Searching for examples of outrageous customers
Jeff Toister
Would you like to be in a book?
I'm searching for examples of outrageous customer behavior for my forthcoming book, The Unnatural Act of Customer Service. (Check out the whitepaper to get a preview.)
Are you a current or former customer service employee? If you worked as a frontline customer service employee, I want to hear from you.
Please post a comment to this blog to submit your story for consideration. Here's what I'd like to know:
1) First name
2) Your job (server, sales associate, etc.)
3) Type of company (restaurant, hotel, call center, etc.)
4) Short story about an outrageous customer's behavior
A few expectations:
If I publish your story it will be first name only to keep it anonymous. I won't be able to include everyone's stories in my book and some may need to be edited for length and clarity. I'll be sure to email you a draft with any edits before putting it in the book.
If your story does make it into the book I'll also send you a free copy.
Reader Comments (6)
When I was in college I worked in customer service for a regional long distance telephone service provider. This was in the early 90's and people had only recently started getting the opportunity to use other companies besides the Bell companies. I worked the evening and weekend shifts so most of my calls were from residential customers but occasionally a business person would call. One Sunday afternoon a very angry man called. He started off telling me his 1-800 number wasn't working and then went off on a string of other issues he had. Since the first issues he mentioned was the 1-800 number I assumed that was what he wanted fixed first. When I started trying to ask him questions about it (What is your 1-800# so I can look up your account? What is it doing--not ringing, giving an error message, etc?) he went off on me; told me I was stupid, needed to find another job because I obviously didn't know how to do my job, etc. He wouldn't give me any of the information I needed to help him--just told me to figure it out. I tried repeatedly to tell him that I needed some basic level of information to help him but he apparently wanted me to be a mind reader. In the end, he said "I don't care about my 1-800#, I'm mad that my calling card doesn't work." The calling card was barely mentioned in his original tirade but that was the one thing he wanted from the call...well, that and to berate a total stranger!
This is a terrific example, Marjorie! Thanks for posting the story.
When I was a Front Desk Agent at my first hotel, I had a guest pull up on a Harley Davidson. I'm a fan of bikes so I gave him a room on the ground floor with a sliding glass door out to the parking lot so he could keep an eye on the bike. Well, he pulled the bike INTO the room and performed an oil change. When I asked him what the hell he was thinking, his reasoning was that the Raiders game was on, and if he did the oil change outside he would miss the game.
When I was an Assistant Manager at a hotel in Phoenix, a guest that was sitting at the lobby bar pulled out a bag of cocaine and started chopping lines right on the bar. He was astonished that I had the nerve to throw him out.
Ok, one more, but I'll leave the hotels out of it. I was working security at a 21 and up club, and a lady tried to get in using her scuba certification. When I denied her entry she began screaming and calling me a nazi. Good times were had by all:)
Hope these help Jeff!
Awesome examples, Paul. Thank you!
Better late than never?
When I was a front desk clerk at Bally's Resort in Las Vegas, I was checking in an older gentleman. As I handed him his room key, he asked me what time it was in Las Vegas. I told him the time (6:05 p.m.). He told me that he didn't want the time in Los Angeles, but in Las Vegas. My response was that LA and Las Vegas are in the same time zone and it was, indeed 6:05 p.m. He informed me that my watch was set to LA time because that's where I, and all the other hotel employees, and I should set it to Las Vegas time when I commute in. After 10 minutes of going around and around with him about the time, I finally realized it was a no-win situation. I looked at my watch, which said 6:15, and said, "I am so sorry. You're right, I never adjusted my watch when I got to work today. It's actually 6:18." He accepted that, thanked me, and went up to his room. I knew that the extra 3 minutes I added in wouldn't make him too early or too late for anything, including his flight home.
Ha! Great story, Rama. Why do I get the feeling that anyone who has worked in hotels has seen it all?