Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Customers are idiots!

What do you make of a customer care agent that tells you (perhaps, not directly) that you have no common sense? Do you think he deserves his job?

I think not. Got the short shrift from a call centre guy at Fabmall, Indiaplaza while clarifying a point on the clearance of my cheque for a fairly hefty amount. The man speaking to me on the phone was trying to communicate, but failing. He deferred to his boss, and that's where the trouble began: The dolt made that disparaging remark about my intelligence, told his colleague who was trying to give me an answer that he should not bother answering me and then refused to come on line. His colleagues did a fine job of 'protecting' him, but I hope no other customer chances upon this monster.

Surely, if you are paying, at least you like not to be called an idiot?! And to think I'd recommended my friends order books on the site. JEEZ!

UPDATE: I managed to get the number of the CEO in Bangalore, thanks to friends in the media. And told him exactly what had happened. He was shocked, appropriately. But I don't know what gives. I'd have dropped it, except that I figured a lot of people might have had the same experience and might not have gotten this far. Let's see if there is any effect at all. I don't mean I need to see the guy sacked, but maybe I'll get my product faster? We live in hope!

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9 Comments:

Blogger Enchanted Mind said...

:-(

no.. I dont want to read this lest I might start writing an essay of my chronicles with Customer Service.

Bottom line - as a reasonable man, all I ask for is for them to understand what is meant by customer service and I dont get to see it.

6:14 pm

 
Blogger Sathej said...

Shocking behaviour.I don't know why such people are hired to answer customer queries.To hear something like that wuold have been very bad indeed!
Sathej

12:52 am

 
Blogger hari said...

Indeed Ramya, we are all the biggest idiots created by this booming economy of ours. We became idiots the day direct customer dealing was substituted by call centres.

And now the customer care centres are only out of care for us punching this fact hard in our mind that we are idiots putting up with this farcical customer care concept for so long. The less talked about this subject, the better.

11:01 am

 
Blogger Mahadevan said...

In outsourcing there is no direct contact with the customer and that is the menace. For the call centre guy, there is only a voice at the other end and not a valued customer.

Being a journo, you are not short of words and should have demonstrated to them what is communication all about. Please do write in your paper and cut the rascal to size.

12:55 pm

 
Blogger Houseowner said...

tlw,

u dint read? :(
but i'm glad u wrote!

sathej,

o yeah. it's the shock more than anything else...

hari...

we have a really long way to go before we spruce up our online security systems...

Mahadevan,

o no. it would never do to write about the paper, plus, we can't really write about ourselves. some might be tempted to call it abuse of media power. but i'm not deny that ppl do it all the time!
I hope you are here to read my update!

Cheers!
ramya

7:33 pm

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have faced rude behaviour sometimes from the agents in the airport. They change immediately and respond properly once they see our strong reaction. Lot of people endures this.
We should never leave these people to get away with this kind of behaviour.

Jay

3:39 am

 
Blogger REFLEX said...

Ramya,
I think we can compile all the customer service experience and publish it as a book.

I registered for Airtel's DO NOT DISTURB. But still I got few promotional offers. Now I am searching for a place to bang my head or simply I shud shout " RAMA RAMA RAMA".

9:59 am

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I know how it feels,since I experienced the same with couple(not one) of customer care(?) executives..Interestingly both are from India's biggest telecommunication ventures..They are simply recruiting some craps..
mobile phone deals

4:52 pm

 
Blogger Siva Jayaraman said...

This is surely a very bad experience... the problem is attitude.. one from the employees as well as the management towards "SERVICE".. in many cases it i a term that is non existent... the sad part is we dont expect great or out of the way service but basic stuff.. even that is very hard to get... compared to what things were 15 years ago probably things are improving but we are still eons away from even basic level of service...

7:13 pm

 

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