Wherein nice people suddenly turn sucky

[CancelMyService]

........or should that be sucky people who are good at hiding it?


Satan's Minions:


Nice older lady calls in to me. She ordered a movie last night (at 3 AM if my records are accurate) and not surprisingly she fell asleep while watching it. She's calling in to ask me if I can give her the movie again for free so she can watch it again.

Ummmmm.........no.

Now if there's a problem with a movie or PPV, there's no problem giving you a refund. We usually get an email from management saying event *X* had a problem so issue credit to anyone who calls in about it. However, falling asleep during a movie you ordered at 3 in the morning is not something we issue credits for. Normally when someone asks for credit/free stuff like that and get turned down, they usually say some sort of "just kidding" or "it was worth a shot" kind of thing and let it go. Not this lady. She played the "you should do this because I've been a customer for eleventy million years" card, and when I informed her that I would not be able to give someone a free movie no matter how long they've been a customer, this heretofore sweet old lady screamed at me "YOU GO TO HELL" and hung up the phone.

Maybe it was Death To America Guy's gramma?


I Want My Late Fee Refunded Because I Didn't Pay My Bill On Time!


Young guy calls in with questions about his bill. It was kind of a mess, and he was okay about it. He moved recently so he had prorates and balance transfers and all sorts of fun stuff that made his bill nigh indecipherable. He took it in stride and actually was joking about it, but in the end he understood what was going on.

Then he had one more question: "Can you do something about this late charge?"

He proceeds to tell me he went on vacation, and paid all his bills in advance before he left. Or so he thought. Apparently he missed paying the cable bill and by the time he got back, he had a past due cable bill waiting for him.

So when this happens, do you:
A: Take it as a lesson learned and pay your bill like a grown up, or
B: Whine at the company to waive the charge because you don't think not paying the bill on time warrants a late fee.

If it's on this site, you know what choice was made.

He actually had the balls, when told that the late fee was a valid charge that would not be removed, to say "that's disappointing" as if he was a mafia boss who just found out one of his underlings was dipping into the profits. You know what's disappointing? When you spend 15 minutes on the phone with someone and just when you start to think they just might be a halfway decent person, they pull some entitlement bullshit on you over a $4.95 fee.


4 more days and I'm off work til December 11th, I hope I don't snap and strangle someone over the phone via the Force before then.

[bainsidhe]

I work p/t in retail, but my main employment is on the phones and order entry at a manufacturing company. My retail job can have people yelling at me or otherwise acting sucky, but my main job is where I will occassionally get people with passive/agressive entitlement issues. I don't know what it is, but the pretend-polite snarkiness of how "disappointing" it is that we don't take care of a "good customer" really pushes my buttons. I'd rather you behave more visibly like an ass because I don't stay upset for as long. Sounds like this fella was one of those "pretend to be polite whilst I slowly twist the knife" kind of gents. Nice guy, that.

[matty]

The important question with "Death to America guy's grandma" is:

Which movie did she order at 3 in the morning???

[qaxons]

GMILFs 5: Son of my Daughter or something, most likely.

[LifeCarnie]

Then he had one more question: "Can you do something about this late charge?"

He proceeds to tell me he went on vacation, and paid all his bills in advance before he left. Or so he thought. Apparently he missed paying the cable bill and by the time he got back, he had a past due cable bill waiting for him.

So when this happens, do you:
A: Take it as a lesson learned and pay your bill like a grown up, or
B: Whine at the company to waive the charge because you don't think not paying the bill on time warrants a late fee.

If it's on this site, you know what choice was made.

He actually had the balls, when told that the late fee was a valid charge that would not be removed, to say "that's disappointing" as if he was a mafia boss who just found out one of his underlings was dipping into the profits. You know what's disappointing? When you spend 15 minutes on the phone with someone and just when you start to think they just might be a halfway decent person, they pull some entitlement bullshit on you over a $4.95 fee.
.

Devils advocate time.

This I don't get. If he doesn't constantly miss his payment date and usually pays the bill on time, what's the big deal of waiving the fee?

Under your logic, the cable company should be crediting all of their customers accounts for the time that was lost every time the cable goes out, since the customer is paying for a service that your not providing.

That's as reasonable as being completely inflexible over a one time occurence, especially since the cable going out isn't a one time occurence.

It's five dollars, not the end of the world. Who cares who the customer sounds like if their a loyal customer who normally pays their bill on time. I guarantee you if the customer had asked to talk to a supervisor that five dollar charge would have gone away.

There is a diference between people who constantly abuse the system and the people who make an honest oversight.

[smileyeagle1021]

I know my mother is somewhat guilty of being an SC, but in her case I'd say it is justified, and at least it is professional. She has a store credit card with a certain home furnishing company that is closed on sunday (that narrows it down a bit)... they have been sending her bills to the wrong address for 4 months now and they admit that they have the wrong address on file for her. And this company is one I will never purchase from because of this shady tidbit, they can't get her monthly statement sent to the correct address, but they can get the statement saying that she is now past due and now has a penalty to the right address. Ok, end rant on furniture store closed on sunday. In the SCs case with the cable company, I'm sorry, just forgetting the check isn't a valid reason to be late.

[Boozy]

And this company is one I will never purchase from because of this shady tidbit, they can't get her monthly statement sent to the correct address, but they can get the statement saying that she is now past due and now has a penalty to the right address.

I had the exact same problem with a major credit card company about ten years ago. They never sent my statements to my house - those went to an old address that I had attempted to change with them on four separate occasions, being told each time that "the address has been changed; your next statement will be sent to your new address."

Then it wouldn't show up, I'd call to ask what address they had for me, and they would still have the old one.

The insanity of the situation hit me when I received a past due notice at my current (correct) address and called to ask where the original statement had been sent. It was sent to the old address.

I went completely SC for the first and hopefully last time in my life. I told them that I had no idea what kind of screwed up computer system would allow them to have two different mailing addresses for me, that at least four different people with the company had proven themselves to be dribbling idiots, and there was no way in hell I was paying the late charges.

They waived the charges, I paid the final bill, and canceled the card. The incompetence of the whole thing still blows me away.

[CancelMyService]

Devils advocate time.

This I don't get. If he doesn't constantly miss his payment date and usually pays the bill on time, what's the big deal of waiving the fee?

Under your logic, the cable company should be crediting all of their customers accounts for the time that was lost every time the cable goes out, since the customer is paying for a service that your not providing.

That's as reasonable as being completely inflexible over a one time occurence, especially since the cable going out isn't a one time occurence.

It's five dollars, not the end of the world. Who cares who the customer sounds like if their a loyal customer who normally pays their bill on time. I guarantee you if the customer had asked to talk to a supervisor that five dollar charge would have gone away.

There is a diference between people who constantly abuse the system and the people who make an honest oversight.

Seeing it typed up does make it seem like I was being a hardass, but he was being the exact kind of passive-aggressive "what are you going to do to please me" tone mentioned in bainsidhe's post. It's not like we sent the bills to the wrong address, he knew he forgot to pay the bill and expected there to be no consequences for it.

If a manager ends up crediting it, so be it, but I'd bet dollars to donuts that if I had given him a credit he would be calling in next month playing the "you did it laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaast month" card.