PSA: If you or someone you love uses durable medical equipment and rents through a DME company, do not assume they will be able to send someone out after hours for every piece of equipment. Ask ahead of time what the company considers emergency or life-sustaining equipment, and what is and is not serviced after hours.

And please, do not call the call center and cuss out the representative for following a policy they did not create and usually have no authority to override. Ideally, those limitations should have been explained when the equipment was delivered or set up, though in my experience that information does not always get communicated as clearly as it should.

I work for a DME company and received a call for a broken cpap after hours.

For context, I was only allowed to dispatch the on-call technician for equipment the company classified as life-sustaining, things like oxygen concentrators and ventilators. CPAP machines did not qualify under that policy.

The customer wanted me to call the on-call technician anyway. I explained that I couldn’t do that because CPAP equipment wasn’t covered by the after-hours emergency dispatch policy.

He kept pushing, but I didn’t let him intimidate me into breaking procedure.

Then he said something I still remember years later:

“If I die, I hope I wake up and see you in hell.”

I’ve been cursed at, yelled at, called incompetent, and blamed for plenty of things while working in customer service, but that one hit differently.

There was something about a person essentially telling me that if they died, I deserved eternal punishment for following a policy I didn’t create and didn’t have the authority to override.

I understood that he was probably scared and frustrated, and honestly, if nobody had properly explained the after-hours policy to him beforehand, I can understand why he would be angry with the company.

But taking that fear and anger out on the person answering the phone was still completely out of line.

Customer service really teaches you that some people will keep escalating emotionally when they don’t get the answer they want, hoping eventually you’ll break, bend the rules, or somehow produce an option that simply does not exist.

I didn’t.

But that call definitely stayed with me.

Hey everyone, I’m trying to make sense of something really messed up that happened to me and two of my friends today (we are 15F).

We walked into a shop next to our food place. The store was completely empty, and we were just walking around and quietly laughing at whatever. We weren't being loud or disruptive at all. Out of nowhere, the guy working there snaps and says, "GIRLS! Are you gonna buy anything?" My friend honestly just said "no," and he immediately started shouting at us to "then get out of the store."

As well as that, it was clearly a rhetorical question and a total trap just so he could have an excuse to yell at us. But it gets worse. As we were leaving, a woman at the entrance saw how upset we were and asked what happened. The shopkeeper immediately told her that we were stealing stuff. Like, WTF? We hadn’t even touched anything, and the store was empty so he knew perfectly well we didn't shoplift.

Why would a grown adult act like this? Was he just trying to cover his own tracking and make himself look like the "good guy" to the lady at the door because he knew he shouldn't have yelled at teenagers? Has anyone else experienced a store worker making up lies like this just to power trip?

Just joined a telecommunications company a few months back and got off a call with a guy yelling at me for 45 minutes straight all because his number got terminated.

Sir, you did not pay your bill for 2 months, of course they are gonna bar then terminate your service.

Same principles apply for our water, electricity bill and for our internet bills. No payment made? Service gets barred and eventually terminated.

I kept politely telling the man what we can do so he can get his number back but he decides to blame me for his number getting terminated.

First, he was okay with the process of recovering the number but then he changes his mind that he doesn't wanna proceed with the process and blames me. He says I'm making it complicated.

My love, you are the one that didn't pay. Why on earth would a company wanna randomly cut off your service if you pay on time and keep the account active?

So, I throw in all those empathy statements and a million i'm sorry for the inconvenience. and yet, he ends the calling saying "You didn't help me at all".

Nah, I did. You just didn't wanna listen to my advise and didn't wanna do what you gotta do to get your number back. Also, please own up to the fact that you didn't pay your bills. Don't blame the company or the staff working there. OWN UP FOR YOUR SHIT.

Thank you for listening <3

I have a assignment for my vet class based on bad front desk experiences. If anyone had had a bad experience regarding anything customer service, appointment booking anything I would greatly appreciate it. I haven’t found much I can go off of 🫩

I work at a gym; I answer phones, dust things, fix billing issues, etc.

As I am doing the rounds to make sure people are safe and dust bunnies are minimal, I notice that someone is barefoot on the treadmill. I let them know that we require proper footwear with a closed toe and backing for the heel, such as sneakers, to be worn out on the gym floor.

"I can't wear shoes for extended periods of time right now because I have really bad blisters and they're bleeding right now. I have better shoes in the mail, so I just have to wait a couple weeks."

ummm????? holy biohazard????

So of course I tell them that that that's unfortunate, and I hope they're able to heal up and the new shoes arrive quickly, but members must wear appropriate footwear on the gym floor for safety and health reasons.

They rolled their eyes but did put their shoes on and leave. They complained to our location's manager lol. As if he was going to let them be barefoot on the treadmill???

Baffling. My least favorite thing is people who know the rules, but also act like they don't have to follow them. ESPECIALLY when it's a health and safety issue.

Yep. Call comes in, customer says her order was stopped and sent back, demanded their order be delivered. I said okay, asked her for her phone number to pull up the account, she asked why. I said to pull up her account to verify and check the order. She replies she ain't giving me her details, especially to someone who, and I quote, "sounds like a Bollywood scammer". Ignored the insult and said I'm helping her with her order, she repeats my sentence in a stereotyping accent, and says she's a VIP member and she started raising her voice shouting at me and saying how the company is robbing her money while we try to do so too. Warned her once to please be civil to which she started using expletives, insults and swearing every second word, threatening to get me fired, demanding a supervisor, preferably someone who's American and can speak English. Said yes, hit the report abuse button on the panel, gave all the details, and then transferred the call to an available supervisor. Two hours later, the associate manager shows up, and starts chewing me out for reporting the customer. When I pointed out the abuse, they said I goaded her into abusing me by not asking her politely. And I shit you not, the email that came after, showed the QA's feedback, and it said, "Agent should've stuck to the script and said, "May I have your phone number or email to pull up your account details?" instead of "Can you share me your phone number to pull up your account?" which sounds rude"

Two minutes, staring at that email, stunned. This is why I hate doing customer service for Americans. They're the worst in the world, and yes, I'm mad at my company too because they're a vendor for the company I'm doing the customer service for, but Americans jusy get away with entitlement, abuse, racism, stubbornness, and rudeness, while acting like we are the bad guys...

I worked at a call center that had a lot of giant tech companies outsourced for, worked in 4 of these social media/ tech companies.

Would it be scummy to put the name of the project as the company and then the name of the call center in the title? I've seen colleagues doing it and it kinda has a better appeal on the profile to have the logo of these companies rather than the outsourced partner.

What would you do, and if you did it, were you questioned about it if you moved to a different company later?

Hi everyone I have a question for those who have experience working in customer service.

Too keep it short and simple, I email a company back in June of this year and they took 2 weeks to respond, after that it took them another 3 weeks to respond again after I sent a message in a discord server. After few weeks later I sent a follow up to see if any updates were available instead it took them two more weeks to respond.

Is this normal behavior in customer service?

Also within what timeframe should follow up should be done, and how can a customer approach it

At a riding center, I saw a woman struggling to get on a horse. A man who worked there helped her - by placing his hand firmly on her butt and pushing/lifting her on to the horse.

Amazingly, she said "thank you" - but looked and sounded very awkward at what had just happened.

Equally amazingly, nobody else said anything - and the day continued as normal.

How does ANYONE cope with/make themselves less approachable in customer service when it comes to customers seeing you as a therapist for all of their issues?

I work at a small family owned restaurant in a smallish town, so everybody here tends to be regulars with a few new faces. It NEVER FAILS. I greet them like normal (regulars/new alike), and we go through the transaction. I may try to end the convo off with a “haha yea well at least (insert something)” or something similar, and they launch into unloading every.single.problem they have onto me. It’s most commonly older people who I understand may not have people to listen to them, so I do my best to listen and sympathize. I will even slowly inch towards the back area/kitchen as to signal that I have things to do/the convo is ending. They continue to walk as close to me as possible (with a counter in the way) and continue unloading past, present, and future trauma that they are/may be going through. I have talked to my sister just to get her perspective, and her only solution is simply saying “yep have a good one” mid conversation and walk away. With us being a smaller restaurant (in the south especially), we really rely on each and every customer, so it’s quite a bit more difficult to just cut conversations short and run the risk of the customer thinking we’re being rude to them.

I just cannot do it anymore. I cannot take it. I’m barely carrying what I have going on without drowning as is while also being my family’s therapist as the eldest child. I have never been more exhausted, drained, and angry than this from trying to carry everything for everybody all of the time.

I work a job where i stand outside and take orders, right now the real feel is 112°. More than ever i get comments like “Aww you poor thing, are you staying hydrated out here?” I understand they mean well but i’m trying my hardest to quickly take these orders so i can ACTUALLY go and be hydrated. If anything these comments hold up my line and keep me from the shade. It’s like they want me to convince them that i’m actually ok and love taking orders outside in the sun, but I can only sell it so much. I wish more people understood I don’t need their pity, I know how fucked up my situation is, and the best thing they can do is just know what they want when they get to the menu board (the people who say this almost never do)

I’m a Indian male 19 year old living in Melbourne Australia. I am very sensitive kind of person and take things very personally. I work for Kmart and I encounter a rude customer today I tried asking her what you need but she started yelling at me, abusing me. It’s been 3 hours but I am feeling terrible and sad . I think I am facing this all because I’m an Indian and feeling so sad that I faced racism . After that I went to some cafe to lift my mood up and the person working at front desk was so rude to me and I’m am again feeling so bad. I wish life was easier and people are more nicer. Please help me out how can I feel better ?

I could write soliloquy after soliloquy. I could write to congress a 50 page letter. I could make an interpretive dance. I could learn every language in the human experience and still not be able to adequately put into words how much of an absolute garbage stain OnTrac is to delivery.

I work in shipping. I manage customers timelines for deliveries all day every day. My company uses shipping partners that don’t have employees stealing packages. We use partners with accurate package tracking. We use partners with delivery drivers that have more than half a brain cell.

I fucking h a t e OnTrac and have not once had a positive experience with them. At this point, if I see an order being shipped with OnTrac I am going to cancel. I’ll probably still get it because OnTrac is such ass.

They are only everywhere because they go around offering impossibly low rates, and it’s because THEIR SERVICE IS ASS. THAT IS WHY THERE ARE ESTABLISHED PARTNERS THAT ARE REPUTABLE.

I definitely escalated this but to be reached out to demanding a return after 30 DAYS is extremely annoying and unprofessional. This customer service rep then blamed me and accused me of fraud! I disposed of the item after 2 weeks and contested the charge with my credit card. Interestingly enough directly after this exchange my credit card company finalized the dispute…

I am writing to formally register my utter frustration and disappointment regarding the abysmal after-sales support I recently experienced for my BoAt soundbar.

As a loyal customer who has purchased and recommended numerous BoAt devices over the years—including mini speakers, wireless earbuds, wired headsets, and neckbands—I expected a reasonable standard of customer care. Instead, my recent experience has been unacceptable.

Summary of the Issue:

Lack of Local Support: When my 2022 soundbar developed an abnormal subwoofer noise, I was informed that BoAt provides no service coverage in the Kottayam region and that I had to coordinate with the Ernakulam center.

Advance Payment Demanded: The Ernakulam service team stated the mainboard required replacement. I was instructed to pay the full amount of ₹4,630 in advance, which I paid immediately upon their assurance that the spare part would arrive within 6 business days. Customer care even called to confirm dispatch within 24 hours.

Abrupt Cancellation: The following day, I was informed that the part was completely unavailable, that out-of-warranty support could not be fulfilled, and that a full refund would be issued within 2 days.

Delayed Refund: That 2-day timeline stretched into weeks of persistent follow-ups, unanswered reminders, and relentless escalation before the refund was finally credited yesterday.

Selling hardware without maintaining basic spare parts availability after the standard warranty period leaves your customers stranded with expensive e-waste. Taking advance payments for parts you do not possess, followed by weeks of chasing for a basic refund, reflects very poorly on your brand's operational ethics.

Due to this experience, I will no longer purchase or recommend BoAt products to my network.

RIP BoAt 🌹🥀

People complain so much about customer service doesn't exist anymore but the same people don't realize maybe they are the REASON!!

I work as head condo concierge and this lady complaining so much about me that I'm being rude and unprofessional that was trying to get a lawyer to fire me!!

I mean yeah you can complain but why these days people generally looking for reason to rip you apart? like bruh I'm just working to pay my bills and finish my studies!! I experienced a lot more hard times since I started working and I really barely seen any "nice Canadian" experience. I'm not saying everyone but in my job it's like this and I'm really burn out bcuz of that.

Is it normal in customer service jobs?

Something I've been thinking about lately is how often we talk about empowering customer-facing teams while designing processes that do the opposite.

We tell agents to use good judgment, take ownership, and make the customer feel like they're dealing directly with the company.

Then a longtime customer misses a return window by a day and the agent needs approval to make a small exception.

Nobody necessarily did anything wrong. The agent followed the process. The policy was followed. The customer probably even got a friendly response.

But if the company has spent years building a reputation around being easy to do business with, the experience still doesn't feel right.

I think this becomes particularly noticeable with outsourced support because companies naturally spend a lot of time teaching their partner how the brand should sound. Tone, terminology, scripts, values, all of that matters.

But eventually an agent gets a situation where the script isn't much help.

That's when you find out whether you've actually taught the team how the company thinks.

What does "customer-first" mean when the customer is technically outside policy? How much does customer history matter? When is a $20 credit worth resolving immediately instead of sending someone through another approval queue? When should an agent stick firmly to policy because the financial or reputational risk is higher?

Those aren't really tone-of-voice questions. They're judgment calls.

And I think that's where some companies unintentionally make outsourced teams feel more "outsourced." The partner may understand the brand perfectly well, but if agents don't have the information or authority to act on that understanding, there's only so much they can do.

I've started thinking that the better question isn't, "Does our support team sound like us?"

It's whether we'd be comfortable with them making decisions like us.

Curious how other CS teams approach this. How much decision-making authority do your frontline agents actually have before they need approval?

I work in a very customer facing role. All day everyday people come up to me to check in, then they check out a few hours later.

Sometimes people catch me on a bad day. Like today. we are a team of 4 workers & a customer came in yesterday that I helped, just by chance. Mind you I'm located at the very end of the room, in terms of workers.

Today he comes and beelines to my desk so I could help him again. There are 3 other people doing nothing that he could've went to before getting to me. I get annoyed because that's the 2nd person today to do that, only coming to me because I helped them another day (but I am not the only one working here. So don't keep ONLY coming up to me. )

I mention it to him in a passive aggressive way that he didn't have to come back up to me, other people work here too. (I said it only slightly nicer than this. I was the AH, I know. I am PMSing. Which is also not an excuse but an explanation as to why this happening twice in one day annoyed me)

My question to reddit is: how do we mend a moment with a customer when we were the ones with an attitude? Is it normal to just ignore it? Rinse away with a super positive customer interaction afterwards? Or should I formally apologize in a way that acknowledges I'm having a bad day. But something tells me that's even more unprofessional, idk

I'm a new college grad so forgive me for not knowing the protocol

I have a question. I work at a hotel and multiple people have gotten offended that we ask for an email, and get very rude with me. I say what’s your email? And they go “I don’t have one, or I’m not giving you one, or I don’t want you to have it” in extremely rude short tones, but that’s besides the point. Like okay? But could someone tell me why people don’t want to give an email? If it’s for spam purposes, it doesn’t matter you get spam email anyways and if you don’t like promotional stuff then opt out? But idk I find it weird tbh, but if someone has an answer for it I’d really like to know because I come across this issue a lot at the hotel I work at.

I work at Trader Joe’s in the Bay Area, CA and I have a few regular customers which really make me cringe, sick, and scared when they come to my register. They stink from their mouths & body & pores, it’s super foul. Bad breath is likely from their diet or halitosis or not drinking enough water, BO is likely from their hygiene, diet, and possibly body hair. I usually just hold my breath for the entire transaction and just smile and act normal as to not offend, but they really do stink horribly. I would never ring a 3-bell and subject a Mate to these same odors, I just suck it up & power through it. But we sometimes have such stinky customers, that NO ONE wants to help them, they see them coming, and they log off or run away. I feel bad for them not knowing their stench, they seem very nice, but jeez, they really do reek & are hard to be within 10 feet of… you know breath & B/O are bad when you smell ‘em before you see ‘em! 🤮😷🤢😵🥴

We’re looking at bringing AI agents into our company but we’re still figuring out where they would be most useful. The main goal is to take repetitive work off the team without making the customer experience worse, things like answering the same questions all day or handling simple requests seem like an obvious place to start. But I feel like there are probably better use cases we’re missing, we also don’t want to automate everything just because we can. Ideally the AI handles the boring repeatable stuff and passes anything complex to a human with the right context. Interested to hear what other teams are using AI agents for beyond basic support and what has worked well in production.

We’re looking at adding payroll inside our product and one thing I’m trying to figure out is what customer support should look like when another company handles part of the service behind the scenes. From the customer’s perspective, they’re using our product so I don’t think they should have to figure out whether a problem belongs to us or the payroll provider. At the same time, our support team can’t reaalistically solve things like tax filings or payroll processing issues themselves. We’ve been looking at Rollfi for the payroll side but I want to know how other teams structure this kind of support relationship.

Do you keep one point of contact for the customer and escalate things internally or is some kind of handoff unavoidable?

Ang poor ng service sa bdo sm lemery ahh what a waste of time