Is the customer really always right? What they said/what you wish could say...

maryam · 02-13-2013, 12:38 AM

I used to work at an airline. One of the Big 6 Usian ones. While I was watching the weather last weekend, I felt badly for my friends who still work there. One night a few years ago, when there was BAD snow and we had cascading cancellations ahead of the storm (sometimes the hub system bites) we were ALL on mandatory overtime. I was on the 430 pm to 130 am shift, (normally the last shift of the day) but they held us over to work, especially international agents because we were recovering from the killer snowstorms in Europe. This was the that bad winter a few years ago where they got snow in England and Italy and all the spots in between...

So we're in our last hour of legality and we all get to go in late the next day, since it's now going on 7 am.... And we're rebooking as best we can, and explaining to people that even if we did have seats leaving today, the chances of those flights going out on schedule are kind of in the negative numbers. And people are bitchy and mad because of course the airlines control the weather! (Y'all did know that, right? Airlines totally control the weather!) I'm on call work time because I need a brain break and I hear one of my friends saying the following, through gritted teeth.

"Yes sir, I am certain we have no planes leaving this morning."

"Yes sir, I'm aware there's only 10 inches of snow out there, but you'll be flying into a blizzard. That's why we cancelled your flight."

"No sir, there are no planes leaving Hartford for the West Coast today."

"Sir, I'm pretty sure that if you DO walk over to the other side of the airport and look out the windows of the other terminal, you'll find that it IS snowing on that side of the airport too."

By now, the whole freaking bay is howling with laughter, because we've been dealing with this crap ALL night long and we'd gotten to the slap-happy and goofy stagee around 4 am. The poor man (and I did kinda feel bad for him yells "What the hell is so funny bitch! What are you laughing about?" so loud we can all hear it and then Lisa starts giggling so hard she can hardly talk. She's gasping out "I'm so -- sorry-- sir--- we've just -- been up all night" between giggles and we're all just dying from laughter. She says "oh no Sir-- it's really not -- giggle wheeze-- funny. --snerk--- I swear, I'm taking this very --giggle snort!-- seriously" By now we have a supervisor over to see why we're all dying here. The supe (who was awesome! Our night time supervisor was great!) just walked around and started turning off our phone boxes... She grabs Lisa's head set and says "Well sir, I understand you're unhappy about the weather. Sadly, we can't turn the snow off for you...." By this time, Lisa's lost the seats she was trying to get so he's stuck another three days in Hartford. She pulls the head set off because he's shouting again, and we hear him saying "I'll see you all in Hell Bitch!" and the supe puts the head set back on and says "well, Sir, I see you're having a bad day. Why don't you take some time to get settled down and call back.. Thanks for calling Awesome Airlines" and hangs up on him. It was so darn funny because we were only allowed to hang up on the obscene callers, and only after we'd asked them for a res.

Even though it was mandatory overtime, she sent us all out about 20 minutes before she was supposed to because we were so done. Even now, when a customer's getting snarky, there's still a running joke at that reservation center about "Well, let me just run over to the other side of the airport and check the weather for you."

Corkey · 02-13-2013, 01:38 AM

On the customer side of it.
Sometimes those little head sets are too far away from a CR's mouth that I can't hear what you* are saying much less agree to your asking me if I can be placed on hold. So if I say 3 times I can't hear you* please speak up, please do not be short with me.

GraffitiBoi · 02-13-2013, 05:30 AM

I work overnights as a night auditor/manager in a large well-known hotel in downtown Minneapolis. One night when we were at full occupancy (of course) the fire alarms went off. When this happens all the elevators shut down. If you're on the 31st floor it sucks to have to take the stairs. Of course the phones start ringing off the hook. I'm trying to assess the situation and inform certain staff members of what needs to be done. Needless to say, I'm busy. I have one person manning the phones and I have had to leave the front desk unmanned. I jump on and help answer the phones when I get a moment.

Standard questions of people calling down:
Guest: "There are alarms going off."
Me: "Yes ma'am. We are aware of the situation."
Guest: "Well, do I have to leave my room?"
Me: "Yes ma'am. We are evacuating the hotel until we can determine if there is an actual fire or not."
Guest: "Why don't you know if there is a fire? I need to sleep. I'm not leaving. Can't you turn the alarms off?"
Me: "I'm sorry ma'am I do not have access or authorization to turn the alarms off. The fire department has to do that. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but you do need to leave your room."
Guest: "But I have an early morning. I need sleep. Just turn them off."
Me: "Again, I am sorry ma'am but I am not able to do that. Please evacuate the building."
Guest: "Is everyone leaving? I'll have to wait forever for an elevator. I don't have time for this."
Me: "The elevators do not work during a fire emergency ma'am. You'll have to take the stairs." *cringing because I know it's coming - she's on the 31st floor.*
Guest: *yelling* "What do you mean I have to take the stairs??!! I'm the 31st f-ing floor! I am NOT walking down those stairs. Turn off the alarms NOW!"
Me: "Ma'am I explained to you already that I cannot turn the alarms off."
Guest: "What kind of customer service is this? I'm an Elite member! You need to do what I say. I want to talk to the manager."
Me: *looking at her reservation and seeing that her employer pays for her stays here* "I see that you are one of our elite members and we at the _______ Hotel thank your employer for utilizing us for their travel needs. I am the manager ma'am and I am sorry to say that I cannot turn the alarms off."
Guest: "I'm not leaving my room! This is the worst customer service I have ever experienced!"
Me: "My apologies ma'am that our fire emergency has disturbed your stay with us. I see the fire department is here and I must go meet with them. Have a good night." *click*

In the morning near the end of my shift a woman comes up to the desk to check out and is screaming for the manager. I go out to talk to her. It's her. She demanded that we pay for her entire stay (5 nights) and all of her incidentals (bar and restaurant charges) because we disturbed her sleep and refused to turn off the alarms when she explicitly told us to do so. I had a hard time not laughing at her. I told her we will not reimburse her any of the expenses for something that was not the hotel's fault and apologized to her for her restless night. She called me a bitch and a fag. I smiled at her and said "Thank you. I take that as a compliment." She then yelled some more and said she would never stay at our hotel again. I told her to have a nice day and a safe journey home.

The following Monday I'm working the front desk and guess who shows up to check in!? LOL She was trying hard to be polite to me. I put on my best smile and gave her a warm welcome back. She said she couldn't get any of the other hotels in the area to give her the corporate rate we give her. I told her "I know. ________ (company she works for) has a contract with us and not with any other hotel. If there is anything we can do to make your stay more enjoyable, please don't hesitate to ask."

maryam · 02-13-2013, 05:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Corkey

On the customer side of it.
Sometimes those little head sets are too far away from a CR's mouth that I can't hear what you* are saying much less agree to your asking me if I can be placed on hold. So if I say 3 times I can't hear you* please speak up, please do not be short with me.

and that I understand! or sometimes it's the other way around, the mic is too close to the mouth so it gets muffled and you sound like the adults in a Charlie Brown movie.

weatherboi · 04-21-2013, 12:07 PM

We have been working for a chemist. Our technology is patented and trade secret protected. I did an estimate for him and got an uneasy feeling from him so I went out of my way to turn him off from using us. Trying to dodge a bullet type thing. He contacted me a few months later wanting to go ahead with service so I set it up and proceeded. /most of my clients are curious but this guy was full of questions that revolved around doubtful outcomes. The job was on it's third day and just when we thought it was almost over we discovered an issue he was not forth coming of. WE took an hour break from the job and regrouped by coming up with a plan to fix his issue free of charge. After putting out a fire that was due to his lack of being forth right, he decided to criticize results that hadn't even been delivered yet therefore no reason to criticize. The fourth day we completed the job with above par results and in a timely manner even though we ran into a little bit of a snafu...no harm no foul. When closing out the job the client was almost mad that his situation came out so well. Like he was mad that we cleared all his hurdles.

We learned the client is not always right...some of them really want to see us fail!!!

02-13-2013, 01:38 AM	#2
Corkey Infamous Member How Do You Identify?: Human Preferred Pronoun?: He Relationship Status: Very Married Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Where I want to be Posts: 8,155 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 47,491 Thanked 29,268 Times in 6,637 Posts Rep Power: 21474859	On the customer side of it. Sometimes those little head sets are too far away from a CR's mouth that I can't hear what you* are saying much less agree to your asking me if I can be placed on hold. So if I say 3 times I can't hear you* please speak up, please do not be short with me. __________________ "Many proposals have been made to us to adopt your laws, your religion, your manners and your customs. We would be better pleased with beholding the good effects of these doctrines in your own practices, than with hearing you talk about them". ~Old Tassel, Chief of the Tsalagi (Cherokee)

04-21-2013, 12:07 PM	#5
weatherboi Infamous Member How Do You Identify?: Owned boy Preferred Pronoun?: Hey boy!!! Relationship Status: counting freckles slowly under Her direction!!! Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: i have 2 sets of geographic coordinates!!! Posts: 6,097 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 26,797 Thanked 12,549 Times in 2,993 Posts Rep Power: 21474858	We have been working for a chemist. Our technology is patented and trade secret protected. I did an estimate for him and got an uneasy feeling from him so I went out of my way to turn him off from using us. Trying to dodge a bullet type thing. He contacted me a few months later wanting to go ahead with service so I set it up and proceeded. /most of my clients are curious but this guy was full of questions that revolved around doubtful outcomes. The job was on it's third day and just when we thought it was almost over we discovered an issue he was not forth coming of. WE took an hour break from the job and regrouped by coming up with a plan to fix his issue free of charge. After putting out a fire that was due to his lack of being forth right, he decided to criticize results that hadn't even been delivered yet therefore no reason to criticize. The fourth day we completed the job with above par results and in a timely manner even though we ran into a little bit of a snafu...no harm no foul. When closing out the job the client was almost mad that his situation came out so well. Like he was mad that we cleared all his hurdles. We learned the client is not always right...some of them really want to see us fail!!! __________________

02-13-2013, 12:38 AM	#1
maryam Member How Do You Identify?: femme-ish Preferred Pronoun?: she Relationship Status: taken Join Date: Jan 2013 Location: somewhere, out there.... Posts: 263 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 675 Thanked 794 Times in 231 Posts Rep Power: 4979164	I used to work at an airline. One of the Big 6 Usian ones. While I was watching the weather last weekend, I felt badly for my friends who still work there. One night a few years ago, when there was BAD snow and we had cascading cancellations ahead of the storm (sometimes the hub system bites) we were ALL on mandatory overtime. I was on the 430 pm to 130 am shift, (normally the last shift of the day) but they held us over to work, especially international agents because we were recovering from the killer snowstorms in Europe. This was the that bad winter a few years ago where they got snow in England and Italy and all the spots in between... So we're in our last hour of legality and we all get to go in late the next day, since it's now going on 7 am.... And we're rebooking as best we can, and explaining to people that even if we did have seats leaving today, the chances of those flights going out on schedule are kind of in the negative numbers. And people are bitchy and mad because of course the airlines control the weather! (Y'all did know that, right? Airlines totally control the weather!) I'm on call work time because I need a brain break and I hear one of my friends saying the following, through gritted teeth. "Yes sir, I am certain we have no planes leaving this morning." "Yes sir, I'm aware there's only 10 inches of snow out there, but you'll be flying into a blizzard. That's why we cancelled your flight." "No sir, there are no planes leaving Hartford for the West Coast today." "Sir, I'm pretty sure that if you DO walk over to the other side of the airport and look out the windows of the other terminal, you'll find that it IS snowing on that side of the airport too." By now, the whole freaking bay is howling with laughter, because we've been dealing with this crap ALL night long and we'd gotten to the slap-happy and goofy stagee around 4 am. The poor man (and I did kinda feel bad for him yells "What the hell is so funny bitch! What are you laughing about?" so loud we can all hear it and then Lisa starts giggling so hard she can hardly talk. She's gasping out "I'm so -- sorry-- sir--- we've just -- been up all night" between giggles and we're all just dying from laughter. She says "oh no Sir-- it's really not -- giggle wheeze-- funny. --snerk--- I swear, I'm taking this very --giggle snort!-- seriously" By now we have a supervisor over to see why we're all dying here. The supe (who was awesome! Our night time supervisor was great!) just walked around and started turning off our phone boxes... She grabs Lisa's head set and says "Well sir, I understand you're unhappy about the weather. Sadly, we can't turn the snow off for you...." By this time, Lisa's lost the seats she was trying to get so he's stuck another three days in Hartford. She pulls the head set off because he's shouting again, and we hear him saying "I'll see you all in Hell Bitch!" and the supe puts the head set back on and says "well, Sir, I see you're having a bad day. Why don't you take some time to get settled down and call back.. Thanks for calling Awesome Airlines" and hangs up on him. It was so darn funny because we were only allowed to hang up on the obscene callers, and only after we'd asked them for a res. Even though it was mandatory overtime, she sent us all out about 20 minutes before she was supposed to because we were so done. Even now, when a customer's getting snarky, there's still a running joke at that reservation center about "Well, let me just run over to the other side of the airport and check the weather for you."

02-13-2013, 05:30 AM	#3
GraffitiBoi Member How Do You Identify?: Transmasculine Preferred Pronoun?: Male ones Relationship Status: Playing around and having fun Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: Minnetonka, MN Posts: 903 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 990 Thanked 3,663 Times in 824 Posts Rep Power: 21474849	I work overnights as a night auditor/manager in a large well-known hotel in downtown Minneapolis. One night when we were at full occupancy (of course) the fire alarms went off. When this happens all the elevators shut down. If you're on the 31st floor it sucks to have to take the stairs. Of course the phones start ringing off the hook. I'm trying to assess the situation and inform certain staff members of what needs to be done. Needless to say, I'm busy. I have one person manning the phones and I have had to leave the front desk unmanned. I jump on and help answer the phones when I get a moment. Standard questions of people calling down: Guest: "There are alarms going off." Me: "Yes ma'am. We are aware of the situation." Guest: "Well, do I have to leave my room?" Me: "Yes ma'am. We are evacuating the hotel until we can determine if there is an actual fire or not." Guest: "Why don't you know if there is a fire? I need to sleep. I'm not leaving. Can't you turn the alarms off?" Me: "I'm sorry ma'am I do not have access or authorization to turn the alarms off. The fire department has to do that. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but you do need to leave your room." Guest: "But I have an early morning. I need sleep. Just turn them off." Me: "Again, I am sorry ma'am but I am not able to do that. Please evacuate the building." Guest: "Is everyone leaving? I'll have to wait forever for an elevator. I don't have time for this." Me: "The elevators do not work during a fire emergency ma'am. You'll have to take the stairs." cringing because I know it's coming - she's on the 31st floor. Guest: yelling "What do you mean I have to take the stairs??!! I'm the 31st f-ing floor! I am NOT walking down those stairs. Turn off the alarms NOW!" Me: "Ma'am I explained to you already that I cannot turn the alarms off." Guest: "What kind of customer service is this? I'm an Elite member! You need to do what I say. I want to talk to the manager." Me: looking at her reservation and seeing that her employer pays for her stays here "I see that you are one of our elite members and we at the _______ Hotel thank your employer for utilizing us for their travel needs. I am the manager ma'am and I am sorry to say that I cannot turn the alarms off." Guest: "I'm not leaving my room! This is the worst customer service I have ever experienced!" Me: "My apologies ma'am that our fire emergency has disturbed your stay with us. I see the fire department is here and I must go meet with them. Have a good night." click In the morning near the end of my shift a woman comes up to the desk to check out and is screaming for the manager. I go out to talk to her. It's her. She demanded that we pay for her entire stay (5 nights) and all of her incidentals (bar and restaurant charges) because we disturbed her sleep and refused to turn off the alarms when she explicitly told us to do so. I had a hard time not laughing at her. I told her we will not reimburse her any of the expenses for something that was not the hotel's fault and apologized to her for her restless night. She called me a bitch and a fag. I smiled at her and said "Thank you. I take that as a compliment." She then yelled some more and said she would never stay at our hotel again. I told her to have a nice day and a safe journey home. The following Monday I'm working the front desk and guess who shows up to check in!? LOL She was trying hard to be polite to me. I put on my best smile and gave her a warm welcome back. She said she couldn't get any of the other hotels in the area to give her the corporate rate we give her. I told her "I know. ________ (company she works for) has a contract with us and not with any other hotel. If there is anything we can do to make your stay more enjoyable, please don't hesitate to ask."