same cases you just want them to shut up.

 

[littlelady]

This is the thing. I have a story. Carded being the key word. I used to shop at Giant for over 20 years. This past Christmas time, I went through checkout to find I had been charged for a gift card that I did not purchase. Always, check my receipt before leaving. Went to customer service. I was grilled: ...is this your receipt..tell me what you bought...let me go talk to the cashier...she said I don’t remember her. Really? It had been 10 minutes. All that was missing were the bright interrogation lights. Needless. to say, I have not gone back to Giant. I get what LR is saying. If you don’t feel comfortable in a store. Leave. Period. Harris Teeter is my new hang out. Oh, and, yeah, Giant reimbursed for the gift card. I thought about calling corporate, but didn’t. What would be the point of getting the manager in trouble. I wonder if that huge personality cashier is still there. I know what she did because I had a big shop for Christmas. I get emails, now...hey. Robin, we have deals for you. No, thank you.

PS on the BS...I was noticing how many were responding about policy. and all, and some should get their own anger under control. I did, and moved on. Where was the policy with a rogue cashier at Giant? There is something to being comfortable where you shop. After all, we are giving them our money. That’s all. Happy shopping, y’all.

 

[littlelady]

If I may ...

Funny thing. When I used to smoke, same thing happened to me. I'm an older grumpy looking fella and most definitely would not be confused with a younger person. Was doing a bit of shopping, had a cart full of things, after everything was scanned and bagged, then asked for a pack or Marlboro's. She got them and then asked for my ID. Said nope. Don't you think I look old enough? Store policy she said. Get me the manager I said. He came over. Said I'm not showing my ID for some smokes. He said it's store policy else I he can't sell them to me. I said, well, if that's the case, have fun putting back all those items now sitting in all those bags because you have lost all my business and walked out. He was a bit shocked I didn't acquiesce.

I get you. Please refer to post #48.

 

[mitzi]

This is the thing. I have a story. Carded being the key word. I used to shop at Giant for over 20 years. This past Christmas time, I went through checkout to find I had been charged for a gift card that I did not purchase. Always, check my receipt before leaving. Went to customer service. I was grilled: ...is this your receipt..tell me what you bought...let me go talk to the cashier...she said I don’t remember her. Really? It had been 10 minutes. All that was missing were the bright interrogation lights. Needless. to say, I have not gone back to Giant. I get what LR is saying. If you don’t feel comfortable in a store. Leave. Period. Harris Teeter is my new hang out. Oh, and, yeah, Giant reimbursed for the gift card. I thought about calling corporate, but didn’t. What would be the point of getting the manager in trouble. I wonder if that huge personality cashier is still there. I know what she did because I had a big shop for Christmas. I get emails, now...hey. Robin, we have deals for you. No, thank you.

PS on the BS...I was noticing how many were responding about policy. and all, and some should get their own anger under control. I did, and moved on. Where was the policy with a rogue cashier at Giant? There is something to being comfortable where you shop. After all, we are giving them our money. That’s all. Happy shopping, y’all.

What happened to you was theft. Totally different than asking for an ID to buy cigarettes. Hopefully Giant investigated and that cashier was fired.

 

[RoseRed]

I feel for ya. I used to be the IT tech who got all the irate calls from the users,, at least a dozen a day. No one was ever happy, and in a lot of cases they were demanding things that just weren't possible under the corporate umbrella. When the conversation is over, they can make comments on the trouble ticket they created, and their dissatisfaction went straight to my bosses. Had to defend myself on a daily basis, because the customer is always right. Except when they are wrong.

SO GLAD I retired early and put all that behind me.

Beep-Beep! That was me earlier tonight.

 

[littlelady]

What happened to you was theft. Totally different than asking for an ID to buy cigarettes. Hopefully Giant investigated and that cashier was fired.

I get what you are saying, but I get what LR is saying, too. I don’t know if the manager pursued it, or not. Like I said, I left the situation, completely, and moved on to HT.