Jackasses and Faxes - rant - long

[Peppergirl]

I haven't been riled up enough to post my very own thread, but here goes:

I work in a travel call-center. Guy calls me tonight around 6pm and tells me he needs to book a reservation. Lucky for him (and me) I happened to get his secretary when she called earlier, and informed him that Pat had booked him already. I say lucky for ME because, guess who would have inevitably gotten blamed if he had been double booked?

But I digress.

He proceeds to complain about how she didn't tell him. He went on and on. I'm thinking "This is my problem, how?", but I let him rant on. Finally, I had had enough. Pat is a great secretary, and is working from home on a Saturday, for God's sake. I said "Maybe because it's Saturday?" I said it lighthearedly enough that I got away with it. He chuckled and asked me to fax the itinerary. I pointed out that I had already emailed it, but he mumbled something about his computer. Not wanting to have to listen to another rant, I quickly agreed to fax it. Although faxing is unbelieveably rare now, I clicked a couple of buttons and faxed it off as he recited the number to me.

All is well, right?

About two hours later, he calls back. Draws me, again. Lucky me.

Him: I never got my fax from earlier that the girl said she sent.

Me: Oh, that was me. I did send it. Sorry about that. Let me try it again, can I have the number?

Him: (nastily) What number did you fax it to?

Me: Well, our fax program is a little antiquated. It doesnt tell me if it goes through or not, nor does it grab the number into history for me to check it. If you'll give me the number again, I'll try again.

Him: Well, if you had faxed it, I would have gotten it. What number did you fax it to?

Me: (repeated a variation of the above) I apologize. If you'll give me the number again, I'll be happy to try it again.

Him: (dripping with sarcasm and bitterness) Yeah, maybe you can actually fax it to a NUMBER this time.

Me: (silent for a moment) Excuse me?

Him: (stupidly repeats it)

Me: .....

Him: .....

Me: Sir, lets try this again. Give me the number and I'll try it again.

(at this point, all pretense of customer service and tone has gone out of my voice)

Him: Repeats number.

Me: Oh, Im sorry, I missed the last 4..

Him: Repeats again

Me: Repeats it back, twice...slowly.



Apparently he got it, because he never called back. But DAMN!!! A simple 'I didn't get the fax, can you resend it' along with a 'sure, sorry about that. Whats the number' would have taken all of 30 seconds. When I hung up I was shaking. Usually I don't let it get to me like that, but the sheer venom in his voice just shook me to my core.


Some people have no business being allowed out in public or to speak on a telephone.

I bet his momma is proud.

[DarthRetard]

That's why good old CS.com is here darlin, a place to vent and share so you don't go Michael Myers on people.....

Some people just see us as less than human. I guess once you enter a service position of some sort, it also allows you to be seen as someone lower on the food chain, because you have something someone wants.

You could have refused the fax until he treated you with respect. Don't have to be rude about it either, just simply inform him that you won't be talked to that way.

Like my DM put it after a woman threw a gameboy at me (still haven't done that thread), "Well, dude, you don't get paid enough to deal with that."

I've finally started standing up for myself with customers, and I think you should too. It doesn't mean you have to be forceful, and rude, and assertive, but self-defense is allowed, and if you show it once, it's less likely to happen again.

[Peppergirl]

Oh trust me, in an office of about 20-30 agents, I somehow have the distinction of being of the top 5 in customer satisfaction AND for not taking any crap off anyone.

Just goes to show, ass-kissing and allowing a customer to talk to you like crap is NOT necessary in providing decent service. Too bad some of our managers haven't mastered that notion yet.

Girl who was on duty with me tonight looked shocked when I told her what happened. Not at the SC's behavior, but at the fact that I didn't rip him to shreds.

[Jadedcarguy]

Like my DM put it after a woman threw a gameboy at me (still haven't done that thread)

DAMN! Post it!

[DarthRetard]

Well, since you insisted. I will. And good for Pepper, i just dont like seeing people take shit they don't have to. It's not right, and I'll fight it every time.

[Ree]

I have people try to tell me all the time that they didn't get the fax, and I will be standing there, holding in my hand the confirmation that it went through.

I have people tell me they never got the email.

I have people say that I sent the fax addressed to the attention of the wrong department. (What I don't understand when that happens is, why didn't that department forward it to the correct department?)

That guy was an ass, plain and simple.

There is an arrogance with some people that they just assume, because we work in customer service, that we are not smart, or are beneath them, and will try to pull a fast one if we can.
I hate being talked down to.

I usually don't let it show in my voice, though.

There have been a couple of times, though, when I have come close to losing it - last Wednesday, for instance....(but that's another story for my own thread.)

[BookstoreEscapee]

It doesn't mean you have to be forceful, and rude, and assertive, but self-defense is allowed, and if you show it once, it's less likely to happen again.

I disagree on the word "assertive" - you should be assertive. There's a difference between that and rude. Polite assertiveness is self-defense.

[JustADude]

It doesn't mean you have to be forceful, and rude, and assertive, but self-defense is allowed, and if you show it once, it's less likely to happen again.

As BE mentioned, the proper word isn't "Assertive." Assertive is self-defense and not allowing people to walk all over you. You're thinking of the term "Aggressive."

[Andara Bledin]

I have people tell me they never got the email.

Unless you have a return receipt or a reply, they could be absolutely truthful. Email has about the same chances of getting to the addressee as US snail mail. The vast majority makes it to where it's going in great time. Some takes the scenic route and gets there late. And some just disappears never to be seen again.

My companies email provider isn't particularly good and we have email going to the other side of the office that never shows up.

^-.-^

[BookstoreEscapee]

Unless you have a return receipt or a reply, they could be absolutely truthful. Email has about the same chances of getting to the addressee as US snail mail. The vast majority makes it to where it's going in great time. Some takes the scenic route and gets there late. And some just disappears never to be seen again.

^-.-^

hehe, happened to me today. I sent myself something from my personal email to my work email, and it never showed up Most likely it's sitting in a filter somewhere...

[Andara Bledin]

hehe, happened to me today. I sent myself something from my personal email to my work email, and it never showed up Most likely it's sitting in a filter somewhere...

It can be really hard to determine why they never get to where they're going.

My favorite trick is to take an email that I sent to a coworker that never showed up, and forward the sent email to that person, so that the email I'm sending is exactly the same except that it has forward tags added. I've also moved email from the sent folder to the drafts folder and resent it that way, too, which makes it completely the same as the first time except for the time stamp attached. So far, the second tries have always made it within seconds.

^-.-^

[yomiko]

Thunderbird has this lovely 'Edit as new' feature. Where it just opens up any message and you can hit send again. Great when you send e-mail first thing in the morning and find out later when you're more awake that you sent it to the wrong person.