[Courses] [Spineful Living, lesson 2: When Nice = Rude]

[Danielle Dows]

Carla Schroder wrote:
> Great stories, thank you everyone! I won't clog the list by responding to 
> every one, even though they're all fuel for a lot of great discussion, so 
> I'll start here:
>
> On Monday 09 April 2007 07:13, Charlotte Oliver wrote:
>   
>> Given that it had to be done and I was making no headway fast, I opened up
>> a support case with Cisco.  We pay for the support contract to be able to
>> do this sort of thing.  
>>
>> I said, "I don't have a ton of experience with VOIP.  Here's what I'm
>> trying to do, here's what I've gleaned needs to be done from the
>> documentation.  Here's what I've tried and here's where I'm failing to
>> understand something.  Can you please help with the configuration?"
>>
>> I then got a lecture about how I really didn't belong in the position I was
>> in, I really couldn't just maintain a system like this, I was completely
>> out of my league, incompetent, needed training, etc., etc.
>>
>> I actually nearly burst into tears on the phone.  It was so completely out
>> of line with what I had been expecting.  It was like walking into an ambush
>> when all I did was ask for the support that we pay for.  As we talked, the
>> fellow I was talking to eventually figured out that I did understand what
>> an IP address was and understood networking.  He apologized, as he had
>> presumed that I was coming from a pure PBX background.  He thought he was
>> doing me a favor by trying to make me understand how impossible it was that
>> I could possibly maintain this network.  (And yet, it has been working
>> quite reliably for three years now under my eye!)
>>
>> Regardless, I refused to call Cisco for any kind of support for months
>> after that, because the last thing I needed in addition to having a problem
>> was to be lectured to about how incompetent I am.  The worst part is that I
>> let him shake me, actually let myself believe him.
>>     
>
> So who has some ideas how to handle situations like this? What do you say to 
> an idiot tech support droid who would rather criticize and belittle you than 
> do his job? Wouldn't you consider this a breach of contract, in addition to 
> being personally insulting and generally a loathesome human being?
>
> My first impulse is to not even bother with Mr. Dork, but insist on an 
> escalation. Then when your situation is resolved, file a formal complaint 
> with Mr Dork's boss. Does this sound like an effective tactic?
>
>   
I have to admit that I have been there, done that (over a domain name of 
all the silly things) and got _great_ results. Although I didn't wait 
until the situation was resolved, since the resolution of Mr. Rude was 
"It is your problem and here is why I have nothing to do with it." An 
email to my sales rep was immediately copied to the president of the 
company and I got apologies from both within minutes. Mr. Rude was at 
minimum removed from working with me/our company.

Not only is that type of behavior rude and out of line, it is downright 
unprofessional. Customer service people cannot have attitudes like this 
and it needs to be addressed immediately, if for no other reason than to 
save the next person from this type of horrific treatment. Treatment 
like this has a very fast repercussion rate - you don't buy from them 
again and neither does your friend, or their friend or their friend and 
so on. Companies who care about their clients WANT to hear about things 
like this.

Danielle