Okay, let me first preface this with something about me. I have worked in the customer service industry for over half my life. I understand what it is like to be on the "other side of the counter".

Anyways, today I went in search of a product as a favor for a dear friend of mine. She wanted a particular item that is made here locally. She lived here before & asked if I could pick it up for her so she could give it to her hubby for Christmas.

I found out a store downtown carried it. H & I get to the store early cause we didn't know when it opened or if they had holiday hours. We waited in the cold for about 10 minutes. Finally the store opens, the lady who was running the shop was horrible! Instead of saying "Good morning" or "Welcome", she said, "You've got 5 minutes." (Note: Store hours for today was 11am - 4pm)

WHAT?!!

We hadn't even walked into the store! She was being rude before we crossed the threshold!! I told my hubby right then, "Let's go." She didn't even try to apologize or even attempt to call us back by saying, "I'm sorry. Bad joke."

I've decided that I'm writing letters to:
1. Downtown Business Association, the store had a current sticker on their front window.
2. The owner, so he/she knows how rude that person was.
3. The local companies that sell their products in that shop, cause they may be loosing sales without even knowing it.

What about you guys? What customer service hell stories do you have? How have you handled it? Has anything worked? Thanks! And may you have better customer service then I've had lately!!!

I always ask to speak to the person's manager or the owner. I love to see the look of panic that crosses their eyes when you say the phrase, "Let me speak to your supervisor, please." I once ended up on the phone at the store with a Regional Manager for a major electronics store chain in the Houston Area because I did not like the way the floor manager and later store manager reacted to my complaint of poor service by an employee. Not only did I get assurance from him that everyone from the store manager to the drone were going to receive some sort of discipline for the incident, but I walked out of the store with the item I wanted paid for by the store manager.

Magic words, "Let me speak to your supervisor, please."

Ive walked 3 mile down the road to the movie rental store to rent a movie that opens at ten o'clock a.m. only a few thousand feet from a gas station. In my town just to find that at eleven a.m, when I got there after walking there for after 30 minutes they weren't even open. Some people don't show up, some {people} do. In fact.

Ive had a job as a gas station clerk and that is actually, like I was saying close to the gas station.Wth the rule of having no one gas up with the gas cap open when the person is away from the nozzle at any time when they were away from the gas pump. Otherwise if someone was in the bathroom doing the urinating thing or in means of releasing solids, the gas wouldn't pop out of of the gas tank of the car. So that when a person on the next pump over gasses up in the car or truck, or what ever it is, ......is using a cell phone and accidentally drops the cell phone and causes a spark. On the wet ground almost remotely clost to the gas spill.

When if at any time someone does such a drastically dangerous thing, they simply - well -

Blow up.

Poof.

So as the clerk I had to tell the people at the pump not to leave the gas cap inside the nozzle, to keep it open - as they walked into the station to get coffee, go to the bathroom, get lottery tickets, cigarettes, a sandwich, a drink, a drink, a drink, a drink, a drink, a drink, a drink, a candy bar, to return a propane tank, to sign a slip for a debit or credit slip.

To take the credit card when the person at the pump can't get the credit machine at the pump to work. ... And she walks into the store to do it in the pouring rain, and yells "Jesus Christ!!!!!" and slaps down the card, as I swipe it through the machine to initiate her gas transaction.

To abide by the rules of a town fire marshall to keep all gas caps out of all pumps to keep them open in case of gas spills, by yelling at them, telling them over the intercom with five customers waiting for candy bars, sandwiches, cigarettes, lottery tickets, propane tanks, debit cards.

Whenever two pumps gas up, and one is busy doing it, one person may go gassing up, and I take the three charges. Debit and credit. The other gets into the car/ whatever and runs off with the gas, and I call the police.

Before somebody drops the cell phone and sparks a fire on the spill. Then there is a flame underneath the terminal, and it catches on, and there is an explosion.

That was when 9/11 came through and some lady came in and at about 10:30 and was so shooken up about it saying "oh I have a friend that just died in one of the towers - can I get a pack of Marlboro Lights? , not only was I so hurt by what was going on, she had the nerve to ask me for Marlboro Lights on hand for nothing, on camera. I gave it to her. So what?

I won't elaborate on how things are now.

You think you have something to complain about?

Because I sure as hell don't now that I don't have this job anymore.

Ive had enough people flipping me off about the gas cap as it was before 9/11.

Customer service.......

What am I going to do now?

That I don't pay taxes and I do almost everything possible I meant to do as a child that I can't do now that I wanted to as a child. I grew up here as a child.

I wanted to do it ever since.

Now, since my parents were the way they were in the late 70's, I don't have that chance anymore. I'm at a stage I shoul've expected I woul'd be at 14. At least.

Now..........

You have nothing, to complain about.

I'm not sure I'll be fired tomorrow. Or if I'll be hired again.

I'm very patient with customer service personnel as I've worked in multiple facits of said industry. What I really can't stand is when people are rude for no reason, employees or customers, especially customers. I'm one of those people who will chastize someone who is flipping out on someone else. It irks me.

I've also found that sometimes people get crappy service from being crappy customers. I've never understood those people who cus and scream at a food service worker before they receive their food. What kind of idiot does this? I would worry about getting my food in a less than sanitary state. I rarely get poor service from places I go because I treat people with respect; not everyone does this. There's always an exception to the rule though.

The sad part is most people walk into an establishment knowing exactly how they are going to treat the help before even comming in contact with someone. And some people just want to feel like a victim regardless of service received.

I'm always polite where ever I go.

I am a terror to shop with... I have no patience for rudeness. I went to the mall today with my sister and we were in a Yankee Candle shop.. I had finished paying for my candles and she hands them to me in this little zip-lock-type looking bag.. I know they have regular bags with handles, and I asked for one of those..she looked over her shoulder and surreptitiously pulled one out from under the counter and handed it to me quickly... Alright.. whatever, I'll bag my own dang purchases. I go over to the other line where my sister was paying for hers and that clerk did the same thing with the little bag to her.. my sister looked at my bag and asked for a bag like I had.. the clerk rolled her eyes, took out a bag and threw it to her. My sister and I just looked at each other and she turned to leave.. I grabbed her coat and said oh, we're not through yet. I called little Miss I-don't-have-time-to-be-polite back over and explained to her that she'd better start looking for employment elsewhere first thing in the morning...I went on to further explain that although our purchases did not total over $100, we were still paying customers and deserved the same consideration as someone blowing their entire Christmas Club check on car jars and votives. I got her name and the number for the main office and wished the little heffer a most happy holiday.

pflack I read your post three times and still have no idea what you said. Did you blow up a gas station?

^^ I thought I was the only one who didnt understand .

Ditto.



Ditto.

Customer Service can be terrible sometimes. I've had many bad experiences. One place I was buying a shirt and 2 of my friends were with me. We were all 23 at the time. We don't look bad or did anything suspicious in the store. I could hear one of the guys working telling other employees to "keep and eye on us" and when I went to pay for the shirt I gave him dirty looks, I think he knew I heard him. He kind of walked away. I almost didn't buy the shirt cause of it but I was trying to find it for a long time. Lets just say a mister Arnold Schwarzenegger made a few phone calls to that clothing store once I got home.

http://www.surfindark.com/index.cgi/000000.../arnolds22.html

Well I'm not a shopper .. I hate shopping .. but when I come across rude sales people, I don't even waste my time or energy in trying to deal with them or their supervisor/manager. I just leave and take my business and money somewhere else.

I hate when you call a place and have to press 800 different number combinations to be able to talk to someone the you have to wait for someone to pick up the phone...when they answer they put you on hold because they don't know how to answer your question...then a new person piks up the phone and makes you repeat yourself...and then they make you go mail the product to them so they can fix it...they tell you that it will take two weeks but it takes 2 months....then they lose...then they find it...then you get it back and it still doesn't work right.

That was my experience around the PS2 launch...I got the disc read error because the PS2s at that time where faulty. Their customer service made it seem like it was my fault and acted like its a rare thing(happened to almost everyone). Then they charge you for shipping and repairs.


The best Customer Service ever is from Nintendo...they actually called me back! I screwed up and put the wrong address on the mailing form and they figured it all out in a day. I put the wrong address on mailing forms before(i move a lot) and most companies just make me rebuy the thing.

Read my blog post "Murder." My son and I were recently assaulted by another crazed shopper and the manager just glared and said "Well, what do you want me to do about it?" I got her fired.

I can't abide rude salespeople. I will not tolerate rudeness or lack of attention. My biggest pet peeve these days are cashier clerks who just scan everything and say NOTHING to you - not even quoting the price.

I work in retail. As a matter of fact, I work in 'Customer Service' or as we call it at Target "Guest Service". People are extremly rude. Countless times I have been cursed off, name-called, and occasionally a target for flying objects (namely shoes.) Im always polite to our guests (Target believes that 'customer' is a rude word, so we call them guests. We have lots of Target lingo! ) Anyways, Some people just dont understand that Im trying the best I can for them. If I tell them something cant be done, then it cant. "You cant shoot the messanger"-what I tell them. Of course someone has to ask for the manager, which doesnt bother me at all. Ive been there for about 2 years, I know what can and cant be done. Im always confident that the manager will stick with our policy. Sometimes they make exceptions, but its really rare.

Funny story- A lady brought in a pair of shoes, in a bag, with a reciept. First we have to make sure the shoes have not been worn. These shoes were obviously worn for along period of time. So I took a look at her reciept, which had expired last year. Mind you we have a 90-day return policy. After looking at the shoes again, I noticed the 'Nike' swoop on the side. I shook my head, explaing to the lady that the shoes were not from our store. She turned red with anger and then procedeed to call me names and then chuck the shoes at me and storm out, attempting to cause i scene. I just laughed, picked up the shoes and threw them away!

Now xohc - you sound like the right type of person for a customer service job - or guest relations or whatever!

Don't take anything the customer does personally.

Haha. Thanks. I try not to take things to personally. I guess thats why they stuck me back there. I perform well under pressure, especially with the holiday season. People seem to be getting angrier as this month progresses! Recently, I've been stuck back in the Electronics department, which is fun, but people get angry when they cant get their video games!

Let me guess, everyone wants a Wii and PS3

In my younger days I worked in customer service in a drug store and people waiting for medicine are hard to deal with at times.

I don't like rudeness at all so I try to say something funny if I sense the cashier is somewhere else in her mind. I've had my run-ins, tho. I don't stand for it either. I'm very patient and very polite but if someone is rude to me for no reason I will stand up for myself vehemently.

I say "Oi! you respect my authoriti!!" then i kick em in the nuts!

^^ That would work unless they are nutless.

I hate rude customer service. Like once I was at an electronics store and I keep seeing this worker following me and watching my every move. Well I ignore him for a while until I here him say "You f*cking kid, get out before I phone the RCMP. I am tired of making sure you don't steal anything."

It's not really customer service, but I was still very mad.

Read your blog. DANG! Woman is lucky I didn't see this cr@p going on. I would have gotten all the shoppers around me & we would have held her for the cops to come! I'm glad that worthless manager is gone! Maybe they'll get someone in there who knows how to really run a store! I mean what would she do if it was her child or someone she gave a damn about this woman assaulted?

My Christmas wish for you & yours...peace, especially for your little one with autism. His reaction must have been heartbreaking. Children should never have to go through horrible things like that. Never.

P.S. I agree about cashiers. It's like why bother?!! Let me scan it myself in one of those self-checkers. I'd prefer my own company to just a body standing at the register.

Yes! You guessed right. We got a shipment of PS3 when they came out, but havnt gotten anymore. We recently got our second shipment of Wii's. We recieved 15 for our store. We had 77 people outside waiting in line. They started "camping out" at 11 p.m. the night before. Its just insane. We wont be getting anymore before christmas, but afterwards there will be plenty to go around! Its just like the XBOX 360's and PSP's.

I know what you mean. Some people just search for confrontation.

That's exactly the way I try to be. I know it must get old trying to be nice all day so I am always trying to joke around with the service people. If they are downright mean though, there's just no call for that. Their employers deserve to know about it, especially if it's a small company that's losing money because of a rotten employee.

I occasionally do marketing consulting and one of our clients wanted us to do a little secret shopping. I had to go in and intentionally be rude to real estate brokers, it was horrible! (Most secret shoppers don't have to be rude) Everyone was pretty nice, but then I didn't try throwing my shoes at them...

I like the system I have at the tanning salon I manage. All of our clients are in a windows based program so when they scan in (using a print from their index finger) if their's been a problem with the client's account for any reason its the first thing my employees sees.

If the client is a pseudo high maintenance b****ie-type person or if we've made a mistake in the past then we know about it first thing and can treat the situation properly. Sometimes you just have to kiss ass when you work in a competitive market, hell with the way some customers need to be pampered you end up kissing ass more often than what seems reasonable.

Regardless, the system makes any potential issues easier to deal with. And our clients like it too.

You know who has problems with customer service? Hookers; that's who..And if you've ever heard them complain, the rude lady at Wal-Mart seems pretty tame in comparison..

Um. Pardon? You have this information why?

I was writing a book..Yeah, a book..
Research, you know?

oooh... you're in some kinda trouble now...

On a brighter note... I had had a minor problem with a purchase I was trying to make today and I thought for sure it would end up in a free-for-all-brawl..but the lady handling it did so with the best attitude I've seen in a long while. Almost gives me hope..... almost..

Um. Yeah........


O..K..

Fine..I was engaged in weird and unnatural acts that needed to be paid for..Happy now?

Hmm..I would probably tell them right in the face what an a$$ they are, maybe in some "finer/nicer words". And "demand" to talk to someone else. Or simply look at another store.

I use to work in retail several years back so I tend to be patient when shopping. Like everyone else I hate rude customer service reps, but my story is from the opposite end…..the rude customer.

Several years ago I had a customer who wanted to pay her bill and return some items at the register so I greeted her with the usual “hello, how are you today”? She responded by telling me “instead of talking why don’t you return these items ( 3 items ) for me and so that I can get the hell out of here.”

I’m thinking to myself oh no one of these……… As I’m returning the items the phone rings so reach over to pick it up while conducting the transaction since nobody else is on the floor. I was in the process of putting the person on hold when Ms. Rude B**** yells out “Put the F******* down and return my items!”
I was in total shock, WTF? So I proceeded to return her items and asked her for information since our system requires to do so before I can access the proper screen. She continued to make a scene throwing insults and making rude comments, I was so close to telling her off but I needed this job.

Long story short I made her wait 15-20min as I took my time returning the items with a big smile on my face, it’s usually takes a sales rep 2min. I continued to answer questions form other customers while Ms. Rude B**** kept up her childish behavior only to make a fool out herself. I discretely pulled out my cell and redialed the extension number to my service desk phone so the ring would annoy the hell out of her, lol. After several min she yelled for somebody to pick up the phone, unfortunately her cries went unheard. The constant ringing drove her insane. LOL

The moral of the story is be nice to the sales person.

Haha. I completely understand. I might have to try this sometime. Seeing as its the holidays, people are getting ruder by the minute! =]]

There was this one time when i was at a store name Kb Toys I was like 12 and by myself ,i was paying for something and was about to grab the bag when the cashier said angrily "youre not getting your stuff until you say thanks" keep in mind i was 12, Happy, and in a hurry to catch the bus in time, I got mad because i didnt have to deal with his crap grabbed my bag and walked away and he yelled at me and said i was rude..kinda true but no cashier usually force you to say thanks....



And like a week ago i was calling customer support for a linksys modem and i was connected to an overseas person i could barely understand anything they were saying i kept on asking her what she said and she kept on getting mad at me i hanged up and talked to them via chat on the comp so i can actually understand what they are saying ..

Simply tell them ''f**kyou very much for noth'n''!!!, wink @ em and walk straight out.

Working at a store where we are suppose to greet every customer and provide nothing less than perfect customer service I know how it feels to be complained to. Dealing with people your entire day is stressful I'd say. Many people complain everyday to me as well as my other co-workers, but I think everyone at my job don't give a darn except out manager. So the only one that takes stuff serious is him....sinmply because out pay as well as job sucks.

I work at a movie theatre and everyone who goes to my movoe theatre is retarded...because half a mile away there is a bigger, better, and cheaper theatre that has more movies.

The stupid questions I get asked like "When does this movie start?"...when there is a big sign above where I'm standing with times and pictures of the movies...or when I tel people their movie is their right hand side and they go left and thats my fault....or when people order 100 different things and wonder why its taking so long....or people wanting refunds for Borat because they didn't know it was going to be offensive.

Some days I just reinact the movie Clerks...

I usually just stab somebody..It doesn't really have to be connected with anybody who gave me the poor service, it just has to be somebody..
Then were all 5 by 5..

Good move!

If I encounter poor customer service, I go straight to the top. If it's at a restaurant or a place where I purchase equipment(like a computer), I not only discuss it with the manager, I talk to the District Manager. There's no excuse for poor customer service.

~ Isis

Thats the kind of thing I have nightmares about. If someone asks to talk to my manager, I start to shake.
...not that it happens often. Mostly people just want cheaper prices...

Also completely in the dark re. what Pflack was driving at... had to stop a quarter of the way in, actually.

Bad customer service: I always mention it, and ask why they are being so rude. If no success ask for manager and report it in front of rude employee.

In South Africa we get some very slovenly, indifferent and downright rude service. Disgraceful!