Bob Ryan's "rant" is a telling commentary on the decline of civility and
"customer service" in today's world. In the past we were told that "the
customer is always right." Now however, it has become "the customer exists
for the convenience of the company." Politeness is the exception rather than
the norm. Telemarketers feel free to be rude and berate those they are
calling, and no one takes responsibility.
Just yesterday, a telemarketer called me to offer me a credit card. I told
him that I was not interested, thank you. He then started to say "what about.
. . . " I told him was was not interested, thank you. He kept on talking, so
I repeated that I was not interested, thank you. At that point, the
telemarketer asked me "Is there something wrong with you? You keep repeating
yourself!" Naturally I just hung up.
Of course, a column in yesterday's paper (I can't remember who the columnist
was) discussed the fact that civility based on class or rank divisions is bad
and shouldn't be brought back. However, we need to remind people from time to
time that WE are the ones who give companies their money. WE are the ones who
decide whether to buy or not to buy. WE are the ones who can make or break a
business. WE are the ones who deserve respect.
--Bryan M. Carson
> "Robert S. Ryan" wrote:
>
> ...I'd send this to your e-mail address if I could find it, but the link on
> for Lexis Publishing on Bender sends you to Lexis-Nexis, not Lexis Pub. I'm
> guessing you monitor this list, like most publishers. Anyway, here's my
> complaint:
>
> I call Customer Service a little before 4:00 L.A. time. The call goes
> through, someone picks up, because I can hear conversation, then I'm
> disconnected. (Inadvertently?) I call again, I get a recording saying all
> agents are busy, please hold. I hold. Two minutes later, I'm disconnected
> again. I call again. This time, not even a recording, just an empty line. I
> call again, recorded message, I hold 10 minutes, no reply. I call again -
> silent line. I call again several more times with similar results - FINALLY
> someone answers. I ask him if there is a problem with the phones and explain
> what happened. He says he's aware of no problem. I tell him he should check
> it, because it's very annoying to spend twenty minutes trying to get
> through. He tells me he has more important things to do than check the
> phones...no apology, no sympathetic noises, just "Hey, it ain't my job"...at
> this point, I began to get just a bit testy. I ask to speak to his manager.
> He says there is none. I ask for his name. He refuses to give it because he
> doesn't like my attitude. We go around for several more rounds and I finally
> tell him I'll call a manager tomorrow to tell them that they shouldn't hire
> an EXPLETIVE DELETED like himself for Customer Service. (I know I shouldn't
> lose my temper - it's unprofessional, but since professionalism is a concept
> this individual was clearly unfamiliar with, I feel less guilty.)
>
> At any rate, I would appreciate a call from someone both rational and in
> charge to explain to me why I have to deal with bad manners as well as bad
> service, neither of which I've encountered from Lexis Pub previously.
>
> Bob Ryan
>
> Hill, Farrer & Burrill
> Los Angeles
> 213-620-0460, x1848
Original material copyright 2000 Bryan M. Carson
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Nov 14 2007 - 20:33:35 PST