I guess we're supposed to drop everything and rush to you.

[sld72382]

1. You're not special....

This actually occurred some time ago, but I just remembered to post it now.

Backstory: Onsite agent who was dispatched to customer's house fix a computer issue fell ill. As such, we called customer informing her to call us back and reschedule. This is where it got.... sucky.

SC: Why the hell should I be inconvenienced? It's not my fault the agent got sick!

Me: I understand how you feel ma'am but things do happen....

SC: Listen, I need this computer up an running for a business deal! I need this done by tomorrow THE LATEST!

*Looks at schedule, finds something for the day after tomorrow. Uh oh....

Me: The earliest we have is.... *Give customer nearest time.*

SC: Not acceptable! I need this appointment by tomorrow!

Me: That's the earliest I can do. If there was one for tomorrow, I would have let you known.

SC: Cancel someone else's appointment and fit me in!

Me: We can't do that, ma'ma.

SC: Sure you can! Find someone who is having you guys out for a stupid, non-important reason and cancel their appointment and tell them the agent got sick or had an accident. Then fit me in, very simple!

Me: That would not be very fair to them. We have to treat all customers equally.

SC: Equal? Listen here kid, I'm running a business here! (On a low-end HP, mind you). I'm more important than some of your other customers.

Me: At this time I don't know what to tell you. I can set you up for the nearest appointment....

SC: Get me over to your complaint department, this is the worst customer service ever!

Me: Will do, have a nice day.... *Transferred*

2. Inconsiderate douche....

This came in through our email system. It wasn't like the tech was a no call no show or anything....

SC's email:

"I had a service call between 8AM-12PM yesterday to install my TV and blu-ray player. Well I waited, and waited. No one showed up so I called to find out what was going on. The person on the phone after doing some research told me one of the techs assigned to my case had a family emergency and could not make it until after 3:30. I was pissed. Well the two techs came at around 3:50, they were nice and all but when you say you are going to be here at a certain time, be there at that time! My day was basically shot, not to mention being inconvenienced because of one of your tech's "emergencies." I'm not complaining about any of the techs personally (they did do a good job), it's just the timing that upsets me."

Now if I was answering this email I would have told her basically to shove it, a tech is not going to put a damn TV over a his family. But a person in the public defense department took the email and I read his response:

"Thank you for emailing us. I'm sorry your experience with us was less than stellar. To make up for it and as a token of our apologies I would like to send you a $25 gift card. Please reply with the mailing address so we could send it out...."

Wow. No wonder the public defense department is known as the "no spine" department.

[Andara Bledin]

Number 1 was a complete and utter ass.

But number 2 has a mild bit of legitimacy in their gripe in that nobody bothered to let them know about the change in appointment time. I suspect a ball got dropped on that one, and thus the gift card.

^-.-^

[cinema guy]

If I was the second customer, I would be pretty pissed off too. I would certainly have expected a phone call explaining that the tech was going to be late, not for me to have to phone up to find out what was going on.

However, I would send a nicely worded email or make a polite phone call.

[Whiskey]

! (On a low-end HP, mind you).

Of all the posts I've read here I've never read about a SUPER IMPORTANT BUSINESS CUSTOMER that was paying for business Internet or had a sufficient computer (with sufficient security).

[Hyndis]

Of all the posts I've read here I've never read about a SUPER IMPORTANT BUSINESS CUSTOMER that was paying for business Internet or had a sufficient computer (with sufficient security).

Of course not.

Everyone with a MISSION CRITICAL MACHINE has no backup plan, no redundancy, no spare parts, no extra machine.

I guess its really not mission critical, is it?

Because if it was you would have contingency plans.

[Brojekk]

Ok this is how I would have handled the first story.

SC..cancel someone elses appointment and fit me in.
Brojekk.....ok (sound of typing on keyboard). How about 11AM tomorrow?
Note...Brojekk doesn't actually cancel any appointments.
SC...Thank you.
Brojekk...no problem...sorry for the inconvenience.

Two hours later Brojekk calls SC again.
Brojekk...sorry SC we had to cancel your appointment to fit someone else in.
SC ::goes ballistic:: WHAT? BLARGLE BLARGLE,etc.
Brojekk...sorry but our new appointee has a (insert business here,something important like veternarian) and need the appointment. Sorry about the inconvenience,can I schedule you at a later date?

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

I don't agree that the second case had a "spineless" Public Defense department. They may be for other reasons, but in this case the person complaining had a point.

They were scheduled for an appointment. They shifted their schedule to be available for that appointment. Granted that the tech had a very good reason for not being able to keep the stated appointment, but as the end user was promised a time, they deserve something for the aggravation of having to be chained to the house for the time of the appointment as well as the extra time until they could get there. Your PD Dept was justified for the $25 gift card.

If the customer had done something to be the fault behind the lateness of the appointment (leaving to get lunch or something) that's another matter entirely.

[Sauletekis]

In regards to the first customer-

The amount of times I get something similar to that at work is beyond my belief. I don't mind so much if a member asks if we could call and see if another member is flexible and wouldn't mind moving around their booking times, but the ones that flat out demand that I cancel someone else's booking so they can get on their way because, you know, they're so important/they have a critical meeting/they have to go visit their relative in the hospital etc etc.

Always love how there is no thought about how long ago the other member booked, or how affronted they would be if the tables were turned.

Urgh... I can't stand people like that.

[i4wolves]

i can see the 2nd customers point of view. i would be upset, not that the person canceled due to the emergency but the fact that no one bothered to call and let me know of the situation

i think the customer was justified as it would have been a completely different thing if someone had called and informed the customer but to have the customer wait for no reason, that would have upset me too

[Darkforge]

ok, we all get that the second person did have a valid reason to complain, but the suck is not that he did complain, but that he did so in such a sucky way.

I mean if you do get a bum deal, don't whine about it or be that full of suck, just explain what happened and let them know that you aren't happy about it.

[Merriweather]

i can see the 2nd customers point of view. i would be upset, not that the person canceled due to the emergency but the fact that no one bothered to call and let me know of the situation

i think the customer was justified as it would have been a completely different thing if someone had called and informed the customer but to have the customer wait for no reason, that would have upset me too

Ditto. Emergencies happen, but once the tech informed the office of the emergency, the office should have informed the customer. If I schedule a morning off work for a service call, then they don't show up until afternoon, with no warning they'd been delayed, I get pretty upset as well.

[reimero]

I agree with the relatively lesser suck on #2. In many cases, installations happen during work hours, which means the customer has to arrange their schedule so they can be home. In many cases, that means not getting paid or burning vacation time/PTO. In any event, it actually is costing the customer money for the installer not to show up, so if it's possible to alert the customer of a change, a company really needs to do that.

[Andara Bledin]

I mean if you do get a bum deal, don't whine about it or be that full of suck, just explain what happened and let them know that you aren't happy about it.

I didn't see any whining, myself, just anger at waiting around for 4+ hours for nothing only to have to call in on his own to find out that he'd be waiting another couple (few) hours until a tech could show. He even made a point to say that the techs were good. Heck, the closest he got to swearing was to say he was "pissed."

Someone knew well before noon that the tech wouldn't be able to make it, and could have called the customer, thereby freeing up at least half a day for him to actually do something other than sit and twiddle his thumbs wondering why the tech hadn't shown up, yet.

^-.-^

[sld72382]

To the people who say the 2nd customer should have been called:

Outbound calls to the client letting them know about agents not being able to make it to their house on time (or at all) are handled by a different call center that from what we have seen, seem to have no discipline. Thus I would not be surprised if the customer never received a call letting him/her know the situation.

Then agent, maybe the customer did receive the call and called back to demand the agent make the stated time and then when he/she was told due to the tech's emergency that he/she would just have to wait. Customer decided to send that email conveniently leaving the part about receiving the call out of the email.

All I know is I'm glad I didn't handle that one (it was misdirected to the wrong email queue and I just happened to read it).

[Aut]

1st lady shouldn't have been transferred, she should have been "accidently" hung up on.