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I work as a CSR for my national courier company. I get non-stop calls, one after another, and I serve mostly an area where I get really antsy customers. For just about half of them, if I don’t say anything for a few seconds, even if I say, “hang on”, they’ll say, “are you still there?”, “hello???, or even “HELLO???!!!?!”, each being different first resorts, which really exhausts and frustrates me because I hear it so much and because I’m trying to focus but also listen to anything they have to tell me that’s, you know, useful. But that’s not even the reason I’m done being so polite that I’m merely walking on eggshells with clients.
Because I’m getting so much calls—one after another—and dealing with such bad-tripping people all the time, when clients call, a good portion of the time, I’m not even listening. I mean, I try, but I zone out. So then, when I get clients that really are angry, because I’m polite, but due to exhaustion, really have to think about maintaining that politeness without snapping at them when they ask me the same thing 6 times in a call and don’t want to leave, I get bullied around because since I’m pausing, trying to figure out how to answer them, I don’t seem confident. Also some people are just really shocking in how they talk to customer service workers and think they absolutely rule the world—this client that I had on Friday in particular.
So, I open a service ticket on her key & lock not working. The file was closed. She called for an update. It was about a lock. Now, this lock in question, a fact that I later found out, was not her mail or letterbox lock—it was a mail carrier lock for a condominium. There’s a difference between the two: the former is our property, the latter isn’t. Basically, she was asking for a refund since we charged her three times for the new lock. She had to call a locksmith three times, since the first two locks we gave them didn’t work, hence her being charged three times. What would you do in her place? “Hi, I was just wondering, because I purchased three locks from you guys, if I could get the first two refunded? I have a file opened. Do you need the number? _[Gives number]._ Thank you.” No, this client is too good for that. Yes, our wait time was long, but even her attitude didn’t justify that. What she did was state her issue, albeit in an antsy way, but only like she wanted to get it over with. But it got worse as the call went on. She told me I wasn’t understanding her at least three times before she finally allows me to get on with the problem, and I put her on hold, having asked her permission of course.
After a few minutes of back and forth with my supervisors about me asking if her case is refundable, I had to let her know the answer my supervisors provided me with: since it’s not her property but ours, it’s not refundable and that she shouldn’t have called a locksmith. But that was when I mistook her case for a mail/letterbox lock case and not a mail carrier lock case like it was. By the time I’d figured it out, she had already made me fume internally, so I really had zero interest to fetch a process for it. Before I figured out her case, I had told her she was misinformed, that mail locks are our property and not to be touched by anyone else. She was insisting her lock was to be installed by the client after buying it at one of our post offices. It sort of made sense, since that lock is for the condominium, which is not our property.
Before I’d figured out what she wanted, I had told her multiple times that mail/letterbox locks were not refundable, but she wasn’t leaving. And she REALLY wasn’t leaving. She would go, “you’re not understanding me. I was told by [a supervisor somewhere] that I can make a claim here. Let’s stop talking. Let’s go. Let’s get on with this claim, come on,” and, “you don’t decide whether you make a claim.” Who do you think decides that; the 127th piece of candy that went in your basket the last time you went trick-or-treating? The 5th ever pencil you’ve used? Your insight on my job is interesting, ma’am. Meanwhile, I’m so polite I didn’t even argue that. I let her power-trip the way she wanted to.
I asked exactly what claim she wanted to make since I had already told her that the lock I thought she was inquiring about wasn’t refundable. She would laugh, at one point saying, “it’s not you, I’m sorry. It’s just I’ve told you six times already that I wanted a refund.” When I’d answer that I can’t, she’d interrupt and say the same thing, “let’s stop talking. Let’s go. Let’s do the claim.” “You don’t decide of you make the claim.” When I would ask anything to get more information about her inquiry, she would laugh, including a few times when I’d ask her about this supervisor who referred her to us, since she was mentioning a name I didn’t recognize in my team, she’d laugh and go, “seriously? Oh, my G…” and would freak out that I didn’t know the name she was mentioning without telling me exactly who she was. “She’s a supervisor!” “A supervisor where?” She laughed even harder. “Oh, my G… You guys… At Canada Post!!” “Ok, but is she a customer service worker or is she a supervisor at the post office?” She interrupts me to laugh again. “Because, ma’am, I don’t have a _[name]_ in my team.” She laughs again, “just get on with the claim. Come on; we’re wasting time!” Same cycle over again.
After I’d figured out which type of lock (mail carrier) she was inquiring about, I’d decided I’d basically re-open and update the file. I asked to put her on hold again to ask my supervisors if this type of lock was really refundable, but she refused permission, saying, “I’ve been on hold for an hour (also referring to the wait time). Can we get on with this claim?” Now, I really didn’t know what to do. I paused to think about a solution and after her nags which didn’t really affect my ultimate decision, I’d decided I’d write in the notes of the file that she wants a refund, which is basically nothing, except it will get forwarded to claims, which is what she wanted since she anted me to transfer to them at the beginning, but they don’t take calls. We only forward files to them. I did convince her, though, that it was going to be effective, so I guess I still have the last laugh? That last part is actually not a reference to her laughing, but I’m so keeping it there, since it works so well.
I should have not updated the claim, though, and just let her go (unintentional rhyme).
I also got a client who told me he was filing a complaint against me, since he passed the 3-day period to make a claim for an item scanned delivered but not received—a policy that literally other national couriers have—and his complaint was that I refused to help him. I took it like nothing happened. I even told him, “I’m just doing my job.” To which he answered “the complaint will decide if you’re doing your job or not”. Same area that tends to bully us around.
I’m a nice guy, but I think I’m going to be real now. If big mouths say stupid stuff to me, I think I’m going to stop taking it and tell them that I’ll hang up on them—or just end the call right away. Why should I warn them when there are people with serious issues who would appreciate our help, who have their packages stolen or who have their mailbox damaged or their neighbour hood mailbox robbed. I get people on the line who are even wholesome, but they aren’t as common, though those people, I’d make extra effort for all day.
So, yeah, I just thought I’d leave this here. Thank you for reading my rant
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