People who think that the only thing that matters is the degree of wrongdoing. You know the ones I mean--yeah, I stole some money out of your purse, but I only took some change so it's okay; yeah, I used your name on this office memo, but it's a good memo, so what do you care; yeah, I slapped my kid, but it didn't leave a mark, so it's fine.
People like that drive me round the proverbial fucking bend.
I work for a bank. I use the term 'work' loosely, but my endless supply of sick days and holidays aside, when I'm working, I answer the telephone and help people sort out their finances. This OFTEN involves sorting out complaints, because like any huge soulless corporation, we fuck up a lot, and mange to screw over perfectly nice, reasonably intelligent people so many times that they are reduced to shouting, swearing, tear-shedding imbeciles. Today, for some reason, I am reminded of a phonecall I took a couple of years back.
This was shortly after we, the customer service people, the lowliest of lowly advisors, the absolute bottom of the call-centre food-chain, were given 'empowerment limits'--i.e., instead of running every refund by our managers before agreeing it, we were told that we could refund up to a certain amount of money within our discretion. Naturally there were still rules regarding appropriate refund decisions, the primary rule being, NEVER refund unless the customer SPECIFICALLY asks you to... and if possible, find a way to decline their request anyway.
The following is the more or less accurate description of a call I took, just after being given the freedom to obey my conscience, instead of my T/L.
Random Southern Wifey: Oh, hello, sorry to trouble you; I opened a savings account a few months back, and it was done incorrectly, and I'm trying to get some money back..."
You know, I can't be arsed with this lol. I'm not getting into the entire conversation, but basically, we'd opened an account without her permission, and she'd lost some interest because of it. I don't remember the exact amount, but it was 50-odd p. Less than 60p, for sure.
And it was blatantly, obviously our error, she'd logged 3 separate complaints, been fobbed off by at least half a dozen advisors and one manager, and now, she was calling up to see if I could help her. That's what she said. Could I help her.
I logged a fourth (FOURTH) complaint for her. I referenced the other complaints in my notes on the system. I refunded her 50+p, apologised about a hundred times, and agreed, loudly and wholeheartedly, at her statement that, 'it's not so much the money, but, well, I know it's a cliche, but it's the principle of the thing.'
Too right it is. After that call, my boss came over to give me some feedback--I just looked at her. It's the only time in my entire career that *she's* backed down from *me*. Because really, people know when they're doing wrong, don't they? But they just go ahead and do it anyway.
Sometimes people make me sick.
1 comment:
I still say, seeing as how the cust service rep has the whiners name and address details, they should forward them onto the A-Team to go and wtfpwn them with some bed springs, duct tape and a piece of gum
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