Anyone in customer service oriented jobs out there? Do you hate customers who have no legitimate complaints?

Question

but they are such miserable people that they will complain about a quality product or service just to try to get something for nothing? What is your worst customer experience? (It's time to vent go ahead because you know you will be dealing with some miserable human today :) )

Answer 1

I used to work in customer service for a mail order toy company. One of the products was an Ant Farm. The one that you fill with sand and then the ants so that children can watch them tunnelling and building their ant community. I became the butt of many complaints saying that the package arrived but no live ants were included!! ...Why were they not included in the product?? How did I expect them to find ants??!!

Did these people really expect live ants to be sent through the mail system?

Answer 2

I had a huge fiasco mess of a complaint on me today. Freaked me out to the point I googled absurd customer complaints and found this post lol. I have been in my position for over six years and have never had this happen to me before. I had two managers accost me, and a security dude after that! Weird all the way around, especially considering the fact that I in NO WAY treated this particular customer any different than I do any. I felt no animosity or bad vibes from our interaction and was blindsided by the complaint.
Goes to show that any person in the right (or wrong) mood can find any and everything to complain about to either gain something without having to pay for it, or just get whatever mental/emotional satisfaction they get from messing with other people and creating a scene. In large retail environments we allow people to get away with treating the employees like crap. Unfortunate to say the least. We're creating a bad scenario for everyone involved by doing so.

Answer 3

I worked for many years, in a 5 star resort hotel. The more money they had, the more petty, their complaints. We had some customers complain, that the seals on the beach, were making too much noise, they wanted to know if we could ask them to be quiet.... At the same hotel, we had a very high end wedding, just a week before Christmas, the mother of the bride, demanded that we remove all our Christmas decorations, because they did not go with the "theme" of her wedding. We took them down in the room, where the reception was to be held. But she was insisting, we take them down everywhere on our 22 acre property. She got a polite, but firm NO!!!!

Answer 4

A long time ago, I used to work in an upscale toy store. We had one woman who had a "buying problem", in that she'd come in and buy $500-$1,000 worth of stuff, take it home, let her children play with them for a day or two, and then bring it back, crying that "her husband got mad and is making her bring it back." She'd do this about twice a year. The puzzles would come back with missing pieces, an expensive doll house would have been put together and couldn't be resold, the train set would be missing a track, etc., etc. Finally, we told her that we couldn't give her a refund on what she was bringing back, because it couldn't be resold. She got furious and started cursing at the top of her lungs (in a TOY store!? With kids around?!) and declared, "But I'm a GOOD CUSTOMER!" I finally had had it with this cretin, and snapped, "No, m'am, you're not. The good customers KEEP what they buy." She screeched and left and we never saw her again. Thank God!

Answer 5

I work in a customer service roll in the HSBC bank. I totally agree, i often get people approaching me who just aren't having a good day and feel the need to rant and moan about nothing and blame me. For example, a man came in complaining about the fact that Barclays Bank have a better interest rate on their savings account than we do (0.1% difference at the time of complaint) at which point i informed him that, funnily enough i dont actually decide what the rates should be because i only work in a branch you moronic idiot, i also dont care where you take your pittance of £100 so please pull your head out of your **** and go to Barclays. *Official Complaint No.1*

Im sure everyone knows what a counter service at a bank is. The windows with tellers in them to solve all your problems, who old people seem to think are magical. Every week the same old woman comes to me complaining that the counters are not open on saturday. Obviously she knows that it was my decision to not open the counters at any HSBC branch in the United Kingdom, and its my fault they arent open. Fool...
*Official Complaint No.2*

Another lady also expressed her concern with the fact that counter service wasnt open. Moaning that she didnt want to use the machine to pay-in a cheque, despite the fact that the machine is faster. She told me that "her local branch in X has a counter service in saturday". At which point i informed her that not only does the X branch NOT have a counter service on saturday, they do not even open on saturday! So i told her that i find her story very hard to believe. - She stormed out complaining about how rude i was..

URGGGH, I HATE CONSUMERS!

Answer 6

I am a restaurant manager of a very upscale place. and you wouldnt believe what these people do.... pulling their own hair out and puting it in the food at the middle of their meal so they dont have to pay for it, calling the next day and complaining about the food, service, so they could get gift cards or free food. yelling at the server because their well done steak isnt done in 6 minutes.... Go to !@#$ing McDonalds!!! I love my job but the people tryng to get something for nothing are gruelling.
We charge $40 a dozen for oysters, and they will eat them all and then say they got sick from them!!!
they want to take 1 bite of their food home so they have you running around for to go stuff, then they want to see the dessert tray with 15 desserts on it, explain each one in detail , ask tons of questions, mind you it weights about 20 lbs, your standing their holding this 20 lb dessert tray with one hand so you can point out each dessert for 20 minutes and then they dont order dessert.... grrrrrrrr I hate rude customers!!!

Answer 7

I remember the guy that threw a desk phone at me cause he said it was broke and he didnt get a million dollar phone call, we found out later the phone had been unplug by mistake, A million dollar phone call, I would have made sure the phone worked right away.

There was the guy that grabbed me by the arm when I walked away to get him a key that would work, I stomped on his foot, he let go. I told him 'please do no touch me'. then got him a key.

There was also the lady that screamed from the stairway across the lobby at us at the desk cause we did not have an elevator, she was going to call the ADA (amer, disability act) people and report us.. Two floors, did not have to have an elevator and ALL our handy cap rooms are on the first floor

Or the one guy that threw his luggage across the lobby cause we did not have enough parking spaces and he was going to have to park under my canopy,.. him I sort of understood being mad but not the luggage throwing..

Answer 8

Sprint Nextel solved this problem by firing over 1000 customers who called their customer service department too much.

I work in cust svc and when I get a customers who have no legimate complaints I pretend I am a corporate executive and answer them in way that confuses but causes them to feel I am an expert at what I am talking about because I used a few tech words and 'real world' examples. This causes them to focus on what I just said at which detracts them from their previous thought process allowing me to control the call and end it when I choose.

Try it and enjoy!

Answer 9

Yes. I am in the hotel business. One of my guests complained this morning that he did not get his wake up call. I check the register for phone usage, and found that not only had he gotten it, but it repeated the call twice more, 4, 4:05, 4:10, all unanswered. He wanted a refund if he missed his flight!!!

Answer 10

In the service industry they have many "service excellency awards". They should also have awards for those people who can best 'politely tell some1 to f@ck-off'