Long before I became an auto writer and before I became a programmer, I worked in call centers. Without getting too deep into it, I was the first line that someone called whenever their school’s software wasn’t working right. Often, these people were absolutely pissed at me, even though their problem had nothing to do with me and I was trying my best to fix it. Remember to be nice to your customer service reps!
Jason wrote about how Stellantis is putting annoying pop-up ads in cars, and a lot of you are pretty upset. It’s understandable, too. It’s already bad enough to be hit with a barrage of ads everywhere on the Internet. One reader suggested being snarky to the Stellantis customer service people, but Bob Boxbody is correct here:
I used to work in a call center, and I disagree. It’s not the rep’s fault that they have to do those steps, and the company will never hear about your snark. Customer service is a crappy enough job as it is; no need to be jerks to them. It doesn’t help anything. They probably hate it as much as you do.
In my experience, a company does not care if you yell at or try to get smart with their customer service reps. The company will not change because you’re making a poor call center employee’s life harder. As Bob said, nobody with any power at the company will ever hear your call, anyway. Also consider that, often, the rep is being told what to say, even if they do not personally believe it. So, just consider that the next time you’re heated up about something, when you call customer service.
The NSX Was Only in Development for 4 Years:
Our goal is to deliver the best vehicle experience for our customers.
News to me.
Tekamul made me laugh by starting a thread:
I hope when you call that 800 number, you are inundated with scratchy muzak broken up every 30 seconds by polite reminders that you can get $3000 cash back on a 2024 Dodge Hornet.
FormerTXJeepGuy:
Every 30 seconds the cash back goes up by $500.
Jack Beckman:
If you wait long enough, they pay you to take it.
FormerTXJeepGuy:
Your call is important to us. Because of your hold time, we are emailing you a coupon for one free Dodge Hornet. Taking it is not optional.
Thomas wrote about why it’s a good idea to check on your bump stops. Alexk98 has a really heartwarming request:
Check On Your
Bump StopsFriends, They Might Not Be OkayFeels as good a time as any to throw this out there.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Topshot graphic: TheNetGuyDotCom/X
I just encountered this, in an automotive related environment no less.
Sunday we were greeted with a pet emergency and had to rush to the veterinary ER 1.5 hours away. Mrs. Dunlop left with injured pet, and me and the other pet hung behind and noted we would follow in a little bit (we were at out cottage). Of course, Mrs Dunlop gets a flat. I did my best Brock Yates impression and swapped her out a fresh ride before AAA could arrive to assist.
Not one to put a full size spare to waste, I changed the tire (long before AAA arrives) and head off to Firestone (because Belle Tire is closed on Sundays) to get it repaired or replaced.
The Gummo looking fellow, who’s birthday it was, rocking the counter greeted me with pleasantries (which is how I knew it was his birthday) and I shared that we both were likely someplace we would rather not be today. I explained the situation an was told it would take 1-1.5 hours to fix. Given that timeline, I went to a nearby Potbelly to get a sandwich*. I return, satiated, 30 minutes later, car parked in exactly the same place I left, so I go into the waiting area and wait.
30 minutes later, as Gummo ear rapes the other 2 people inquiring about Akron’s greatest rubber, and I get a call telling me it is urgent at the vet, and to get rolling NOW. I ask Gummo for my keys, explaining I now have an emergency and cannot wait for the repair, my apologies. He asks for my vehicle information, and name to retrieve my service file and keys. He spends the next minute running around the shop (I am one of 2 people actually in the store, 4 cars on the lifts, mine out front) looking for…whatever.
This is where I should note that I am dressed in a (vintage) brown and gold velour Stacy Adams tracksuit with matching Carrera 5593 tinted glasses (I am a man of taste). Not exactly blending in in my suburban surroundings.
Gummo locates my file and informs me it has been done for 45 minutes, asks where I’ve been and thathe tried calling (he may have, but my phone showed nothing and I was next door for all of 30 minutes). I had also walked passed him when I reentered the store, and he had walked passed me a half dozen times after that, and even told me he would turn the TV on to the Lions game for me while I waited (he did).
I. LOST. IT
I mother fucked him up and down, gestured to my wardrobe and asked how many other assholes have come in looking like this today, how I (now) have a pet in distress and you are holding me hostage because you can’t connect dots. I threw it all at him.
Was I my best self? Not even close, and I am somewhat ashamed of my reaction and the use of the R word.
However, there was no excuse for the waste of my time and the lack of the bare minimum of customer service and basic situational awareness. I could have sat there all day until closing, I am sure, before anyone would have said a thing.
I have worked in CS and retail so I understand the thankless grind, but the job is the job and I refuse to give people a pass for willful ineptitude.
Our lovely little sausage dog went into surgery Monday, procedure went as expected and is recovering now and showing positive signs of recovery.
*The sandwich gave me food poisoning.
I’m usually in agreement about being nice to the CS folks. All bets are off though if I have to contract Spectrum internet/cable. The CS people there that go along with not doing what I ask as a customer deserve whatever miserable employment experience they endure.
So here’s my thing; I worked customer service for a semiconductor company, so I was facing irate customers, in person and with millions on the line. I’m pretty hard in person, on the phone I do give the benefit of the “you didn’t do this you were just answered the phone”. The customer service representative, didn’t cause the issue, this is true, but they are the representative, of the company, that did. I have often used words like “I’m not mad at you, but I am angry about this situation” or words to that effect. I once had a CSR at Home Depot tell me “you didn’t have to storm off”; my reply was “No, that’s not right, what you should say is ‘I’m sorry, what can I do to make it better'” The apology isn’t necessarily for the CSR’s behavior (in this case it was) and the result should be to improve the customer’s expectance. In cases when I was facing a customer and their million dollar widget wasn’t working, obviously the “make it better” was obvious, but not always, the make it better might be out of your control, it might be working over a weekend, it might be your bosses phone number.
We all know the customer isn’t always right, the customer might be completely bats$&t crazy. Wanting your electronics store to correct an issue with their tires. But the customer should always be initially validated, until you can reach a logical conclusion. Whether that is “sorry sir this is a Wendy’s” or “that’s an unusual request, but we can accommodate it” to “we will fix this right away”.
On the flip side, I know that yelling at the CSR of an airline because your fight through Chicago is cancelled due to weather, gets you nothing, and you’re an a**hole for doing it However, talking to the gate agent and rerouting your flight gets you home.
Bottom line, there no need to be rude to a CSR, unless they’re deliberate in being unhelpful, but there is also no reason to be anymore “nice” than any other business transaction, where presumably you’re the injured party. Heck the CSR might not even work for the company, but be an outsourced center that handles many different companies. I’ll allow the exception was my Chicago flight, I was super nice to the gate agent because; a. I always have, and in turn have always been treated well, and, b. I was looking for a favor, even though I was the injured party.
Fun fact: if you’re in this position and want to hang up on someone, do it while you’re speaking, then you can much more plausibly claim the call was dropped
Always be nice to the gatekeepers.
TBC many people calling CS call with the cool deliberation to solve the issue but: we are experiencing longer than normal hold times, no you aren’t I get this every time I call, your call is very important to us, no it isn’t or I would not be on hold, please listen to our crappy musak for 20 minutes and then you can speak to someone who will not be able to help you. Yeah the Rep has a suk job. I actually speak to them friendly and calmly while asking them to notate I was loud, rude, and unpleasant and I would be changing to another company if they don’t do something. The suits in the suites, hey a decent band name won’t take your call but they do get a synopsis of the calls
“Customer Service” is the Great Wall between you and the people at the company with any real authority. Those people whose job is only to make money, and not to care about you.
CS reps are the mask they wear so they can pretend to care about customers, despite anti-customer policies. CS really does have a terrible job.
Those with authority only care when general trends in market sentiment indicate a decrease in profits; then they might consider making more friendly policies.
Your rant to CS doesn’t matter. You don’t matter.
/Perhaps I’m a little cynical today?
I see myself as a necessary evil for any airline I travel on. They need me, but they don’t want me there.
100% Put the customer service rep in a position to help you – to succeed. Yelling at them for decisions made twenty pay grades above them is counter productive.
I’ve been on both sides of the wall. I worked phone IT (outsourced) for a big computer company, and like everyone, has felt with calling customer service. I was in my early twenties and I really didn’t appreciate being yelled at for something I had no hand in doing to the computer. I would spent a lot of time trying to find ways to keep a customer from losing anything on their hard drive if I could. You came at me hard without cooling off at all (I get being frustrated at the start of a call), then I went to the party of least resistance (for me) and had them reload the whole OS.
On the other side, I tend to get a lot farther being nice to the rep. Sometimes, though, when they spout fixed on things I’ve already done, then I get hot.
All in all though, it beats AI chat bots.
For now. Agentic AI let loose on your computer is already almost as capable as a human on the phone or over RDP.
Of course it can also send all your data to Kazakhstan and wipe it when it’s done.
But the capabilities are here already, and vast swaths of the economy in India and the Philippines are threatened.
AI is still worse than a philipino call center Rep on their first day.
For now.
I have total Wireless as my cell phone provider because I am a cheap bastard. Tech support is based in the Philippines I believe. English as a second language is a bit of a barrier but damn those people are smart
And the off-shore reps seem to able to spend lots of time trying to sort out your issue vs hanging up on you if you’re going to make their average call times run over.
I had ‘Sara’ last time. Pretty sure that wasn’t her real name (haha).
The chat bots used in the places I’ve had to deal with are generally terrible. They don’t understand what you want, send you in loops, give solutions that I’ve already explained to it that I’ve done, etc. I deal with AI and it’s issues daily. It’s getting better, but it’s still only a good as the programmers input or the info it scrapes off of websites. Not ready to bow down to our AI masters just yet.
Chat bots are just there to make you not notice you’ve essentially on hold for xx hours for live person…and to maybe weed out the ‘is your computer plugged in and turned on’ people (IT Crowd).
I would like to add on to my comment to say that when a customer service rep gives you great service, and helps you out, it’s a nice thing to talk with their supervisor and tell them so. I appreciated that so much as a CS rep, I do it now even when I’m ordering pizza, if the person really impresses me.
Yeah then wait 20 minutes for a supervisor who sounds suspiciously like your CS Rep. No one leaves reviews anymore I know because our company wants at least 4 5 star Google Reviews on every employee every month. People say I’m great helpful entertaining I save them real money I send them a link and 99 out of 100 they don’t do it. Maybe that is why I am so testy when at the end of the day I get on here.
Even when you work inside a large office or company: Be nice to the people at the front desks, the custodians, and others that face a lot of crap. Because they often know a lot of what goes on within the building, and can have dirt on people. They also can help if you ask for a favor.
One place had gotten pizza one time. I asked the two ladies up front would they like pizza and then swiped a whole box and some plates and napkins. They were stuck being the “face of the company” at their desks. You gotta feed your face. People need to remember what keeps things running smoothly.
The movers, especially, the movers always know
That older lady behind the front desk, the one with a chain that goes up to the sides of her glasses, knows where the bodies are buried. She’s the first person to be nice to when you walk in, employee or customer.
Aren’t “customer service” people supposed to be “the face of the company”? By definition, they are supposed to be the recipients of the customers’ ire. Yes, screaming at them is probably not going to help, but if “the company” wasn’t creating problems in the first place, “the company” wouldn’t need to be hiring people to deal with said “problems”! (“There’s never enough time [or money] to do things right, but there’s always time to do them over”.)
No, their job is to help you solve your problem despite what “the company” has done. It’s best to remember that. The CSR on the other end of the line is still a human being (Probably. At least for now). That person is not the one that caused your problem. They are the one who is going to do their best to fix it, and they get paid crap to do it. Be nice to them. If you want to scream at someone, ask for a manager. Managers are the ones paid to be your punching bag.
If that were true they would be given the ability to actually solve the problem. But yeah don’t take it out on them.
It’s no one’s job to be yelled at.
No, screaming at people over a problem they didnt create and are not responsible for makes you an asshole, you’re not screaming at an anonymous, faceless institution, you’re screaming at a real person, you wouldnt want someone to do that to you over something that wasnt your fault, so dont do it to someone else. Be the adult that Mr. Rogers knew you could become
I’m old. I’ve worked in many different jobs, and in some of them I’ve been on the receiving end of customers/clients/constituents/guests’ “dissatisfaction”. I agree, screaming and threatening are never good, but it is also a part of the job description. If you don’t want confrontation, don’t sign up for a “customer service” job. The hard reality is that a certain (and growing) percentage of the public ARE going to be assholes!
My very first job was at McDonald’s, it taught me a lot about being polite to the people behind the counter/phone. Seeing a grown ass man yell at a 15 year old girl making minimum wage that just started a couple weeks ago because he didn’t get his fries really opens your eyes. Don’t have to tell this crew as this is one of the most chill comment sections on the internet, but be kind to the fellow humans out there.
I also did at stint at McDonald’s for my first job, and for the same reasons stated, I wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone.
I think it would go a long way to building empathy across society.
Mine was Wendy’s.
As in “Ma’am – This is a Wendy’s, not a McDonalds”
Never did a turn at the Golden Arches, but did wait tables in high school/college and yeah, you learn a lot about people.
Relevant, and hilarious:
https://youtu.be/399pM0eTJ2o
I did management at BK. I actually had an upset person come through the drive thru to complain I had them pull up to replace their food only to discover it was from the McDonald’s across the street but they didn’t want to go there because the drive thru was to busy. I kindly told them to GTFOH
The author is absolutely correct about customer service – but such courtesy does not extend to spam callers. I have no sympathy for them, they called me, usually in an attempt to rip me off. If I can make them miserable, I will.
That’s not customer service, that’s sales (legitimate or otherwise). Scam sales deserve all of your ire.
“Often, these people were absolutely pissed at me, even though their problem had nothing to do with me and I was trying my best to fix it. Remember to be nice to your customer service reps!”
The absolute worst people to help are technology challenged parents who feel no qualms about venting their anger and frustration on you because they can.
Probably the same people who reduce a teenage girl to tears at McD’s for forgetting their ketchup packet.
Maybe. I’ve known grown ass women though who have humblebragged to me about weaponizing their tears to diffuse negative professional criticism. Since then I’ve had a much more cynical take on workplace crying.
I have written scripts for customer service folks, that in and of itself is bad enough, but actually doing it, ugh.
Oh, so you’re the one who writes the scripts-which-must-not-be-deviated-from used in certain Asian call-centers.
Those scripts clearly show we know we have a problem and we refuse to do anything about it
No one berate cotomor sevis. They are only doing their jorbs.
u suck u gust lost sale
Yes another reason for yelling is a failure to get an English speaking representative. Also why instead of just tackling the issue do CSRs want to mindlessly chat as if you are friends. That annoys me to no end. Think about it I can tell by your accent you are in another country, the first contact we had you lied to me and gave me a fake name I don’t see a relationship in our future.
You can’t really tell just by the accent, people can live anywhere, and people born in the US can still have foreign sounding accents. My dad was born here, but his first language was Italian, and everyone says spoke with a noticeable accent until well into his teens, when he trained himself out of it because he wanted to blend in more in the army
I had one the other day confused when I said incident was on Oct. 3rd. She did not understand ‘third’. She did understand Oct three.
I had a secretary from Guadeloupe years ago who didn’t really understand that there were other numbers besides “three”. Every incoming call was a crap shoot as to which line the person was actually on. If only one light was flashing, all good, but if every line was flashing, I just had to guess. Also insisted on attempting to listen to AM radio all day, despite the concrete and steel building meaning no reception. Never got that turning up the volume just made the static louder. Hell of a nice lady though and had a great family