View Full Version : Why is complaining bad?
Just a spin-off from my 'crap service' thread, why is it that people who complain about bad service are seen as 'nuisances'? I've had 3 on my back over my 3hell site, the guy from the restaurant tonight was looking at me like I was a piece of rubbish, not so much now but often on .com a lot of NTL associates seemed to take a dim view of customers who complained about the service.....
Why are we treated as if we are the problem? This is one of the things I think is wrong with Britain. Too many people are prepared to put up with crap service and 'not make a fuss'. Perhaps it is THOSE who are at fault here. Perhaps we live in an age where as consumers we are expected to accept what we're given without question. This is wrong IMO. If I get crap service, I'll make sure people know about it. If I get BS'd by someone at NTL and I manage to get their name, it will end up on this site by the end of the call. When people from 3 try to fob me off, their name will end up on 3hell, yet I am the one who is seen as the bad guy here, instead of the guilty party taking ownership of the problem.
Reasonable complaints regarding service or anything else for that matter are quite acceptable.
Look at it this way, if no-one ever complained about poor service how would companies ever know when they are not satisfying their customers.
Good companies should actively encourage feedback ( Positive and negative )
so they can see where to improve and where to reward. :)
Just a spin-off from my 'crap service' thread, why is it that people who complain about bad service are seen as 'nuisances'? I've had 3 on my back over my 3hell site, the guy from the restaurant tonight was looking at me like I was a piece of rubbish, not so much now but often on .com a lot of NTL associates seemed to take a dim view of customers who complained about the service.....
Why are we treated as if we are the problem? This is one of the things I think is wrong with Britain. Too many people are prepared to put up with crap service and 'not make a fuss'. Perhaps it is THEM who is at fault here. Perhaps we live in an age where as consumers we are expected to accept what we're given without question. This is wrong IMO. If I get crap service, I'll make sure people know about it. If I get BS'd by someone at NTL and I manage to get their name, it will end up on this site by the end of the call. When people from 3 try to fob me off, their name will end up on 3hell, yet I am the one who is seen as the bad guy here, instead of the guilty party taking ownership of the problem.
I think its often because people complain to the wrong person, for e.g. in a resturant you should complain to the manager instead of shouting abuse at the waiter, on tech support calls you should ask to speek to the supervisor and not start shouting abuse at the person on the other end of the line (No matter how incompitent they may seem, we all have bad days and in the end they are not in the position to change such things).
e.g. I work in asda as some of you may recall, My shift finishes at 8pm on a friday and I work on a checkout. several of us finish at similar times and since our store closes at 10pm nobody will be starting a shift at this time to take any of us off, so we are forced to close down our checkouts.
Normally at roughly 5 mins to the end of your shift you tell the customer at the end of your Quewe that you will be closing after you have served them and ask them if they can tell any customers who join the quewe after them that the checkout is closed, sometimes though this sint possible for whatever reason and you hve to keep an eye on your quewe and tell anybody who joins yourself that you are closed.
Today at the end of my shift, the lady on the checkout infront of me was also finishing at the same time, we both started turning away customers at approx 7:55pm and customers where getting annoyed (Im sure I would too) but what good will it do shouting at me?? :mad: I dont get paid enough to take abuse from anybody and it certainly wasnt my fault, what good does it do complaining to me about how "****ing terrible this is" . Complain to a manager or customer services, the only thing you will achieve by complaining to somebody like me is maybe you might ruin my day (As im sure many of you know it can really ruin your day having someone shout verbal abuse at you).
I always tell these people why I am closing, do they really think I shoud stay just to serve them ??? :eek: or do they really think I would serve them even if I did stay? anybody who speaks to me like that really isnt gonna get served, even if I stay open I can refuse to serve anybody especially if they are abusive so shouting really isnt going to accomplish anything.
Though what you are doing is completley different and I dont see how you could be seen as the bad guy, people should complain when they get **** poor service, as this often leads to an improvement, or at least forces the company to acknowledge they have a problem.
The problem is that there is a right way to complain and a wrong way, you seem to be complaining the right way but its the majority who complain the wrong way like my exmple above.
And the moral of the story is think before you complain, we are people too ;)
And another Moral would be dont type when annoyed and tired as your posts will probably make as much sense as that one did :D
Yeah I know what you mean, not enough people complain in this country, which is why we are over priced and have poor quality food.
One thing I find annoying is when people say
'Well if you dont like it you dont have to buy/do/eat/whatever it'
Very helpfull.
Trouble is we are not brought up to complain, so most people dont know how to put their complaint in a constructive manner, and it also means we dont know how to take a complaint when one is made against us. Most people go on the defensive (which often means attack).
There are plenty of websites which have examples of how to write a letter of complaint.
e.g. I work in asda as some of you may recall, My shift finishes at 8pm on a friday and I work on a checkout. several of us finish at similar times and since our store closes at 10pm nobody will be starting a shift at this time to take any of us off, so we are forced to close down our checkouts.
Normally at roughly 5 mins to the end of your shift you tell the customer at the end of your Quewe that you will be closing after you have served them and ask them if they can tell any customers who join the quewe after them that the checkout is closed, sometimes though this sint possible for whatever reason and you hve to keep an eye on your quewe and tell anybody who joins yourself that you are closed. :D
Don't get me started on check out staff, at our local store (not ASDA), the check out staff are more interested in talking to each other than actually serving the customers.
No 'hello, how are you'?' Not even a grunt of recognision that you exist, then they hold out their hand for your money without a word. Like they are doing you a favour.
Oh and its so annoying when they start pricing your items, before the first customer has finished packing, so you end up getting all your items mixed up with theirs and fighting over the carrier bags.
Don't get me started on check out staff, at our local store (not ASDA), the check out staff are more interested in talking to each other than actually serving the customers.
Guilty im affraid, as I said earlier we are only human and sometimes you dont realise you are not paying enough attention to your customer, though this is a rare that we get a chance to talk.
You see when it is quiet we are allowed to talk and sometimes a customer may have loaded up your checkout without you realising, its nothing personal ;) , othertimes as im sure some of you know, once you start talking it is sometimes hard to stop especially if the person you are talking to doesnt have a customer.
No 'hello, how are you'?' Not even a grunt of recognision that you exist, then they hold out their hand for your money without a word. Like they are doing you a favour.
This is often down to the customer, If you dont say hello to me I wont say hello to you, simple as that, I am human too, how would you feel if somebody looked at you like something you had stood in and then expected you to kiss thier ass (Not gonna happen im affraid though its still no excuse for the checkout opperator to be rude back), sometimes you simply have so much buzzing through your mind you dont even realise you havent said hello to the customer, occasionally you may even say hello 2 or 3 times because you think you havent said it yet :eek:
And we are doing you a favor ;) I doubt many of you could/would do the job we do for the ammount we get paid, though I do think it is simply good manners to ask for the money when you have totaled up the customers bill and to not hold out your hand as this can be percieved as rushing the customer.
We get given a basic psycology lesson before working on the checkouts of things you should never do to a customer because they can be seen as intimidating, rude, abusive etc. Body language is one of those and the money example listed above is one of the worst so thats an obvious no-no.
Oh and its so annoying when they start pricing your items, before the first customer has finished packing, so you end up getting all your items mixed up with theirs and fighting over the carrier bags.
Another big no-no, there is no excuse for a checkout opperator to do this and I would have complained too if I was there. In asda we are told to help the customer pack thier shoping b4 starting the next customers, if your current customer declines your help you are asked to try and make conversation with the customer who is waiting so they dont pay as much attention to how long they have been waiting. I would have thought this would be common practise at any supermarket but I guess not :shrug:
One thing that really annoys me is operators that just stand waiting for you to give them your card / money without telling you how much it is - they just expect you to either be psycic or crane your neck to see the till.
One thing that really annoys me is operators that just stand waiting for you to give them your card / money without telling you how much it is - they just expect you to either be psycic or crane your neck to see the till.
I find that annoying too, especially when you have a load of '2 for 1s' and are not sure if they have come off or not.
I chat to my till operator.That way they can't chat to anyone else and I can get them to check that items are special offers they then tell me how much it all totals up to.
You get out of life what you put in.If you are pleasant to those who serve you they will be pleasant back.
Incog.:)
It's all very well asking to speak to a supervisor/manager but how many times have you phoned NTL with a complaint and been told the "supervisors not in", the "supervisors on the phone", (this one made me laugh once) "We don't have supervisors". The only company I've found so far that dealt with complaints properly were the post office, perhaps I was lucky and to be fair, I still only receive half of my post but he at least managed to get them to deliver a recorded parcel that was 4 days late the same day I complained.
I chat to my till operator.That way they can't chat to anyone else and I can get them to check that items are special offers they then tell me how much it all totals up to.
You get out of life what you put in.If you are pleasant to those who serve you they will be pleasant back.
Incog.:)
All the nicest customers do this, Ive found if I get a few people like that my shift goes like lightning.... If only there where more like you Incog :D
It's all very well asking to speak to a supervisor/manager but how many times have you phoned NTL with a complaint and been told the "supervisors not in", the "supervisors on the phone", (this one made me laugh once) "We don't have supervisors". The only company I've found so far that dealt with complaints properly were the post office, perhaps I was lucky and to be fair, I still only receive half of my post but he at least managed to get them to deliver a recorded parcel that was 4 days late the same day I complained.
This is true, though, evenstill what good does shouting at the person on the line do?? probably the best result I can think of is they might hang up on you (What a result!!!) :pp
The till operators who annoy me the most are the ones who know the customer their serving and have a nice long chat with them. Seeing as most supermarkets encourage building good customer relations between staff and customers, they see nothing wrong in doing that and even give you a dirty look if you appear to be in a hurry or to want to complain!!
See?? Complainers are the bad guys again!!
I
You get out of life what you put in.If you are pleasant to those who serve you they will be pleasant back.
Incog.:)
Just because we're not chatting to the operator doesn't me we're being unpleasant. Plus I suffer from agoraphobia (fear of the market place) so its a trial shopping at the best of times.
Unless a customer is being particularly unpleasent, you shouldnt have to get into a coversation just to get the level of service you'd expect anyway.
Its only polite for an operator to recognise you and then tell you how much you owe.
Sort it out man,(the program), had corner shop owners talking on the phone while people where waiting to be served. They went in and did silly things to get their attention, like talking on the phone loudly too.
This is true, though, evenstill what good does shouting at the person on the line do?? probably the best result I can think of is they might hang up on you (What a result!!!) :pp
I'm not suggesting you shout at them, I much prefer to ask them again to either find a supervisor or "someone else who's more qualified to deal with my complaint" (which annoys them no end)
The till operators who annoy me the most are the ones who know the customer their serving and have a nice long chat with them. Seeing as most supermarkets encourage building good customer relations between staff and customers, they see nothing wrong in doing that and even give you a dirty look if you appear to be in a hurry or to want to complain!!
See?? Complainers are the bad guys again!!
I had that the last time I went shopping, there was this attractive girl serving, and she was being chatted up by the bloke in front of me, they ended up making a date while she was doing my items. :)
I'm not suggesting you shout at them, I much prefer to ask them again to either find a supervisor or "someone else who's more qualified to deal with my complaint" (which annoys them no end)
Good idea but the problem with doing something which annoys them, and seem to be rife these days, is they can simply hang up on you.
The till operators who annoy me the most are the ones who know the customer their serving. Seeing as most supermarkets encourage building good customer relations between staff and customers, they see nothing wrong in doing that and even give you a dirty look if you appear to be in a hurry or to want to complain!!
See?? Complainers are the bad guys again!!
The problem is that most people who are in a hurry dont seem to realise that not everybody is and rather than getting irate when you are going slow they seem to get irate when you are going at a normal pace. Most people like that can be very rude, instead of asking something like "Could you hurry up please, im in a bit of a rush" your normally get comments like "Can you get a move on, some of us dont have all day".
And how do you know that the checkout operator knows the person in question? sometimes you just get friendly customers (Like Incog above) people behind just assume that you know this customer (Normally because they cant comprehend being so polite to a complete stranger but it does happen). There are instances though where it would be right to complain, if the checkout operator has finished the transaction and continues to talk (and holds up the quewe) then that would be a good situation to complain, however if the checkout operator is making conversation with thier customer whats wrong with that? we can normally work just as fast when talking so we are not going any slower.
I'm not suggesting you shout at them, I much prefer to ask them again to either find a supervisor or "someone else who's more qualified to deal with my complaint" (which annoys them no end)
Sorry I wasnt implying that was what you where trying to say (Though it does look like I was, Sorry :) )
I was more pointing out that there are right ways to complain and wrong ways, and the majority of people seem to pick the wrong way.
Sorry I wasnt implying that was what you where trying to say (Though it does look like I was, Sorry :) )
I was more pointing out that there are right ways to complain and wrong ways, and the majority of people seem to pick the wrong way.
You can normally tell how to proceed with a conversation from the opening sentence from the CSR, if they sound like they're fresh out of "special school" then don't hold your breath for any kind of meaningful resolve to the issue you've called about.
Sorry I wasnt implying that was what you where trying to say (Though it does look like I was, Sorry :) )
I was more pointing out that there are right ways to complain and wrong ways, and the majority of people seem to pick the wrong way.
Hopefully a good Manager would know how to defuse the situation, and get the customer to phrase their complaint in a constructive manner, that helps pinpoint where the problem is.
Anther example of what happens when I go shopping is:-
I was in the check out line. and their was a forieign(sp?) person talking loud in his language on a phone. Behind him was a scottish, drunk guy, who started to have a go at the other guy for talking loudly in his language and suggested he talk english.
The assistant manager came over and told the scottish guy he would be asked to leave if he carried on, he carried on and was asked to leave.
Just an example of why I find shopping so scary. Could have turned nastly.
OMG! I've just spoken to my g/f, who I had a dozen red roses and a bottle of champagne deliver to at work, cost me around 60 quid .. they delivered DEAD ONES! ON BLOODY VALENTINES DAY! This is one situation where shouting is the only option. (picks up the phone).
OMG! I've just spoken to my g/f, who I had a dozen red roses and a bottle of champagne deliver to at work, cost me around 60 quid .. they delivered DEAD ONES! ON BLOODY VALENTINES DAY! This is one situation where shouting is the only option. (picks up the phone).
You've definitly got cause for complaint there, but try not to get angry. Try to get your money back and if possible a free bunch of flowers as compensation. Photo the flowers with a newspaper as a record.
Once you get your money back you can shout at them :)
The problem is that most people who are in a hurry dont seem to realise that not everybody is and rather than getting irate when you are going slow they seem to get irate when you are going at a normal pace. we can normally work just as fast when talking so we are not going any slower.
OH and another thing.. :)
Its annoying when the customer in front is on the phone to someone, while they are being served.
And the moral of the story is think before you complain, we are people too ;)
True.
While I think we do need to complain, there are ways. I have found it helps if you
Are always polite and calm when you complain. If you swear or are rude to somebody, they have an excuse to ignore you/cut you off or will actually take offence and therefore be less likely to help.
Know who you are complaining to/about. If you have recieved bad service from one Cashier in a shop, it is pointless shouting at another Cashier. To give an example. I used to work in Blockbuster. On a couple of occasions, one of our CSRs (Customer Service Reps - Cashiers) was a bit abrupt with customers. Customers would come and shout (and once, threaten with violence) at me. This wound me up, and I was less willing to help. Sometimes, if the person themselves cannot help, go to the Manager.
Regarding 3's position over 3 hell. Yes, I can understand they want to block any bad publicity (and TBH, complaints sites work best if they generate a lot of bad publicity), but I don't agree that legal action with 3hell is the right way to do it. Rather than shooting the messenger carrying the complaint, they should be dealing with the cause of the complaint.
Below is a link to the BBC Watchdog guide on how to complain.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/guides_to/howtocomplain/
I'd recommend reading the example of how not to complain. It has some helpfull hints.
Yep it's the phone business that gets me.There I am in the Indian/chinese takeaway and I'm just about to give my order and the phone rings.They answer and now I'm further back in the queue even though I got to the counter first.That does tick me off. :grind:
OH and another thing.. :)
Its annoying when the customer in front is on the phone to someone, while they are being served.
Tell me about it, Ive just got back from work now and you wouldnt believe how many people think that the checkout is a convenient place to take/make a call :mad:
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