Customer Service Thread

[A.Wilder]

I have a new job that requires going to people's homes and installing TV, internet, and phone services. In the short time i have been doing this i have realized that many of these encounters are bizarre and/or hilarious. I assume many of you have similar stories to tell.

Morning: Installing TV, internet, and phones. Husband welcomes us into the home and immediately starts showing us his collection of blues guitar player autographs, guitars, and guitar player awards he has received. While cool and special to him, it isn't the purpose of our visit and alerts me that something may be a bit wacky this job. I think he realizes we don't give a crap about his personal success and only want to get our job done and quickly shows us where the tv, phones, and computer are located. My coworker begins on the outside of the house while i configure everything inside. I am quickly confronted by a 50 something overweight woman with makeup like Mimi inquiring about the channels we offer. She is concerned that her 28 year old autistic son will be upset about losing any of his favorite channels. I spend 15 minutes trying to put her fears to rest by showing her that she is in fact getting all of her son's favorite channels, however they will be on different numbers and a couple of her favorite channels are not offered (hallmark). I think to myself that i am doing a pretty good job handling this situation, as i understand autism can be a difficult thing to live with, but she begins to tear up. She tells me that she is just "So mad" at her husband for switching their TV service and "Doesn't understand why he has to do things like this!?" I stare blankly. She continues to tell me that they haven't spoken since March 20th due to an argument. I stare blankly, thinking, "I'm not your marriage counselor and i certainly don't need to know about your dirty laundry." I notice her husband is well within earshot of our conversation and she is being passive aggressive as she continues to tell me she wishes she could divorce him, marrying him was the stupidest thing she has ever done, and that he is a stubborn old fool. I stare blankly and attempt to withdraw from the conversation, "Well, i need to get started!" As i do more work around the house she hovers, asking questions about the channels that i already answered, comes close to tears a few times thinking about her 28 year old autistic son and stubborn old fool husband. This goes on pretty much the entire time we are there. As we are wrapping up our install and showing her how to use the remote, registering her internet, etc. she tells us the reason she and her husband have not spoken in nearly a month is because they received an invitation to a class reunion, a huge cause for concern apparently. Me and my coworker are both present for this knowledge and we both just stare blankly, thinking to ourselves "Why me?!" Unfortunately we get a lot of customers like this couple. People who are lonely for whatever reason and jump at the opportunity to relieve that stress on the guy coming to do some work for them. It's a real problem to the extent that our company has special codes for "frequent dispatch" customers.

Afternoon. We head to a very wealthy part of town to do another install. My partner feels that this is going to be a rough one because the customer sounded weird on the phone. I try to keep my spirits up, expect the worse, hope for the best. Our install is going pretty much by routine. My coworker is doing most of the outside work while i do the inside. The customer, however, is hovering, following me around the house and watching me work. I don't really have an issue with this as i know my job, i'm professional, and I have no desire to lose my job by stealing from a customer. But, it is kind of weird having someone follow you everywhere, silently, while you work, even into the attic crawl space. Then it got weird. We had to rest one of the boxes in the master bedroom and i didn't see the customer anywhere. Odd, i thought to myself as me and my coworker waited for the box to reset. We waited for a few minutes, the box reset and began to function normally and we exited the master bedroom. As we walked by the linen closet i notice two shoes, legs and an arm inside the closet. The customer was spying on us from his closet Oh well, i don't judge, he doesn't know who we are so i can't really blame him. But just another weird day at work.

[sjt1985]

As we walked by the linen closet i notice two shoes, legs and an arm inside the closet. The customer was spying on us from his closet

Ok that's just creepy.

How about you hook a brother up with some free internet and TV?

[White Jetta]

Just feel lucky you don't live near me and get a service call.

[FancyMan]

At nail salon I am working customer service. As manager I am dealing with customer that can be very difficulty. Customer sometime very smelly and angry with color of nails choice. Not fault customer choose own color they still want refund and yelling at Timbo! Someone complain that magazine in waiting too old. Not fault magazine all new one stolen by bimbos.
Regular customer good very usual.

[2VWatatime]

. People outside of the major cities crave attention or drama to fill their boring mundane lives.

[2VWatatime]

Think of all the stupid beefs people have with each other just over comments on Facebook. Facebook itself wouldn't be soo big if I wasn't right.

Don't have facetwit, don't care. Oh, and facetwitfoursqwhatever = urban.

[Oliver@triplezoom]

Don't have facetwit, don't care. Oh, and facetwitfoursqwhatever = urban.

How do you figure?

[x047x]

In college I worked in a local video store with a huge porn section. I had to throw many dudes out for faping back there. It never got any less awkward walking up to a guy playing with himself in public.

Oh and the tapes always cut returned covered in spunk and smegma. Gross.

Oh and a local famous skateboarder from West Chester played with muff in the New Releases...

[2VWatatime]

How do you figure?

You're kidding, right?

[Swapped6n]

I used to do telephone support for TomTom a few years ago, for the united kingdom.

I've had MANY stories about crazy people calling up..but one that sticks out is me discussing a promotion with a guy.

Halfway through our chat, he starts taking a piss... CLEARLY(!) without missing a beat.

[winstonsmith84]

I normally deal with a collection of hungover, dumb, entitled and young college students on a daily basis. On of the exciting services my shop offers is faxing. Now, being cutting edge technology, faxing still confuses the hell out of most college students*. Here are some fine examples

1)"What is an area code?"

2)"Do they get that piece of paper?"

3) And my personal favorite "I need to fax this to my mom but she does not have a fax machine".


*For some inexplicable reason, an overwhelming percentage of fax customers tend to be black. Far greater percentage wise than the 12-15% African American population on campus. No one can quite figure it out. There is no difference in the type of materials being faxed between black and white students... It is a mystery.

[ModestGirl]

Oh and a local famous skateboarder from West Chester played with muff in the New Releases...

He always grossed me out. Grown men who drive purple cars are just off.

I had a friend who installed cable and would tell me great stories. The good - up on a roof he could see over into the next yard where the residents, all 20 something females, were laying out in the sun topless. The bad - going into a house where very illegal things were going on, seeing automatic weapons out in the open and being followed by a large man and his large and toothy dog.

[x047x]

He always grossed me out. Grown men who drive purple cars are just off.

Agreed!

[FancyMan]

I'd open up a liquor store, can't really do customer service wrong with it, plus most customers end up becoming regulars, and no refunds.

I am not own store, fun idea to own liquor store!

[pentaxshooter]

He always grossed me out. Grown men who drive purple cars are just off.

That color was what got to you? Not the fact he sawz-all'd a hole in the roof?

[2slojetta0L]

When I worked for Verizon in NYC, I had plenty of strange house calls. I had a few where women would come to the door wearing nada( all in the same apartment building on Park Ave S) came to find out a lot of escorts/hookers lived in the building and I guess thought I was a client-the ring got busted a few years later.

Had a few calls in hoity-toity Gramercy Park calls where you are'nt allowed to come thru the front entrance but thru a side entrance for the service people, then when you go upstairs they want you to take off your shoes-which our company didn't allow-OSHA etc they would then get upset and call the doorman to escort me out. Only to get called back because they needed their service fixed.

Had one lady make a 8:30 am appointment and when I got their she started cursing about why am I there so f---ing early

Went to Julia Roberts apartment when she lived in Gramercy-very nice lady.

Had a gay dude hit on me in the most vulgar way, I was fixing a jack and this dude walks up to me and says "can I suck your dick" I politely said I am not gay and he says "thats ok I like straight men. That was the fastest I ever fixed a jack and left.

[ModestGirl]

That color was what got to you? Not the fact he sawz-all'd a hole in the roof?

He seems like the total package d-bag. I lived in West Chester and saw his car around a lot, usually parked illegally without any tickets.

[ModestGirl]

Had a gay dude hit on me in the most vulgar way, I was fixing a jack and this dude walks up to me and says "can I suck your dick" I politely said I am not gay and he says "thats ok I like straight men. That was the fastest I ever got a jack and left.

FTFY

[sjt1985]

I had a friend who installed cable and would tell me great stories. The good - up on a roof he could see over into the next yard where the residents, all 20 something females, were laying out in the sun topless. The bad - going into a house where very illegal things were going on, seeing automatic weapons out in the open and being followed by a large man and his large and toothy dog.

Why does everyone post BS stories in OT as of late? Do you really expect me to believe that a group of 20 somethings were just hanging out topless ANYWHERE?

[ModestGirl]

Why does everyone post BS stories in OT as of late? Do you really expect me to believe that a group of 20 somethings were just hanging out topless ANYWHERE?

They were (allegedly) in a private yard, he could see them because he was up high on the next house. I don't know...maybe he was lying. But why is that the BS story and not the one about being solicited by a gay guy? I know plenty of women (and men) who tan without a top when they are in private.

Also, it's the internet. Nothing is real.

[1Point8TDan]

Its funny you mention this. You always think your own family is weird until you visit people like this. Though it sucks, you do feel better at the end of the day!

I do renovations and some people are good about cleaning the area while others leave the house a mess. I mean they leave underwear exposed in areas you will be working like the bathroom or leave it hanging on the railing. Then there are those that like to watch. Once the father asked me, "did you see my daughters bra?" It was the last room to finish the project and I told them the day before we would be working in that home, so I thought they would get her to clean the room up. Nope. I kicked everything on the floor to the center of the room including the bra, and moved the bed over everything. Dude found it and took it away. Weird.

The poor typically watch and the rich have messier homes. Can't win unless you do commercial.

[ATL_Av8r]

That color was what got to you? Not the fact he sawz-all'd a hole in the roof?

He didn't. Billy Idol did

[ATL_Av8r]

Once the father asked me, "did you see my daughters bra?"

You should have said "No, I can't even get her to take off her goddamn shirt"

[robhurlburt]

The poor typically watch and the rich have messier homes.

i watch because i like to learn something. i'm just completely curious

[winstonsmith84]

The poor typically watch and the rich have messier homes.

I've never paid anyone to work on my house or appliances or anything, but I did have a guy fix my dishwasher under warranty the other day. I left him be, but I had installed the machine and I was interested in how the pump came out. So I watched. He left me the old pump and a $.05 rubber washer to fix it when the new pump goes bad in a year. Pretty cool guy.

[A.Wilder]

I've already had a number of hoarders. The worst are the chain smokers. It stinks terribly, it's filthy, and I can't get to any wall jacks without asking them to move their crap. One guy was exactly as I described and was some sort of commercial engineer/architect. He had stacked up a freakibg metric ton of old papers on the wall where all his wires came in. It took him over an hour to clear about a 5 inch area to get access to the jack, killing our efficiency

[2slojetta0L]

I have also been in an apartment about 600sq/ft, the lady had ten dogs, paper with poop all over the apartment-one of the worst smells I ever encountered.

[1Point8TDan]

i watch because i like to learn something. i'm just completely curious

If they learn then they won't call you back.

It was just an observation and I did not mean it in a negative way. I received more keys to expensive houses than inexpensive ones. I would be skeptical and curious myself.

[Robstr]

If a guy has to come out to fix something at my apartment, I do kind of like to watch or BS with them at some point. Mostly because I'm curious about what exactly has broken and how it gets fixed.
I don't hover and let them get on with doing the actual work but maybe poke in to see what's up.

What I don't like is having to have someone install something that I could do my self without even breaking out the tools. Cable TV and internet when the jacks are already installed, for example.
"Yes, thanks for pluging the cables in, no I don't need you to configure it for me."


When I was a front desk guy at a college residence hall I got to know too much about all sorts of stuff. Not ever directly, so much (I mostly was supposed to call an RA whenever something actually had to be done), just by overhearing convos people would have in the lobby. Though I liked to pick up an early (2am-4am) friday or sunday morning shift occasionally as one of my "night hours" requirments because it was fun to chat with some of the drunk returnees.

[ATL_Av8r]

i watch because i like to learn something. i'm just completely curious

same. I ask first though, because I sure as hell can't work when I'm being watched.

[cwescapexlt4x4]

i watch because i like to learn something. i'm just completely curious

Agreed and really you don't know who you let in so for me it's:
A bit of curiosity
Add a pinch watching the stranger in your home...
followed by a A little small talk and maybe hooking me up with a deal...

[A.Wilder]

What I don't like is having to have someone install something that I could do my self without even breaking out the tools. Cable TV and internet when the jacks are already installed, for example.
"Yes, thanks for pluging the cables in, no I don't need you to configure it for me."

Sometimes it's that simple, but usually we have to run a few lines or switch pairs within lines, or we are changing out wall plates to our spec plates as a lot of cable tv installers are contractors with cheap wall plates, cables, etc. also, when switching to VOIP there will be more complex wiring that most customers won't be able to complete on their own.

[speedn16v]

A few times when I worked retail I walked up to customers asking if they needed assistance, then they broke down in tears saying some family member was in the hospital, or was just diagnosed with cancer.

I felt bad and all, but it was sure awkward, and that age, didn't know how to console anybody in a situation like that.

Dave.

[Cousin Eddie]

I used to do telephone support for TomTom a few years ago, for the united kingdom.

I've had MANY stories about crazy people calling up..but one that sticks out is me discussing a promotion with a guy.

Halfway through our chat, he starts taking a piss... CLEARLY(!) without missing a beat.

I do that while playing Playstation games online all the time. I usually try to time it right on NHL 12 so I piss while both teams are in the lobby and everyone can hear.

The O.P. fat lady sounds like the beginning to a really bad porn plot.

[leitmotif]

I used to do telephone support for TomTom a few years ago, for the united kingdom.

I've had MANY stories about crazy people calling up..but one that sticks out is me discussing a promotion with a guy.

Halfway through our chat, he starts taking a piss... CLEARLY(!) without missing a beat.

I was in the lobby restroom at work once and a guy in the stall was clearly on the phone while taking a very loud dump (Indian food most likely). It sounded like he was talking to a teacher or someone at his kid's school while he was doing this. Kind of disrespectful but maybe a cultural thing?