What Happened to, "Customer Service, How May I help You?"

A nightmarish customer service experience in person at a trailer manufacturer in Georgia enkindled rage, from a blood-boiling phone call that I made to the same company two weeks prior.

I had one simple question to ask that required a mere yes or no answer, so I was hopeful and thought, this should be quick and easy, as I dialed the phone. I couldn't be more mistaken. A lady picked up and I introduced myself. I was in the middle of identifying myself, in my friendliest phone voice, when the lady on the other line rudely interrupted me, “you need to talk to your dealer," her condescending attitude so pronounced I had to pause for a second. Nah, I probably just misheard that. Right?

I took a quick breath and proceeded to state the purpose for my call and again, she interrupted me with, “you need to talk to your dealer.” Same disdainful tone. No buffers and without any qualms, whatsoever. For some silly reason, though, the more she interrupted me, the more I felt the need to get a whole sentence in. Was this hag really this impolite?

I started again, explaining to her that I had already called my dealer but just didn’t get a hold of him and that I needed to get back to someone immediately with that information so I had to try this route (insert many interruptions from her in between, quickly making this simple task impossibly difficult and frustrating). She kept interrupting me, telling me over and over that I needed to talk to my dealer, like a true broken player. Despite how irritating that was, I kept my cool and plead for her to let me talk to someone there who might be able to answer my question. This was when she fired contemptuously about how no male worker was available to talk to me and how, basically, talking to me wasn’t her job, and reminding me one more time that I needed to "talk to my dealer,” instead of her, delivered in a more condescending manner, if that was possible. And to my shock, it was.

Okay. What kind of a b i t c h was I dealing with?

At that moment, I resigned to the fact she was not going to be of any help to me, it was crystal clear. I was perfectly fine with it, too. She was vehemently refusing to do anything for me and there was nothing I could do about it. I just needed for her to change her tone. Her lack of common courtesy and the unacceptable condescending way she talked to me drove me up a wall. I felt wronged.

But honestly, I didn't really feel like calling her out. I just didn't think it was worth the breath. Would she even care? If her attitude was any indication, no she wasn't that type.

Having weighed the pros and cons, I decided to take the high road, even though, at this point, a collection of angry thoughts was already formed in my head. It was time to hang up. With unconcealed disappointment, I sighed into the phone and murmured “okay, I guess I’ll just have to wait for Justin to call me back." To which she responded sarcastically, “Ah, yes, you do.”

That’s when I lost it. Did she really just add salt to all her insults? To hell with taking the high road. People sometimes need telling off. I didn’t care if I was on candid camera. It was on.

“What is your deal?! Why are you being so rude?! Did you really have to tell me that many times about calling my dealer like I didn’t understand you the first time?"

I heard her utter "Uh," but this time, I gave her ZERO chance to interrupt me. And was that a hint of shock in her voice? Well, good!

Time to bring it on home.

"You talk to me condescendingly like you’re better than me when, in truth, you sound pretty clueless and ignorant! You don't even know basic phone etiquette! What a joke! Your customer service skills suck and your company is making a big mistake putting you on their payroll. Goodbye!” Click.

Truth be told, that wasn’t exactly how I wanted my phone call to end, but I can’t say I regretted my words nor was I embarrassed of my action. I was a paying customer and I expected better customer service than the lousy one I was dealt with. I never expect people that I do business with to bend over backwards for me, but if someone doesn’t want to do their job, they can at least be pleasant about it. This incident could have been avoided if she was professional enough to be a little obliging, to listen to what I had to say first without being rude and extend to me basic common courtesy that she received from me. That’s all she had to do. Not that tough.

To say I was very disappointed is an understatement. It's sad that I had to lower myself in her level, but I felt like it was necessary. It had to be done. If she was going to be that nasty when dealing with customers, then she needed to know that not everybody’s going to take it. How pathetic that she’s in the service industry yet she didn’t understand the importance of simple basic customer service rules.

So, yeah. What happened to “Customer service, how may I help you?” and where did it go?

Next post, what happens when the perturbed customer meets the rude receptionist in person? Stay tuned.

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