SC Stories . . . For the Better?

[dragonflygrrl]

I think just working in retail and in customer service has taught me how to be a non-SC in general, but this site has taught me a few things about other types of customer service jobs that I haven't worked in, such as the thing about waitstaff, tipping, and taxes. Also, just the little things that I never thought of as sucky, like jokingly saying, "must be free," when things didn't ring up. I didn't mean it, and I didn't know it was annoying. Now I do, and I have mended my ways.

Mainly, this site is how I keep from "going cellular," at work.

[Becks]

Thanks to this site, I no longer go up to cashiers with no one in their lines and say, "You look bored!"

(Unless they actually DO look bored...but they're usually reading a magazine, anway...)

[karma_gypsy]

Yes, I'm sure we've all had our SC moments I know I've had, but, like it was posted earlier, it was the naivety (sp?) thing and plus I was younger. Since I began working, I've been a better customer, and since I've been on customerssuck.com, I know what to look at for!

[Binky]

I have tried myself to be a better customer, however I do think occationally I'm a SC....but that is only really when the person putting through my purchase is a b*&ch/B&^%ted to me first...either that or has NO clue what they are doing and acts like it's something I've done...has that a few times..."yes because it was me who didn't put anything on the web page saying that you needed to order (insert item) over the phone and not on the net...so OF COURSE you will charge me for another item that I didn't select and say it's my fault that I'm getting charged...because of course I didn't double and TRIPPLE check that I had selected the item I needed and then check AGAIN before I purchaded it...yeah ALL MY FAULT" (being sarcastic here)...lets just say I wasn't a very nice person to this young lady on the phone....I was a COMPLETE SC...but I'm sorry I don't like being blamed for something that is actually the fault of the company...not me...but yeah I'm a little better...sometimes

[kerrisan]

Yes, I now appoligize GREATLY whenever I realize I have been an SC. I have been on the receiving end of "you don't know what you're doing, I could have your job, blah blah blah yakkity schmakkity" before, so I know how it goes.

[HYHYBT]

I've always (well, since being old enough to go to a store by myself) been polite as best I could, and I've learned through work, but this site's helped me avoid things I didn't know before were annoying that don't apply in fast food. For example, until I started working I didn't know how irritating it was to be handed formerly crumpled-up money... but until I read CS I didn't know customers using hand baskets were supposed to empty them instead of putting the whole thing on the belt.

[air914]

Yep I definitely think it has. I always push my grocery cart back into it's proper place and sometimes I'll take another with me - just my way of humbling myself and saying "hey, I understand it probably sucks to pick up after all these people leaving their carts everywhere and I'm not better than you so I can put my cart in the right spot". I also try to be patient w/ people and at least say "I know it's not YOUR fault" when I'm upset about something so they know I"m not yelling at them, I'm just frustrated w/ the policies or whatever. The only time I ever start to become nasty is when I've said something over and over and over and the person totally ignores me or something and keeps reading from their little "tech manual" - I'm like I've done this, this and this - and they still read me page 1 where it says to do everything I've just done...... and when I feel that the only way I'm going to get anything done is to get a little nasty b/c I've been polite up to a point - but I'm not gonna just be wishy washy and nice when the person is NOT helping me on the phone and is being condescending or something like that to me.

The best was when I was on a tech support line w/ two people - and the one tech hung up on the other and said to me "I'm sorry but she's an idiot". I burst out laughing - b/c a) she was, and b) I couldn't believe he did that! She was speaking to him very condescendingly though and was more about trying to make him calm down (he was getting exasperated w/ her) than actually trying to fix the problem I, the customer, was having. I loved that tech guy that day though - even if he couldn't help me, he at least wasn't going to make me listen to some idiot go on and on and talk down to me.

[Jester]

I have found a rather easy solution to dealing with idiots when I call an 800 number. It fame to me after Hurricane Wilma, when I called FEMA one day. The dude I was talking to on the other end was so completely idiotic that after a few minutes of me wanting to bang my head against the wall and getting nowhere with him, I just hung up, and called back a few hours later, and got a dude who knew what the hell he was talking about. Problem solved.