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I had NO patience for SCs this week.
Remember what I predicted would come true in the fire threads? It happened, in the worst way.
These SCs happened two days ago – I just now got around to having the time to type them out.
I dealt with three SCs who were upset because hey, guess what, we weren't able to deliver furniture this week due to the, oh, half a million acres that have burned or are burning Southern California.
Basically, if San Diego wasn't threatened directly, the roads to and from were. Heck, it's still smokey and hazy outside and will be for another few days at least.
Needless to say, because members of my family were still evacuated, personal friends lost everything, and myself having to evacuate three times, I have a very, VERY short fuse right now when it comes to this stuff.
I haven't even had time to do laundry since we got back, so I'm at work wearing jeans and a hawaiian shirt.
Going...
Mid morning rolls around and I get a call from an irate customer who was supposed to have a technician out in her home to work on a piece of furniture. Of course, this didn't happen, and now she wants to know what we can offer.
SC: This is ridiculous! Your technician said he was going to be here on monday, and he never came. I can't wait for this piece any more.
Me: Yes ma'am, I understand, but the fires in the county had all the roads closed. Our technician was obviously not able to make it.
SC: Well, why didn't he call me?
Me: Because chances are, if he had to evacuate in a hurry, like most everyone in northern San Diego did, I'm sure his priority was his family. I apologize that he didn't call but given the circumstances there was really no way -
SC: That's a poor excuse! Those fires were nowhere near me! (This was true, she was in the rich trailer trash area of San Diego that the fires never got near, for shame)
Me: Okay, look, I can reschedule you ASAP as soon as I can get ahold of the technician to come out and service the piece. I don't know when that's going to happen because the evacuation order hasn't been lifted for his part of the county yet.
SC: (angrily) What type of company is this? How can you not meet your customers expectations?
Me: (eye twitches...urge to kill...rising...) The fires and road closures are completely out of our control, okay? There's nothing else that could be done, and we along with every other company in this county are trying to get things back to normal after this disaster.
SC: Well what sort of compensation can I get?
Me: None whatsoever. You're in the same boat as everyone else this week, we made no deliveries and sent out no technicians to the area.
SC: (condescending) Well gee, that's great. So now I have guests coming out to see me and I can't put them in a hotel because they're all full.
Me: Yeah, they're full of people who can't go home or don't even know if they have a home to go back to. Just like our technician. I can pass on the info and rest assured, he will call you when he can, but his priority is going to be his home and his family. We will get you taken care of, but the priorities of our employees are with their families right now, as they should be.
SC: You're completely useless.
Me: I don't have the time or patience to deal with someone who can't understand what the hell their priorities should be. You'll get a call back from the techician and he will service your furniture when he is able. Goodbye.
I hung up the phone, seeing red. Needless to say, I knew that yesterday I was going to have these SCs get under my skin very very quickly, and who can blame me? I spent some time cooling off, and had almost calmed down again when the phone rang a second time.
Going...
It was a customer who was scheduled for delivery earlier this week, which of course we couldn't make, not so much because the fire was in his area but because all the freeways leading out of San Diego were closed at the time. I had called this "gentleman" earlier and he was returning my phone call.
Me: Thank you for calling, how can I help you?
SC: Yeah, this is Asshat. You had called me about how we were going to handle this issue with my couch not being delivered?
Me: Oh, thank you for calling back. I tell ya, it's been a crazy few days here in San Diego and due to the fires and road closures, we weren't able to make any deliveries this week. We've been contacting everyone who was supposed to be delivered to ask them if they were okay with rescheduling and also to see if they were all okay.
SC: Why the hell wouldn't I be?
Me: Well, I hate to say it but a few people that we were supposed to deliver to either haven't been able to return because of the evacuations, so our drivers wouldn't be able to get into the area anyway, and unfortunately, a few of them no longer have homes. We also wanted to make sure all of our customers were okay. We're trying to get another truck down this week to make deliveries to everyone, I can put you on that one if you want to.
SC: That's no good to me, what else?
Me: (...the hell?) Well...right now we're waiving our usual policies and allowing people affected this week to either reschedule or give them a full refund, no questions asked. I could do that for you if you like.
SC: Look, kid. I was supposed to have this thing delivered and it's not here. I'm very angry about this and am seriously considering contacting my attorney over this.
Me: (Okay asshole, I know that was an empty threat) Perhaps your lawyer can answer how the hell we're supposed to make deliveries when the freeway is on fire. The National Guard was the one that shut down the roads to ensure the safety of everyone there, and they were patrolling it with M-16 rifles and combat shotguns. I know this because I encountered several barricades when I tried to make it back to my area to see if I still had a place to live.
SC: Don't have that tone with me. I'm not buying this, that's not a good enough excuse.
Me: (le-SNAP) Excuse? Half a million people evacuated, fifteen hundred homes destroyed, five hundred thousand acres charred, every major freeway closed, and that's not a good enough reason to not risk the safety of our employees and our customers? Tell you what, sir, why don't you tell me what you think a catastrophe is. If you can come up with something more serious than what just happened over the last few days, I'd love to hear it. What would have to happen before you could accept that there are just some things we cannot control?
SC: That does it, I'm calling my attorney.
Me: Great. Be sure that you take in your paperwork so that when he sees the line on the back of the contract that says we aren't responsible for circumstances beyond our control, he can tell you that you just wasted $400 on a legal briefing to find out that there's nothing you can do if we offered your money back.
*click* I was shaking at this point. Before I was thankfully able to chat with a few CSers online, I dealt with the final one that would have gotten me fired, if it were any other circumstance.
GONE!
This woman didn't think it well enough to call, oh no, she was one who thought that somehow coming into the showroom and dealing with me directly would give her the magical power of intimidation.
The scenario was roughly the same as it was for the second SC - customer was in one of the few areas that had not been evacuated and could not pull her head out of her ass long enough to realize that she was extremely lucky.
SC: (Marches up) Oh great...
Me: Hi, can I help you?
SC: (look of disgust) I don't know, can you?
Me: (ugh) Well I can try, what's the issue?
SC: Yeah, I got a call from you a few days ago saying that you weren't going to bring me my sofa, I'm here to find out what's going to happen.
Me: I apologize, but due to the fires and road closures we weren't able to make any deliveries this week...
SC: Well, young man, I am the customer, and I am not happy, and this is what's going to happen.
Me: (Doesn't say anyhing, just looks at her with an emotionless face. Hey, she came in filled with righteous indignation, it's only right as a gentleman I let her get it out of her system, right?)
SC: You're going to refund me the delivery charge, and you are going to deliver this sofa to me tommorrow.
Me: Unfortunately, I cannot do tha-
SC: I didn't come in here to argue. You don't get to talk.
Me: Excuse me? (Imagine the "Discount?" frame in my avatar for my exact expression)
SC: You heard me. You can't imagine the inconvenienced this caused.
Me: (says nothing, just stands there)
SC: ...
Me: ...
SC: ...well?
Me: I'm just waiting until it's my turn to talk.
SC: Fine, what are you going to do?
Me: Nothing we haven't offered everyone else in this situation. You can reschedule for the following week, or we can give you a full refund and overnight you a check.
SC: You know what? You’re completely useless. How hard can your job be to let someone like you do it.
Me: Okay, you know what? Let me explain something to you. You want to know how hard my job is? I’ll tell you. The last three days of my job have been the hardest days I’ve ever had at work. Do you want to know why?
SC: No, I don’t car-
Me: Shut up. It’s my turn to talk, I didn’t interrupt you. Out of all the customers that we were supposed to deliver to this week, half of them no longer have homes. I have to take that phone call. I have to listen to the wife, crying to me, saying that they lost everything and only have the clothes on their backs. I hear the despair in their voice, they have absolutely no hope in their voice. It’s made me break down. I remember those families because they came in and dealt with me. I remember the happy look on their children’s faces. Now, I can only imagine those children digging through what was left of their rooms, their faces covered in soot and tears. I was evacuated myself and have never been so thankful in my life to find out that I had a home, and that my family was safe. I still don’t know for sure if they still have homes, they’re still displaced. So don’t you come in here talking about an inconvenience.
Note: Yes, I really said this – I was shaking at the time, with my voice raised, and I’m shaking now just typing this – to hear the voice of someone with absolutely no hope…I can’t put into words what it does to you, but anyone who has heard that voice knows exactly what I’m talking about – and understands why I snapped.
The SC turned bright red at this point, but I don’t think it was embarrassment, it was anger. I wasn’t done though, I let her have her chance. She started to open her mouth and I continued.
Me: No, I’m not done. You want to know what’s going to happen? Two things are going to happen in the next thirty seconds. The first is that you’re going to decide whether you want a cancellation with a full refund or you want to reschedule. The second thing that’s going to happen, is that you’re leaving this showroom. So, I’m done, what’ s it going to be?
She says “Cancel the order” and turns around and walks out – but the last thing she says is “I’m going to speak with your district manager about this.”
My reply? “By all means, but just so you know, he was evacuated too. I really, really doubt he’s going to do anything except hang up on you. You’ll have the money back in your account by tomorrow at noon. Now get out.”
She then got in her car and drove off.
I was shaking and all the emotions actually had me clenching my jaw and tears in the corner of my eyes reliving the last week and everything afterwards…
My coworker was there, and saw this whole incident with her jaw on the floor. She saw how upset I was and broke the moment with “You know, I really wish I didn’t have a boyfriend. I am so hot for you right now.”
I laughed, the tension gone, but I left early from work because she had showed up and I just couldn’t deal with another SC.
People like that make me wish Saw was real.
Remember what I predicted would come true in the fire threads? It happened, in the worst way.
These SCs happened two days ago – I just now got around to having the time to type them out.
I dealt with three SCs who were upset because hey, guess what, we weren't able to deliver furniture this week due to the, oh, half a million acres that have burned or are burning Southern California.
Basically, if San Diego wasn't threatened directly, the roads to and from were. Heck, it's still smokey and hazy outside and will be for another few days at least.
Needless to say, because members of my family were still evacuated, personal friends lost everything, and myself having to evacuate three times, I have a very, VERY short fuse right now when it comes to this stuff.
I haven't even had time to do laundry since we got back, so I'm at work wearing jeans and a hawaiian shirt.
Going...
Mid morning rolls around and I get a call from an irate customer who was supposed to have a technician out in her home to work on a piece of furniture. Of course, this didn't happen, and now she wants to know what we can offer.
SC: This is ridiculous! Your technician said he was going to be here on monday, and he never came. I can't wait for this piece any more.
Me: Yes ma'am, I understand, but the fires in the county had all the roads closed. Our technician was obviously not able to make it.
SC: Well, why didn't he call me?
Me: Because chances are, if he had to evacuate in a hurry, like most everyone in northern San Diego did, I'm sure his priority was his family. I apologize that he didn't call but given the circumstances there was really no way -
SC: That's a poor excuse! Those fires were nowhere near me! (This was true, she was in the rich trailer trash area of San Diego that the fires never got near, for shame)
Me: Okay, look, I can reschedule you ASAP as soon as I can get ahold of the technician to come out and service the piece. I don't know when that's going to happen because the evacuation order hasn't been lifted for his part of the county yet.
SC: (angrily) What type of company is this? How can you not meet your customers expectations?
Me: (eye twitches...urge to kill...rising...) The fires and road closures are completely out of our control, okay? There's nothing else that could be done, and we along with every other company in this county are trying to get things back to normal after this disaster.
SC: Well what sort of compensation can I get?
Me: None whatsoever. You're in the same boat as everyone else this week, we made no deliveries and sent out no technicians to the area.
SC: (condescending) Well gee, that's great. So now I have guests coming out to see me and I can't put them in a hotel because they're all full.
Me: Yeah, they're full of people who can't go home or don't even know if they have a home to go back to. Just like our technician. I can pass on the info and rest assured, he will call you when he can, but his priority is going to be his home and his family. We will get you taken care of, but the priorities of our employees are with their families right now, as they should be.
SC: You're completely useless.
Me: I don't have the time or patience to deal with someone who can't understand what the hell their priorities should be. You'll get a call back from the techician and he will service your furniture when he is able. Goodbye.
I hung up the phone, seeing red. Needless to say, I knew that yesterday I was going to have these SCs get under my skin very very quickly, and who can blame me? I spent some time cooling off, and had almost calmed down again when the phone rang a second time.
Going...
It was a customer who was scheduled for delivery earlier this week, which of course we couldn't make, not so much because the fire was in his area but because all the freeways leading out of San Diego were closed at the time. I had called this "gentleman" earlier and he was returning my phone call.
Me: Thank you for calling, how can I help you?
SC: Yeah, this is Asshat. You had called me about how we were going to handle this issue with my couch not being delivered?
Me: Oh, thank you for calling back. I tell ya, it's been a crazy few days here in San Diego and due to the fires and road closures, we weren't able to make any deliveries this week. We've been contacting everyone who was supposed to be delivered to ask them if they were okay with rescheduling and also to see if they were all okay.
SC: Why the hell wouldn't I be?
Me: Well, I hate to say it but a few people that we were supposed to deliver to either haven't been able to return because of the evacuations, so our drivers wouldn't be able to get into the area anyway, and unfortunately, a few of them no longer have homes. We also wanted to make sure all of our customers were okay. We're trying to get another truck down this week to make deliveries to everyone, I can put you on that one if you want to.
SC: That's no good to me, what else?
Me: (...the hell?) Well...right now we're waiving our usual policies and allowing people affected this week to either reschedule or give them a full refund, no questions asked. I could do that for you if you like.
SC: Look, kid. I was supposed to have this thing delivered and it's not here. I'm very angry about this and am seriously considering contacting my attorney over this.
Me: (Okay asshole, I know that was an empty threat) Perhaps your lawyer can answer how the hell we're supposed to make deliveries when the freeway is on fire. The National Guard was the one that shut down the roads to ensure the safety of everyone there, and they were patrolling it with M-16 rifles and combat shotguns. I know this because I encountered several barricades when I tried to make it back to my area to see if I still had a place to live.
SC: Don't have that tone with me. I'm not buying this, that's not a good enough excuse.
Me: (le-SNAP) Excuse? Half a million people evacuated, fifteen hundred homes destroyed, five hundred thousand acres charred, every major freeway closed, and that's not a good enough reason to not risk the safety of our employees and our customers? Tell you what, sir, why don't you tell me what you think a catastrophe is. If you can come up with something more serious than what just happened over the last few days, I'd love to hear it. What would have to happen before you could accept that there are just some things we cannot control?
SC: That does it, I'm calling my attorney.
Me: Great. Be sure that you take in your paperwork so that when he sees the line on the back of the contract that says we aren't responsible for circumstances beyond our control, he can tell you that you just wasted $400 on a legal briefing to find out that there's nothing you can do if we offered your money back.
*click* I was shaking at this point. Before I was thankfully able to chat with a few CSers online, I dealt with the final one that would have gotten me fired, if it were any other circumstance.
GONE!
This woman didn't think it well enough to call, oh no, she was one who thought that somehow coming into the showroom and dealing with me directly would give her the magical power of intimidation.
The scenario was roughly the same as it was for the second SC - customer was in one of the few areas that had not been evacuated and could not pull her head out of her ass long enough to realize that she was extremely lucky.
SC: (Marches up) Oh great...
Me: Hi, can I help you?
SC: (look of disgust) I don't know, can you?
Me: (ugh) Well I can try, what's the issue?
SC: Yeah, I got a call from you a few days ago saying that you weren't going to bring me my sofa, I'm here to find out what's going to happen.
Me: I apologize, but due to the fires and road closures we weren't able to make any deliveries this week...
SC: Well, young man, I am the customer, and I am not happy, and this is what's going to happen.
Me: (Doesn't say anyhing, just looks at her with an emotionless face. Hey, she came in filled with righteous indignation, it's only right as a gentleman I let her get it out of her system, right?)
SC: You're going to refund me the delivery charge, and you are going to deliver this sofa to me tommorrow.
Me: Unfortunately, I cannot do tha-
SC: I didn't come in here to argue. You don't get to talk.
Me: Excuse me? (Imagine the "Discount?" frame in my avatar for my exact expression)
SC: You heard me. You can't imagine the inconvenienced this caused.
Me: (says nothing, just stands there)
SC: ...
Me: ...
SC: ...well?
Me: I'm just waiting until it's my turn to talk.
SC: Fine, what are you going to do?
Me: Nothing we haven't offered everyone else in this situation. You can reschedule for the following week, or we can give you a full refund and overnight you a check.
SC: You know what? You’re completely useless. How hard can your job be to let someone like you do it.
Me: Okay, you know what? Let me explain something to you. You want to know how hard my job is? I’ll tell you. The last three days of my job have been the hardest days I’ve ever had at work. Do you want to know why?
SC: No, I don’t car-
Me: Shut up. It’s my turn to talk, I didn’t interrupt you. Out of all the customers that we were supposed to deliver to this week, half of them no longer have homes. I have to take that phone call. I have to listen to the wife, crying to me, saying that they lost everything and only have the clothes on their backs. I hear the despair in their voice, they have absolutely no hope in their voice. It’s made me break down. I remember those families because they came in and dealt with me. I remember the happy look on their children’s faces. Now, I can only imagine those children digging through what was left of their rooms, their faces covered in soot and tears. I was evacuated myself and have never been so thankful in my life to find out that I had a home, and that my family was safe. I still don’t know for sure if they still have homes, they’re still displaced. So don’t you come in here talking about an inconvenience.
Note: Yes, I really said this – I was shaking at the time, with my voice raised, and I’m shaking now just typing this – to hear the voice of someone with absolutely no hope…I can’t put into words what it does to you, but anyone who has heard that voice knows exactly what I’m talking about – and understands why I snapped.
The SC turned bright red at this point, but I don’t think it was embarrassment, it was anger. I wasn’t done though, I let her have her chance. She started to open her mouth and I continued.
Me: No, I’m not done. You want to know what’s going to happen? Two things are going to happen in the next thirty seconds. The first is that you’re going to decide whether you want a cancellation with a full refund or you want to reschedule. The second thing that’s going to happen, is that you’re leaving this showroom. So, I’m done, what’ s it going to be?
She says “Cancel the order” and turns around and walks out – but the last thing she says is “I’m going to speak with your district manager about this.”
My reply? “By all means, but just so you know, he was evacuated too. I really, really doubt he’s going to do anything except hang up on you. You’ll have the money back in your account by tomorrow at noon. Now get out.”
She then got in her car and drove off.
I was shaking and all the emotions actually had me clenching my jaw and tears in the corner of my eyes reliving the last week and everything afterwards…
My coworker was there, and saw this whole incident with her jaw on the floor. She saw how upset I was and broke the moment with “You know, I really wish I didn’t have a boyfriend. I am so hot for you right now.”
I laughed, the tension gone, but I left early from work because she had showed up and I just couldn’t deal with another SC.
People like that make me wish Saw was real.
...sounds like you need it.
And they say people come together in times of crisis. People just make me sick sometimes.
you, and I'm so sorry that you had to deal with those 
idiots.
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