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Customer service types you dislike

:blush: For lack of a better term, ones that are "dumb". There are (rare) occasions where it's obvious by their response that they just don't understand what you're asking or what you're trying to accomplish, no matter how many different ways you try. I had this happen with a travel website's call-centre rep about a week ago. After a very few minutes it was clear we just weren't communicating so I politely asked for another rep. He didn't understand that either - thought I wanted a supervisor. I ended up just saying thanks - good day, and hanging up. Called right back, of course got a different person who handled my issue quite satisfactorily.

*FTR, there wasn't any major language barrier that I could tell, unless he spoke much better English than he understood, which I doubt is common. Might have been someone who was extremely green in the role and not well-supervised.
 


I would say ones that are always trying to sell you something else.

As annoying as it can be, sadly for some of them they are just doing their job. It might annoy the person asking as much as it annoys you, but managers have these big ideas.

Need to take out $500 to repair your car? Well why don't you talk to one of our loan officers and take out a loan to buy a new car while you are at it? Looks like you have a lot in your checking account, perhaps you would like to set up a CD and earn some interest on that. yadda yadda When I was a teller we were required to try to cross sell stuff. Honestly, I hated asking people, but we had to do it.
 
As annoying as it can be, sadly for some of them they are just doing their job. It might annoy the person asking as much as it annoys you, but managers have these big ideas.

Need to take out $500 to repair your car? Well why don't you talk to one of our loan officers and take out a loan to buy a new car while you are at it? Looks like you have a lot in your checking account, perhaps you would like to set up a CD and earn some interest on that. yadda yadda When I was a teller we were required to try to cross sell stuff. Honestly, I hated asking people, but we had to do it.


When I worked as a cashier in a grocery store, for every person, I was suppose to say and show at the bottom of the reciept "You have x amount in points, when you get to Y amount you can get ?????"

People in the express lane in the morning, just wanted their coffee (this was before starbucks on every corner) and leave. After school/work , people just wanted to get that forgotten item for dinner and the kids are going crazy, don' t read me a book just to buy celery....

Thing is with secret shoppers, the store would lose points if we didn't do the whole deal. Just saying thank you wasn't good enough.
 
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those that can only respond with scripted replies/answers. i had two horrific experiences just this past week, both dealing with different companies but related to medical billing or insurance issues. in both cases i explained what the issue was and what my specific question(s) were only to have them launch into scripted speeches that didn't apply to the issue(s). i would listen and then try to clarify what i was asking about only to have them launch into the same word for word response. with the first i finally gave up and spent another hour online/calling an automated number wherein i finally figure out on my own where the glitch was occurring (on their end/in complete contradiction to instructions they had sent out in writing to tens of thousands of customers via a mailer). i would have called back and advised them but the rep had gotten so rude in my interaction with her i chose not to. with the second call i got to the point where i said to transfer me to a supervisor and surprise surprise-while i was on hold for her to explain to the supervisor what i was calling about she finally figured out how to talk off script, figured out how to resolve the issue and came back on with the appropriate information/resolution.

i hate scripted responses and autobot online chat customer service.
 
Ones who unsolicitedly explain things you already, or don’t care to, know about.
 
Ones that ignore you because they are on their phone.
We went to a restaurant the other night, walked up to the hostess station and the host sat there looking at his phone completely ignoring us for a couple of minutes until dh did an “ahem”.
 
The front desk staff for medical offices that act like dealing with you is an inconvenience and beneath them. This seems to be especially prevalent in optometrist offices in my area.
 
I have stopped the interview process when it’s clear that they’ll want me to provide the sorts of customer service I hate. Like, I hate pushy sales, so I don’t want a job that requires me to be a pushy sales person.

I know that the workers themselves don’t have a choice, so I always treat them with respect. But if possible, I will stop using a company’s services if they are pushy about up-selling. Saves me money.
 
When I have to call up someplace ones that act like you're stupid. OK, I know it's not their fault they have a script to follow. But I will start the conversation saying I already tried this, this and this. Then the first question they ask is "did you try this?". Yes I just told you!

Going into an actual store I'm not sure that it's pushy because they aren't trying to sell me a specific thing, but sales people that follow you around and keep asking if you want help. No, leave me alone, just let me browse. I'll come find you if I do need something.
 
The front desk staff for medical offices that act like dealing with you is an inconvenience and beneath them. This seems to be especially prevalent in optometrist offices in my area.

I'm guessing there must have been some complaints about this at the lab at my doctors office. One day when I was in there, I saw a sign that said something like "You are here for the patients, they are interrupting you when they arrive for their bloodwork"
 
I hope, OP, that you will post a thread titled Customer types you dislike, because I could post a 20 page response all on my own.
 
Going into an actual store I'm not sure that it's pushy because they aren't trying to sell me a specific thing, but sales people that follow you around and keep asking if you want help. No, leave me alone, just let me browse. I'll come find you if I do need something.

I hate it too, but know that most of the sales people also hate needing to do it. The stores make you as they think it helps with loss prevention, though they try to hide it as being good customer service.
 
Had a retail job once, and in life I've had far more customer peeves than customer service issues.
 

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