I guess mine is what is the most Outrageous thing a custommer has said to me.
I arrived on a call for an OKI Fax, the call descriptions was “Faint Blurry Prints”. On arrival I asked for the person who place the call. “do you have a sample fro me ?” I asked. And she produced a sample.
Upon looking at the sample print I said “ This looks like a dirty print head, it’s a simple solution thanks for keeping a sample for me.” She replied I have already cleaned the print head and it made no difference”. So I asked her “Oh ok could you show me what it is you did?” She then opened the cover removed the drum assy and wiped off the drum. I replied “ I’m sorry that is not the print head”, I pointed to the print head attached to the open cover and wiped it with a tissue. Then closed the cover and showed her the nice clear print. I told her I would give the unit a general cleaning and all should be good.
After completing the call getting the work order signed. As I was sitting in my Van talking to my dispatcher about my next call. A gentleman knocked on my window. I rolled down the window and he asked if I would come back in. I followed him to an office where he slammed the door and laid into me with every vulgarity you can imagine. The long and short of it was “I have a contract, when I call, you come fix it, and don’t talk to my employees, you are never to tell my employees what they should do, you are a lousy tech.” I told him “ I was only doing my job, and instructing her how to clean the print head could reduce future down time.” He started in on me again, and I just got up and walked out.
I told my boss the situation and asked him to call the customer and tell him he could not treat the techs in this manor. What happened with that is he refused and I refused to ever service that customer again.
The next time and the only time a customer ever laid into me again. I simply looked the customer in the eye and said “Insulting me or my company will not resolve your problem any faster, please give me some time to evaluate this issue, I’m sure it can be resolved, and I will give you a full report when I have completed my task.”
The point is be polite, meet confrontation head on, and don’t take shit! Yes they are the customer. But the customer is not always right.
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