Customer service craziness

[Sabeking]

Over the years I have had some interesting jobs before I settled on teaching/ speech therapy. I find that dealing with the public/ business to consumer can be downright comical. Here are a few stories. Please share yours.

Me: How can I help you today?
Customer: I bought a car from your dealership. When I bought it the sales person told me 15,000 dollars included everything.
Me: Yes mam, that is correct.
Customer: Well I got a bill from the state saying I owe 293.00 to them.
Me: Yes mam, that is your personal property tax .The State charges that to maintain highways, etc...
Customer: Well I’m not paying it; your dealership is!! I paid everything I owe and I’m not paying another dime! If you don’t pay I am returning the car or suing you! I will be there tomorrow with my lawyer!
( This is the shortened version. This went on for 15 minutes. They did not show up btw. )



Next story
Me: Hi, how can I help you?
Customer: Yes, I bought a preowned vehicle from you about four and a half years ago. I bought a 5 year warranty from you and want to cancel it and get my 1200.00 back.
Me:Well sir you bought it at 1200 and you filed claims against it. 5600.00 dollars worth of repairs were made to your vehicle over the past four and a half years. There is no money left to return.
Customer: I better get my 1200 back or I will sue!!!!

Some days I didn’t have energy to even go in.

 

[kimblebee]

Me- Thank you for calling Nintendo, how can I help you?
Customer- I’m calling to check on the status of my repair.
M- Sure, let me take a look for you
(Gets info and opens repair notes)
M- it looks like there was water damage to your system. Unfortunately, that’s not covered by our warranty so there will be a charge for the repair.
C- WHAT?!? That’s not possible.
M- There is a crystal strip inside the device that changes colour when it comes in contact with liquid. It has been activated, hence our technician says there is a charge for the repair.
C- Let me talk to your manager/I’m going to sue/ the tech must have spilled coffee on it/ I’m not paying that.

That happened waaaaay more than I care to remember.

 

[Heidict]

Oh my goodness. Where to start. So many, I can't remember most of them.

Patient calling a medical office regarding her water bill. I explained that a doctors office would not be able to help with the water company's bill. She wouldn't believe and became very angry. threatening and just over all throwing a fit. She just couldn't grasp that we had no access and couldn't help.

 

[design_mom]

Gosh, I worked Directory Assistance for a very short time and we got some doozies.

Me: Directory Assistance. How may I help you?
Caller: I want Wayne's phone number?
Me: May I have Wayne's last name?
Caller: Oh, he don't give that out. He's just Wayne.

Me: Directory Assistance. How may I help you?
Caller: I want the phone number for [insert chain restaurant, home improvement store, movie theater, etc.]?
Me: Which location would you like?
Caller: The one that's by my house! (as if I'm an idiot)
(Um, first, I have no idea where you live. Secondly, I had to put in a location to get the number, there was no "search" feature. This was before Siri when you *can* now ask it to find things that are near your location. This happened SEVERAL times)

 

[FlightlessDuck]

https://notalwaysright.com/

 

[Heidict]

Or the drunk boyfriend that was pretending to be the patient, wanting to know what the appointment was for. He was working hard at trying to make me believe he was the patient and wasn't happy that I wasn't falling for it.

Or the mother who refused to pay the doctors fee for seeing and stitching up her son in the ER. Said that the doctor never even came in to examine her son. That it was all done by the janitor. He came in the room, leaned his mop up against the wall and stitched her son up.

 

[clori]

I worked at the customer service desk at a grocery store. A plain clothes detective was nearby. He said watch this customer. From my angle I could see the babyfood aisle. The customer walked in went and got formula from the shelf brought it up to the service desk and asked for a refund. He was escorted out to a waiting police officer.

Another time a customer came in handed me a receipt and burst into tears. There was nothing that stood out on the receipt so I had no idea what to do to help. The manager was nearby and came over before I could find out anything. Through her heavy crying she told the manager no one would help her. It turned out that it was something to do with 10 cents and was easily fixed.

Another time we got a call from a competitor down the street about people trying to pull a scam. Even though they were competitors the stores communicated about certain things. The store manager figured we would be next and we had department heads etc bagging at every register. I was on a register with the front end supervisor. Yes they came quickly (stores were about a 5 minute walk). A lady hands me a $10 bill to pay which I put down on the counter not in the register. She starts screaming that she gave me a $20 and demands the supervisor. By now we have a police officer in the store who witnessed this on camera and came down and lead her away. She got her $10 back but no groceries and was potentially in trouble.

Another time I was punching in for work and the store manager asked me to stay. Earlier on in the day a person was given a warning for shoplifting. Right before I got there the person's son came in to yell at the manager. They always want a witness to these talks. Store security was there too. We watched a video of the lady dressed in a fur coat going up to the meat counter taking meat and putting them under her thick coat. When she was stopped walking out of the door without going to the register first she told security she didn't put them there. She got a warning. The son said I drive an expensive car so no way did she do that even after confirming it was his mother on the security video.

 

[lovesmurfs]

I used to work in professional certification. The calls I received because someone didn't pass the certification examination...and somehow it was my fault.

The worst one was when I got cussed out up one side and down the other. I looked into the situation and called her back, but she didn't answer. The outgoing voicemail message was her little daughter singing, "Jesus Loves Me." I do believe in that circumstance I made note of it in my message and said that I hoped her daughter would be a good influence on her.

 

[maxiesmom]

Not the worst by far, but today people yelling at the jewelry counter because they had to wait to be served. You realize it is after Noon on Valentines's Day, right? One was such a drama queen about having to wait 10 minutes that it was all I could do not to walk over and offer her a chair and cold beverage because of her lengthy wait.

Not specifically, but it is common to get yelled at when someone makes a return and they don't get the amount of the coupon the used back. Or if you can't take a coupon that is past due. Or if they can't get cash back when they didn't purchase an item in cash.

I had a lady the other day that wanted a different size in a clearance top but didn't have the time to look for it. As if I could walk right up to the size shirt she needed among all of the racks of sale merchandise.

I've also been yelled at for using the elevator. It is the only one in our building. Apparently I'm supposed to wait until there are no customers who want to use it before I get on. Waiting my turn isn't good enough.

 

[MamaBelle4]

My best one was when I worked Tech support for DirecTv

Customer: Oh my God, I need to talk to a man, transfer me to your supervisor.

Me: Sir, I would be happy to help you if you can tell me what is going on?

Customer: I don't want to waste my time explaining it to a woman, transfer me to your supervisor.

Me: Okay, please hold.
I got the first available supervisor, SHE laughed when I told her why I escalated and said, "Oh this should be fun."

 

[LynnTH]

https://notalwaysright.com/

OMG. These are hilarious. Had to bookmark this page. Very funny!!

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

My best one was when I worked Tech support for DirecTv

Customer: Oh my God, I need to talk to a man, transfer me to your supervisor.

Me: Sir, I would be happy to help you if you can tell me what is going on?

Customer: I don't want to waste my time explaining it to a woman, transfer me to your supervisor.

Me: Okay, please hold.
I got the first available supervisor, SHE laughed when I told her why I escalated and said, "Oh this should be fun."

I encountered that a few times when I worked for the insurance company. BUT if they had asked to speak to my supervisor it would have been much more likely they would have been given a warning that should they continue with that attitude they would be put on the no assistance list. This meant the agency couldn't call for help......for anything for their customer. It would (and I'm sure was for the agents on the list) be difficult to service their customers without the ability to call for a variety of things.

Usually what would happen is they would hang up and call back. The odds were not in their favor as the majority of employees on the phone were women--in all 3 sites across the U.S. lol.

 

[barkley]

while working for dshs-

(this follows a lengthy heated tirade by my client about how she wasn't getting enough public assistance in the form of cash and food stamps, it was her family's only source of support...... with me repeatedly sympathizing with her and telling her she was getting the maximum amount for a family unit of her size)

client: "you need to do what I say-you know that you do work for me"
me: "maam, I work for the department of health and social services"
client: "your job is paid for by MY income tax dollars-so YOU WORK FOR ME!"
me: "i'm sorry, can you repeat that?"
client: (repeats verbatim-only louder)
me: "so you pay INCOME taxes?"
client: "of course"
me: "for how long"
client: "well that's a stupid question-for years-ever since I got my first job, what does that matter?"
me: "well you've never reported income to me or any other worker who has been assigned to this case, so I just want to make sure i'm correctly documenting what you're telling me so that the unit that investigates fraudulent overpayments for the district attorney's office knows a general period of time to look back on".
client: "fraud? overpayments? THE D.A.????? I, but, uh, oh (expletive)".

 

[Meglen]

Was my first job and my first week. I was a bagger at a grocery store and this man was so loud and angry about the carrots he bought.

Cashier: have a good day sir
Him: if I bring these carrots home and they break my blender can I return them!? How can I blend them if they are hard!

He went on for about 10 min about carrots..

 

[MamaBelle4]

Was my first job and my first week. I was a bagger at a grocery store and this man was so loud and angry about the carrots he bought.

Cashier: have a good day sir
Him: if I bring these carrots home and they break my blender can I return them!? How can I blend them if they are hard!

He went on for about 10 min about carrots..

Did he never have carrots before, lol?

 

[disneymom3]

My favorite is from my daughter. She worked at McDonalds and had a customer order a cheeseburger without cheese. She explained that it would be a hamburger and they were cheaper. NO! That is not what he wanted. He wanted a cheeseburger with no cheese. Ok...she goes to enter it in the register and he says, "I'm watching you. You better not enter a hamburger." LOL

Ironically, a few weeks ago, we ordered my son a cheeseburger with "just ketchup." The label and n it said "cheeseburger no cheese ketchup only." So, he got a hamburger...but we paid for a cheeseburger.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

My favorite is from my daughter. She worked at McDonalds and had a customer order a cheeseburger without cheese. She explained that it would be a hamburger and they were cheaper. NO! That is not what he wanted. He wanted a cheeseburger with no cheese. Ok...she goes to enter it in the register and he says, "I'm watching you. You better not enter a hamburger." LOL

Some people do not like helpful advice like that. I suppose it would make sense in their mind. Some though are totally grateful pointing out a way to save money.

I guess certain places maybe the cheeseburger comes with something that the hamburger does not?

Ironically, a few weeks ago, we ordered my son a cheeseburger with "just ketchup." The label and n it said "cheeseburger no cheese ketchup only." So, he got a hamburger...but we paid for a cheeseburger.

That happens from time to time with us. Moreso with my husband since he doesn't like cheese. But there are times when I order something from somewhere and it's like they completely flip flopped the order.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

That happens from time to time with us. Moreso with my husband since he doesn't like cheese. But there are times when I order something from somewhere and it's like they completely flip flopped the order.

I ordered a plain cheeseburger from McDonald's. I got an Egg McMuffin.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

I worked for an insurance agent for a short time while I was in college. The weirdest call I answered was from a guy who told me his name and said he had an auto policy with us. I pulled up his policy on the computer and asked how I could help him. He said, "I don't want the car anymore. If I push it off a cliff and report it stolen, will you guys give me a payout?" I said, "I don't believe that would be covered, sir." He said, "Well, who would know the car was at the bottom of a cliff and not stolen?" I said, "Well, you just told me, sir. Would you like to discuss this with your agent?" He said, "Um, no, never mind." Then he hung up. The agent told me to flag the file just in case the guy reported the car stolen.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I ordered a plain cheeseburger from McDonald's. I got an Egg McMuffin.

Uh yeah completely different things