This is about not just the customer service rep, but customers who call them as well, this time i take aim at you both. I think pretty much anyone who has called a service center for a problem can relate to this or any rep who has had a stupid customer.
You buy a product, 'shock' no directions but some tint sheet of paper that has 8 different languages on it all saying "if you need help with (whatever you bought) call customer service or log onto our website".
Normally most of these small companies have the worse websites in the world. You cant find anything that helps your problem. Actually you normally cant even find a phone number for support or if you click the 'support' or 'contact us' you get a mailing address or an email address. If you send an email, dont expect a reply. Now if you decide to call, alot of these places dont have 800 numbers anymore, so you have to pay. (I even had a credit card from Cross Country Bank thats so cheap you have to pay to talk to them)
When you call, you get some nice elevator music, which i think is designed to calm you, because they know you are going to be upset, and hopefully if you listen to it long enough, you will fall asleep or forget why you called and hangup. But if you decide to hang in there, and do get someone (now remember you are paying for this call) you get Abu, or someone who you have NO clue what their name is because they talk so fast, their name has 40 letters in it, and they dont speak english very well. (If at all) You try to tell them the problem, and they just tell you there is nothing they can do, they are not familiar with the product (because in 3rd world countries they dont have computers, Plasma screen TV's or pretty much anything you plug in, or that has batteries.) or they need to speak to someone else, and your on hold for 20 minutes while they take a smoke break. Then you ask to speak to someone above them, and you always get "Im the manager" or "there is no one here for you to speak to" so basicly they are in this room, with no manager, team lead, or anyone who knows anything about the products they sell. (Or that can speak a lick of PROPER english.. not this broken up trash they try to pass off as english). So you hangup more upset then when you first called, not to mention you now have a 20.00 long distance bill to pay, and a broken item no one can help you fix.
Now if you are lucky enough to get a company that has not sent all of their helpdesk jobs to another country, you probably get someone who thinks you are clueless about everything. Have they ever heard of assessing the situation. My biggest problem is with computer techs who all think just because they passed their A+ cert, they know it all, and every caller is computer illiterate. Lets take DSL/Cable for example. I have called them pretty much everytime i have had new service, mainly because the service isnt turned on, or the hardware is broken. We get to the fun part "Ok, lets go to start, run, and type..." at this point i cut them off, and say "I am a network admin, i know all about computers, just tell me what you want me to do, not how to do it" do they listen.. NO! The last time i argued with a guy for 2 hours over the cable modem being broken, when he insisted it was the PC, cable, router (i dont install any of that crappy software) or network card, because it CANT be their fault. 120 minutes on a cell phone.. just to find out, the stupid tech who installed it, gave us a modem that was fried in a thunder storm the previous week. (Dont get me started on that topic)
OK, enough about the customer service people not knowing a thing about what they are suppose to be able to fix, some of them are very knowledgable. FEW, but some. There is nothing worse than someone calling up for help, and lieing throu their teeth to get a new part or replacement because there kid broke it, or they were just to lazy to care for it correctly.
A friend on mine works for a camera company, and the people that call him up. STUPID.. One lady wanted to get a new camera because the one she had (for 100 yrs) broke, and it took 5 rolls of film to realize the camera wasnt working. (if it takes 5 rolls to know it isnt working you are just plain stupid, and dont deserve to take pictures). So he put her on hold for 30 minutes, went to a meeting and she was still waiting on hold. Of course by this time she had forgot her original story. Go back to bed Grandma! I especially loved the part when she told him she, her daughter and neice were all really sick, and some family member had died. Ok, sad.. but WE DONT CARE! and after 30 minutes of hold music, she didnt sound sick at all. Amazing what elevator music will do for you.
Years ago i did telemarketing for a mastercard company. I called this one guy up, went through the stupid crap you hear about "congrats you are qualified for a master card from (said company)" The next thing i heard out of his mouth was that i was a scam, because he works for the company (a phone company on the East coast) and they dont have master cards. Yo, Idiot like you have ANY clue about every working department in a company. Talk about a moran.
I did tech support for a cellular phone company, and the scams people would pull. "I was disconnected from my 4 hour call while i was driving threw a tunnel" Like thats our fault. But the companies do say they will credit you for any dropped calls, they dont say you have to be in open areas, or even stationary. I went into the billing system to look at his account. The guy had NEVER paid for a bill. He had a credit from us, because he called so much they credited his account for just about every call he made. Talk about a whiny little girl. Come on, you make the call, pay for it. Its jerks like that who are responcable for rates increasing.
Now if you are going to call for support on something, and you think you already know the answer (because its never your damn fault) WHY call in the first place and argue with the people on the other end. You are just wasting their time. Plus, have you ever heard the phrase you get what you pay for? Well it is true. You buy cheap.. dont expect it to be upgradable, transferrable, last for years or have any 'extras' built in, or come in the box. Your lucky you got that little sheet of paper with 8 languages on it telling you to call some long distance number to talk to Abu.