Be honest: have you ever lost your temper with a customer service rep? And did it ever help?

POTOOOOOOOO , 3 hours ago

Nope. I know it’s a person on the other end that’s probably confused and figuring stuff out to the best of the ability. I try not to get upset because I’ve been there.

Vanth , 3 hours ago

I just ask for the next tier of support.

Lots of tier 1 support aren’t even armed to do much troubleshooting. They are there to enter tickets and to advise the cookie cutter “have you tried turning it off and on again” type answers and to give scripted explanations of known outages or bugs. More advanced troubleshooting gets done by higher tiers.

In your case, I would ask for a rep to be assigned your case number and get their phone number so you have one point of contact. Whether they actually do that for you is another matter, some companies put very little emphasis on customer service and support once you’re already a paid customer.

_pete_ OP , 3 hours ago

This had already gone past the first level “customer service” level to the 2nd level “technical support” team who sat on it for a couple of weeks, they’ve apparently now escalated it again and they’re waiting for their “network team” to take a look at it.

I’ve basically lost all hope with them at this point.

BombOmOm , 3 hours ago

It might be worth switching providers. Starlink and 4G ISPs (TMobile, Verison) are surprisingly good.

memfree , 2 hours ago

If you are willing to switch, tell your current carrier and sometimes that will light a fire under them to actually address the Support call. We had that happen recently. Internet went out. The issue was outside our house with the provider’s line. They said they’d send someone a week later, so we pointed out it would be faster for us to switch providers, to which they replied, “We can’t get there tomorrow but how about the next day?” We accepted and they actually did fix it in two days instead of seven.

_pete_ OP , 2 hours ago

I’m in the UK, we have a system for switching ISPs that is apparently relatively painless so I’ve started that process but it’s apparently going to be another 2 weeks before the switch can happen :(

philo , 3 hours ago (edited 3 hours ago)

Yes and yes. It just depends on when and how it’s done. It worked wonders with my medical insurance. My Doctors weren’t too happy yet my health improved.

xmunk , 3 hours ago

Assuming we’re excluding the sales side of things (telemarketers and other unsolicited communications) no I have not.

My roommate used to adore Dell though because “if you’re willing to be an asshole and not hang up you can get anything for free”. I understand that squeaky wheeling is effective but I just find it such an utter waste of time to both parties.

neidu2 , 3 hours ago

Not that I can recall, but I was close pretty recently. There was a minor snafu about a hotel booking I made recently, one that in theory should be a pretty simple fix.

I contacted the chains booking department which usually handles those things, and after serving BS excuses they turned out to be utterly useless. I instead called the front desk of the specific hotel and there too I got an excuse that I at least consider valid: “Yes, it should be possible to fix this, but that’s probably something I should talk about with the manager, as I’m pretty new here”. She then proceeded to tell me the name of the manager, and the time when she would be available.

I called the front desk later as instructed, and talked with the manager. She said that normally booking handles these things. After politely airing my frustration with booking, she had it fixed within five minutes while I was on the call. I thanked her, and asked her to also thank the new hire who did what she could earlier.

KoboldCoterie , 3 hours ago

I’ve definitely gotten angry about a situation while on the phone with a customer service rep, but not with the rep themself. I make it a point any time I’m audibly angry when on the phone to state that I’m angry at the company, not at the person I’m speaking with, and that I understand that it’s not their fault. It seems to help a lot; I used to work in customer service and I sure appreciated it when people made that distinction to me. It’s okay to be upset, just don’t take it out on a CSR.

1stTime4MeInMCU , 3 hours ago

Honestly this is pretty much it. Sometimes you have to be pretty aggressive to get companies to do the thing you need; they will take advantage of the social friction required to keep you in predatory arrangements. They literally design it to be frustrating so you’ll give up. Like you, I try to make it clear to the person I’m speaking with I have no problem with them just the business. But if the corporations require me to get mad to do the right thing I will get mad.

corsicanguppy , 35 minutes ago

I have a friend whose family immigrated to Fiji from India before coming here. He’s bi-cultural, and his super-power comes from his heritage.

Also, he will wait on the phone and talk to as many reps as required in order to get a discount. In CANADA, his full-up TV package - sports, streaming, movies, 1gbps internet, etc - is $1 for the next 2 years. Then he’ll call again and bring up the days where things didn’t work, mention how this is a consistent pattern they promised to eliminate, and launder all that into another 2 years just so they can be rid of him. He outlasts them.

spittingimage , 3 hours ago

A couple of times. No, it didn’t help. And I was disappointed in myself afterwards.

CanadaPlus , 3 hours ago

I was handed a really surprisingly thin cup in the Frankfurt airport, and it completely squished open as I grabbed it. I apologised and offered to help clean up within seconds, but first I reacted.

Bro was nice about it, and gave me another one. That might not be what you were asking about, but it is a customer service thing.

Nemo , 3 hours ago

I have, it didn’t help, I apologized right away.

ByteOnBikes , 3 hours ago

Yes. More than I care to admit. No. It never helped.

It’s even worse today, where the front line support starts with a defensive attitude now.

I’ve tried a bunch of different strategies. But as Im now in my 40s, I’ve learned that you always get better service with honey.

I started doing that Gen Z stuff of like, “Hey man. You are probably just doing what you need to do, and I’m hoping my issue is easy as fuck to solve. If not, I’m not here to give you trouble because the system sucks.”

There’s a great book called Verbal Judo which goes through how to deal with the suck. Its not for everyone. But for people like me who tend to blow up easily, it’s great for keeping your composure, getting to a solution without ruining your day (even if it isn’t what you want), and remembering the person behind the screen/phone is human.

MadBob , 2 hours ago

Once I decided to end my contract with Virgin Media and they kept asking me why I was leaving, so I kept saying I didn’t want to explain, I’d just cancel (because I knew they’d do their best to talk me around) and it got to the point where I became firm, but I didn’t shout, though I wanted to.

Tangentially related: after I’d signed up to the Telephone Preference Service, I knew that the only people ringing me to sell stuff were doing so illegally, so if they persisted after I’d made that point, I used to just verbally abuse them. Right cathartic.

theshatterstone54 , 2 hours ago

Similar story. The only way we could finally end it is if we paid 1 month at the high price (it was a promotional contract, 20-something quid for 100 mbps or so they claimed; it became 40+ after that).

eezeebee , 2 hours ago

Yes I have, and no it does not help. Always apologize and tell them it’s the situation, not them, that you are upset with.

I’ve done that job before and most likely they would help you if they could, but the company won’t train them or make any solutions available because it costs money. Your impression that they don’t know what they’re talking about is probably accurate.

Your best bet is to keep escalating to a higher department (“manager”, “office of the president”).

Ceedoestrees , 2 hours ago

In person at an apple store.

I bought an iphone used off a friend who stopped being my friend immediately after. I never wanted an apple product, but my phone broke, I was poor and he sold it to me for $50.

I didn’t know you needed the apple id and password to SIGN OUT of anything. I sent him messages, did the whole “click here to request a new password” thing so he would get an e-mail about it…to his apple e-mail which, let’s be honest, no one uses.

Not being able to use the full functionality sucked, but I could manage. What was worse was receiving pictures and messages intended for him.

I did what any sane person would do and brought it to the apple store. The first person who helped me repeated “Our security systems protect your privacy” so many times, no matter what I said, I lost my shit, shouted “I would like to sign out so I can stop seeing nudes of this guy’s girlfriend!”

They didn’t help and I bought an android.

jewbacca117 , 2 hours ago

iphones are decent devices from a security standpoint, but useless if someone is still signed in. Your former friend sold you a $50 brick

Ceedoestrees , 1 hour ago

It still worked as a phone.

Calling features “Security” when they significantly reduce the secondary market is a convenient way to increase profits.

corsicanguppy , 41 minutes ago

given Apple’s primary goal is “more things sold”, this is completely on-brand. Better, worse, secure, not; whatever the phones are or are not, every effort goes back to “more things sold”.

MentalEdge , 2 hours ago

There’ve been a couple times. I make a distinction between frustration at the company and the person, but sometimes you run into reps that are willfully unhelpful or actively malicious for their own gain.

Two cases come to mind. I’ve had an ISP rep call me about updated prices, who then proceeded to try and sell me a broadband and streaming bundle subscription. I would have gotten a slightly faster speed, plus the streaming BS. Same price as I was already paying.

I specifically asked if unbundled contracts had also been changed, and the dude said “no”. I checked the prices online while still on the call, and the bastard was straight up lying. Without the streaming bundled, the price was lower and came with even more speed. I told him this, and he asked “oh do you want that then?”. I replied “yes, but not if it gives you a sales bonus”, so I hung up and signed up for the new contract via the ISP website.

In the other case I was shopping for jeans, and the store rep repeatedly handed me elastane-ridden skinny jeans a few sizes too small, insisting they’d look better, even as I kept telling him the exact size I wanted, and that I preferred the 100% cotton denim, loose fit jeans. At the fourth pair of skinny jeans I told him to fuck off, and just went through the store myself until I found what I was looking for.

BallsandBayonets , 2 hours ago

I had a flat tire at midnight once. Tried for about an hour to change it myself before calling a tow truck company that said it was open. Got routed to a call center who said they had to contact one of their freelance trucks, after paying $250 over the phone. A little more back and forth and about 90 minutes later (when they said it’d be 30 minutes), no truck ever appeared. The call center (third rep that night) called and said the one person they had working tonight broke down outside of cell service, can they come out in the morning? I said that won’t work, I’ll just cancel and get a refund. They said it’d take 3-4 business days to get the refund and there’d be a $50 refund processing charge.

I didn’t quite blow up at them, but any time I have to stand up for myself I get shaky and struggle to keep the anger out of my voice. I explained (several times) that there was no way that was acceptable and that I would like to speak to their manager. “I spoke to my manager and there’s nothing we can do, that’s just the cost of processing a refund.” Well I paid for services that I didn’t receive, due to no fault of my own. Let me speak to your manager. Another hold. “My manager is willing to pay the refund himself this one time.” Yeah ok sure thanks bye.

20 minutes later my tire was changed by a different tow truck company who had a real employee answer before the second ring, had multiple trucks on duty, didn’t even ask for payment until after the work was done, and it was about $80. I fully expected to have to issue a chargeback for the first company’s charge but fortunately it never showed up on my card statement.

odelik , 1 hour ago

This is what charge backs are for FYI.

“I’m sorry, but you failed to provide a service. Either give me a full refund or I will start the charge back process with my credit card company and you’ll be forced to explain why your refund policy violates their ToS and any penalties that arise from that process.”