Hurricane= Incredibly sucky customers

[fma_fanatic]

That's my equation and I'm stickin' to it!

One of our call centers is located in Houston. At 2pm CDT yesterday, all staff at the call center as well as the sales office and service technicians were told to go home per evacuation orders from the local officials.

We have two other call centers, one in Tempe, the other in Macon, so even with the one center closed, they can handle the volume of calls we get for service. With 3 centers open it's much faster.

There is even a message when you call the customer service number that your call is being routed to another center and that your wait time will be much higher. However, 90% of the calls I got today were people bitching at me that they had to *gasp* wait more than 5 minutes for a representative. Oh noes!

One customer asked me if I could make them answer any faster. I was feeling a bit evil and said "Sure! As soon as science can find a way to make Hurricane Ike not exist, then we can get people back to our Houston center and they can answer the calls faster." There was silence for a moment, the customer thanked me and asked me to transfer them to the customer service line.

I swear...do the people not watch the weather and see that ginormous cloud in the Gulf of Mexico slowly advancing towards Texas and Louisiana? Or do they just think it's another pretty satellite picture for their entertainment?

[otakuneko]

Five minutes? Sheesh. They oughta call a tech support line around prime time.

[fma_fanatic]

It was much much worse when Katrina and Rita hit.

After Katrina, people were bitching - and I am not making this up - bitching that they couldn't get techs out to their machines to service them. And that they needed their machines.

Only the machines were in areas where the techs couldn't get to because the roads were closed. However, we were supposed to find a way to get the techs there and damn it we'd better do it now.

Rita was bad because Houston was closed again, and people were freaking because they didn't know how to protect their machines. Um..that's what the insurance that we always suggest you purchase for it is for. *headdesk* And people wonder why I'm stressed.

[smileyeagle1021]

My personal favorite variation was when hotels forwarded calls to the call center I was in, not because they were busy or lazy (as was most often the case) but because the hotel itself was closed due to natural disaster (ie the San Diego fires) and people would bitch about being routed to a call center... sorry, the building is on fire and no one wants to be there right now, so you have to deal with me (I'm so glad to actually be at a hotel right now, so much less crap to deal with).

[AirHostess]

You have my sympathy. Try telling passengers that the flight is delayed due to fog/storms/snow...what the flip are we meant to do??? Take off into a snow storm and die?

[wraiths_crono]

OK so I read this, and I immediately in my mind said "Wait were not in Tempe, we are in Mesa!" but then that would mean that ive spent too much time in T2 supporting a produce that rhymes with universe.


*****
One of our call centers is located in Houston. At 2pm CDT yesterday, all staff at the call center as well as the sales office and service technicians were told to go home per evacuation orders from the local officials.

We have two other call centers, one in Tempe, the other in Macon, so even with the one center closed, they can handle the volume of calls we get for service. With 3 centers open it's much faster.
*****

[Peppergirl]

You have my sympathy. Try telling passengers that the flight is delayed due to fog/storms/snow...what the flip are we meant to do??? Take off into a snow storm and die?

As a travel agent, I regularly get cursed out about that as well.

[Wenchie]

Gah... people make me want to go all stabbity... I work in a call center (tech support & phone support) and everyone I talked to yesterday needed to be shot.

Oh... I clicked on your dragons, btw. My scroll is: http://dragcave.net/user/gypsyscroll

[Anakah]

The mainframe for our credit card service is in Houston so ALL of our ATMS were out. Nobody could draw money off their credit cards and when the machines flickered on they could run their cards but not receive the cash from us because our system would go down.

It was NOT fun. Picture this: A busy saturday, with a concert and a bunch of angry people who want to gamble but can't get any kind of cash. The funny part was when they'd be like: Fine I'll go to ANOTHER casino. Dude, the whole strip was out.

The only thing we could offer was personal checks but those are lengthy and most people don't carry checks. I had a few people cuss at me and after awhile I gave up getting yelled at and got the supervisor.

It was madness and lasted my entire shift.

[smileyeagle1021]

You have my sympathy. Try telling passengers that the flight is delayed due to fog/storms/snow...what the flip are we meant to do??? Take off into a snow storm and die?

As a travel agent, I regularly get cursed out about that as well.

and then I get to listen to them bitch all night about how delta had the nerve to put them in such a crappy place (I'm not sure which bothers me more, the people who bitch about being left in Salt Lake, the people who insult the hotel, or the people who don't like the room placement, I can think of equally strong reasons to hate each of them).

[Darkwish]

and then I get to listen to them bitch all night about how delta had the nerve to put them in such a crappy place (I'm not sure which bothers me more, the people who bitch about being left in Salt Lake, the people who insult the hotel, or the people who don't like the room placement, I can think of equally strong reasons to hate each of them).

Can't say I blame them about the Salt Lake part. But what were they expecting? The Ritz? Sheesh!

Also, as for SCs and hurricanes, I have to admit that a bunch of years ago, I was one of them (although I was somewhat justified).

I had ordered something and paid for 2nd day shipping... A week goes by, nothing. Emails go unanswered. Second week goes by, still nothing (wasn't that important, but I DID pay for 2nd day shipping). I call and finally get a hold of the company. They give me this big sob story about how the recent hurricane was affecting shipping, etc., etc., big loss of life, boo hoo, and on and on. My response was basically "I don't really care. It's not my problem. Now where the @#$% is my order?"

Now, while I can fully understand how disruptive hurricanes can be, they were just making excuses. First of all, they were in KENTUCKY!!! Second, the hurricane that they were talking about had grazed the east coast/tip of Florida. Third, it had hit a couple days BEFORE I placed the order and there was NO mention anywhere on the site about any delays, etc., nor had they even tried to call or email me that there were delays.

So yeah, I briefly turned into an SC because of their sob story/excuses.

I'm a heartless bastard...

[Cyphr]

Can't say I blame them about the Salt Lake part. But what were they expecting? The Ritz? Sheesh!

Also, as for SCs and hurricanes, I have to admit that a bunch of years ago, I was one of them (although I was somewhat justified).

I had ordered something and paid for 2nd day shipping... A week goes by, nothing. Emails go unanswered. Second week goes by, still nothing (wasn't that important, but I DID pay for 2nd day shipping). I call and finally get a hold of the company. They give me this big sob story about how the recent hurricane was affecting shipping, etc., etc., big loss of life, boo hoo, and on and on. My response was basically "I don't really care. It's not my problem. Now where the @#$% is my order?"

Now, while I can fully understand how disruptive hurricanes can be, they were just making excuses. First of all, they were in KENTUCKY!!! Second, the hurricane that they were talking about had grazed the east coast/tip of Florida. Third, it had hit a couple days BEFORE I placed the order and there was NO mention anywhere on the site about any delays, etc., nor had they even tried to call or email me that there were delays.

So yeah, I briefly turned into an SC because of their sob story/excuses.

I'm a heartless bastard...

at least you werent ranting at a company located in the affected areas. If they are in kentucky there is no reason for delays

[jedimaster91]

at least you werent ranting at a company located in the affected areas. If they are in kentucky there is no reason for delays

It depends on the path the storm takes once it hits land. In this scenario, I agree, there was no reason for Kentucky to be affected*, but we did get slammed with the remnants of Ike last night and we've got hundreds of thousands of people without power right now and interstates shut down due to trees in the road. I'm not even expecting to get mail for a couple days while they sort it all out.

*Unless their delivery center/hub thingy was in the area that got hit, but there should have been some sort of warning when you ordered that there would be a delay. Or at least a refund of the 2-day delivery fee.

[smileyeagle1021]

Can't say I blame them about the Salt Lake part. But what were they expecting? The Ritz? Sheesh!

well, if you go through Airport Accomodations your choices are us, the people next door to us, or a few places the other side of the airport... oh and if you want a room billed to delta we are about the only ones that will take you, you want the Ritz (ok, so the nicest in the airport area is Radisson) you pay for it.

oh and the next person who complains about how hard it is to get a drink, I will jump the desk and beat them to death, you go next door and *gasp* you have to order food before you can order drinks... and I'm soo sorry that the nearest convenience store is a 10 minute walk, boo frickin hoo, on the days that I ride the bus that's how far I have to walk, I know it's doable, get over yourself.

oh yeah, I got a lot of those complaints last night, and yes, I did come close to offering one guest the option of sleeping at the airport if they didn't like Delta's choice of hotels.

[wanderingjoe72]

OK so I read this, and I immediately in my mind said "Wait were not in Tempe, we are in Mesa!" but then that would mean that ive spent too much time in T2 supporting a produce that rhymes with universe.

I find this funny since most people I know just refer to the whole place as "Phoenix". Only when you are going somewhere specific does it seem to make a difference.