r/talesfromtechsupport • u/SilentDis Professional Asshat Breaker • Jul 06 '12
Angry, Clueless... you have met your match.
EDIT: Thanks, all, for the comments. I've been meaning to get these down for a while. Part 2 is now available. The finale is in part 3 :)
This happened many, many moons ago. If I had to guess, it was sometime between 2003 and 2005.
At the time, I was working helpdesk for an ISP that was growing from the 'local provider' level to a 'regional provider'. They'd buy up ISPs here and there, and roll them into our service. In all honesty, they were a very, very decent company; good tools access for all the techs, our 'Tier2' at the time was all of 20' away in the cubicle farm and very affable to talk to. Tours of our main datacenter were always available, and the kit they were using was top-notch. On top of that, it was all very, very well documented.
We had a caller whom I'll call Phil. Phil had a DSL line through us (with a backup/on the road dial-up account), with a couple e-mail addresses, we managed a domain and small (exceptionally simple) webhosting account (little, if any scripting support). It was rolled into a 'business-class' billing structure, of course; meaning that he paid a bit more and his webhost was on a slightly higher-end server from the "5MiB Free" server, and they gave an uptime guarntee on his DSL. Pretty basic stuff.
Phil, though, was anything but 'basic'. He was horribly mean, nasty, and clueless in all things tech. He'd also call for anything, multiple times. I remember seeing a few items in the call logs for stuff like problems with various office equipment. A good example was when he bought himself a flatbed scanner, and called us to help him with it. I luckally didn't get one of those calls (somehow), but there was a good week straight where he'd call multiple times a day trying to get it to work; the ticket log would have "Scanner Won't Work" listed a good 100+ times, spanning a solid 10 days.
He was horribly abusive to other techs; women especially, as you may have guessed. I herd stories of others leaving the floor in tears after, and during, calls with Phil.
I took a few calls from Phil, and I personally didn't have too much trouble with him. The thing was, I was, and still am, an extreme stickler for process flow of calls, staying inside support boundries, being exceptionally clear (and hitting the 'call record' button) when I stepped outside them that people wouldn't get this help here ever again. Phil, of course, tried every opportunity to yell, bluster, cajole, blame, and be rude to anyone who attempted to show him the slightest hint of leniency or kindness concerning linear tech support.
My first call with Phil was a model for all further calls I personally had with him.
Me: Good afternoon, XYZ tech support, my name's SilentDis. May I have your name, please?
Phil: This is Phil.
Me: Alrighty Phil, how can I help you today?
(Side note: I learned, long long ago, to just get a name and let the customer vent. If I can't find their contact info from the Caller ID, I'll get it soon enough. This makes callers feel that you're a human, and on their side.)
Phil: I am trying to get the page you are hosting to connect to my printer and it won't connect! What is wrong with your company, are you behind the times? This is a new printer, why don't you support it! I swear I'll take my service somewhere else if you people don't wise up and fix this mess and get it working!
(I'm paraphrasing a bit here, but this was the tone, tenor, and reason for his call to a tee. I pressed the call record button at this point, which will backtrack and record the entire conversation)
Me: Ok, so you're having problems printing a website, is this correct? (Always get that verbal contract)
Phil: I just told you what the problem is! Weren't you listening? What's wrong with you? (and on, and on, and on...)
Me: I just like to be sure I'm helping you out as best I can. You are having problems printing a webpage, is this correct?
Phil: Yes! I can't print the webpage you are hosting on my new printer! (Verbal contract established)
Me: Ok. We're not really able to help out with printer problems, but...
Phil: Why can't you help me, what's wrong with you? You're not good at your job, are you?
Me: Sir, do not insult me. As I was saying, We're not able to help out with printer problems, but I can help you make sure everything we do help with is working properly. I've pulled up your account from Caller ID. I see everything's in good standing, and I see no reported outages for your area. Can you hold one moment while I verify the connections from my side?
Phil: Fine.
Me: Thank you, be right back.
Welcome to the penalty box, Phil, population: you. I telnet into the various switches and routers he's attached to, and see his modem as attached; physical layer is good. Send a ping on the Data layer, fine. Send a ping on network layer and don't get a response. That's fine, firewall is in place. I ask for the stats on that line, wait a minute, and ask again; they've gone up. He's sending data over the line without any issue whatsoever; Golden.
I check his website; a Geocities-esque site selling various bric-a-brac. Whatever, it comes up. SSH into the server, and it shows a nice 200+ uptime. Ping his site from the switch he's attached to, no problems there.
Phil's been in the penalty box for a good 5 minutes now, lets see how that's changed his attitude.
Me: Sorry about that, sir. I list off all the tests I performed above, non-stop without break, throwing in a few technical terms here and there.
Phil: Uhh... (perfect. I've gooed his little brain, exactly my intent.)
Me: Since everything's working on this side, let's make sure everything's working on your side.
I walk him through opening up a webpage, opening up his webpage, and checking his e-mail. All work without problem.
Me: Now, that's what we support; your Internet connection is working, your website is working, your e-mail is working. You stated, though, you're having problems printing; which is not something we support. Who makes your printer?
Phil: Umm... Hewlett Packard? (he sounds unsure, that's fine, I don't really care anymore, my job is done)
Me: Then, it would probably be best to call them. If you want, I can give you their phone number.
Phil: Yes, please.
I gave him the phone number, and away he went. He, of course, attempted to call a few more times concerning the same issue, with varying degrees of illiciting the argument he wanted, but most techs were savvy enough to just pull his call record and ask him if it's the same issue; then why he's calling again about it, and off they went.
My boss later told me I was the only one who could 'stop' Phil when he called.
This went on for a few more weeks, before Phil got to another tech, and got them to cry. It was decided, at that point, to just give Phil my extension, and deny him service if he called on any other line. If I wasn't in, he got my voicemail.
TL;DR: I will break you, asshat caller.
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Jul 06 '12
Good luck with the breaking.
Rude people should never get service anywhere.
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u/BurntJoint Jul 06 '12
This happened many, many moons ago. If I had to guess, it was sometime between 2003 and 2005.
Happened a while ago he said. I hope there a more phil related stories to come considering the bit at the end.
It was decided, at that point, to just give Phil my extension, and deny him service if he called on any other line. If I wasn't in, he got my voicemail.
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u/natalietoday Jul 06 '12
Seconding the request for more Phil stories. I love this kind of badassery, it somehow empowers me and makes me feel like I, too, can be a badass.
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u/steakmane OH GOD HOW DID THIS GET HERE I AM NOT GOOD WITH COMPUTER Jul 06 '12 edited Jul 06 '12
They are a paying customer
edit: Jeez guys, I was only saying as a paying customer he is entitled to some level of service, obviously this guy is going way out of line. Phishf00d claimed that rude people should never get service, but they are still entitled to it as a customer.
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u/ctesibius CP/M support line Jul 06 '12
Not for that service. I'm sure you can find a "specialised" phone service where you're allowed to try to get someone to cry. Try the top-shelf magazines in the newsagent, or take Safe Search off on Google.
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u/sacca7 Jul 06 '12
They are paying for tech support, not an argument. To pay for an argument one should go to the argument clinic.
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u/haikuginger When you said your data was backed up, I assumed that it was. Jul 06 '12
No, they shouldn't!
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u/cuteintern min valid flair Jul 06 '12
Yes, they should!
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u/haikuginger When you said your data was backed up, I assumed that it was. Jul 06 '12
Well, that's just contradiction.
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u/cuteintern min valid flair Jul 06 '12
No, it's not!
(Is this the three minute argument, or the five minute argument?)
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u/haikuginger When you said your data was backed up, I assumed that it was. Jul 06 '12
Five minute argument? I paid for a seven-minute argument! And yes it is!
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Jul 06 '12
Ah yes, the old "The customer is always right" gambit.
If the customer WERE always right, there would be no need for tech support.
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u/steakmane OH GOD HOW DID THIS GET HERE I AM NOT GOOD WITH COMPUTER Jul 06 '12
Perhaps i got confused. Many were saying to just ditch the guy and terminate his service, but he's still a paying customer, and businesses usually like that sort of thing. However given the severity of this guy, I think it would have been best to terminate his account.
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u/kermehderg I push buttons and people yell at me... Jul 06 '12
**Contract Terms subject to change without notice.
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Jul 06 '12
It's not an ISP's job to do tech support just because the customer thinks it is, much in the same sense that it isn't an electrician's job to fix the air conditioning.
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u/steakmane OH GOD HOW DID THIS GET HERE I AM NOT GOOD WITH COMPUTER Jul 06 '12
Not a very accurate analogy, there could be circumstances where an electrician is required to perform maintenance to enable air conditioning; for example routing conduit, putting in place the wires and routing everything to the proper circuits.
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u/O-Face Jul 06 '12
They are entitled to service because they are a paying customer. If the company wants to refuse service and cancel payment because said customer is being an asshat then they are "entitled" to do that. No one is "entitled" to get service from any company how they want and be an asshat about it, you just may get away with it for a time.
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u/Letmefixthatforyouyo Jul 06 '12 edited Jul 06 '12
Who can be as easily fired as an client. Payment is for services specified, which do not include acting as a punching bag for raging sociopaths.
The Client/Vendor relationship goes both ways. If your company doesn't respect that fact, time to change companies.
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u/KaziArmada "Do you know what 'Per Device' means?" Jul 06 '12
Except he's asking for service with a printer issue. That's not part of his contract, therefore he doesn't GET printer service
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Jul 06 '12
[deleted]
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u/weekend_ninja I'm not a window cleaner! Jul 06 '12
This! What a great story. So professional, so cool, yet so harsh. I don't want a cigarette though, I gave those up.
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u/LuxNocte Jul 06 '12
I'll go out and have that cigarette for you.
No need to thank me, but I will lift a glass of brandy to SilentDis, breaker of Phils. ;-)
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u/kermehderg I push buttons and people yell at me... Jul 06 '12
This reminds me of a user I serviced at a place I used to work for. I worked in-house but was contracted from a service provider. "Mr. Jerkypants", now labeled Jamal, had a track record for being belligerent and condescending simply because he had a 'title' to play with. He was a 'Regional Vice President' which by the IT standards didn't even get him a priority bump.
Anywho, he called and got me one time and I was working on his call, connected to his pc. We didnt have hold music anyways, and sometimes people would ask us questions and then remember they were on hold, so we had a habit of just muting the microphone. I had him on mute, working with my level 2 on an outlook connection issue. Everything was connecting except the Directory connection. He was mumbling away to some people around him, stuff like, "mumble mumble, God, it takes so long everytime I call, mumble, etc." which I could care less about. He didnt hold before getting me, and I was connected into his machine in under 45 seconds with zero input on his part. Meh, whatever, right?
There was something that he said, though, that caught my attention: "IT has never fixed anything I've called about. Not once."
I couldnt take it. I gave my level 2 my index finger telling him to hold on a moment, unmuted the headset and said, "Now wait right there. There is no way I can let that wild accusation fly so you can look good to whoever is next to you." He tried to speak "But I--" I cut him off, "Im looking at over 40 tickets you've sent in over the past 2 years, more than 20 I fixed, more than 30 fixed on the first call. If you continue to berate IT, we can enforce all incidents you send us to be approved for support by your manager, the Vice President of Sales, who is currently out to lunch with the Director of IT. Would you like to continue?"
Eternities past, all my helpdesk buds were staring at me, my level 2 guy was on the floor crying, and I had my chest poofed and everything. He agreed to continue, apologized and said he took it too far. And he stopped being so entitled. That is the only time I've ever had to stop someone and call them out like that.
EDIT: Wow, that got long... TL;DR: So, I did what OP did, but less professionally, and more 'I have access to your lively hood'.
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u/rieh Drone S&I Engineer Jul 06 '12
Post this as a separate topic...
I about died laughing.
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u/cesclaveria Jul 06 '12
Could you copy/paste this is a post? Is too good for it to only be a comment.
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u/Antarioo In the land of the blind, one eye is king Jul 06 '12
seeing as this guy strains your service line so much and he's being such an utter asshat
is there no possibility to terminate him as a customer?
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u/FountainsOfFluids Jul 06 '12
I agree. If he calls that much about non-service related issues, track it, analyze the cost in tech-support dollars, and then fire him. Yes, businesses can and should fire customers that are not profitable, unless they are giving you really good word-of-mouth with referrals.
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u/daskoon 2nd level desktop support Jul 06 '12
referrals
Just sparked on a memory from my cable installer days working with my dad as a subcontractor. We had comcast (I don't work there anymore so I'll say their name I don't care lol) for our personal cable provider and since we weren't technically comcast employees we didn't have an "employee cable account" so we were able to fuck the system by getting on the referral program, hooking up all our friends with the sales guy we knew and get a free month of service, then we got to do the install too and make money there! Anyway yeah sorry I tend to ramble in the morning.
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Jul 06 '12
Within reason. Isn't this exactly why insurance companies won't take on customers with a pre-existing condition?
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u/FountainsOfFluids Jul 06 '12
Yes, it is. Which is why health care should never, ever operate as a for-profit industry.
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Jul 06 '12
Businesses always have the right to refuse service to anybody. In this case I'm in agreement that they should absolutely exercise this right.
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u/rhargis1 Your onion plugs in to the wall? Yes we have to support it. Jul 06 '12
I have a "Phil" where I work only his name is Dan. I just LOVE taking his calls. I am the only one that won't put up with his bullshit phone antics. His calls are automatically routed to me.
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u/Noexit ISP Flunky Jul 06 '12
Ours was named Bruce. Finally got to the point that I told after-hours support not to call him back for daytime employees to let him talk to me. Our last conversation ended with me telling him "No, YOU go fuck YOURSELF", and I slapped him into a "technical timeout". He was gone not long after that.
I don't mind someone getting pissy when they've got a legit complaint, but when you're just getting drunk and calling to be abusive, I'm not the guy you want to talk to.
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u/mexicanweasel I can tell you didn't reboot Jul 06 '12
This is the point where you go BOFH on him. You change whatever calling system you have to send his phone into some sort of automated thing. Set it to filter specifically his number. Let him out and onto you at around 30 mins in, but vary it around a while, or make it that he has to press buttons every once in a while so he can't just let it sit and go do something else. And then when he starts swearing at you, tell him you do not accept that sort of language and disconnect him. If he calls again, he's in for another 30 minute wait.
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u/knightricer Now NetWare-Free! Jul 06 '12
TL;DR: I will break you, asshat caller.
Words I live by every night at work. I have a zero-tolerance policy for abuse of my employees, and I back it up with my own rule that I will not wake anyone above me in the middle of the night just for someone who is butthurt about being wrong.
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u/TheMasterOfNone Jul 06 '12
More companies should fire their customers especially when it's dealing with such a small account.
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u/aceat64 Jul 06 '12
Where I work, we are allowed to hang up on callers who are abusive (after warning them once). We have also terminated customers who were habitually abusive.
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u/SilentDis Professional Asshat Breaker Jul 06 '12
I'm replying here, so as to be a bit snarky regarding this to the entire tale, but...
Yeah... About that... ;)
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u/jadensteel Jul 06 '12
That sounds like a real winner of a customer, but looks like you could handle him.
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u/Raxyn13 Jul 06 '12
I love how calm, meticulous, and deadly your main post was. You document crushing this man so well.
And then your TL;DR broke the dam of my laughter.
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u/SilentDis Professional Asshat Breaker Jul 06 '12
That's specifically why I got 'Phil Duty'. I wrote books for tickets, detailing everything, and the fix, very well. Also, I didn't care; the pay was the same dealing with this guy, or the couple thousand other users.
I just considered it 'part of the job'. A ticket that says "user had issue; fixed issue" is of zero help; you may as well have left it blank. Ticked me off to no end when I ran into those from my other techs.
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u/groupercheeks Jul 07 '12
Yeah, the whole point of notes is to inform others. I would get so peeved seeing
"FIXD".. like.. no.. fuck you
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u/GuardianAlien HowDoI opendoc(); Jul 06 '12
Hot damn dude(ette?) You are fantastic! I am absolutely glad that you were professional at all times while dealing with a moronic asshat AND you put him in his place. A thousand upvotes to you!
P.S. do contribute more of your stories, you are a great story teller :D
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u/webhamster "Doesn't work" is not a valid bug report. Jul 06 '12
I had one of these in 1998-1999. His name was "Jean-Claude". He never called about unrelated things but was always complaining about his service, our name, the price, whatever he could bitch about. I finally reached the end of my rope with him and actually told him "Go fuck yourself." Then I walked into my boss' office and told him what I'd just said and he looked at me and said "took you long enough".
Ultimately, we told him he could stop the daily complaining or cancel. We didn't need his business. He cancelled. We had a party.
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u/mo_dingo Jul 06 '12
The company I work with cancels the service of people like this. It is not worth the money, not one bit!
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u/thefirebuilds I can show you the long way to do it. Jul 06 '12
I always loved devolving the weirdos. I have a penchant for the difficult ones, I quite enjoy the puzzle, and knowing something my coworkers don't.
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u/SilentDis Professional Asshat Breaker Jul 06 '12
He was kinda like the Moriarty to my Holmes, in a way... Except if Holmes was a nuclear physicist and Moriarty was the 'slow' 2nd grader that should have been in 5th.
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u/thefirebuilds I can show you the long way to do it. Jul 06 '12
There is one guy that used to call us, I outsmarted him once, and after that he was like my labrador, he believed anything I told him. My coworkers hated that. Of course, my business is ethics so I take that role very seriously, but it's nice to be able to do your job without being constantly questioned. It's been a long time since I was in a large call center, and that can be a different game.
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u/McMurphyCrazy Jul 06 '12
Centurytel by chance?
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u/SilentDis Professional Asshat Breaker Jul 06 '12
If I remember correctly, the company I was working for bought/acquired some areas that were 'CenturyTel', or a company name very, very like that.
It really was a great company to work for; access to all the servers, great managerial support, extreme network documentation, good link-in for all the tools. First 'support desk' job I had that you were a demi-god on the system. It was 'the way it's supposed to be', IMO.
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u/eirawyn Jul 06 '12
You are a brave fellow. It's noble of you to help your team out by taking on this Phil dude, since you know how to deal with him, and appropriately shut him up too! It's like, you gave him respect even though he's an asshole, without taking extreme abuse yourself. I hope he one day comes to his senses, though it seems unlikely...
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u/SilentDis Professional Asshat Breaker Jul 06 '12
'Brave' didn't enter into it. They paid me the same if I was dealing with Phil or with other callers, and this would get me out of queue for a bit each day. On top of that, it would lessen a stress on the entire help desk; helping out my fellows in the trenches.
Win/Win in my book.
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u/rommi0 Try turning it off and on again Jul 06 '12
Thumbs up for the story! Good luck breaking him!
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Jul 06 '12
I have a caller in my office like that now. I don't work Tech Support but in government these days and we have one lass who won't keep her voice down... we're every name under the sun and I do exactly what you do.
Let them vent. Send them to the hold of doom zone. Do what you can do for them and more if possible.
Sorted.
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u/DarkAzrael Turn it off and on again! Jul 06 '12
Great user control! You, sir, are a god among men.
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u/HollaWho Jul 06 '12
Touche. I've had users where I've spelled out the issue for them and what hey have to do to fix the issue, like bring in the laptop for me to fix a hardware issue. Sometimes they're just dead set thinking you don't know what you're doing.
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u/flukz Jul 06 '12
Good job SilentDis. I have to ask how long ago this is, because I can't remember the last time I allowed a L2 or L3 device to allow telnet connections to it.
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u/SilentDis Professional Asshat Breaker Jul 06 '12
03-05, something like that. The reason they allowed Telnet was because of the internal LAN I was on. It was rather well setup.
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u/flukz Jul 07 '12
The problem is if I've taken down a box in your internal, the first thing I'm going to do is start sniffing that segment. If you're using telnet I'm going to get your log/pass obviously, and then I just have to use that to escalate privileges on the device.
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u/SilentDis Professional Asshat Breaker Jul 07 '12
I remember there was something to do with being on the internal LAN. It was a long time ago, but if I remember right, I couldn't 'change' anything on the servers I could telnet to; only look.
Given that everything was tight as a drum, and we were on strict password changes every month, having someone snoop out my info would get them, at most, 30 days of seeing when someone was logged on... which as far as our admins were concerned meant diddly. They were all old-school Unix guys, so to them, a
whoat a prompt didn't mean 'bad security'.But, I'll admit that thinking about it now, it was a bit 'loose' in that regard. I fear I'm just missing something, some part of that situation that made it secure, but due to the time that's past, I can't recall it. Sorry.
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u/flukz Jul 07 '12
Yeah yeah, on a Cisco device you can have a login but not have the "enable" login. If you know *nix it's the difference between a user vs root.
Even back when they would allow telnet we still did things like tunneling connections to mitigate it. You're right though, a lot of places were "loose" regardless if I told them how easy it would be for me or someone like me to take them down.
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u/timbstoke Jul 07 '12
We used to have a Phil at my place of work. Our Phil wasn't a customer - we don't deal with the public. Generally, that tends to mean a lot less stress, and a better class of caller, since a) you'll see these people in the office from time to time, and b) no one really gives a shit when things happen to stop them from working.
Phil was different. Phil was a trader. Traders are, by default, an arrogant bunch of bastards who believe they are solely responsible for keeping the company afloat. Also, traders work tends to be far more time-sensitive than the average persons, and downtime for them can cost the company big, so they're a priority.
I was warned about Phil when I started. He took pleasure in berating whatever tech he got landed with, knowing that, as a trader, he was untouchable. I was told to treat him with kid gloves and just try and get him working as soon as possible. Inevitably, the call came. It came when I was on the last of 10 night shifts, meaning I was a) tired, and b) the only person working. It went like this:
Me: good morning, IT Phil: it's Phil. I'm pissed off with this fucking... Me: right Phil, I'm going to stop you there. Use that language with me again and I'll terminate the call. Phil: you can't do that, I'm a trader! What's your name, I'll have you fucking fired for......beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep
2 minutes later:
Me: good morning, IT Phil: put your manager on, now. Me: it's 4am, there's no management until 9am. Phil: then put another tech on. Me: between 9pm and 7am we only have one tech. Now, if you're prepared to calm down and tell me what the problem is, I can help you. If not, I can have my manager call you at 9am.
At this point, he seemed to almost immediately completely change his attitude, and I had the problem fixed within a few minutes. With Phil, he never had difficult problems, but they always took longer than they needed to because he was so abusive and. From the call stats, this was probably his quickest fix ever.
Of course, he complained the next day. My manager listened to the call, and told me that we can't refuse to support traders because they're too important. I told him I was more than happy to support Phil, but I wasn't prepared to take abuse in the process.
After that, Phil still shouted at everyone he got through to, except now he went a different way. When he got frustrated, he'd insist on speaking to me. As soon as he was through to me, he calmed down and we fixed his problem in a few minutes. Usually, he'd complain about the other tech, and ask why they couldn't have done what I did. I told him that if he'd given them a chance, they could. The reason it got fixed quicker with me is because I skipped the troubleshooting steps the other tech had already done, but if he'd come to me first I'd have done the same things in the same order.
I don't deal with users anymore, so I have no idea if Phil is still around or not. When I got promoted to second line, he'd still insist on talking to me, until I told him I wasn't allowed to help him anymore and he'd have to go back to the help desk.
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u/Charging_in Jul 06 '12
I saw the geocities bit and briefly made sure it wasn't some 'rick-roll esque' manoeuvre referring to the guy who had pictures of himself wearing women's clothing on his geocities site.
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Jul 06 '12
I have no idea what the middle of the story means. How can I learn?
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u/SilentDis Professional Asshat Breaker Jul 06 '12
In general, I checked everything without having the customer do anything. Look up the OSI Layers, I checked up to L3, all the behind the scenes stuff.
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Jul 06 '12 edited Jun 16 '23
deserted frighten punch shaggy fear ad hoc different intelligent marry deliver -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/
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u/SilentDis Professional Asshat Breaker Jul 06 '12
I agree, fully. The support I got from the higher-ups in the company were excellent, across the board. From the technical tools I had at my disposal to the attitudes they generally exhibited concerning 'problem callers' was really a breath of fresh air. I'd had much, much worse in terms of jobs.
As to your second point, been there, done that, before that particular job. I knew exactly how 'good' I had it; which probably was a very good influence as to why I didn't care one way or another about being Phil's only contact at the job.
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Jul 09 '12 edited Jun 16 '23
deranged coherent zephyr rain sand chunky exultant fuzzy pause squeeze -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/
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u/Archetype90 Jul 06 '12
Absolutely fantastic. First post I've read at work that has gotten me to REALLY laugh out loud. I got a few odd stares. On to part two!
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u/Trainbow Rule #1 of IT Jul 06 '12
Instead of shifting the problem to you, i would rather if the management trained the other reps to not be crying little children.
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u/FriendlyManCub Code Monkey Jul 06 '12
I take it you have never manned a phone dealing with the public, because that is an idiotic statement.
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u/Trainbow Rule #1 of IT Jul 06 '12
I have. Worked two years as tier 1 for a ISP. I expect the people around me to be able to do their jobs and deal with people (As is their job).
I feel for the guy, i mean, just because he did his job well, this complete idiot is now his sole responsibility. Great motivation for the future. Do your job well and be the "retard contact". Fantastic.
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u/CheesyGoodness Jul 06 '12
I'm not quite sure why you're getting downvoted, you make 2 valid points.
If a phone support person can't handle a difficult/abusive customer without crying, either that person needs to be trained better, or phone support is just not the job for that person.
OP was, in a sense, getting punished because he's doing his job right, and other people aren't.
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u/Trainbow Rule #1 of IT Jul 06 '12
Thanks. I guess it is my fault for not making my point in a more civilized manner. You summed it up much better.
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Jul 06 '12
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u/Trainbow Rule #1 of IT Jul 06 '12
I still don't think it is acceptable to push your problems to another guy where you work who deal with exactly the same shit as you do. It's just not cool.
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Jul 06 '12
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u/Trainbow Rule #1 of IT Jul 06 '12
I'm not taking anything away from him, its great that he knowns how to handle customers!
If he is fine with it then that's cool. But i would be annoyed if i suddenly got stuck with all the hard customers because the people i work with failed.
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u/FriendlyManCub Code Monkey Jul 06 '12
Stuff like that builds up. For example, I've only seen my mam cry three times. One when her Father died, the second when her brother died, and the third when she had nothing but crap for weeks on end because her company had had a big fuck up and she was getting the screaming, swearing, rude customers on the phones. Any other time she can deal with an asshole customer but everyone has a limit. It doesn't mean they failed.
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u/SilentDis Professional Asshat Breaker Jul 06 '12
I understand your point about 'retard contact'. I kinda/sorta groaned about it, but not really.
I just didn't care. It got me out of the queue, and dealing with an 'issue' that I didn't see as an issue. It also relieved my co-workers, who were affected by this guy, from ever having to deal with him again (supposedly, more on that in part 3).
I saw it as win/win. Never mind the 'brownie points' I'd get from management concerning it.
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u/yuubi I have one doubt Jul 06 '12
Have the strong people lift the heavy things; have the people resistant to emotional manipulation handle the problem customers.
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u/Trainbow Rule #1 of IT Jul 06 '12
I would also be annoyed if i was a big guy and for example we were two people hired for the same position with the same pay, but i got stuck with lifting all the heavy stuff just because i was stronger.
I would ask myself, why did he get hired if he cannot do the job?
And why do i not get paied more if i clearly do more work?
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u/SilentDis Professional Asshat Breaker Jul 06 '12
I upvoted you, because at the cold, unfeeling base of the situation, this is true. But...
We're all human beings. We have good days, we have bad days. No one deserves to be treated the way this guy treated people. I didn't care and had a thick skin concerning it; but I'm not everyone.
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u/PublicAccount1234 Jul 06 '12
Every time he calls, I just imagine you saying "I am still up grand... from this last time I stick it in you."
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Jul 06 '12
Isn't a TL;DR suppose to be a summary?
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u/sacca7 Jul 06 '12
Not on TFTS. Here we enjoy the tl so we do read.
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Jul 06 '12
You enjoy the TL, so you read, and use the "To Long Didn't Read" anyway to make a final comment?
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u/sacca7 Jul 06 '12
It's customary to use the tl;dr on tfts as a joke in a way that only tfts does.
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Jul 06 '12
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u/zetec That's no USB port... Jul 06 '12
Seriously, dude? You know this sub doesnt even allow image posts, right? Why are you here?
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u/JoinRedditTheySaid PhD Wrangler Jul 06 '12
You should make this your flair.