Okay I’m genuinely confused here because the sales person said that I have really bad attitude for asking the “silly questions“ I asked. While they may have been blunt, but were they disrespectful or warrant such response.
I run a dry cleaners in London. Yesterday a new customer came in with a bin bag of clothes. He kept saying - these are expensive clothes, as my front desk colleague was sorting through them.
She spotted a Prada jacket and asked, fairly casually, "is this an original?" — the reason being that designer items get cleaned with a different process and we charge accordingly. We have instructed our staff to make sure they get this detail right. It's a standard question in this trade.
He who was relatively calm erupted fro that moment. Started shouting "is this a joke?", calling her a clown, a joker, a dickhead, going off about "do you know how much these clothes cost, do you know who I am." She froze — she's relatively new and had no idea how to handle it. I was working in the back, heard the noise and came out. I tried to calm him down- but he contnoulsy spewing these abuses even when she disappered to the back room. He only got louder and more abusive. I had to tell him we wouldn't be serving him and asked him to leave the premises.
He left, still shouting - showing rage - throwing bags .
My colleague is still shaken. I've told her it wasn't her fault. But she's a young woman who got verbally hammered by a grown man over a routine question, and that doesn't just shake off- she told it was the worst interaction she ever had with a human being.
Worst customer interaction I've had in years. Curious whether anyone else in retail / service has dealt with someone like this, and how you handled it. Also — is asking "is this an original?" really that offensive? Genuinely want to know if I'm missing something, because to me it's just due diligence.
We received this email yesterday:
>Hi. Im try open to account but Im get this message
"Our system is currently down. Normal system downtime is 1 hour every day from 3 AM to 4 AM Eastern. Please try again later"
Help!
I just can't with these people. How did they survive to adulthood?
That’s a PEBCAK error. It's a known intermittent issue that impacts end-users unpredictably. We’re actively investigating the root cause, but preliminary analysis points to an OSI Layer 8 failure, likely during H-I process invocation. ETA unknown. Prognosis poor.
I work in sales for building materials for contractors. So I deal with a lot of hard-headed idiots. And unfortunately, mostly regular customers who I see multiple times a week.
There’s a lot of bartering, impatience, ignorance and all-around stupidity. So I have customers I dislike. Many of them know I dislike them because we’ve had disagreements. Luckily my boss stands by me which they don’t like.
So these individuals often say and do shit in an effort to offend me. Small, subtle things. Little comments. Body language. Nothing substantial enough worth bringing up to my boss but enough that it irks me. And I’m not good at hiding my anger. I’m not good at disguising my feelings on my face either.
I just wish I was strong enough to ignore it and not let it get to me. But I think I wear my buttons on my sleeve and it’s not hard to press them.
How have y’all built a resistance to people who wanna berate and mistreat you simply because you’re in customer service? How do you resist giving it back to them and being the bigger person. I suck at being the bigger person! 😭
TLDR: What helps you put up with more subtle mistreatment from customers like small comments and body language. How do you resist mirroring it so that it can’t be used against you by your leadership?
Around April 24th my families entire shared OneDrive plan all dropped down to 5GB rather than the 1TB that had been paid for (and should have remained active for another 6-7 months.)
My entire families computers, phones, etc. are connected to OneDrive. So, when the service stopped, it caused massive frustration across all of our devices, etc. One of my family members uses their Hotmail address as their primary, and had to buy an additional 100GB of storage for that account so they would continue receiving/sending emails as the storage cap was artificially exceeded.
I opened a support ticket on April 26th.
I spent the next entire next month chatting and emailing from two of the family accounts DAILY getting sent around in a circle to keep re-providing a proof of purchase (because their system said there was no active subscription) and re-provide logs over, and over, and over again through broken systems that were not working properly. (I'm a programmer, this wasn't a me problem.)
By the 15th of May, I asked for a supervisor from both accounts. The support agent simply stopped responding to me entirely.
On the 16th, I received the above email where they finally acknowledged the problem was theirs and service had been restored. I still wanted to speak to a supervisor to explain my frustration with the entire process of how I was redirected between 6 different support agents that weren't talking to each other, was directed to open ticket after ticket after ticket, bounced between departments, and how their macOS "Contact Support" option from inside the app doesn't actually send the logs, etc.
The agent never told me the service had been restored. Just that automated email. In my mind, that means the support tickets should still be open as I never acknowledges it was working again.
It is now the 20th. This is absolutely unacceptable customer service.
I work for a large medical system, a large portion my time is helping patients with financial assistance applications. 99% of the patients need help with the outrageous cost of health care, but every once in a blue moon there is that ONE MFer that almost breaks my calm professional demeanor. I’m proud of not breaking, and proud of the rest of you who keep calm in the face of all the BS we handle!! Stay strong💪🏽💪🏽
Every time a customer service rep does a "recap" and says the same thing he or she just said before, it feels dumb. This is a tradition that should be removed from all customer service call centers in the USA. Something is very wrong here.
Not because she didn’t understand me. Not because I was talking too fast. Not because I wasn’t listening to her. But because I moved a simple transaction along quickly and efficiently.
Customer called at the end of the day to add a car to her insurance policy. And she wanted a quote on the change. Something I do multiple times a day.
But I apparently did it too fast for her liking. She first made off hand comments about my fast typing. “You’re typing an awful lot over there. And fast. I sure hope I’m not interrupting anything.” (Sarcastic tone inserted here). She made a comment when I had the quote ready for her. “You work way too fast.” When she told me “go ahead and add the car to the policy.” I said “you’re good to go, it’s on your policy.” She made another comment that I did that way too fast. And she laughed at me when I explained I’ve been doing this for years. Which was odd. Not with. At. In a mocking tone. Then back to the criticizing my work speed. Telling me I need to learn to slow my work down.
Would you rather I took 3-5 business days for a 2 minute transaction? I guess quick and efficient is now an issue? What the hell do you people want???
Some customers just love to call in and complain about the employees, even if it is for something that is extremely stupid and ridiculous. So my question is, if you, the employee, could call in and complain about the customer, what would you say about them?
My complaints would be:
I’d like to report a customer for repeated violations of common sense.”
“Customer entered the store already angry, spoke to three employees like they personally caused all of life’s suffering, then demanded compensation because the coupon expired in 2021.”
“Customer asked me a question, interrupted the answer halfway through, then complained that I ‘wasn’t helping.’”
“Customer became hostile after discovering that store hours are real and not a personal attack.”
“Customer insisted the policy should not apply to them specifically because they ‘shop here all the time.’ Records indicate they have been here twice.”
“Customer would like to speak to the manager. Customer has already spoken to the manager. Customer did not enjoy hearing the same answer twice.”
“Customer stared directly at the giant sign explaining the rule, ignored it completely, then filed a complaint that nobody told them.”
“Customer treated the return counter like a courtroom drama over a $4 item.”
“Customer believes yelling increases Wi-Fi speed, register performance, and employee authority.”
“Customer complained that I looked unhappy after they spent ten minutes insulting me.”
“Customer demanded immediate service while actively talking on speakerphone and refusing to acknowledge my existence.”
“Customer reported that the wait time was unacceptable during the busiest hour of the day, immediately after arriving behind twenty other people.”
Inbound customer service, financial services company. We're on the phones constantly. Our floor is not quiet. Other reps, team leads talking, the general ambient noise of 60 people working.
Customers complain about background noise on calls regularly. It affects satisfaction scores. Our team lead has flagged it.
We use company-issued headsets. They're functional but not great on the mic isolation side. Personal earbuds that actually stop people from hearing my noisy coworkers during calls would be a significant improvement even if I have to expense them.
I know some people use software filters. Our company laptops don't allow third-party software. So hardware only for me.
Is there actually earbuds that stop background noise from leaking through the mic in a busy call environment, or is this just what customers deal with in this industry.
I had a small billing issue recently that should have been easy to fix, but it turned into a full process of chatbot loops, waiting for a real person, repeating the same information, and being transferred around. What surprised me was that nobody was rude or unhelpful. The system itself just seemed designed in a way that made a simple request take way longer than necessary. It made me wonder if customer service has become harder because agents have less power to actually solve things, or because companies are relying too much on automated systems that don’t handle edge cases well.
I think people misunderstand what AI in customer support is actually meant to do. It’s not there to replace human support or fake empathy. It’s there to handle the repetitive stuff humans shouldn’t be wasting time on in the first place.
Instant replies to common questions. Routing people faster. Following up when someone gets missed. Keeping context organized so customers don’t have to repeat themselves 5 times.
What it’s not meant to do is replace real problem solving, judgment, or genuine human conversations when they’re needed.
The best customer support AI shouldn’t replace support. It should make support teams better. That’s where I think the biggest opportunity is.
Gonna make a long story short here. Had an off putting “experience” for lack of better words, maybe I’m taking it the wrong way.
Called a bar, “hello, do you guys have takeout?”
Him: Yes, but between the hours of 5-7pm we do not take orders over the phone as we get busy.”
It was 4:40ish at the time.
Me: That’s actually perfect! We’re headed out that way and don’t have time overlook the menu. Could we come in & place a takeout order?”
Him: “Yes but you’re gonna have to wait just like everybody else.”
Me: Okay thank you.
Never went. Because what did he expect ME to expect? Skip the line? Pull up to order & expect a fast food service? I was genuinely confused. Sucks because we wanted to try them out but that didn’t sit right with me. TIL this day, I’m like what the fawk did he think I was gonna do? lol
I have been working in BPO for a few years and every now and then, I still encounter people who say “You can see my information on the screen, stop asking me about it every call I make to you”.
It’s called “VERIFICATION” for a reason not registration. I’m making sure that I am talking to the account owner, not filling up a registration form.
Well, of course, they want the sale price honored. They want us to send them some money.
That's a hard no.
*THE DAY SOMEONE OFFERS TO PAY US MORE MONEY AFTER SEEING THEIR SALE ITEMS ARE FULL PRICE IS THE DAY I FEEL SYMPATHY FOR SOMEONE TRYING TO GET THEIR PAST ORDER PARTIALLY REFUNDED*
Real question for support folks here. Half my day is customer tickets. The other half is teammates DMing me in Slack with stuff like "what's our refund policy again" or "can you check this account for me".
It's not officially my job but I'm the one who knows the answer so I get the ping. Multiply by 8 people and the context-switching is brutal.
Two things I've tried that helped a little:
A pinned canvas with the top 10 FAQs. Reduced the ping volume maybe 20%. People still ask because typing is easier than reading.
Macros, but for Slack. Saved 5 standard replies as snippets so I'm not rewriting them the 40th time.
What I'd actually want is a bot that watches the channel and drafts a reply when one of those repeat questions show up, so I just hit approve and send. Saw a writeup of someone setting that up here: https://runbear.io/use-cases/slack-auto-draft-internal-help-desk?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=slack-auto-draft-internal-help-desk
How are you all handling the internal helpdesk side of your support role? Or is this just my company?
I went to claim warranty for my charger but got the worst possible experience from samsung service center in vellore (Dwarka systems vellore) they claimed my adapter had dent, so they raised a ticket attached my bill copy but did not attach the photos they took of my adapter.
They are simply wasting my time from 1 week , stating false claim.
When I reached out to samsung they say they have notified but the dwarks don't do anything.
This has been going on for a week now.
I'm not sure if I even want to purchase a Samsung device anymore because of such poor uneducated value less customer service.
If a customer is rude however, I’ll fix it probably, but I’m gonna drag it out. Like, it takes zero effort to not be an asshole to retail workers. You don’t even have to be overly nice. Just don’t be a shithead??
Honestly, if you’re genuinely nice/kind, I will probably even give you an extra little discount or something.
This is a warning to people in Melbourne who have a move coming up. Don't use Ace Movers. You could be forgiven for thinking they're amazing with the four and five star reviews, but I can assure you that most of them are planted. Keep scrolling and you'll find the genuine accounts of other customers like me who've had terrible experiences. They called the day before our move and asked if we could push it to the following day, to which I said no because we had bond cleaners coming and had to return the keys that day. They said that was okay. The day of the move, they called again and said they'd be late. Fair enough. When they turned up, they told my partner they could only take our furniture, not all our boxes and bags, despite the fact that I told the woman I booked with over the phone that we had a lot. They also said they weren't going to be able to take our TV's, as they didn't have enough protective blankets, which was a bald faced lie; there were dozens of them on the truck. They took one. Then when our couch was still on the truck, the bigger guy stood over my partner and asked for the payment before he'd unload it. I've included photos here of the bags and boxes they didn't take. We had to put the bond cleaners off until Sunday, and I'm now having to take the morning off work to go to the estate agent and deliver our keys, two days later than we promised. Ace Movers. I can think of another three letter word starting with A that would be far more appropriate.
If you enter the wrong shipping address, do not contact the company after your order has already shipped or been delivered, acting like they personally punted your package into the sun.
Businesses are not psychic. They cannot look at “123 Main St” and know you meant “321 Main St, Apt 4B." - even if you've ordered from there before, and even if you swear you've never made a mistake in your whole life.
When I was 18 and on my own for the first time, I ordered what felt like the world to me from Sephora, spending probably an entire paycheck. I sent it to an old apartment my family hadn't lived in for years. I emailed Sephora pretty quickly, but they couldn't help me. So yaknow what I did, I followed the tracking and eventually sat in front of that apartment building the day the delivery was expected. Am I recommending this? No. Did I understand even at a young age that this was my issue to solve? YES.
When customers wait until the tracking says “delivered” and then demand a free (often rushed) replacement because “I don’t live there anymore,” is when I start staring into the sun.
Especially for custom products. Once it is made, packed, shipped, and delivered to the address provided, the company has done its job. The shipping carrier did its job. The only villain in this story is you.
Many small businesses will still try to help as a courtesy, but courtesy is not the same as an obligation. Please stop treating your mistake like a targeted conspiracy because we asked you to pay for shipping on your otherwise free replacement order.
Check your address before placing the order. Check your confirmation email. Reach out immediately if something is wrong. Do not wait until the package has completed its full journey and then leave me 2 shrieking voicemails and an email at a 10/10 energy level on a Friday evening.
Thank you for reading my Saturday morning rant, as I catch up on Zendesk tickets at home, lol.