Yes, our pro-consumer bias has its limits. For instance, when a customer service representative tries to help you, don’t respond by telling them to “go back to school,” or by mentioning that your fourth-grade class can “spell better.” Of the tens of thousands of tips you have sent us, this is one of the worst. Do not be this guy.
Here’s the situation: Reader Bryan ordered an item from Adorama’s Amazon store. After the item shipped, he decided to change the shipping instructions so he could pick up his package at the UPS store. Amazon’s policies kept Adorama from changing the instructions on a shipped item, so, after apologizing, Adorama gave Bryan two options: a full refund, or once the item returned undelivered, they could re-ship the item with the right instructions.
Bryan didn’t send us his original request, so we’ll start with Adorama’s response. The writing isn’t the clearest, but the content speaks for itself:
hi!
unfurtunaly this is an Amazon order and we wont be able to have you pick it up. I apologized for the inconvenience this may have caused you.
PAOLA
Adorama customer service
Brian responded:
I don’t see why it being an amazon order changes anything. It’s MY package that I paid for, and paid shipping for. UPS is not able to deliver to my location, all I want is to be able to pick up the package THAT I PAID FOR.
Make it happen, or I’m just returning all of it, and then you’ll be refunding my money.
Right off the bat you can tell Bryan is trouble. “Make it happen?” Tell that to a waitress and you’ll rightly end up with a drink down your shirt. Let’s see how Paola responds:
I apologized for the inconvenience but our contract with Amazon is like that we cant make any changes to the order or have ups hold it for you , if you are unable to be at the address you provide with your order for shipping the order will come back to us and we will give you the money back for the item.
have a nice day!!
PAOLA
Adorama customer service
Paola provided a direct explanation to Bryan’s question. Adorama’s contract with Amazon prevents them from changing the shipping address. Simple enough, but Bryan kept pushing:
Well, I guess you just lost some money. I have NEVER had any issues with getting UPS to hold a package that I have bought from Amazon.
I’m so sorry for the inconvenience maybe you place the order through Amazon and it was ship by another company. I don’t want you to feel like if we don’t appreciated your business but unfurtunaly we can not hold the pack. if the order was place directly from us we wouldn’t have this problem.
again I apologies.
PAOLA
Adorama customer service
Another fairly direct response from Paola, and a way to avoid the problem in the future. Fine.
How Bryan choose to advance his case?
Please learn proper grammar and english. It would make your messages much easier to understand.
At this point, Paola could have stopped responding. The substantive interaction was over. If we were in Paola’s place, we wouldn’t have been able to respond with anything approximating a polite response. And as we’ll see, advancing the conversation doesn’t help anyone, even if the intent is to help an unreasonable customer.
Oh thank you…. For the compliment… am just trying to give you good customer service. at least someone is paying attention to your problem.
PAOLA
Adorama customer service
See, this is what I’m talking about. Re-read your last 2 messages. They are written poorly. “unfurtunaly” is spelled “unfortunately”.
All this poor grammar and spelling lets me know is that the employees at this place are incompetent, and that I would never order anything from you again. No one is paying attention to my problem and I am NOT receiving “good customer service”. If I was receiving “good customer service”, my problem would have already been taken care of when I called yesterday. I can’t believe all this hassle is being put into this situation. All I want to do is pick up my package; this should not be an impossible task.
You fail. I will never order anything from adorama again.
Are you a teacher? All I m trying to do is help you and “unfortunately” you don’t see that you are just looking for mistakes in the grammar. I hope you have a very nice day!
PAOLA
Adorama customer service
Yes. I am a teacher. I teach 4th grade, and they spell better than you
and can complete sentences using proper punctuation. It reflects poorly on you and the company you work for. If you can’t do this, maybe this is the wrong job for you. You are doing NOTHING to help me. If you want to help me, offer to overnight me another camera with no restrictions on the package, so that I can pick it up at the UPS office. Sitting here and arguing with me does nothing to fix the problem.
Today, I will be contacting any management/owners that I can get ahold of and informing them of the awful customer service I’ve received. If you can’t solve the problem and just type gibberish to me, then you are of no use in your current place of employment.
With the respect you deserve let me explain you something. I was trying to assist you since the first time that you call , but you just say that you wanted your money back and started complaining about my grammar instead of telling me that you wanted the item expedited, is very frustrating for me as a customer service representative that is doing her best to assist you, to only get this kind of email in response like if I was one of your students . Am really sorry this is going the way is going, you are the first customer I get that is a “teacher” and act like a student.
If you want the item I will be more than happy to place a new order for you, I will need to charge you for the item again and am supposed to charge you for shipping as well because I don’t see where we mess up with your order we send it to the address that you provide Amazon for shipping. if you will like I can ask my manager as a first time courtesy to give you free shipping. And if you want fell free to contact my manager to complaint about my customer service skills her ext# is 2219 her name is Leah, I am sure she will be happy to listen to you and read our emails….thank you and have a nice day!!!!!!
PAOLA
Adorama customer service
Can we all agree this is a reasonable solution? Paola offered to resend the item, possibly even waive the shipping. And she volunteered her manager’s number and rightly suggested that any third party might find Bryan’s behavior offensive.
So how does Bryan respond to the olive branch?
Wow. I have no clue what any of that says since your sentences are all run-ons and really really long. Go back to school.
The situation deteriorates from there.
I just feel sorry for the kids you teach … You are very disrespectful, maybe my problem can be solve going back to school but in your case you will have to be born again.. Respect others is easy and make others life easier too. Here at Adorama we treat our customers with respect because that’s how they treat us. but that’s not you case. Have a good life.
PAOLA
Adorama customer service
Spend less time telling me to be ‘born again’ and more time studying an English book. Religion is just a crutch for the weak.
Sent from my BlackBerry(r) smartphone with SprintSpeed
Be happy!! Have a nice day!! “teacher”
PAOLA
Adorama customer service
I was happy today until I had to deal with you. And for some reason you decide to bring religion into this. I’m making phone calls right now, doing my best to make sure that you don’t have a job by the end of the day.
Sent from my BlackBerry(r) smartphone with SprintSpeed
Ok she is waiting for your call ext#2219 leah .. bye
PAOLA
Adorama customer service
If you were Bryan, how would you characterize this interaction when you sent it to our tipline? What one point might you seize upon to sensationalize your story?
Okay…. Here’s an awesome email exchange between an adorama.com camera customer service rep and myself. Yeah, I’m an asshole, but this ignorant woman actually suggested that I become “born again”.
All this because they put all kinds of restrictions on MY package which won’t allow me to pick up my package at the UPS office.
Enjoy!
You sure got one thing right, Bryan.
Clearly the exchange could have been handled better by everyone. The telecoms and other large companies use rigid customer service manuals to limit similar debacles. Their customer service is like Plinko: your complaint’s destiny is governed by its fall down a maddening decision tree. Bryan would have been dismissed with a simple: “We cannot accommodate your request at this time. Please be assured, your business is important to us.” We prefer companies where employees can treat us not just as consumers, but as people.
When dealing with any company, always treat customer service representatives as you would want to be treated yourself. The whole Golden Rule thing and all. Not only is it common decency, but it’s the single best way to get exactly you want.
(Photo: paolo màrgari)
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I find it hilarious that this individual would send this to the consumerist and think that we were all going to sympathize with him. Oh please!
No the customer is not always right and you don’t have a right to treat someone that way. I am glad she fought back. She should not have to put up with this sort of treatment.
Brian, please quit your job. Don’t influence the next generation in becoming self-indulgent, entitled little whiners.
High praise to the rep for keeping her patience for as long as she did and remaining polite for as long as she did (actually she was polite till the end imho).
Bry, you portray yourself as a total waste of humanity in this exchange – I hope you read ALL the comments in this post and take the advice to heart. You, unlike all other animal species, have frontal lobes that allow you to reflect on what a douche you’ve been in this interaction and taking that fact to heart, DO something positive with yourself and ‘be born again’ (NOT a religious trite phrase, not that I think it was when purportedly uttered by Jeshua either – meant exactly what everyone, atheist included, so aptly described it to be above – starting over, as if being born again, growing up all over again, and hopefully this time ‘getting it right’)
Thanks, Consumerist, for sharing this with us. In these trying days (and even more difficult days to come) humans need to be so careful to keep their humility, patience, kindness, ‘humanity’ in their L1 and L2 cache.
Cheers, one and all.
monkey
As a frequent purchaser from Adorama, I can say that their customer service is pretty top notch. I would be hard pressed to find any problems with theri customer service. I have even had them redirect a package to my home address since I could not have it delivered to my place of work. I think the CSR tried her best to accommodate his request when they could have simple said that they would not violate the terms of the contract with Amazon. Additionally, I work for a school district, and I can say have seen horrendous grammar & spelling from those that are charged with educating our children. Keep shopping Adorama, their prices & service are hard to beat.
Just my two cents
Brian with an i
I would hate to be bryan right now…that’s all I gotta say
I think the guy was just rude to the CSR. I mean, I can understand being disappointed with the way the policy works, but just because you buy something from a company, doesn’t mean you get to be an ass about it.
And Bryan, all respect, you were kind of an ass about it. The person tried to help you. Sure, their grammar/spelling sucked, but at least their messages were clear about what policy is and why they couldn’t help you. As for the “born again” crack, you got personal first. You insulted someone trying to help you and they remained mostly professional in response. So it’s really hard to be sympathetic to your cause without first pointing out your failings.
best of luck, though.
I wonder if this is the same asshat that sent in the “tip” about how he forced a customer service rep to apologize for not being able to transfer him to a supervisor without a problem description? After receiving the apology the guy said “And what are you sorry for?”, wanting the CSR to say “I’m sorry for lying to you by saying that I can’t transfer you to a supervisor without a problem description”.
It’s been several months, and that article still pisses me off.
I just don’t think that English was her first language. I think that she did a great job and I completely understood what she was saying.
Perhaps Bryan was getting some sort of PMS medicine that he clearly needed. Bryan lost site of the goal. I didn’t read all 138 comments, but if you are not where you say you will be, UPS will take your package to a depot and then they will allow you to pick it up.
Bryan does not need to be teaching fourth graders. If he is, they’re probably learning how to be a douche to people who are trying to help them. Customer service reps do have limited ability at resolution once a different company takes over. Amazon is just covering themselves by not letting people change shipping methods for addresses. Dur.
Nice Bryan, real nice.
I think that he misunderstood her comment about “born again”, it had nothing to do with religion. He told her to go back in time to fifth grade to fix her problems. She responded that going back to fifth grade wasn’t enough to solve his problems. It wasn’t education, but personality and character that was his problem, therefore he would have go back in time beyond first grade, beyond toddlerhood, beyond birth, before the womb, before conception, and be born again — as a completely different person — in order to solve his problems.
He’s probably a 13 year old who stole someone’s credit card. His transaction was approved with the credit card based on the legitimate address, trying to change it after approval is a sign of fraud.
From the look of it perhaps english may not be Paola’s native language, which is more than possible seeing as many CSRs are located in other countries, and the internet can be a global marketplace.
There was no reason for the gentleman to be rude, she told him what he wanted was not possible and made several suggestions to rectify it, to which he just replied with bullheaded ignorance. If I dont get my way Im going to make fun of you! Are you hanging out with your students too much sir? Your tactics are quite like that of a gradeschool bully!
@Emidawg: You talk fancy. I like it.
I’ve been buying cameras and gear from Adorama for years, and they have been absolutely fantastic. I’ve never spoken with Paola, but their customer service has always been above and beyond.
They even rushed an order to bail me out when B&H botched my order before I had to photograph a wedding.
Mighty Weasel says:Is it just me, or did it sound like maybe English was not this CSR’s first language?
As you may be aware, Adorama’s Head office is in New York, which has a resident and working population from diverse backgrounds. In common with many others, English is indeed not Paola’s first language.
It would not be unreasonable to suggest that Paola could – and should – have used her ‘spell-checker’. However, whilst I applaud the ‘Consumerist’ for the support given to consumers in highlighting shady business practice, I believe it was unnecessarily cruel to expose Paola’s spelling and grammatical errors in such a public forum.
Sincerely
Helen Oster
Adorama Camera Customer Service Ambassador
@HelenOster:
Seriously? Did you want them to correct her spelling or something before they posted it?
The post is an accurate word-for-word account of what happened. Your reply really makes your company look bad. You are saying that portraying your own customer service EXACTLY LIKE IT HAPPENED is cruel. Now, tell me, how is it cruel for this service to be public but acceptable for your customers?
All this being said, I saw nothing wrong with the way Paola handled things. Her English was rough but still easy to comprehend. My overall point is that you should be thanking the Consumerist for sticking up for your company instead of calling them cruel for “exposing” (your words, not mine) how your customer service is.
@HelenOster: Have you missed the hundreds of comments that are completely sympathetic to Paola’s command of the language, given it’s not her native tongue? Did you miss the fact that this was posted precisely to highlight how the customer is not only not always right, but sometimes a jerk who gets his kicks from making fun of someone who is doing her best at communicating in a language that’s not her own? I’m guessing so.
No one here cares about her grammatical errors because everyone here gets that it’s not her native language. So it is cruel, how, exactly?
@HelenOster: Umm..you do notice how good this story makes both Adorama and Paola look, don’t you?
Ack…free advertising! Exposing Paola to hundreds of compliments and kind words from strangers! Making her a small Internet celebrity for her excellent CSR skills!
It’s unnecessarily cruel!
Brian = Epic 4th Grade Fail.
What a clown.
As an English teacher, I tell people I don’t grade unless I get paid for it.
Which means I get lots of mistaken-laden mail, and I write informally a lot too.
Like right now, with two sentence fragments.
It’s awesome how many hits/comments this story has. I’m as flabbergasted as anybody at this Bryan jerk (yes, my name is Brian, but it’s not Bryan!). What the hell is wrong with him? He screwed up by giving them an invalid address, and when they couldn’t fix it, he first tried to blame them for the problem, and then when that didn’t work, he found something else to harp on. I work as a technical writer, so I do lots and lots of grammar editing. Were I editing his work, there’s be red marks all over his emails. Just a thought, Bryan, but if you’re going to criticize people for their poor grammar, you’d better have perfect grammar, otherwise you look like an idiot.
You, sir, are a first-class douche bag who has NO right to be teaching anybody, let alone 4th graders. The fact that you wrote Comsumerist thinking this was justified is just beyond me. Pull your head out of your ass and start treating others with some respect.
@BrianDaBrain: as I make one of my own. AWESOME!!!
if that’s the kind of customer service they have at Adorama, i’m buying my next camera from them.
Paola, if you read the consumerist YOU ROCK
I know that “brusque” doesn’t even begin to describe myself, but fer cryin’ out loud….
That guy may be the worst for attitude, but the worst ethics may have been a few months ago when a man stole a case of soda and claimed he was falsely accused. That guy was a moron.
Aww, But we’re all pro Paola, we think she did a great job, above and beyond. I can’t really speak for the Consumerist, but I don’t think anyone meant to embarrass Paola, it was just that the way “Bryan” treated her was so reprehensible…
It seems the concern is the people who are saying she should have spell checked, well those people can take those opinions and “please respectfully stick it up [their] tightly wound asshole[s].” as Kaylabear so eloquently put it.
FURTHER! I SUBMIT! That in Paola’s first response
hi!
unfurtunaly this is an Amazon order and we wont be able to have you pick it up. I apologized for the inconvenience this may have caused you.
This apologized – past tense – is further evidence that the exchange between the two had been going back and forth for more than even Bryan admits…
Carey wrote:
Bryan didn’t send us his original request, so we’ll start with Adorama’s response.
Well, it seems obvious that Bryan left out his original request, along with at LEAST one previous response from Paola. Otherwise, are we actually supposed to believe that she misspelled “apologizeD” in the past tense? Seems FAR more likely that Bryan had been haranguing her for a little while already. It’s already been established that he is an asshole.
And really, anyone with any sense can see that Paola’s first few responses were hurried, and that she was flustered by the jackass Bryan. I wouldn’t have spellchecked either, because I would be more concerned about not making the angry customer wait for responses. I mean heck, maybe some of those “unforwarded exchanges” would show Bryan complaining that she was taking to long in her answers.
Her grammar seems outstanding, amazing, phenomenal if you ask me. Clearly, she had an unfortunate problem with one particular word, and I’m sure she’ll be spelling it correctly from here on out. It seems fitting that the word “unfortunate” will now forever remind Paola of Bryan. I’m pretty sure that’s not good karma.
Most of the other errors seem like minor typos or parts where the sentences are sent mid-edit… like this one…
if the order was place directly from us we wouldn’t have this problem.
again I apologies.
To me that looks like it’s mid-edit, as if she were in the process of rephrasing it… again I apologies … could have been “All I can offer are my apologies” and then she goes to change it, accidentally hits enter or send and *poof* it’s sent unfinished.
whew…. what a long pointless post I just wrote. Fuck it, I’m hitting submit anyway
It is people like Bryan who make me lose faith in humanity. I thought she did a fantastic job given the circumstances, having to deal with such a disrespectful person. English is one of the hardest languages to learn, and I applaud her for making it this far. I am sure Bryan can speak multiple languages and pass for a native without question!
If you are unable to comprehend what she was trying to get across, maybe it is you who needs to go back and hit the books.
$10 english isn’t her first language and he would be butchering portugese. (just a guess from the name)
what a prick.
more and more american companies are hiring people who speak spanish as a primary language due to the influx of spanish/non english speaking immigrants. sometimes they get stuck dealing with english speakers and just have to try and do their best. when this happens if you have trouble understanding the csr you should unlike bryan send a polite response saying “hey i am sorry and not trying to be rude. but i am having trouble understanding you and was just wondering if there is somebody there who can help me whose english is a little better. i don’t mean it insultingly and really appreciate all the help you’ve given me. thanks.” and usually you get somebody who speaks the language better helping you out. from what i read bryan is a huge tool with a chip on his shoulder and i feel bad for his students. i am not so bold as to suggest he needs to be become born again but i do suggest he go back to grade school himself and get some lessons on manners. now what do you tell the strange man on the internet for the good advice bryan…..
the answer is “thanks!!!!”
Brian has obvious comprehension issues. The fact that he misunderstood her comment about “being born again” attests to that. Not only that, it IS obvious that english is her second language and that her native language is probably Spanish. I would like to see Brian’s attempt at moving from his native country to somewhere in Latin America or otherwise and making an attempt at learning the intricacies of a language. This woman has at least twice the vocabulary as him, a greater sense of humanity and obviously somewhat of a good attitude also. The opposite obviously can’t be said for her American customer. I’m glad I don’t have kids that he could be teaching.
Bryan, you are a total douche. I certainly would not want such an arrogant, condescending asswipe teaching anything to any of my (future) children. To mock the grammar and spelling of someone who was trying to help you is just plain juvenile. You do need to be born again and maybe this time around they’ll get all the genetic ingredients right while your baking in the oven.
Way to go jackass!
And we were wondering why some CSRs are hostile to their customers! You’re a disgrace to the teaching profession!
Besides the daily deals, this is the first time the consumerist has encouraged me to buy from a company
Can I get first-time courtesy free shipping if I’m nice to the customer service?
Why give free shipping to a dick like that! Give it to me instead! I’m a nice person! :3
Incredible, this post currently has over 270 comments… She definitely lost some of her professional veneer by directly responding to Bryan’s insults, but at the same time showed she was human. That’s what some customers, and some of our readers, forget sometimes. At the other end of the line is a real person just like ourselves. Start of treating them like one, and, more than it’s just nice to be nice, you’ll get better customer service. Bryan is a jerk, Paola deserves a raise.
@Ben Popken: Ben, this was a great post by Carey (too bad it’s his last day). Can we see more of these? Huh, please, huh huh please please?
I worked in IT in public schools for 7 years. That is a (not “THE,” but definitely “A”) common elementary school male teacher persona, I have to say. “Bryan” sounds like a half-dozen that I’ve dealt with.
I don’t think the “born again” referenced religion, I took it to mean that he was ruined for this life and the only way for him to be a decent human being was for him to be literally born a second time as a baby. Which is impossible.
I agree with the rep. He’s a lost cause.
Does Bryan know that ending punctuation goes inside the quotation marks? Because, you know, with his excellent grammar he should know its “born again.” and not “born again”.
@Little Wooden Boy: Zing!
My only comment on the poor spelling/grammar is this…
if a company takes as much pride in their customer service as Adorama clearly does to have a representative responding to this post, perhaps they should consider that emails with misspelled words and lack of appropriate capitalization do not present a very professional impression.
I could care less about the verb tenses, it is obvious the rep’s first language is not English, but I did find the lack of appropriate capitalization and blatantly misspelled words. It is not hard to verify that a word is spelled correctly and the sentences properly formatted before sending off a reply as a representative of your employer.
Typo: “I did find the lack of appropriate capitalization and blatantly misspelled words to be a little irritating.”
It sounds like English might not be the CSR’s first language. I have plenty of friends and business contacts online in Asia, and the ones who haven’t studied English for too long often sound like that. Given how insane the English language is, I certainly don’t fault them for an imperfect command of it.
Now, our high schoolers who have lived in this country all of their lives and should be proficient in English who sound like this… yeah, then it’s kind of sad. But, it’s still not a reason to berate them so unkindly. Some people I went to school with were clearly not exposed to reading and writing skills early enough and thus nothing stuck and at the age of 30 they still sound like a 4th grader. It happens.
You can still understand the message they are trying to convey, even if it is poorly executed, the point was clearly made. What a dick. This sounds like one of those people who would complain if you gave them a $100 bill about how it’s not green enough, or it’s got a small cut in it, etc.
… wow.
1) I hope Bryan loses his job. He’s not much of a teacher if he acts that way.
2) Paola was GREAT at being a customer service rep. It’s people like Bryan that turns them into apathetic assholes.
Yeah, this guy is a jerk. But Adorama sucks. It took them 2 weeks to get an order to me, which they had in stock. I LIVE ON LONG ISLAND, about 45 minutes away from the Adorama store. Never have this issue with B&H, they get me ground shipped orders usually the day after.
Having done my time on the end of the phone where every call is from someone with a problem that YOU have to solve, I can’t recommend the experience strongly enough for everyone.
Yes, you have to deal with jerks like Bryan, and worse. But you get invaluable experience in how to get by in life.
I am not a patient person. I’ve had my share of infuriating exchanges with poor customer service from crappy companies (WaMu, I’m looking at you). But at least I know that beating up on GOOD CSRs is not the way to get what you want.
wow…and this man is teaching 4th grade. That speaks volumes about our country’s schools.
@bcsus83: He sure reminds me of my fourth grade teachers! He also reminds me of my late grandmother, a third and fourth grade teacher, who would call me long distance to correct any grammatical errors I made in my thank-you notes to her. Lovely personality type, that one.
I’m sure Bryan is reading our comments now. Rather than taking into consideration what anyone has to say, he is just nit-picking our comments for grammatical errors and basing his opinions of us as people based solely on that.
The CSR went a little out of bounds after a while, but she never deserved that treatment in the first place.
I think this asshat should be in the next running for the golden pile of shit. only if he wins we ship him some shit that has been spray painted gold.
No one has stated the obvious.
Paola is not a native speaker of English. In most likelihood she is not even doing her job within the United States.
Her English usage patterns lead me to believe she is Chinese.
She is most likely an employee of a Help center tasked with answering email from various different companies. That help center is probably located in China.
Also judging by her measured and polite responses to Bryan’s rude and obnoxious missives, she is doing a better job of dealing with him than an American would have.
An American customer service rep tasked with taking care of his complaint would most likely have told him to “Fuck off” after such repeated abuse.
Having taught English to many Chinese Help Center workers located in the PRC who answer Emails from customers around the World, I would say that Paola’s English is good enough to get the job done.
I have read many emails from customers in the US sent to one such center in China. The English writing of most Americans and Brits is appalling. Paola’s is good enough for the job she has to do.
The problem lies with Bryan. He has a big attitude problem. Despite his criticism of Paola’s English ability, his is not as great as he thinks it is.
Perhaps that’s why he teaches fourth Graders and not higher grades.
Oh, and knowing Chinese Companies, if Paola is indeed working at one, she doesn’t need to fear any fallout from Bryan’s threats of contacting management and complaining about poor customer service. She’ll keep her job, because, the owners of the help center in China really don’t care what one complaining American Customer has to say about their workers.
And Bryan’s remark that she should “Go back to school” was just ridiculous. Obviously the one who should go back to school
is Bryan. He has a lot to learn about how business works these days. He actually thinks he’s corresponding with an American worker.
Paola probably has more degrees than Bryan does.
You’d think this guy would know the drill by now. Call UPS and have them hold the package at the local crossdock – or wait for attempted delivery and get it there the next day. A self-aware asshole. As a CSR, when I come across one of these “special” individuals, I lay it all out. I put my job on the line when it happens, but when someone gets immature and irrational, well-versed and direct honesty is a real eye-opener. “What exactly are you trying to accomplish by insulting me?” is one of my favorites.
This is terribly, especially knowing how helpful Amazon’s customer service can be. Last year, I bought a $250 GPS unit as a Christmas gift. Long story short, the mailman left it in front of my door (I live in an apartment) and it got stolen. I told Amazon and they shipped me a replacement, no questions asked. Actually, since I called about the issue and e-mailed them, a couple of wires got crossed and they actually sent me a replacement AND refunded my money. I, of course, let them know and they re-charged me.
Anyhow, CSRs can be incredibly helpful, if you let them. The less respectful you are, the less willing they’ll be to help. No one should treat anybody else like the OP treated this rep, it’s deplorable.
I’d like to see Brian respond to why he acted the way he did.
Did she have poor grammar? Sure. But her sincere attempt to deal with his issue more than made up for it. What special kind of ass clown goes off like that on someone who is trying very hard to help him despite his incredibly bad behavior? Part of what made this guy so mad was that despite his best attempts, she remained polite and focused on trying to solve his customer service issues.
I would just ban him as a customer.
At the company I work for, our customer service policy is that once the conversation devolves like this, we politely tell the customer that we’re closing the ticket until they decide to cooperate and help us solve their problem. This sort of exchange is a waste of time, which is money in the customer service business.
as much as i hate getting poorly-written email replies to my queries, i’m surprised that the first response was actually a human, and not “please read our FAQ regarding our shipping policies” – point Adorama. Insulting a CSR? bad. negative point for Brian. Continuing to attempt to solve the problem after Brian’s tirade? point Adorama. but they lost that point when the CSR started insulting the consumer.
@Gstein: So, net, Adorama: 1, Bryan: Zip
@TVarmy: Er, -1 for Bryan :-
I never really have a problem with bad customer service…. I seem to get really good results when I start off with honesty about my attitude. I’ll tell the person answering my call what my frame of mind is right away, so they can be prepared… as in..
“Hi, I’m really frustrated today, there is a problem with my whatsis, and it’s driving me crazy. I’m really hoping you can help me out, or if you can’t that you’ll help me get a hold of the department or person who can…”
Of course, tone of voice matters a lot, so I be sure to have a “pleading” tone, and not an angry tone. I figure starting off like that lets the CS rep know how I’m feeling right away, so they don’t feel ambushed if halfway into the call I start getting upset. It also lets them know that I’m already aware that they (the CSR) might NOT be able to actually solve my problem, and that “escalation” might be needed. Basically, they already know to treat me gently because I’m already a bit frazzled.
More important though, is that 99.99% of the time starting off like that gets the CS rep on my side right away. They take a bit of pity on me, and they want to help me even more…
that’s kinda funny bryan sent this in expecting people to side with him. LOL
bryan is an asshat.
STOP! Enough said.
This guy reminds me of my mother in law. She would totally do something like that and be proud of it. I’m so glad my wife didn’t turn out like that.
On a side note, I get along and like everybody. But if this Bryan guy ended up dead, I wouldn’t be sad about it. He deserves to no longer be a citizen of this planet. Yeah that is harsh, but he obviously is not contributing to the world, and he is ruining poor 4th grade kids’ lives in the process.
The people who are expressing major anger at this guy are using the same behavior he used on the CSR. Funny thing human nature.
@3drage: No they’re not.
@3drage: It’s warranted here. We’re chastising him for being a jerk and expecting us to like him for it. He was giving a CSR a very hard time for an issue outside of her control.
@3drage: Bryan, is that you?
He already called himself an asshole, guys. Maybe he just needed to hear it in stereo…
Adorama… I’m going to have to check them out! I like this Paola… spunky kid!
@Maglet: The problem is he said that in a “Ha ha, I’m such a bitch” sorta way. What he needs is more of a “You’re such a bitch!”
Its different…. its different….