topic Re: When Speaking with a Difficult CS Individual, It Pays To Call Back And … in Community Chat

When Speaking with a Difficult CS Individual, It Pays To Call Back And …

rms1954 — Fri, 03 Sep 2021 01:09:54 GMT

Speak with a more helpful CS agent. Called HSN because I was charged for two-day express shipping on an item I ordered. I know I would not have a $39.99 item shipped 2-day because I never have, didn't need it, and why would I end up paying $60 for a $40 item. She gave me a difficult time so I called and spoke to a pleasant and helpful/understanding agent and she refunded me the $19.22 in S&H fees. See, not so hard.

Re: When Speaking with a Difficult CS Individual, It Pays To Call Back And …

Kachina624 — Fri, 03 Sep 2021 01:24:54 GMT

I bet CR reps wish they had the same option... hang up on the argumentative customer and try a new one who is more pleasant.

Re: When Speaking with a Difficult CS Individual, It Pays To Call Back And …

Foxxee — Fri, 03 Sep 2021 02:50:48 GMT

Yes, it's been my experience, it does help to call other agents when the first call has been unsatifactory. When a customer thinks the agent is wrong or could do more, why not?

Re: When Speaking with a Difficult CS Individual, It Pays To Call Back And …

Tinkrbl44 — Fri, 03 Sep 2021 06:49:34 GMT

@Foxxee wrote:
Yes, it's been my experience, it does help to call other agents when the first call has been unsatifactory. When a customer thinks the agent is wrong or could do more, why not?

@Foxxee

I have had that same experience with someone not very helpful, and, gee, suddenly the line went dead. I wonder how that happened.

Re: When Speaking with a Difficult CS Individual, It Pays To Call Back And …

FiddleDeeDee — Fri, 03 Sep 2021 14:17:16 GMT

@Kachina624 wrote:
I bet CR reps wish they had the same option... hang up on the argumentative customer and try a new one who is more pleasant.

Oh, they do.

Re: When Speaking with a Difficult CS Individual, It Pays To Call Back And …

gardenman — Sat, 04 Sep 2021 11:44:32 GMT

I was a CSR with Frontier Communications and every customer interaction is notated and it wasn't unusual to find you were the fourth or fifth CSR they'd talked to that day. You'd be reading the notes on their previous interactions as they try the same story on you.

As a rule, customer service reps want to make you happy, but their hands are tied by company policy. If a rep says there's nothing they can do, it's typically because their higher-ups won't let them. If you get a bad CSR on a bad day and they're just not listening to you, then by all means try again, but in most cases, repeated calls won't do you any good. If the first CSR can't help you, odds are you're out of luck.

People used to demand to speak to a supervisor, but in many cases, the "supervisor" was simply another CSR following the same rules.

Re: When Speaking with a Difficult CS Individual, It Pays To Call Back And …

NicksmomESQ — Sat, 04 Sep 2021 11:59:47 GMT

I have had several experiences where when I called back my issue was resolved quickly.Sometimes I do elevate my issue to a supervisor or manager. Whenever I've done that I found that my issue was resolved with an apology.A few years ago I elevated a matter I had with HSN all the way to corporate. They couldn't have been nicer & more apologetic.

Re: When Speaking with a Difficult CS Individual, It Pays To Call Back And …

drizzellla — Sat, 04 Sep 2021 12:04:25 GMT

@gardenman

You brought back a memory. I worked for a company that processed lab work. There were 6 people who worked in the Customer Care Department. Their job was to handle calls primarily regarding people's health insurance paying or other payment problems for their lab work.

I worked in the Accounting Department that was next to the Customer Care Department. People who worked in Customer Care would not want to deal with the all the phone calls. So they would put their phones on "busy" so the call would just move on to the next representative.

After awhile that became quite a popular feature. So the calls had no where to go and bounced into Accounting. I had very limited knowledge about people's insurance and what should be covered and all the various tests that were done.

So I would listen to their stories and ended up writing off all the charges. That was about the only thing I did know how to do when I entered their accounts. I made quite a few people happy.

Re: When Speaking with a Difficult CS Individual, It Pays To Call Back And …

on the bay — Sat, 04 Sep 2021 12:08:38 GMT

Years ago before I got my longtime job, I was a customer service rep at UPS. Despite what the company wanted us to do-take as many calls as possible, I really wanted to help the customer find their dang package! Because every call I felt like the customer too! So I did everything possible to do that, as long as it took.

I was not getting off the phone til we found where that package was.I got so many gift baskets of thanks from customers or letters. The best part was knowing I did the kind of job I wanted to do.

You can get customer service who wants to help and can get things resolved, and those who don't really put themselves in their customers place, or don't really have the experience or feel they have the power or confidence to help.Or in the worst case, don't really care.

So yes keep trying, til you get a good one!

Re: When Speaking with a Difficult CS Individual, It Pays To Call Back And …

SeaMaiden — Sat, 04 Sep 2021 13:07:17 GMT

I have been fortunate with help from CS so far. I always start out pleasantly and treat them with courtesy. I think being angry is the worst way to get help.

Re: When Speaking with a Difficult CS Individual, It Pays To Call Back And …

77yangya — Sat, 04 Sep 2021 13:45:48 GMT

@Kachina624 wrote:
I bet CR reps wish they had the same option... hang up on the argumentative customer and try a new one who is more pleasant.

Hi, Kachina624.....you had an amazing piece of advice on getting rid of credit card offers. I did it and it worked. Anyway, I know this off topic but I was hoping to see you so I could just communicate this. I was getting TONS of emails from a company, I don't want to say the name as I don't want the post to be deleted, they were bombarding me and I did not ask for that. I must have bought something from them a long time ago. When I unsubscribed to their emails, I had to jump through hoops to get it stopped. Finally it did but now they started sending magazines in the mail. I called them and they said they would take me off the list, they also have my husband on the magazine list too! oh boy! okay, so if I get another one, what would you suggest I do? Thank you in advance. Sorry to bother you but it's a real drag. LOL! It's not QVC or HSN though.

Re: When Speaking with a Difficult CS Individual, It Pays To Call Back And …

noramae — Sat, 04 Sep 2021 13:51:49 GMT

This has happened to be as well, not jjust with the Q (most of them are very nice, but with other busineses as well. Some people should not be dealing with the public.

Re: When Speaking with a Difficult CS Individual, It Pays To Call Back And …

corita — Sat, 04 Sep 2021 16:28:01 GMT

I have had almost the same issue with some CS reps. Every so often I call a company and the CS is a person with a very strong foreign accent. I just can't understand what they are saying. I try and try and finally have to ask for another agent. I always apologize but it is just so difficult to get an issue cleared up if the person can't communicate!

Re: When Speaking with a Difficult CS Individual, It Pays To Call Back And …

Shelbelle — Sat, 04 Sep 2021 16:31:57 GMT

Always my plan too, if I am not happy, I say thank you very much, and hang up. Call back little while later and usually I am happy the second time around.

Re: When Speaking with a Difficult CS Individual, It Pays To Call Back And …

Ladybug724 — Sun, 05 Sep 2021 01:04:38 GMT

Customer service in this country has gotten awful. Most times anymore when I have to call a company (ESPECIALLY cable) I get a bored sounding rep who could care less about helping me.

Then the inevitable "I'm going to place you on a brief hold while I pull up your account" comes, followed by a very long hold.

It's aggravating, especially if you have a real issue and you have to repeat yourself a hundred times just so the rep can comprehend what you're trying to say.

No, they aren't all like that. But most are anymore.

Re: When Speaking with a Difficult CS Individual, It Pays To Call Back And …

Hippiified — Sun, 05 Sep 2021 01:14:42 GMT

Yes, there are some nice ones out there. I always call back to hopefully get someone who actually tries to help. @rms1954

Re: When Speaking with a Difficult CS Individual, It Pays To Call Back And …

gardenman — Sun, 05 Sep 2021 13:24:23 GMT

@Ladybug724 wrote:
Customer service in this country has gotten awful. Most times anymore when I have to call a company (ESPECIALLY cable) I get a bored sounding rep who could care less about helping me.
Then the inevitable "I'm going to place you on a brief hold while I pull up your account" comes, followed by a very long hold.

It's aggravating, especially if you have a real issue and you have to repeat yourself a hundred times just so the rep can comprehend what you're trying to say.

No, they aren't all like that. But most are anymore.

The "I'm putting you on hold while I pull up your account" is more often so the CSR can finish writing the notes on the previous account before they get involved with your call. At Frontier, we were given eight seconds between calls for note-taking. Yeah, eight seconds. You could only have a maximum of three accounts opened at once and some callers would hang up on you almost immediately and you'd get a new call while you were finishing their note and if that call ended quickly, you could have all three accounts up and notes due with another call coming in.

And the notes they want are detailed notes. Who called? What did they ask for? How did you resolve the issue? If a price was quoted what was the price and what was the service? Not stuff you can just jot down in the eight whole seconds you have before a new caller is on the phone. Notes have to be in a specific place also and more often than not you weren't in that app when the call ended, so you had to bring up that app, type the note, submit it all in the eight seconds they generously give you. As a CSR you learned to stall to get the notes written. You really don't have a choice.

If they gave you a minute between calls it would be easier, but they give you eight seconds. Here would be a typical note. "Ladybug724 called about her bill. Advised bill was $100. She said she'd pay it next week."

And that would be a very easy call. Some calls required pages of notes. Especially if you had other departments involved. I had a customer who had been inadvertently disconnected at midnight the night before. He'd been bounced back and forth between customer service and tech support all morning because our customer support records showed everything was fine, but the tech support system showed he'd been disconnected and they can't reconnect someone who's been disconnected. That's a job for customer service. I think I was his seventh person that morning and I was about to send him back to tech support when he groaned and begged me not to. One of my coworkers had discovered we could sneak into the tech support system using one of our nearly twenty passwords and logins, so hopped into their systems to see what they were seeing, and sure enough, their system said he was disconnected.

I then reached out to our Conn FIOS people to verify that and they said yep, they'd disconnected him at midnight. I asked why? They said there had to have been an RO (resident out) order. There wasn't one. They couldn't reconnect him though without a RI (resident in) order. I couldn't write an RI order though as my system said he was still connected. So, we had to get him officially disconnected by having an RO order made and pushed through the system (three different offices) and then cleared, then write the RI order and push that through those same three offices. And of course, he had promos that would fall off and need to be put back in place. I had to reach out to promotions to get that done.

So, the next step was to reach out to Saves and Retention to get them to write the RO order, which only they could do. Then that order had to be pushed through three offices and finally get to Conn so they could officially, legally disconnect hjm. Then there was the twenty-minute wait for it to clear the customer service system so I could then write the RI order and push that through all three offices necessary to get Conn to reconnect his service. Then adjust his bills and get promotions to put his promos back on his account.

Suffice to say there were pages of notes for all of those conversations and interactions. Far more than anyone could type in eight seconds. Each department I talked to had to be noted. The time, who I talked to, what was said, why, etc. I was able to do most of the note-taking while still on the call, but if I'd waited until the end, it would have taken a lot more than the eight seconds we're allotted.

Re: When Speaking with a Difficult CS Individual, It Pays To Call Back And …

NickNack — Sun, 05 Sep 2021 14:14:34 GMT

@77yangya wrote:
@Kachina624 wrote:
I bet CR reps wish they had the same option... hang up on the argumentative customer and try a new one who is more pleasant.
Hi, Kachina624.....you had an amazing piece of advice on getting rid of credit card offers. I did it and it worked. Anyway, I know this off topic but I was hoping to see you so I could just communicate this. I was getting TONS of emails from a company, I don't want to say the name as I don't want the post to be deleted, they were bombarding me and I did not ask for that. I must have bought something from them a long time ago. When I unsubscribed to their emails, I had to jump through hoops to get it stopped. Finally it did but now they started sending magazines in the mail. I called them and they said they would take me off the list, they also have my husband on the magazine list too! oh boy! okay, so if I get another one, what would you suggest I do? Thank you in advance. Sorry to bother you but it's a real drag. LOL! It's not QVC or HSN though.

@77yangya I'm not @Kachina624 , but I hope I can help you. There's a website called CatalogChoice dot org where you can sign up to have companies quit sending you catalogs.

Re: When Speaking with a Difficult CS Individual, It Pays To Call Back And …

Pruett — Wed, 08 Sep 2021 08:28:05 GMT

@Shelbelle wrote:
Always my plan too, if I am not happy, I say thank you very much, and hang up. Call back little while later and usually I am happy the second time around.

I do the same.

Re: When Speaking with a Difficult CS Individual, It Pays To Call Back And …

Ladybug724 — Wed, 08 Sep 2021 14:38:34 GMT

@gardenman wrote:
@Ladybug724 wrote:
Customer service in this country has gotten awful. Most times anymore when I have to call a company (ESPECIALLY cable) I get a bored sounding rep who could care less about helping me.
Then the inevitable "I'm going to place you on a brief hold while I pull up your account" comes, followed by a very long hold.

It's aggravating, especially if you have a real issue and you have to repeat yourself a hundred times just so the rep can comprehend what you're trying to say.

No, they aren't all like that. But most are anymore.
The "I'm putting you on hold while I pull up your account" is more often so the CSR can finish writing the notes on the previous account before they get involved with your call. At Frontier, we were given eight seconds between calls for note-taking. Yeah, eight seconds. You could only have a maximum of three accounts opened at once and some callers would hang up on you almost immediately and you'd get a new call while you were finishing their note and if that call ended quickly, you could have all three accounts up and notes due with another call coming in.

And the notes they want are detailed notes. Who called? What did they ask for? How did you resolve the issue? If a price was quoted what was the price and what was the service? Not stuff you can just jot down in the eight whole seconds you have before a new caller is on the phone. Notes have to be in a specific place also and more often than not you weren't in that app when the call ended, so you had to bring up that app, type the note, submit it all in the eight seconds they generously give you. As a CSR you learned to stall to get the notes written. You really don't have a choice.

If they gave you a minute between calls it would be easier, but they give you eight seconds. Here would be a typical note. "Ladybug724 called about her bill. Advised bill was $100. She said she'd pay it next week."

And that would be a very easy call. Some calls required pages of notes. Especially if you had other departments involved. I had a customer who had been inadvertently disconnected at midnight the night before. He'd been bounced back and forth between customer service and tech support all morning because our customer support records showed everything was fine, but the tech support system showed he'd been disconnected and they can't reconnect someone who's been disconnected. That's a job for customer service. I think I was his seventh person that morning and I was about to send him back to tech support when he groaned and begged me not to. One of my coworkers had discovered we could sneak into the tech support system using one of our nearly twenty passwords and logins, so hopped into their systems to see what they were seeing, and sure enough, their system said he was disconnected.

I then reached out to our Conn FIOS people to verify that and they said yep, they'd disconnected him at midnight. I asked why? They said there had to have been an RO (resident out) order. There wasn't one. They couldn't reconnect him though without a RI (resident in) order. I couldn't write an RI order though as my system said he was still connected. So, we had to get him officially disconnected by having an RO order made and pushed through the system (three different offices) and then cleared, then write the RI order and push that through those same three offices. And of course, he had promos that would fall off and need to be put back in place. I had to reach out to promotions to get that done.

So, the next step was to reach out to Saves and Retention to get them to write the RO order, which only they could do. Then that order had to be pushed through three offices and finally get to Conn so they could officially, legally disconnect hjm. Then there was the twenty-minute wait for it to clear the customer service system so I could then write the RI order and push that through all three offices necessary to get Conn to reconnect his service. Then adjust his bills and get promotions to put his promos back on his account.

Suffice to say there were pages of notes for all of those conversations and interactions. Far more than anyone could type in eight seconds. Each department I talked to had to be noted. The time, who I talked to, what was said, why, etc. I was able to do most of the note-taking while still on the call, but if I'd waited until the end, it would have taken a lot more than the eight seconds we're allotted.

@gardenman Did not know this. How sad they don't give you more time.

I worked in customer service for a few years and we just typed any notes while the caller I was typing the notes for was still on the line.

I guess all companies are different.