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I will sometimes get people playing the race card every now and then at work in regards to some customer service issue but last night I had someone playing the Chemo Card... a new one on me.
A little background. It's Mothers Day week, the second most insane busy week in the florist industry outside of Valentines Day week. We have oodles of temps working who don't exactly always know what they're doing, meaning I'm getting some customer services issues that could have been prevented had the temp had any real understanding of how our company works. I fault management for not properly training the temps.
Usually when you explain to the customer that the first person they dealt with was new and still trying to learn the ropes but that you've worked there X number of years and know exactly how to do this or that, or adequately explain what happened most people calm right down.
And I've gotten good at being sympathetic and nice, which really defuses the situation. Unforch every now and again you run into a rat fuck crazy cake situation with someone who refuses to be calmed down or helped no matter how much you explain what happened and what the outcome will be. I had one of those last night and it snowballed, ending up with my direct supervisor spazzing out on me and screaming and ranting.
A lady called last night upset that her order was canceled and scheduled for refund. Not an unusual situation. You get an order going to Bugtussle Iowa or Butttoocold, Alaska where there is exactly one florist who's swamped there's not much you can do. We call the sender back usually within an hour of ordering and let them know we're refunding the money because we cannot get the flowers out. We take pains to do it very quickly so that the sender can make other arrangements. Pretty cut and dried, right?
Cancer Lady had spoken to the supervisor of CS about her order not being able to be delivered, got nasty with her and demanded someone higher up. CS Super transferred her to the operational supervisor and they apparently proceeded to get into a shouting match. Cancer Lady is demanding we don't refund her money and we get the flowers out asap, refusing to accept that there is no florist available to do the delivery in the middle of nowhere for 40 miles. She is insisting that we get that out.
OS hangs up on her after twenty minutes or so and then I get her. She refuses to tell me her name beyond a last name, refuses to give me an order number or any identifying information so I can actually pull up her order details to discuss it. Every sentence starts with "I have cancer and am on chemotherapy and your company is making that much MUCH more difficult to deal with." She demands to talk to the VP and gets very rude once I tell her that no, I am not transferring her over to management, that if she wants to contact them I'd be more than happy to give her their email addresses. She goes into a twenty minute rant demanding we not refund her money, I transfer to her to someone who've I've explained many times is in a meeting, that we deliver her flowers immediately and that someone fire the OS for rudeness. I let her ramble for awhile before cutting her off and telling her that I'll pass her number onto the VP. She starts to say for the millionth time about her chemo and we're physically harming her and I tell her "Well guess what ma'am. I have been on chemo for the last ELEVEN months.." and I let it hang right there..... and she shuts the fuck up about her cancer and chemo, not one more mention the rest of the convo.... HA!
I finally get her to hang up after promising I'll pass her phone number over to the Vp when she comes out of her meeting but warning her I cannot promise when or if the VP will return her call. I go to touch base with the OS and tell her I'm going to message the VP about this cancerous twatwaffle when she flips out on me and acts like I've sided with the Sucky Cancer Lady over her. Very awkward because I hadn't, I'd only explained her options, listened to her rant and taken down her name and number. i still don't know what the OS, who I consider a good friend, who trained me when I came to work there, was flipping out about.
Decided not to take OS flipout personally, just sit back down and do my job. An hour later on the electronic message board I see a note from the OS listening Crazy Cancer Patient's phone number and name asking that no one discuss her order with her over the phone. Apparently she is calling over and over and over again and playing her Chemo Card...
A little background. It's Mothers Day week, the second most insane busy week in the florist industry outside of Valentines Day week. We have oodles of temps working who don't exactly always know what they're doing, meaning I'm getting some customer services issues that could have been prevented had the temp had any real understanding of how our company works. I fault management for not properly training the temps.
Usually when you explain to the customer that the first person they dealt with was new and still trying to learn the ropes but that you've worked there X number of years and know exactly how to do this or that, or adequately explain what happened most people calm right down.
And I've gotten good at being sympathetic and nice, which really defuses the situation. Unforch every now and again you run into a rat fuck crazy cake situation with someone who refuses to be calmed down or helped no matter how much you explain what happened and what the outcome will be. I had one of those last night and it snowballed, ending up with my direct supervisor spazzing out on me and screaming and ranting.
A lady called last night upset that her order was canceled and scheduled for refund. Not an unusual situation. You get an order going to Bugtussle Iowa or Butttoocold, Alaska where there is exactly one florist who's swamped there's not much you can do. We call the sender back usually within an hour of ordering and let them know we're refunding the money because we cannot get the flowers out. We take pains to do it very quickly so that the sender can make other arrangements. Pretty cut and dried, right?
Cancer Lady had spoken to the supervisor of CS about her order not being able to be delivered, got nasty with her and demanded someone higher up. CS Super transferred her to the operational supervisor and they apparently proceeded to get into a shouting match. Cancer Lady is demanding we don't refund her money and we get the flowers out asap, refusing to accept that there is no florist available to do the delivery in the middle of nowhere for 40 miles. She is insisting that we get that out.
OS hangs up on her after twenty minutes or so and then I get her. She refuses to tell me her name beyond a last name, refuses to give me an order number or any identifying information so I can actually pull up her order details to discuss it. Every sentence starts with "I have cancer and am on chemotherapy and your company is making that much MUCH more difficult to deal with." She demands to talk to the VP and gets very rude once I tell her that no, I am not transferring her over to management, that if she wants to contact them I'd be more than happy to give her their email addresses. She goes into a twenty minute rant demanding we not refund her money, I transfer to her to someone who've I've explained many times is in a meeting, that we deliver her flowers immediately and that someone fire the OS for rudeness. I let her ramble for awhile before cutting her off and telling her that I'll pass her number onto the VP. She starts to say for the millionth time about her chemo and we're physically harming her and I tell her "Well guess what ma'am. I have been on chemo for the last ELEVEN months.." and I let it hang right there..... and she shuts the fuck up about her cancer and chemo, not one more mention the rest of the convo.... HA!
I finally get her to hang up after promising I'll pass her phone number over to the Vp when she comes out of her meeting but warning her I cannot promise when or if the VP will return her call. I go to touch base with the OS and tell her I'm going to message the VP about this cancerous twatwaffle when she flips out on me and acts like I've sided with the Sucky Cancer Lady over her. Very awkward because I hadn't, I'd only explained her options, listened to her rant and taken down her name and number. i still don't know what the OS, who I consider a good friend, who trained me when I came to work there, was flipping out about.
Decided not to take OS flipout personally, just sit back down and do my job. An hour later on the electronic message board I see a note from the OS listening Crazy Cancer Patient's phone number and name asking that no one discuss her order with her over the phone. Apparently she is calling over and over and over again and playing her Chemo Card...
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