Nothing feels better than to really harangue someone working in customer service or dealing with customers, making minimum wage or close to it, especially during the holidays.
It is like walking up to a sleeping wino, and punching them in the face, and then saying “HA I sure showed you”! And then of course describing in intimate detail, to all your friends, about how you had gotten into a fight and really beat some serious ass.
It relieves stress and makes you feel better than them, and bigger too, doesn’t it? This modern phenomenon is nowhere more clearly displayed than all the digital diatribes I routinely digest on our vast wasteland of the wild, wild, west of the World Wide Web.
People get very brave when carrying a gun against someone unarmed, or someone on the web, or someone on a telephone or maybe in a car if you don’t think they can get to you, face-to-face. When mano-a-mano, and not in a bar, most people still act fairly civil. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mano-a-mano
My wife called customer service at Amazon the day after Christmas and I told her “honey, leave those poor underpaid bastards alone”! Can you imagine anything worse than manning the return counter after Christmas?
We used to have a saying in the restaurant business “the customer is rude and stupid”. What it means in essence is when these overweight self-important, red-faced imbeciles are screaming at you, about some tiny thing you have no control over, they really aren’t mad at you, they are mad at life. They are screaming into the wind about their exalted Christmas that didn’t live up to their sky high expectations. Instead of getting the big present they hoped for, they got the medium present they never wanted. They are ready to burst at the seams with bile. Or maybe it just snowed like hell and they have a sore throat and cough now, (me). Anyway, they feel safe, even justified somehow, taking it out on the poor customer service/whipping post person. They threaten to “take their business elsewhere”.
By the way, when working at a retail establishment years ago, when someone demanded for detailed information, when we were manning a register, with customers standing ready to pay 10 deep, they would say “give me someone who knows what they are talking about”, we would say, “certainly sir”, then just set the phone down. When asked later who was on the phone, we would say “he is waiting for someone who knows what they are talking about”, then we would all laugh. One thing about those kind of jobs, you can have 10 of them tomorrow if you are so inclined.
This whole thing is even crazier because in most cases we have no real choices anyway. Sears or Wall Mart, is that a choice? Verizon or Comcast? Then of course there are things like the garbage pick-up monopoly, the PSE monopoly, the Microsoft monopoly. Is there any difference between Airbus and Boeing, I mean really?
But people have to let off steam somehow I guess, and screaming at people who have the misfortune to not be able to do any better than working in a call center during the holidays, is one way. Really showing them who’s boss, teaching them a lesson, getting your monies’ worth, is better than dressing up like Santa and shooting people. A little better.
Written somewhat in response to my friend: http://eatingmyworld.wordpress.com/2008/12/29/if-there-is-a-hell-its-calling-the-verizon-help-line-for-all-eternity/
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3 comments:
I have about 50 things that I disagree with in your rant but I will hold it to a few.
First, not everyone who complains is overweight or rude and stupid. It is quite possible to call and complain without being an ass. I can complain and even be incredibly frustrated and still be civil.
Take the other night at Lombardi's restaurant. I ordered a steak. I have ordered this steak one other time and ordered it medium rare. The steak was $20 some bucks and at that price, and for as nice as the restaurant is, I expect that the steak be done correctly or at least close. The first time I ordered it (a few months ago) it came with no pink in the middle, none. I didn't want to say anything because my waitress was nice and I really didnt want to be a hassle. But she asked how it was cooked and I just asked her what she thought about how it was cooked. She said "Oh that is NOT medium rare" and said she would take it back. 20 minutes later I had a new steak and everyone at the table was done eating. I ate it, but because of the time it took (not the waitresses fault) it really put a damper on my dinner because I sat while everyone else ate their diner. Then two weeks ago, the exact same thing happened with the same steak. I sure the hell wasnt going to say anything this time because I knew the deal. But my daughter who was with us who is a chef said "YOU MUST SAY SOMETHING". So I did, but I told the waitress I was only telling her because there probably needs to be some training done with the steak guy and that I didn't want another steak.
Now, I dont think anyone at the table either time thought I was rude and stupid. The steak had no pink and was well done. So for 20 dollars should I eat it and shut up in fear of hurting someones feelings? Or can I say something without being an ass. I think I actually did the later.
Next telling your wife to leave those poor people alone is retarded. Lisa I hope to god you told Ed to mind his own business and called. Help desk people are not poor little things. They are paid to solve problems that many times their company has caused. THAT IS WHAT THEY GET PAID TO DO. Yes sometimes people are rude and should get hung up on, but MANY times its the help people that are rude despite customers attempts at being rational. I am SURE Lisa wasn't going to call and give someone an ass chewing or be rude and stupid.
Even when I was on the phone with Verizon I was still civil. Frustrated all to hell, yes. When I tell a help person a story that includes the line "I am unable to purchase this product online as your site says it is unable to do so at this time and to call this number and they can help" and for them to respond with "Sir you need to do this online" and completely ignore what I just said. That is stupidity. I at least expect for help desk people to listen to what I am saying and respond accordingly.
One of the reasons I am so pissed off when trying to get good service is because companies have started hiring kids at minimum wage to fill positions that used to be filled by adults. Back when I was a kid and my parents would go into a department store, it would be staffed by adults that knew what the hell they were doing. Now companies have figured out that if they hire kids at 8 bucks an hour they can save a ton of money. Now when I go to someplace like BestBuy (which I RARELY do because I hate it with the heat of a thousand suns) and I need advice on buying a $4000 TV, I get a 17 year old kid that knows nothing about anything and just wants to get home and smoke weed and ride his skateboard.
If you think help desk people are poor little souls that are just punching bags for the fat rude people of the world, you need to spend some time on consumerist.com and listen to some of the horror stories from people calling help lines.
Funny how you keep going back to a restaurant you know will give you a crappy steak before you get there. Because you have no choice? Or because a real steak costs $40 and is in Kirkland or Seattle?
And no, the people don't actually get paid to do anything, that was the point.
Cary, Cary....I'm not a fifties-housewife. I called Amazon and here is my story: I had logged into my account to figure out how to return this ridiculous game that I had gotten the hubs for Xmas that he, of course, already had. Long story short, I guess I have multiple Amazon accounts, so could not retrieve the order although I could log in. Nowhere on the site could I find any help. So I called. Amazon uses a service that allows you to pick and choose when you would like a return call. I picked ASAP and lo and behold, the phone rang and I was more or less immediately connected to customer service. Here, all semblance of efficient technology and personification of customer service ended. The woman with whom I spoke did explain that I had multiple accounts but could not for the life of her give me any clear instructions as to how to resolve this other than having her reset a password and me log back in. Being somewhat PC-literate, I asked if this would combine all the accounts and if I would then be able to pick my own password. She quite literally, shouted, "NO, that is not what it does at all." I asked her, very nicely, as I was somewhat in shock, what I should do then and she said.....wait for it...."DO WHAT I TOLD YOU TO DO" Rather than belabor the point, I did what she told me and haven't gone back to the site to see what the upshot of all this is but my password is AMAZON and I can't change it......
On the other hand, as you know, we have been blasted by weather and one of the results has been no mail delivery for many of the hill dwellers. I listened to a morbidly obese man scream at the Postmistress of Duvall that he spent all his time coming down to get his mail and all he got were fliers and catalogues....like it was her personal responsiblity to ensure that he has friends.....Hmmmm...wonder where all those Xmas cards wishing him holiday joy went?
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