CSR Story: Spoiled Customers

Besides having worked on multiple retail jobs I have also worked several customer service jobs. The stories are just as interesting as the ones from retail. Through my experiences, I have collected a lot of interesting stories and thought you might find it interesting too. Of course, not only is this for entertainment, but also as learning lessons to CSR (customer service representative) pet peeves.

Throughout the years of e-commerce development online shopping has become a major part of our lives, and that is true now more than ever due to COVID-19. Online shopping is quick, easy, and best of all at a click of a button you can get things you purchased delivered to your house, time-saving and convenient.

However, when you click those buttons do you take a look at a few things, for example: return process, return policy, exchange policy, or perhaps accepted payment methods? If not, when you actually need assistance with your purchase, do you take a look at the outlined information on the seller's website? Well, one thing I am sure of is a lot of people don't pay attention to a lot of things and feel entitled enough to push all the responsibilities to the seller, which is understandable to a certain degree.

In this post, we are going to discuss a story that I had endured and had wondered why people are not willing to help others to help them. As well, how people are irrational or perhaps arrogant to mistreat the people who are either doing their job or trying to assist them.

On a weekday afternoon, the phone rings, I picked it up, "Good morning, thank you for contacting xxx, My name is xxx, how may I help you?"

The customer had let me know that the tracking number for her order shows "Delivered" however she did not receive anything at her door. I asked her for her order number and took a look in the system to verify the customer's information, as well as find the tracking number associated with the order. Upon looking at the courier's tracking information, indeed the status is showing as "Delivered". In this situation, there is an SOP (standard operating procedure) to escalating the issue, and the process is for the customer to go to the courier to report and obtain a claim or ticket number, then contact back to provide the claim or ticket number so the case can be investigated by the seller and the courier together.

The moment the customer heard my response to what the next step in the procedure is the customer immediately raised her voice, upset, she was yelling and telling me how unacceptable it is for her to do that as we are the seller and she is the paying customer so we are responsible for everything. As much as I would like to help the customer, I was on the phone for the next 5-10 minutes letting her yell at me for a procedure that I did not make and many companies have adopted.

One of the reasons she provided why it is unacceptable was that she used to work for a courier that had the procedure of needing the seller to be the one contacting the courier to start an investigation. As much as I understand her frustration with not receiving her order, and apologized to her numerous times, she was upset, in the end, I had let her know I will mark her information down and see what I can do on my end and contact her back once we have more update and information to provide her. I brought the information to my supervisor; in the end, we had concluded that we will forward the issue to the appropriate person.

The moment I had let her know that I will be forwarding the information to the appropriate person for further investigation and we will contact her back when we have further information, she immediately asked when they should expect the callback. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide her with a guaranteed timeframe as we are unable to guarantee when more information will be provided by the courier when we reach out to the courier. She was fairly upset and started yelling again, letting me know it is unacceptable for me to not be able to provide her with a timeframe. I apologized to her numerous times and in the end, I had let her know that I contact her back in two weeks even if no updates were received. Although still upset, she settled a little and had agreed to wait the two weeks for a callback.

Thankfully the case turnaround faster than I had expected, the person in charge contacted the courier requested for them to start the investigation, as the standard operating procedure is supposed to be the customer contacting, the courier informed that the customer would be contacted to verify validity and information. Then the person informed us that a courtesy reshipment of the order is approved to be sent to the customer.

The customer was contacted back and updated on the status of the investigation, that was the end of that story.

As a consumer, I understand the frustration of a missing parcel, however, there is something called the FOB "Freight on Board", usually once the order leaves the seller's premise the responsibility does not belong to the seller anymore, it is rather the relationship between the courier and the buyer. However, due to courtesy, a lot of sellers will bring it upon themselves and create courtesy reshipments or refunds. Have you wondered how often that happens? Well, to my personal experience I would say I come across about 5-10 cases a week. Now, put that into perspective, if the seller ships the orders to you free of charge (free shipping), the seller's margin is already lowered by x-amount. Then when you claim your order is lost and they out of their courtesy reships or refunds you, they are down even more in the margin, sometimes it literally means the seller has to lose money just to make you happy.

As a consumer that loves purchasing online, I do enjoy the convenience of the companies doing their courtesy gestures, but I do also consider whether my requests are reasonable. If in the case the courier is actually the one responsible for the problem, the courier should be the one paying the cost, not the seller. However, if the seller is the courier at the same time, then I would definitely get the seller to compensate.

Honestly, it is a pet peeve for people to threaten the customer service representatives with various wordings and this customer had threatened multiple times for a "refund" if we don't resend her the product.

Please, you are not entitled and you do not have the right to disrespect people regardless of your situation. If you are able to calmly resolute problems, it is beneficial to both ends, and actually wastes less time for both parties.

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Disclaimer: CSR Stories are based on actual events and experience, with some details added and/or edited. If there is any resemblance to your experience and/or people you know, it may or may not be coincidental.