While cell phone manners are practically nonexistent (And I'm not saying that Natassia was rude, but the employee may have seen it thusly), there are ways for a customer service person to diffuse this sort of thing without attacking or battling with the customer.Quote:
like a poster said before, they (the employee) may have disregarded her because she was yapping on her phone...
A simple "Oh! Excuse me. I saw that you were on the phone and didn't want to interrupt your conversation. How may I help you?" would have turned this entire misadventure in another direction.
I can't begin to count the number of times I wanted to poke a customer in the eye (Three Stooges style) when I was in service related jobs. And, truth be told, I have had occasion where I became the venom-spewing customer from hell myself. To their credit, the poor souls that encountered that part of me (Invariably not caused by them but by the action/inactions/policies of their employers), were generally patient, apologetic for my problems with their company, and at least tried to assist me in what ways they could.
It has been said that "The customer may not always be right, but they do get an inordinate amount of slack". Having been on both sides of the battle lines, I wholeheartedly believe in this.
Natassia, should you want to take this matter further, if not for the greater good than for your own personal satisfaction that right has been done, then I recommend a 'strongly worded letter' rather than a call. In a phone call it is far too easy for your emotions to click in and ramp up. An indignant, but polite complaint is far more likely to get positive attention than the ravings of another one of '=those=' customers.
With a letter (Not an e-mail, but one of those classy, old-fashioned things with a...whatayacallem?...STAMP on the outside - Bonus points if you use one of the Breast Cancer semipostals to show that you give some thought to your mail and that this isn't one of a brazillian other rants that get posted each day) you have the opportunity to tell your tale clearly as well as a shot at some rewrites before it goes out, to tone down any eye-poking that you may feel in the process. Phone calls get put on HOLD or get lost in the ARU system too easily, hardcopy letters of complaint (Especially if cc:ed to the local Better Business Bureau and/or one of the groups/agencies mentioned above) are hard to ignore or pass off.
To an earlier mention of recorded phone conversations: If I recall correctly, the Federal law stated that as long as one party of the conversation was aware of the recording process it was legal. Hmm...Would that 'one party' be the one doing the recording? This may have changed since the passage of the Paranoia Act...Oops, my bad: The Patriot Act. Note also that most customer service phone centers have that little bit about "This call may be recorded for quality control purposes", so it is just as likely that the call is already recorded somewhere and can come back to bite you in the ass if you utter words/phrases like lameasscocksuckingmotherfucker (As I have done on more than one occasion). Hence my advice about a hardcopy letter rather than a call. You can even have the letter reviewed by legal counsel to be sure you are stating your case without shedding your rights.
Good luck, play fair, and really, find someplace better to shop.
