Are we becoming anti-social and anti-consumer?

[celabinc]

I had the need to deal with customer support of 3 different companies, over the past couple of days. Two of them were by phone and one was in person (I won't mention company names out of principle). All three experiences were time-consuming, frustrating and fruitless! I swear that the two people I talked to on the phone had no idea about the product we were discussing, had no common sense, and probably had to google every answer before they tried to answer my question. And, I am talking about basic functionality of the product here. I mentioned it to my friend and he said, well at least they were pleasant. No, they weren't even that. They were horrible, monotone voice, placed me on hold for a few minutes every time I asked a simple question (as I said, they probably had to google the answer), I could tell they were using scripted language, just horrible.

The best one, however, was the one where I had to deal with them in person, in the store. They seemed as if I was bothering them with my presence there. They were abrupt, ignorant and when it turned out that their product (only 2 months old) broke down because it was faulty, they offered to replace it with a brand new one at half-price. Are you serious? "Well, this is company policy" is the only response he would repeat at my trying to explain that it really was a faulty product and they needed to replace it for free.

Man, I long for the days that I would walk into sears & roebuck with a 2-yr old broken craftsman tool, and they would look at it, hand me a new one, without a question asked, and thank me for being their customer. That's when people and companies stood behind their work!

[artmart]

You answered your own question celabinc.... We are still supposed to be a democratic capitalistic society, but we often run into the apathetic dummy who is NOT the capitalist but a selfish someone who doesn't care about their purpose (or yours) and were hired by a capitalist who is away on perpetual vacation because you already bought their product and they are off enjoying your money. I remember when Sears was that good and they are no longer as good because they spent too much time and money on us who already paid for the product, but they tried to help us afterwards, too (and there's a cost to that). It's not about being nice, it's about making money.

[celabinc]

I am all for making money, Art. But the current approach is short-sighted, I think. Because you'll take my money today, but that will be the last time you do, because next time I am going somewhere else. Look, I know that we, the users, can sometimes be totally unreasonable in our expectations, but for the most part, if customers are treated "fair" they'll keep going back to the vendor/store. I think the concept is really simple, isn't it? I believe that as a society, we have to stop, take a step back and ponder where this is all taking us.

[artmart]

Investors of today want their money now. If they wanted long term relationships they'd wait for their money but investors don't do that. Since the lowly person on the bottom don't care, aren't big investors, that's who you deal with. There are many others who will take your place as you move to the next company and the cycle goes round and round. It's the impatience and selfishness that will kill this country.

[celabinc]

I think you are right. Sometimes I also think that we were impatient, once, and we are just getting old so we are mellowing out and can't deal with the impatience of the younger ones - I don't know. But, I do know that dealing with customer/service support nowadays is a lot more frustrating than it used to be. Thanks for letting me vent.

[artmart]

I have a T-shirt that reads, "Those us who think they know everything annoy those of us who do". I meet these possibly younger know-it-alls all the time and I enjoy proving how little they know all the time. When you do it with kindness, understanding and experience all the time, they can't get too mad, or I'll try and teach them that they are actually mad at their ignorance. Sometimes it can take a while, but it works.

[NoPatience]

We all share some responsibility in all that, as well, because we've come to expect and feel entitled to things. For example, taking your Sears experience, years ago, I remember similar experiences and agree with you 100%. However, nowadays, many of us want the quality and technical support and life time guarantee of Sears at the basement bargain prices of Walmart (I am not picking on these two brands, just using them as an example). Well, that's not possible. So what happens, the customer irate because they have a problem go to tech/customer support and let the person who is probably making slightly above minimum wage and may be trying to help them (to the best of his abilities and the guidelines of the company), feel their anger. As I've posted before, I am not impartial in all this, because I spent many years dealing with it, but seriously, for ever support person that wouldn't give the customer the time of day and doesn't care, there are two customers that go to ask for help and start by screaming and yelling at the one person who just might be able to help them.

[xavier]

No patience, I think that this is such a tricky topic that everyone is right. However, I think that he who pays the bills is owed the respect and the bills are paid by the customers, so... I know that this is cliche, but the customer is always right, though you are right there are some customers that can be jerks

[NoPatience]

No, I don't think that the customer is always right, just because he pays the bills, as you say. Customer should be treated with the respect that every person is warranted, as long as he also behaves the same way. But, the customer should be told when they are wrong and they should be treated accordingly when they are abusive. The most important thing, is customers should not act bratty and entitled. Anyway, I could go on and on, but this is not a forum for this sort of discussion. We'll go back to RVing

[artmart]

Actually, we are in the miscellaneous topic and can rant all we want as long as it's civil.

The slogan businesses follow is "The customer is always right", but in my days managing support we had a corollary that we added, "but they aren't always smart". Because of this I am probably a better customer than most so when I ask for help I know what I'm talking about. Then I get frustrated when I'm treated like an idiot and eventually prove to them I know more than they ever will. Keeping calm and patient is critical, but woe to the person who tries to patronize me, is dishonest (and I'll spend the time to prove it), or is incorrect (no problem proving that either). I especially like the phrase, "I have forgotten more information than you'll ever know in the first place"... ZING!

Even in this forum, I believe I have been patient, to provide enough information and opinion on how things are with respect, calm and good information. I don't necessarily agree that you should treat someone the same way they treat you. The best interaction is that you try and treat a person BETTER than they treat you no matter what.