“You gotta loosen up, my friend. You’d feel a hell of a lot better if you’d rip into the occasional customer.” – Randall from Clerks
I finally did it. You know, there’s only so much abuse one person can take. And today, on the phone, the biggest beeyotch in the world finally made me lose my cool. It had already been an extremely busy day, and I was trying to cover the lunch shift alone so Chrystalla could get something to eat. The phone rang, and as soon as I picked it up the customer started attacking me. She said she’d rung that morning to order some wool and whoever she’d spoken to had “promised to call her back in two hours,” and she’d been sitting in her house that whole time unable to go anywhere for fear she’d miss the call. And she was terribly angry. I went into extreme-politeness mode, apologizing and trying to explain that we’d been really busy, and unfortunately there didn’t seem to be any note about her wool order, so she’d have to wait until Chrystalla got back. She proceeded to RIP ME A NEW ONE. “If I’d been IN THE STORE, it wouldn’t have taken two hours to find out about my yarn!” “Yes, ma’am, I’m very sorry, but it’s difficult to ignore several customers standing at the counter to deal with phone enquiries, which is why she said she’d call you back…” “But I phoned FIRST, so I should’ve been BEFORE THOSE PEOPLE!” I kept trying to placate, explaining that I didn’t really know the details of what she was after, so it might be that Chrystalla was trying to call the supplier or query the warehouse or whatever. She was having none of it. “I AM EXTREMELY ANGRY,” she snotted. “I’ve never been treated like this from a shop before.” “Well, ma’am, if you give me the details of the yarn, I might be able to chase that up for you.” “WHAT, you’re going to do in five minutes what she couldn’t do in TWO HOURS?” Starting to get frazzled now. I finally convinced her to tell me what wool it was, and I realized that there had been a note, it just didn’t have a name on it (and if she’d told me the wool to begin with, it would’ve saved ten minutes of arguing). “I’ve actually got your order here, and I’ve been trying to fill it,” I said. “I’ve got all of one colour, but we’re missing two packets of the second. I’m trying to locate it for you.” “WELL, HOW MUCH LONGER IS THAT GOING TO TAKE?” Deep breath. “Well, I do have several customers waiting at the moment, so I’m going to have to call you back.” “Can you PROMISE that you’ll call by the end of the day? Because otherwise I’LL TAKE MY BUSINESS ELSEWHERE.”
That did it. I barked, “Fine. I’ll call you by the end of the day. AND THANK YOU, FOR BEING SO PLEASANT.” And I slammed down the phone. The other customers waiting at the counter applauded.
Damn, it feels good to be a gangsta.
Update: Chrystalla just told me that she finally rang the customer back, and evidently I must’ve “put her in her place.” She didn’t say a word about her conversation with me. HARRUMPH.
Later Update: THAT COW! She called Albert to complain that I was rude to her. Whatever.
10 responses
Well done! People like that live for phone orders because they’ve somehow learned (subconciously in some cases) that they’re so vile no one will put up with their rudeness in person. I firmly believe that’s why QVC thrives. Some people just can’t function in public.
Having worked in a call centre for the worst 8 months of my life, I can tell you that people are incredibly rude when you can’t see them. Deep breaths, let it go!
Well done!
You can be waaaaay too nice sometimes! (and I bet Albert went uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, yes maam, uh-huh, bye) hehe
you absolutely have nothing to apologize about
just think for a minute – she waited for 2 hours for that call – she doesn’t have a life – poor dear but still no excuse for such rude behaviour
I was once ripped a new one by a customer face to face, when I was 17 and worked in a department store. For no good reason. She even slammed her goods down on the counter, and it slid across and hit me.
The more mature lady I worked with just calmly told her that not only were we not going to sell her anything, but basically her money was no good in our store, and if she ever saw her again she would never, ever sell her anything. Shut her up straight away. Some people are so convinced that they can get away with saying anything they like in a situation like that, that to have someone say ‘fine, don’t ever come here again because we won’t serve you’ is the last thing they expect. I hope Albert backs you up.
Eh, he just thought it was kind of funny. He’s willing to put up with crap like that, and I suppose he should, since he’s the business owner and the sales affect him more directly. Me, I don’t care if she ever comes back.
The big news is that apparently she came in this morning to pick up her yarn, and since I was in the office unaware, she proceeded to tell Mel the whole story. So she’s also tattling on me to my COWORKERS! What a cow.
It’s a pity you didn’t come out of the office and introduce yourself. She would have been as nice as pie to your face. People like that don’t have courage to your face.
Ugh. This is why I’ll never win a customer service award. I’m the nicest, sweetest person you’ll ever hope to meet, and I love to make people happy… But I have no patience for disrespect and rudeness and I probably would’ve told that woman where to put her yarn order about halfway through that conversation.
YARN: SERIOUS BUSINESS!
Rest assured – I love your shop, you were extremely helpful and wonderful when I was there, and I would never dream of speaking to anyone who works in customer service that way (because I work in customer service as well).