Not Always Right

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rhoenix
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#1 Not Always Right

Post by rhoenix »

Inspired by the website regarding customer service tales gone bitchy of the same name, I figured since we already had a user quotes thread, we might as well have this too. Either a good customer-service related experience you had that day, something you saw, or whatever.

Instead of posting my experiences of today, I'll start it out with something I saw on Not Always Right that made me instantly think of Frigid, because I doubt the rhythmic and regular banging of my head on the desk would amuse others very much.
(I’ve recently come back from a week off recovering from surgery. This takes place when a semi-regular customer, who has always been a bit of a pain, sees me back.)

Customer: “You! Where the h*** have you been?! Off on vacation, I assume, off enjoying yourself not giving two s***s about your customers!”

Me: “Actually, I was recovering from surgery.”

Customer: “Right, you expect me to believe you had surgery done? You were probably on vacation! Don’t you know you people don’t get a vacation? You are put on this earth to cater to people like me!”

Me: “Yeah, no.”

Customer: “Excuse me?!”

Me: “I’m not put here to cater to you. In fact, I’m refusing you service.”

Customer: “You can’t do that, you stupid b****! Do your f***ing job before I beat some sense into you!”

(By this point, a coworker and the owner have overheard the commotion and come over.)

Coworker: *to me* “Go ahead and clock out.”

Customer: *startled* “What?”

Coworker: “You wanted to have a go at her, right? Well, I’m letting her go clock out. I should warn you, though, she’s a black belt and she served two tours in Iraq. Good luck to you, sir.”

Customer: *to the owner* “I want her fired!”

Owner: “I want to watch her kick your a** all over our parking lot. We can’t always get what we want.”

Customer: “You can’t speak to me this way! Don’t you know who I am?”

Owner: “Can’t say that I care who you are.”

Customer: “I’m very important!”

Coworker: “No you aren’t. People who say that are never important. Are you also kind of a big deal?”

Customer: “I DEMAND something be done about this! What are you going to do?!”

Owner: “Well, first I’m going to kick you out, then I’m going to let her go kick you around our parking lot, THEN I plan to give both my employees here raises for having to deal with people like you.”

Customer: “You can’t do that!”

Owner: “Sure I can. Oh, and I’d get moving if I were you. I’m sending her to clock out right now.”

Customer: “Right, like you can do anything to me.”

Me: “Honey, I was trained by the US Marines. Do you really want to take that chance?”

(The customer finally believes me and suddenly looks terrified. He starts backing away with his hands out.)

Customer: “Hey, we were just fooling… no harm done, right?”

Me: “Wrong, I’ll give you a ten second head start…”

(The customer runs out of the store in a blind panic. We never saw him again after that. My coworker and I did in fact get a raise!)
"Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self-esteem, make sure that you are not, in fact, just surrounded by assholes."

- William Gibson


Josh wrote:What? There's nothing weird about having a pet housefly. He smuggles cigarettes for me.
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frigidmagi
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#2 Re: Not Always Right

Post by frigidmagi »

Good news everyone! I've just started running again, so I'm still kinda slow. Start now and you might just escape. Might.
"it takes two sides to end a war but only one to start one. And those who do not have swords may still die upon them." Tolken
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Josh
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#3 Re: Not Always Right

Post by Josh »

*sighs* That old 'Do you know who I am?' routine. Occasionally used by people who are are actually considered to be of some kind of prominence.

Reminds me of this hilarious conversation I overheard years and years ago. A buddy and I were sitting at a restaurant, back in the days when cell phones were the province of the well-to-do and more commonly the people on 24/7 call. A fellow gets a call and steps away from his family to handle it and basically damn near plants his butt on our table while he sorts things out. When the guy's standing over the top of you, eavesdropping is allowed and the conversation was fucking hilarious.

"No, no, you did everything right. You're plant security and on the plant you have the powers of a peace officer. I know you've only been doing this for a couple of months and you're nervous, but don't worry because you're following orders. Yes, go ahead and put him on."

Pause.

"Yes, yes, he has the authority to detain anybody who is on the plant property at night without authorization. Yes, I understand you're the new plant manager. Yes, the handcuffs are necessary. Yes, I do have the authority to do this, direct from Houston. Please give the phone back to the guard."

Pause.

"Please call the police and direct them to come pick him up for trespassing."


We managed to keep from exploding with laughter until he made it a reasonable distance from our table. I would've loved to have seen the follow-up from that.
When the Frog God smiles, arm yourself.
"'Flammable' and 'inflammable' have the same meaning! This language is insane!"
GIVE ME COFFEE AND I WILL ALLOW YOU TO LIVE!- Frigid
"Ork 'as no automatic code o' survival. 'is partic'lar distinction from all udda livin' gits is tha necessity ta act inna face o' alternatives by means o' dakka."
I created the sound of madness, wrote the book on pain
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rhoenix
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#4 Re: Not Always Right

Post by rhoenix »

*snicker*

That's priceless - nice post, Josh.
"Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self-esteem, make sure that you are not, in fact, just surrounded by assholes."

- William Gibson


Josh wrote:What? There's nothing weird about having a pet housefly. He smuggles cigarettes for me.
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Josh
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#5 Re: Not Always Right

Post by Josh »

I'm pretty sure that's the same plant that refused entry to the TECQ inspector back in the day.

That one I heard about from a fomer employee. TCEQ is the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, state EPA basically. Now I don't know about the regs involved in refusing a TCEQ inspection (you can actually refuse OSHA entry unless they have a warrant- be guaranteed if you do that within 48 hours they will have a warrant.)

But back when the agency was new and not everyone had heard about it, a TCEQ inspector shows up at that plant, and is denied entry. He demands to talk to the plant manager. Plant manager comes up, TCEQ man identifies himself and his agency, then requests entry. Plant manager says that by fucking god nobody enters his plant without his permission and he's not giving it. TCEQ man basically does the "I'll be back" and marches out.

Half hour later the manager gets a call from Houston- the TCEQ man is coming back, and when he does give him the full tour, let him see anything he wants, and kiss his ass from every angle.

TCEQ man returns. Plant manager proceeds to start kissing. TCEQ man informs him that he's going to find enough writeups to shut the place down for good.

He didn't quite manage that, but he did put them in the red for the year.

Lesson learned: do not fuck with the state agencies.
When the Frog God smiles, arm yourself.
"'Flammable' and 'inflammable' have the same meaning! This language is insane!"
GIVE ME COFFEE AND I WILL ALLOW YOU TO LIVE!- Frigid
"Ork 'as no automatic code o' survival. 'is partic'lar distinction from all udda livin' gits is tha necessity ta act inna face o' alternatives by means o' dakka."
I created the sound of madness, wrote the book on pain
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