Rude People??

[LiLIrishChick63]

I'm glad some of you understand what I mean lol. I love to follow up with customers that I just sold cell phone service to just to make sure that the phone is doing everything they need it to do and to make sure everything on their service plan is what they need. You would be surprised how many people (about 75%) don't know ANYTHING about their cell phone service. They just pay it...without realizing that they're paying $25 bucks a month additional because they don't have texting or you know? things like that! I just want to check on my customers and make sure they aren't overpaying or not satisfied with the service I provided them. It's one thing to be a telemarketer, but it's another thing to do what I do which is checking up on my customers.

And what I meant about the water and dropping the phone thing, I was mentioning it about rude people once more, guess I didn't finish the post lol. What I meant was that people come in and act rudely towards me because they dropped their phone in the water and it's not covered under warranty only insurance...Things like that. Or that they went over their minutes so it's my fault and so I get yelled and cussed at. People are crazy...I've only worked here for a little over a year but I've had to call the cops to my store 4 times due to crazy upset customers. Not something to go crazy over.

have you worked in customer service for very long or prior to this job?? because that's not even that bad.

i had a person threaten to kill me when i worked at blockbuster because i couldn't take off his late fee. if it was over a certain amount of money you had to have the store managers approval and since she wasn't there he got in a tizzy and started screaming about how he could find out where we all lived and would show up and shoot us and our families.

you're gonna get crazy people when you work with the general public.

but i do have to say, i don't understand why the phones don't already come with a warranty, you have to "buy" one if you want to, and it's a montly fee. stuff happens to phones....so it shouldn't be "optional if you want to pay" for insurance. but that's just my opinion.

 

[tasha99]

I'm sorry that happened to you, but people don't want unsolicited phone calls no matter what your reason for calling is, no matter how well intentioned you are. I have gotten to the point where once I realize it's a business calling, I say "No thank you" and hang up before they have time to try to keep me on the phone longer. Nothing personal--I just don't want to be bothered; I'm busy enough without that nonsense.

 

[iKristin]

Our phones come with a one year warranty, but if you drop your phone in water that's something that no warranty will cover. That's something phone insurance does cover though. I was actually a bar tender before this so I've dealt with worse. My whole point in this post was why do people feel that they have the right to treat people rudely??

Tasha99 I am exactly the same way lol I just say "no thank you" and hang up, that's not rude. Cussing and yelling at someone, that's rude.

 

[Sparx]

What upsets me more than unsolicited phone calls is people who are rude when they answer the phone. Its your job to answer the phone when I call your business. No need to be rude to a potential customer, but thanks for doing so. I now know that I will never frequent your place of business after that.

This most recently happened to me when I was trying to make an appointment at a doctors office. Their website said that they provided a certain service an I called about it. The woman was so rude to me that I hung up and cried. I have never went to that office.

Another time I was calling several places seeking volunteer hours (a requirement for my major in college) and over half of the people answering the phone were incredibly rude to me. Several hung up on me. I was calling from a list handed out by my department, and my department places interns in all of these locations. They are familiar with our students and our need for volunteer hours. I marked each one off the list and I will not go asking there ever again.

When its your job to answer the phone, be polite to the people calling.

 

[iKristin]

Yeah I hate situations like that. Kinda makes you want to just say "I'm sorry you hate your job but you don't have to take it out on me!"

 

[PollyannaMom]

...Well...I just made one of those calls and a lady who had to be in her 40's went off on me!! She yelled at me telling me I wasting her time and that these phone calls are a waste of time to her....

I expect that while she was yelling "to" you, she wasn't yelling "at" just you - but at the last 3, or 4, ...or 10 people who had called her. She'd probably gotten increasingly annoyed at them (and some of them likely were trying to sell her things) while trying to stay polite, and then finally snapped on your shift. Still not an excuse to be rude, but a reason for you not to take it personally.

If that were my job, I think I'd keep a jar of candy on my desk, and reward myself with one every time I got off the phone with a really rude customer. (Of course, with the number of them now, it would probably have to be something small and fat free!)

 

[Disney Ella]

I am sorry to hear that the woman was rude to you while you were just doing your job. I have to say that I am suspicious of the type of calls that you have to make because usually when I get the calls, the person always tries to sell me some additional service after claiming to just want to know how everything is going. I might have ended the call with a quick "Everything's fine. Thanks for calling." because I wouldn't want to give the person time to go into the sales spiel.

 

[Rora]

OP- sorry about the rudeness you encounter.

I don't understand it either. Yes, getting unwanted phone calls is annoying but it's certainly not annoying enough for me to be nasty to the person on the other end, especially if they're NOT trying to sell me something (like taking a survey, follow up call, etc).

While this is off topic of the phone debate-I try to remember that everyone is trying to deal with something in their life, and though it may not seem like they are, it's always best to be nice and polite because you don't know what they have to deal with. Others should be treated with respect, even if we disagree with what they are doing, or in this case, their usually annoying profession.

 

[MIGrandma]

While I kind of understand where that customer is coming from she still shouldn't have been rude to you. You were just doing your job. But I hate calls like that from businesses we deal with. If I'm having cell phone issues, I will call you and let you know. No need for you to call me about it. So I do understand that part of it. But she should have been polite to you, and she could have just asked that you take her name off your calling list.

I worked as a waitress for many years and I had my share of rude customers. I don't understand why people feel it's okay to be rude and nasty to restaurant servers. But heaven forbid if the server gets nasty right back to the customer, then the customer complains to the boss about it.

 

[ajk912]

Again, people don't want unsolicited phone calls. An email conveying the same message and a like to tech support would do the same thing and people would not feel like you are infringing on their time. A simple header like "Thank you for your loyalty" or something would be something I would open and read and probably smile at while drinking my morning coffee but call me at dinner time and you will get a "not interested" and a hang up.

TBH I think many people would just delete a mass email. But you remember someone taking the time to call you, whether you are annoyed or appreciative or not (and both types are in this thread) you remember that call. And I doubt anyone would really say, "I REFUSE to do business with that company because they called and CHECKED on me!!!"

 

[ajk912]

have you worked in customer service for very long or prior to this job?? because that's not even that bad.

i had a person threaten to kill me when i worked at blockbuster because i couldn't take off his late fee. if it was over a certain amount of money you had to have the store managers approval and since she wasn't there he got in a tizzy and started screaming about how he could find out where we all lived and would show up and shoot us and our families.

you're gonna get crazy people when you work with the general public.

but i do have to say, i don't understand why the phones don't already come with a warranty, you have to "buy" one if you want to, and it's a montly fee. stuff happens to phones....so it shouldn't be "optional if you want to pay" for insurance. but that's just my opinion.[/QUOTE]

This doesn't bother me, because I am sure there are people who are incredibly careful with their phones and they really don't need the insurance. Or they can afford the replacement cost. So I like how insurance is optional.

A total tangent but I do HATE when companies nickle and dime you. I understand paying a flat shipping fee on a whole order, or free shipping over X. But QVC..they don't combine shipping, and everything has HIGH shipping rates. So why not just say the price is $66 instead of $58 plus $8 shipping? And then the ladies are all.."It's the best value you can get under $60." Uhh..no it's not, because unless you are going to come let me pick it up it's actually $66. Stupid things annoy me but not people checking on me, I guess.

 

[Scurvy]

TBH I think many people would just delete a mass email. But you remember someone taking the time to call you, whether you are annoyed or appreciative or not (and both types are in this thread) you remember that call. And I doubt anyone would really say, "I REFUSE to do business with that company because they called and CHECKED on me!!!"

I stopped doing business with a company because they called me! It was a long distance provider for our land line years ago. Admittedly it wasn't one follow up call. They called all the time - it drove me crazy. They were always "just checking" to see if we were still happy with their service. I kept telling them we were very happy with the service but not at all happy about the calls. Finally I told them that if they called again we'd switch providers, and they called again so that was that.

Seriously, I don't like companies treating me like I don't have enough sense to contact them if I have a problem. One follow up call will annoy me but it won't cause me to take my business elsewhere. If they keep calling, though, I'll find another company who realizes their customers are smart enough to speak up for themselves if they have any problems.

 

[Vixen]

I am so curious as to how people are raised to be rude to others when they don't deserve that kind of treatment?? Have you ever been treated rudely for no reason at all? Or just because you were doing your job??

For example...I work selling cell phones for a major company and we are given a list of numbers once a month to call current customers and check on their service to take sure everything is going ok for them. Not sell them anything, just to make sure they don't need anything fixed and to make sure that their service is working out for them. It's a quick call and we're not telemarketers. Well...I just made one of those calls and a lady who had to be in her 40's went off on me!! She yelled at me telling me I wasting her time and that these phone calls are a waste of time to her. I explained that I was just checking to make sure everything was going ok for her and she continued to be rude and yell so I of course hung up on her (she deserved it). This lady seriously made me teary eyed and I wanted to cry

I just don't understand where people get off treating people like crap for no reason at all. I think those people need to be forced into manner school.

She said you were wasting her time right? Well i bet you she wasted more time being a nasty witch to you than what your reason for calling was!lol
Don't let those nasty people get to you

 

[Planogirl]

I wouldn't want to be called in this way either but I wouldn't yell at the person calling. I've even been nice to telemarketers because I understand that this is just their job.

It was nice when we got rid of our landline though. I was recently asked at the bank if we still had the same phone number because the bank wanted to call to see if we needed anything else. Without thinking I said "yes" but then realized later that they have the old disconnected phone number. Oh well....

 

[clutter]

I hate it when people call me about things like that. I am polite, if short, because I understand they have the right to call. But I'm not stupid - if I'm having a problem with my phone or my service I know to call Customer Service about it. It's not like I'm going to wait for them to call me before I try to fix the problem. So while I'll be polite if I'm unfortunate enough to get a call like that - and I am, fairly often - I may not be able to keep the annoyance out of my voice. If someone is going to call me and waste my time then they are just going to have to deal with the fact that I'm annoyed.

(I don't get what someone dropping their phone has to do with the situation, honestly.)

I agree. However, I nicely and firmly let the person calling know that they will find a way to ensure that I will not receive such a phone call again, or they will lose my business. It's gotten SO bad that I actually ask when signing up for service or such if I can be put on a "do not call to see how it's going list." Because I tell them at the time that there are no second chances.

OP, to your company, it's one phone call to see if everything's ok. To the customer, it's the 5th call that week asking the same thing. As Scurvy said, you're treating us as though we're too stupid to figure out how to reach you if we have a problem.

 

[iKristin]

But see the thing is you're not the type of person we're targeting. There are literally TONS of people that do not pay attention to their cell phone bills and so that's why we call them to make sure everything is going ok. I hear this daily: "why am I being charged for this??" ... "well sir you have had this on your bill since September of 2008 so nothing has changed". Maybe people just don't read their bills enough and so when they do complain it's because they never paid attention in the first place lol. I had another lady yesterday who got mad and yelled at my pregnant co-worker (VERY uncool in my book) because her grand daughter had signed up for one of those ringtone TV commercial things that charge you 9.99 a month. I mean it's not like we forced her to sign up for it?? And it's not something we can control. It's no ones fault but their own. No one can ever take the blame for something that THEY did; it's always someone else's fault. If someone goes over their minutes...we get yelled at and it's our fault. So rather than have people paying tons of money in overage charges or have charges that they don't know what they're for, we call to check and make sure that doesn't happen.

 

[cm8]

I think there are a lot of really angry people out there. They are tired and stressed and they snap. You, on the phone, are an easy target for them to yell at.

Repeat to yourself that this is your job. This is what you have to do.

Sorry people are mean to you!

I really agree with your statement. And at the same time it is really sad. Just because "you" are all of those things does not give you the right to take it out on "me". Sometimes a little kindness goes a long way, more than we realize.

 

[Mrs. Charming]

I really agree with your statement. And at the same time it is really sad. Just because "you" are all of those things does not give you the right to take it out on "me". Sometimes a little kindness goes a long way, more than we realize.

Yep. I don't think some people realize that things can be handled politely! I think some people are just miserable people, and that's just that. I just hate dealing with them!

OP-- I used to work in a call center... omg. *hug* of sympathy!

 

[okeydokey]

No we don't call monthly. We are given a short list of about 15 customers to call once. We never call them again once they've been called....But for an income of over 50 grand a year, i'll take this job and the rude customers...Not my fault you dropped your phone in water or you dropped it and the screen broke. Be more careful with your phone.

This is different from your first post. I wouldn't mind one call to check on new service, after that I would be annoyed. However, people need to separate store policy from the person doing the job. The person calling was told to do so by the boss.

 

[phred52]

Any unsolicited phone call to our home gets the same response. I interrupt with a calm "not interested" Then, click, hang up.

Most times whoever called is still talking, trying to engage in conversation.

Sometimes, when caller ID identifies what we think is a telemarketer, the phone is just lifted for a fraction of a second before being hung back up.