dslreports logo
 
    All Forums Hot Topics Gallery
spc
uniqs
53
The Antihero
join:2002-04-09
Enola, PA

The Antihero to Aranarth

Member

to Aranarth

Re: Idiot users...

I'm a programmer at my job. While I'm not tech support, sometimes I have to troubleshoot something for a user if they were using one of our programs and it blew up on them. Most of them aren't a problem to deal with, but I had this one winner who just would not give me a straight answer. The first thing I always try to do is recreate the problem they were having. If I can't figure out how to get there, I ask them what they were doing when it happened. Again, most of the users are helpful, and if anything, give me more info than I needed. But this particular idiot just gave me a vague answer, basically giving me a general description of what the program she was using was used for, which I already knew. I emailed her back telling her that I needed a little more detail, i.e. what data she entered in which fields, what path she took to get to the program that had the problem, etc. I never heard back from her. My supervisor even told me not to worry about it if the user wasn't going to meet us halfway and actually give us some useful information.

At least I don't deal with customers, like my one friend at our company does. The worst part is, she's not allowed to ever hang up on a customer, no matter how abusive they get, or how much profanity they use. The one day, she told me she had five different people tell her to "shove those interest rates up her ass."

AVD
Respice, Adspice, Prospice
Premium Member
join:2003-02-06
Onion, NJ

AVD

Premium Member

oooooooohhhh.. .sounds dirty

hortnut
Huh?
join:2005-09-25
PDX Metro

hortnut to The Antihero

Member

to The Antihero
said by The Antihero:

At least I don't deal with customers, like my one friend at our company does. The worst part is, she's not allowed to ever hang up on a customer, no matter how abusive they get, or how much profanity they use. The one day, she told me she had five different people tell her to "shove those interest rates up her ass."

Fortunately, I have yet to work for a Company that would allow such abuse. We did have protocols to follow prior to terminating the call, such as advising the caller the call has now ended, unless they can control themselves and giving them other wordage, depending upon the "abuse".

Once in a while, I would not hang up immediately, but would go silent, after giving the warning. More than once, the caller asked if I was still there. My response was, yes I was, but was having problems completing their request.

sivran
Vive Vivaldi
Premium Member
join:2003-09-15
Irving, TX

sivran to The Antihero

Premium Member

to The Antihero
You're friends with Rachel? »Rachel's BAAACK
The Antihero
join:2002-04-09
Enola, PA

The Antihero

Member

said by sivran:

You're friends with Rachel? »Rachel's BAAACK

LOL no. I work for a company that provides certain loans. Legitimate ones.

carpetshark3
Premium Member
join:2004-02-12
Idledale, CO

carpetshark3 to hortnut

Premium Member

to hortnut
said by hortnut:

said by The Antihero:

At least I don't deal with customers, like my one friend at our company does. The worst part is, she's not allowed to ever hang up on a customer, no matter how abusive they get, or how much profanity they use. The one day, she told me she had five different people tell her to "shove those interest rates up her ass."

Fortunately, I have yet to work for a Company that would allow such abuse. We did have protocols to follow prior to terminating the call, such as advising the caller the call has now ended, unless they can control themselves and giving them other wordage, depending upon the "abuse".

Once in a while, I would not hang up immediately, but would go silent, after giving the warning. More than once, the caller asked if I was still there. My response was, yes I was, but was having problems completing their request.

Sorry, but I disagree when it comes to a business. Our business didn't deal with the public and we used checks. We had non-stop solicitation calls from Visa after we explained about 5 times. My boss finally used some rather nasty language to one of the pests, she was really annoyed, but the damn calls stopped.
The Antihero
join:2002-04-09
Enola, PA

The Antihero

Member

said by carpetshark3:

Sorry, but I disagree when it comes to a business. Our business didn't deal with the public and we used checks. We had non-stop solicitation calls from Visa after we explained about 5 times. My boss finally used some rather nasty language to one of the pests, she was really annoyed, but the damn calls stopped.

We don't solicit. All our calls are inbound, except when we have to call people who aren't making their payments. These people who were cussing at my friend are people who called in.

I forgot my friend's other favorite -- the guy who called in, and right away told her to get him a "f**king supervisor."

hortnut
Huh?
join:2005-09-25
PDX Metro

hortnut to carpetshark3

Member

to carpetshark3
I am referring to the public calling in to get technical issues fixed. A high volume call center. Their expectations and reality were/are sometimes quite a ways apart.

In that situation one has to use psychology and call control to attempt to fix the customer's issue's. And some callers were/are their own worst enemy. I was pretty adept in calming them down and fixing their problems, but there were always a few that were unreachable. If they became abusive I was not required to end the call, but had the "option, at my discretion" to do so.

sivran
Vive Vivaldi
Premium Member
join:2003-09-15
Irving, TX

sivran

Premium Member

My strategy was usually to move the earpiece off my ear and let them vent until they quieted down, then just calmly continue on. Worked fairly well for me.

Glad those days are long gone though.