Right or Wrong: Customers

[viranimus]

I grew up with the adage as many people did

The customer is always right

However every day that axiom seems to be eroding to the point of non existence. How many times have you called a customer service center to blanket be told "NO" or "That is not how it works" or "Your wrong" over the last decade?

So the questions I am compelled to ask is this axiom dying? Is it already dead? Do we as customers get a better experience like this? When is the last time you recall some CSR on a phone bending over backwards to try to negotiate your needs vs the needs of the company? Does business operate better without having to pander to people in order to extract their money from them?

TL;DR

Is the axiom "The customer is always right dead, or dying and are we better off now because of it?

 

[Dandark]

I'd say it's probably dead which is a good thing as the customer is most definatly not always right, in fact the customer is nearly always wrong.

 

[Fappy]

In order to get what you want with customer service you either need to find a way to get leverage or be a complete asshole.

Mod Edit~ Fappy is awesome and wasn't saying he's an asshole to customer service personel

 

[Kinokohatake]

I work in customer service and FYI 95% of the time the customer is either an ass or an idiot. So no, the customer is not always right.

 

[DigitalSushi]

I've never had a problem with customer services, both in retail and with phoning up a customer service center.

I actually have to deal with manufacturing customer services for my clients (as in I phone up the company and deal with my clients query/problems) on an almost daily basis and I still don't have problems.

I always try to gain a rapport with whoever I'm dealing with too and always treat them with respect, also telling them I know its not their fault so I'm not angry with them but I'd like a resolution to my query/problem. Asking them about company policy and where you stand first is always good because then you can adjust your questions accordingly to fit that corporations work ethics when it comes to issues, remember the person your talking to probably had 50 irate phonecalls already telling them how they should work and what they should do so doing the same will get you know where (customer service centre's quite often a staff turnover rate of 6 weeks, as in every 6 weeks a whole bunch of staff leave because of the irate phonecalls).

Having a sexy voice phone helps too if its a lady on the other line.

Even when you fail there are other avenues to pursue, as an example, my French cousin bought Assassin's Creed 2 here in the UK that we found didn't have a language option of Frenchish for him to play, when taking it back 2 days later we could only trade it in for half the price, so I bought him a DualShock 3 and I kept the game, he didn't lose money and neither did I.

 

[DigitalSushi]

In order to get what you want with customer service you either need to find a way to get leverage or be a complete asshole.

I disagree wholeheartedly, I get what I want by being nice.

I work in customer service and FYI 95% of the time the customer is either an ass or an idiot. So no, the customer is not always right.

OI [user]Thomas Guy[/user]!, quick throw your company policy handbook at Fappy!

 

[evilneko]

The customer is usually wrong, especially when they're being an asshole...or calling technical support.

 

[Erttheking]

I think I'll just link this website and take my leave.
http://notalwaysright.com/

 

[Fappy]

In order to get what you want with customer service you either need to find a way to get leverage or be a complete asshole.

I disagree wholeheartedly, I get what I want by being nice.

I work in customer service and FYI 95% of the time the customer is either an ass or an idiot. So no, the customer is not always right.

OI [user]Thomas Guy[/user]!, quick throw your company policy handbook at Fappy!

I am speaking from others' experience (my ex-roommate to be specific). I am more of the negotiating customers that is nice and pleasant, but on the fence as to whether or not I want to continue in your service. For example: I called Microsoft support about my Gold membership because after I got a new credit card the auto renewal couldn't go through and I missed the cut-off for the price change for Gold (went from 50 to 60 dollars a year). I was also calling about something else, though I can't remember what it was about. Anyway, long story short I made it clear I was unsure as to whether or not I wanted to resubscribe (which was the truth) and the support guy offered me a year-long subscription for the original 50$ six months after the price change. I was nice the whole time! I promise

 

[Kinokohatake]

In order to get what you want with customer service you either need to find a way to get leverage or be a complete asshole.

As a CSR you are the bane of my existence. And when you're a dick, I won't do everything in my power to help. Just an FYI.

 

[Fappy]

In order to get what you want with customer service you either need to find a way to get leverage or be a complete asshole.

As a CSR you are the bane of my existence. And when you're a dick, I won't do everything in my power to help. Just an FYI.

Hmmm.... everyone seems to think I was implying that I act like an asshole with customer service representatives. Maybe I should have worded my post differently >.>

 

[JoJo]

I wish they did still follow it, this year me and my house-mates have been completely screwed by Virgin Media, we have 50mb broadband and were told that average speeds in our area were in the mid-fourties. What they neglected to tell us until we'd signed up to the 12 month contract and rung them up for technical issues was that speeds over about 20mb are apparently impossible over a wireless connection, at-least with the box they provide. With 5 internet-heavy users living in the same house, this is definitely noticable. Fuck those Usain Bolt / Richard Branson adverts where they promise to double subscriber's speeds, we just want the speed we paid for. Not only that, but now apparently monthly prices are going up by a couple of quid and how that works with a pre-arranged contract I don't know.

TLR: people above who say the customer is usually wrong or an arse are talking out of their behinds, companies should learn to respect their customers again. Oh and don't go with Virgin Media.

 

[ms_sunlight]

In order to get what you want with customer service you either need to find a way to get leverage or be a complete asshole.

Of course, you could just try asking first. If that doesn't work, feel free to escalate, but there's no point being an arse if you can get what you want without having to bother.

 

[Vegosiux]

In order to get what you want with customer service you either need to find a way to get leverage or be a complete asshole.

As a CSR you are the bane of my existence. And when you're a dick, I won't do everything in my power to help. Just an FYI.

Good for you, people get a lot of trouble over such stuff here, even when customers are being dicks >.< Not about the customer being right, but a "quality of service" thing, I've been told. Tho I agree, if I had any say in it, you could get away with not doing everything if the customer is a dick.

 

[DigitalSushi]

I am speaking from others' experience (my ex-roommate to be specific). I am more of the negotiating customers that is nice and pleasant, but on the fence as to whether or not I want to continue in your service. For example: I called Microsoft support about my Gold membership because after I got a new credit card the auto renewal couldn't go through and I missed the cut-off for the price change for Gold (went from 50 to 60 dollars a year). I was also calling about something else, though I can't remember what it was about. Anyway, long story short I made it clear I was unsure as to whether or not I wanted to resubscribe (which was the truth) and the support guy offered me a year-long subscription for the original 50$ six months after the price change. I was nice the whole time! I promise

I know a guy (I wouldn't call him a friend, just a guy I know) that gets what he wants by being a dick to service staff, purely by hanging around long enough and making a scene while other customers are there, he gets fuck all help when he has to phone a service centre though. But then again he has the time to be a dick.

I heard that the Microsoft Live Support was superb, I know the PlayStation support is great since I've had to use it (more often than I'd like). There was a story that Xbox Live support offered a guy that had subscribed since its inception (we need to go deeper!) a few months for 1 dollar because he was going to cancel due to money issues, good going to Money Issues Guy and Microsoft Support!

In order to get what you want with customer service you either need to find a way to get leverage or be a complete asshole.

As a CSR you are the bane of my existence. And when you're a dick, I won't do everything in my power to help. Just an FYI.

woa woa... you holster that company handbook soldier!, Fappy is not the Target, I repeat, Fappy is NOT the target, abort mission.

 

[Fappy]

I am speaking from others' experience (my ex-roommate to be specific). I am more of the negotiating customers that is nice and pleasant, but on the fence as to whether or not I want to continue in your service. For example: I called Microsoft support about my Gold membership because after I got a new credit card the auto renewal couldn't go through and I missed the cut-off for the price change for Gold (went from 50 to 60 dollars a year). I was also calling about something else, though I can't remember what it was about. Anyway, long story short I made it clear I was unsure as to whether or not I wanted to resubscribe (which was the truth) and the support guy offered me a year-long subscription for the original 50$ six months after the price change. I was nice the whole time! I promise

I know a guy (I wouldn't call him a friend, just a guy I know) that gets what he wants by being a dick to service staff, purely by hanging around long enough and making a scene while other customers are there, he gets fuck all help when he has to phone a service centre though. But then again he has the time to be a dick.

I heard that the Microsoft Live Support was superb, I know the PlayStation support is great since I've had to use it (more often than I'd like). There was a story that Xbox Live support offered a guy that had subscribed since its inception (we need to go deeper!) a few months for 1 dollar because he was going to cancel due to money issues, good going to Money Issues Guy and Microsoft Support!

In order to get what you want with customer service you either need to find a way to get leverage or be a complete asshole.

As a CSR you are the bane of my existence. And when you're a dick, I won't do everything in my power to help. Just an FYI.

woa woa... you holster that company handbook soldier!, Fappy is not the Target, I repeat, Fappy is NOT the target, abort mission.

Going into where I draw my conclusion comes from a long and painful story involving apartment damages caused by my friend's dog. We had to pay for the damage his dog caused because the rest of us weren't assholes enough to storm the apartment offices and make enraged demands :O

Though that last bit is not completely in the realm of telecommunication related customer service, the rest of my conclusion comes from my Uncle who treats CSRs like shit over the phone with his loud Italian New Yorker accent and gets everything he wants.

 

[Astiahl]

From a customer standpoint, no. HEEEELLL no, in fact. Buying something does not make me right about anything. All it proves is that I somehow collected the requisite items/currency to purchase or otherwise barter for something. I can usually admit when I'm wrong when provided with the explanation as to why I'm wrong and a correction to better my understanding of something. As for things like dealing with customer service representatives and whatnot, I respect people in their line of work provided they seem like nice people. Working with random people...every day? It takes a special kind of mental fortitude to do that, a kind I do not posses.

Off-topic: Is it wrong that I kind of wanted to see the two above me start arguing just so I could imagine a talking cat and Spongebob having a heated debate?

 

[requisitename]

The only real customer service problems I can ever remember having have been with two of my utility companiesThe electric company overcharging and refusing to revise my bill while being assholes and blaming me for their stupidity and water company getting my bill mixed up with my neighbor's and refusing to fix it for three months.. I have found that if I am nice and calm and reiterate to them that I understand it's not their fault and is there anything at all we can do here.. there's almost always *something* that can be done that will make me happy. On the rare occasions when there's not, I don't rage at and blame the CSR for doing his or her job. *shrug* I've been in the position where I didn't make the rules and had people berate me for it. That fucking sucks because most people in customer service want to make customers happy and already feel bad when they can't. Yelling at them/throwing things/generally acting like a dick doesn't accomplish anything.

The last time a CSR bent over backwards to help me was about a month ago. I had a Nook from B&N that was about two weeks out of warranty when the SD card reader failed spectacularly. I called Nook customer support (not the general number) and talked to a very nice woman who gave me absolutely no hassle about replacing my Nook. She also applied a $25 credit to my account "for the inconvenience" when I told her that I had a couple of files on the now-melted SD cardAs I said: spectacularly. Ha. that I no longer had access to.

 

[DigitalSushi]

Going into where I draw my conclusion comes from a long and painful story involving apartment damages caused by my friend's dog. We had to pay for the damage his dog caused because the rest of us weren't assholes enough to storm the apartment offices and make enraged demands :O

Though that last bit is not completely in the realm of telecommunication related customer service, the rest of my conclusion comes from my Uncle who treats CSRs like shit over the phone with his loud Italian New Yorker accent and gets everything he wants.

OH right, I forgot about our American Contingency here (schoolboy error on my part), now your Uncle gets what he wants primarily because of his Italian New Yorker accent!, scary people them!, I've seen Leon and I know what they can do!

I heard years ago in the US you would get a discount if you complained lets say in a restaurant or hotel, so Americans developed a loud and complain way of treating service workers as a direct result of trying to get money off. Its a practise that is starting to die out but I growing up in Europe I can say I have seen American tourists make outrageous demands thinking they would get better service/or money off when the opposite is true here.

When I was in San Francisco aged 13 I saw an old guy complaining in a steak house very loudly that the ice in his cola was too cold, I got up and told him "ITS ICE, take it out if its too cold".

I went into that Steak house the week after and was treated like a King