Tag Archives: customer service

Sometimes Work Is Just Funny (or Having Some Crazy Customer Stories)

Posted on August 25, 2022 | Comments Off

I have worked in some form of customer service for most of my adult life. Sometimes it’s a side version of customer service like when I worked as a tour guide for a movie studio or I was a helper at a children’s art studio. But I have almost always worked with customers directly and have been the person to whom their compliments or complaints are directed at.

Sometimes there are some stories that are amazing and I will never forget them. Once I answered a call from a customer who was at the dinner theater show that past weekend and had a heart attack during the show. One of the actors knew CPR and started it immediately while someone else called 911. Because that actor started CPR so quickly, the customer was able to be revived and they were able to have a necessary operation and they were going to be ok. They called in because they wanted to thank the actor that saved their life. I will never forget that call and being able to share that message with the owner of that location.

Obviously, it’s better when you get compliments but sometimes the complaints are so crazy that they just make your day. I remember in a job years ago where a customer claimed that when they installed something over a decade before, it killed their cat and they were promised free service for life. They paid every month and said they believed they would be refunded when they canceled. They really were trying to convince me that they paid thousands of dollars over a decade even though they believed they were supposed to never pay and that they would be refunded. That is one of those stories that I will always share when people ask me about crazy customers.

At another job, a customer was trying to be refunded for something that was non-refundable. We’ve heard dozens of excuses, but what this customer did made me feel disgusted once we figured out what happened. He said that his child was shot and he needed to be refunded to have the money back. I don’t know if he got his money back or not, but a higher-up let us all know not to engage with this customer again as it was discovered they lied about the shooting and they might not even have a kid.

I don’t work directly with customers as much as I used to. I only have direct customer contact at my dinner theater job now since my social media job is more about data entry and systems and I don’t directly answer customers. So I don’t have as many crazy customer stories as I used to, but I still get them from time to time. And we had another one this week.

Without going into too many details, there was a group at the dinner theater that was not happy because they felt like our show was trying to stop their fun. But the way they were having fun was by using water guns on the actors. The actors asked them to stop or they would need to leave. To me, I couldn’t imagine going to a show and using a water gun on a performer to get them wet. I have no clue if anyone who wasn’t an actor got wet, but I would think it would be possible. And if I was at a show where I dressed up and someone got me wet, I’d be upset. So the entire situation doesn’t really make sense to me. But I think most of us had a laugh because we do have a policy of no weapons allowed at the show and now we feel like we need to add a section about no water guns as well.

Even with the crazy customer situations I’ve been in, I know I’m lucky compared to some people who work in customer service. The negative stories are so rare compared to the positive stories or the boring situations (like just needing to help a customer find something on a website). And most of the time, I have not worked in a location where I am face to face with customers or they can come to see us directly. I’ve had one situation at my old ticket sales job where someone came to the location to try to find us as they were unhappy with a policy, but that’s the only time I can remember something like that happening.

Sometimes, you just need crazy situations to add some variety to your work day, especially if the days blend together. And I think I will always appreciate the crazy stories that make me smile even if they might be a bit stressful at the moment helping the customer.

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Posted in Work

Tagged customer service, work

Being Upset With Customer Service (or Trying Not To Be The Type Of Customer I Hate)

Posted on December 20, 2019 | Comments Off

Because I work in customer service, I am very aware of how hard it can be to help customers. I also am very aware of how customers can blame me when I can’t help them with something that someone higher up needs to handle. I get the frustration on their end when I keep saying I can’t do anything besides getting the issue sent to someone higher up. And I’m frustrated too because I hate not being able to help people.

Since I am so aware of all that, I try to not be the type of customer I hate because I know that it will not accomplish anything. But there are times where sometimes I get that way and I do hate myself for it. And the other day, I had just that issue.

I ordered something online and had the option to pay an extra $9 for same-day delivery. The other option was free delivery, but it could take up to 5 days. It was something I wanted and I decided the extra $9 was worth it. I placed the order at 1 pm and it said it was guaranteed to be delivered by 4 pm. It was going to be picked up from the store by Postmates (I didn’t realize they delivered more than food) so I wasn’t waiting on a delivery truck to show up. I watched the tracking information and saw that it went from in process to waiting to be picked up, so it seemed like everything was going as expected.

By 5 pm, it was still showing that it was waiting to be picked up and I was wondering what happened. So I reached out to the company on their online chat customer service and they confirmed that Postmates had not arrived yet to pick it up and they offered to refund the $9 I paid for same-day delivery. They then told me that if it was not delivered today and it would be updated with delivery for tomorrow and everything would be fine. I assumed this was accurate since that’s the case for anything that is delivered late.

The next day, I went online to see if my order was updated and it looked really weird. So I went back to their customer service chat system to try to get an update. And they told me that my order was canceled since it was not able to be delivered on time. I was actually so surprised by this answer that they had to explain it again to me. Basically, if you pay for same-day delivery and there is any reason why it can’t be delivered, they automatically cancel your order without notifying you. They will not attempt to have it delivered any other day and they don’t say anything. Even in the shipping options, there was no explanation saying it would automatically be canceled for me. And from being someone who is a stickler for reading all the rules and policies, this really ticked me off.

I will admit that I got very short and a bit rude with the person who was on the other end of the customer service chat. I asked if there was a way to automatically redo the order instead of waiting for the refund to be processed (which won’t be done until the end of next week or the beginning of the week after). They said there was nothing they could do and all I could do would be to place a new order. I won’t be ordering it again from that company because they couldn’t promise that it would be delivered even if I didn’t select same-day delivery. All they could tell me was that if they cannot deliver it on time they will cancel it. And they did agree that there was no way for me to know that this was the policy and that it is not anywhere on their website. But that doesn’t correct the issue.

I was hoping they would maybe offer me a small discount to try to keep me as a customer or to make up for this happening, but they didn’t. I asked if they could offer one, and they said they couldn’t and the only person would be able to do so could contact me but there is currently an 8 day wait. This is a major company that I ordered from so this was surprising, but I decided to get myself on the list to be contacted. I won’t be ordering this item from them again (and will only do orders in stores from now on), but if nothing else they should know that it is not right to cancel orders without letting a customer know or explaining the risks of choosing to have something delivered from them.

At the end of my customer service chat, I did apologize to the person who was helping me. I knew that I wasn’t being a good customer and it wasn’t their fault. And they did agree with me quite a bit that I was in the right and it was wrong that this happened. Hopefully, I redeemed myself a bit at the end of the chat and the person helping me didn’t think I was as horrible as I was acting before.

I guess every so often I am a bad customer and this is why I get bad customers at my job. It’s a way to balance things out.

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Posted in Shopping

Tagged customer service

I Love Good Customer Service Stories! (or Sometimes A Dream Purchase Isn’t One)

Posted on April 19, 2018 | Comments Off

I’ve shared a few different customer service stories on here. While I’ve had some bad experiences, I’d rather share the good ones. Maybe this is because I work in customer service and I hope that my customers feel as happy as I do after a positive outcome. Or maybe it’s because my dad and I love to share customer service stories (good and bad). Either way, I’m happy I’ve got another good one to share.

I’ve been trying to get better with my spending. I have been working on cutting back where I can but occasionally I do still have splurge purchases. And most of the time, these splurges are either things that I have been looking forward to (like my Disney pass or Pantages tickets) or something that I’ve been stalking online or in stores and wait for it to go on sale. A lot of the time, if I’ve been stalking something I’ve wanted to buy eventually I don’t care about it anymore. But there was a purse that I had been stalking online for a while.

I’m not going to name the company because I don’t have the best things to say about the purse, but this isn’t a designer bag even though it wasn’t cheap. But I view purses as investments and this cost about the same as what my last purse cost and I’ve been using that bag for about 8 years! So spending more to have an investment piece is worth it. I didn’t need a new purse (my current one was starting to show wear, but it wasn’t broken or torn), but I did want one. And when I saw this purse for sale online, I jumped at the chance to get it!

I was so excited because one of the features of the purse was how roomy it was even though it was a smaller bag than I’m used to. There were a bunch of videos online about how to pack it full of lots of things. While I do keep my purse clean, I keep a lot of stuff in there. I have a bag that has all the random things I may need when I’m out (lip balm, hair tie, mints, safety pins, pen, notebook, and other things like that). Based on the videos that I was watching online, I should have been able to fit all my things in the bag with room to spare.

And when the bag arrived earlier this week, I loved how nice it looked! It wasn’t showy and it was smaller than I’m used to, but it seemed super functional. That is, until I tried to start putting my stuff in it. Maybe if I didn’t have everything organized into a bag and had all my money things in a wallet, it would have worked. There were lots of pockets for organization, but the larger pockets didn’t really fit my things in it. I tried putting my stuff inside and walk around my house and it just wasn’t meant to be. Not only did I have issues with the bag seeming overstuffed and being difficult to pull things out of, the way the strap of the bag hung on me was just off. The strap was cutting into my neck (which totally surprised me) and one of the adjustment buckles on the strap was getting caught in my hair and pulling some strands out!

Honestly, I thought about if I could make this bag work. I tried to downsize what I carried in my purse but I still had issues with it feeling overstuffed. I readjusted the strap to see if it wouldn’t bother my neck or if the buckle wouldn’t get caught in my hair. But when I adjusted it to fit my body and hair better, it wasn’t the length of the strap I wanted it to be. It’s unfortunate because I really loved this purse but it just wasn’t meant for my body or my lifestyle.

I looked at their website to see their return policy and it stated that the purse had to be in completely unused condition to be returned for a refund. But in order for me to try the purse, I had to unwrap the tissue it was wrapped in. And the tissue on the straps had tape so there was no way to put that back exactly like it was when it was delivered. But I took a chance and emailed the company to see if there was anything they could do to help me out.

Within minutes of me sending the email, I got 2 emails back from them. The first was an apology that the purse wasn’t working out for me and that as long as I had the tag with the bar code (which I did) that they would accept the return and refund my money. And the second email was a shipping label that I could use to send it back. I wasn’t expecting this at all since their return policy was pretty clear that it had to be totally unused, but it made me so happy that they were willing to try to make me a happy customer even if I didn’t love the purse I bought. There are other bags they sell that I would totally consider buying in the future, but I don’t need them now.

While I had been dreaming of having this purse for so long, it just wasn’t meant to be for me. And while I really wish I could have made it work, I know that the money I spent on it could be used for other more important things. I probably shouldn’t have made the purchase in the first place but it was something I had been wanting for a long time and the want for it wasn’t going away. I had to take the chance on getting it when it was on sale, and I’m just lucky that even though I have to return the purse that I experienced amazing customer service so I don’t have to worry about the money I spent.

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Posted in Fun Stuff, Shopping

Tagged customer service, online shopping, shopping

Adventures In Banking (or More Customer Service Stories)

Posted on October 14, 2016 | 1 comment

Since I work in customer service, I know that sometimes someone is having a good day and sometimes someone is having a bad day. As a customer service rep, I can’t make every customer happy (I just got in trouble yesterday by a customer who called me rude to the owner of the company I work for because I refused to do things that I either have no authority or legal right to do). I’m aware that because of my job in customer service, I can be a tough customer from time to time. I do expect a lot out of customer service reps since that’s the standard that I have for myself, and I really hate when I have a bad experience.

I’ve been dealing with a lot of customer service people from banks lately. After setting up my DBA for work, I’ve had to do a couple of things and one of those things was getting a business bank account set up. My first stop was my current bank since it would be easiest to have everything in one place. Unfortunately, I would have to pay $15 a month to have a business bank account until I had a minimum balance in the account which was higher than I’m comfortable with.

Even though I couldn’t do the account at my bank, they were so nice to me there. They looked into some possible loopholes that might be able to get the fee waived for me, they tried to find other options, and they really did everything they could to try to find a solution that would make me happy. I’m sure that they also want to keep my business, but any bank should want my business whether or not I’m already a customer.

I ended up doing some searching online for business bank accounts with no monthly fee and found a bank that happens to be one block away from my current bank. My first attempt to go there to talk to someone was not a success because I forgot it was Columbus Day and the bank was closed (totally my fault for not looking into bank holidays). But I was able to go back the next day and that’s exactly what I did.

When I arrived nobody greeted me or asked me what I was at the bank to do (they do that at my current bank), so I waited in line to talk to a teller to find out what to do. They directed me over to some chairs and said there was one person ahead of me needing to discuss business accounts. I took a seat and got my book out to read.

The person ahead of me went back and before they did, a bank employee came to look to see if I had the paperwork I needed to open a business account. They quickly glanced at everything, said it was fine, and said they’d be back soon to help me. I ended up waiting almost 2 hours to be helped. By the time they got to me, the bank was closed. But since I had been waiting since before they closed, they weren’t going to send me away.

They started to look at my paperwork and process things and then told me that I needed $100 to open an account. I’m aware that this is my fault, but nobody told me how much I needed to open an account and I didn’t have $100 in cash (or a blank check) with me. I asked if there was any way I could run over to my bank and get cash from the ATM, but they said that since they were already closed that if I left to get money they couldn’t let me back in.

I left that bank feeling pretty annoyed. In the 2 hours I was sitting and waiting, I easily could have gone to my bank and had the cash that I needed. When they came to check my paperwork to see if I had what I needed, they could have told me that I needed $100 or they couldn’t open the account. But instead I wasted 2 hours sitting on my butt in a bank with nothing accomplished.

I put a bit of a rant up on Facebook that evening because I decided that even though they seemed to be the best option for a free business account, I didn’t want to give them my business. I deserved to be treated better than how they treated me. I never should have waited as long as I did because my time is valuable. And I wasn’t going to be devalued again.

A few of my friends recommended a credit union that they believed had free business accounts. So yesterday, I headed over to the credit union to talk to them. First, I have to say that doing business in a credit union that is housed in a building owned by a major studio is pretty fun. In the entryway there were a bunch of props and other things from movies the studio has done before. And in the credit union, they’ve got a lot of movie themed stuff (sorry that I didn’t get any pictures of it!).

I wasn’t able to get my account set up while I was there because I actually need some more paperwork that I will be getting from the LA County courts in the next few weeks. But once I can do that, I can set up the account (and while it’s not always free, there’s a low enough balance requirement that I can handle it).

Even though I couldn’t do the bank account at the moment and that was discovered within minutes of sitting down, I couldn’t have asked for a better customer service experience. The woman helping me was more than willing to answer all my questions that I’ve been coming up with. I’ve never opened a business bank account so this is all new and sometimes overwhelming to me. But she was patient and took her time making sure that when I left there that I had all the answers I needed and that I knew exactly what I needed to bring with me the next time I come in.

Hopefully my paperwork from the court will come soon so I can set everything up, but there is no question that I am going to go with the credit union (as long as everything works out for me) instead of the bank. I want my money to be a place where I feel comfortable going in to talk to a banker or where I know that they won’t waste my time. It’s important to feel good about where you are giving your business, and clearly the customer service experiences that I had influenced me.

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Posted in Fun Stuff, Saving, Work

Tagged blogging, customer service, job, money, work

Excellent Customer Service (or A New Fitbit)

Posted on September 23, 2015 | 2 comments

I’ve been enjoying the Fitbit I got earlier this year ever since I got it. There was only one day that I missed getting my 10,000 steps in for the day and even then I was pretty close. I’ve worked really hard at getting in all my steps for the day and have been very happy that while sometimes it’s isn’t easy, it’s not nearly as impossible as I thought it might be.

I had been enjoying all of the challenges and social things that Fitbit offers and most days I checked my progress throughout the day to make sure I was on pace to hit my goals.

While at ENMNCon, I was able to reach my goals the first two days of the conference. It wasn’t easy, but I did it. But on Saturday of the conference, I was too busy to think about checking the app on my phone to see my progress. When I got into my car to head home, I finally checked and realized that there were very few steps recorded for the day. I then looked at the middle of my bra where I keep my Fitbit device attached and realized that it wasn’t there!

My first thought was to look around and inside my car to see if it just fell off. But the app was also showing that it was searching for the device and wasn’t able to connect so I knew that it couldn’t be that close to me. There was no way to drive all over town to look for it, so I just drove home and hoped that somehow I had forgotten to put my Fitbit on for the day and I would find it at home.

I got home, my Fitbit wasn’t there, and I had to come to the realization that it must have fallen off at some point that day and it was lost. I emailed Fitbit support and didn’t have high hopes on a good resolution. I had recently emailed them to get a new clip because my old one broke. And they sent me one at no cost and the day I lost my Fitbit was the first day I used the replacement clip.

So my email to Fitbit was more about how the replacement clip was likely defective and I wanted to let them know about it. They emailed back pretty much right away and let me know what time my device connected with my phone last. I thought back to that time and it was while I was walking near Hollywood and Highland. There is no way that someone hadn’t picked up the Fitbit and took it or that it was run over by a car. I knew it that I had to get a new device.

But fortunately, Fitbit let me know that there were going to send me a new replacement device at no cost! It was going to take a little over a week to get it to me, but that’s better than me paying $100 for a new one! I’ve heard of other friends getting a free replacement device, but I thought that since I had just gotten a free replacement clip that there was no way they would now send me a device. I was pleasantly surprised to be wrong!

It did feel weird not to have my Fitbit on me. I tried to do as many steps as I could, but I wasn’t able to get a decent count of them (my phone tracks steps, but I don’t aways have my phone on me as I’m walking around my house. Finally, on Monday my new Fitbit arrived!

It’s a different color than my old device, but I was able to get it set up pretty quickly and got started back at my challenges right away! I probably won’t win challenges this week because I pretty much missed all of Monday, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t get back to my 10,000 steps a day streak! I’m excited to be back on track with my steps and to have all the steps counted (and not just counted when I have my phone).

It’s so funny how much I didn’t care for Fitbit the first time I had it, but when I was without it last week I felt lost. I’m just glad that I have it back and I’ve gotten proof that Fitbit really does care about their customers and has awesome customer service!

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Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health, Shopping

Tagged customer service, fitbit, walking

Speedy Shoes (or Props To Zappos For Saving My Workout)

Posted on January 21, 2015 | Comments Off

When my shoes died during my workout last week, my first thought was that I needed to get my new shoes before my workout on Monday. I have certain shoes by Merrell that I love and I know that they are always available on Zappos.

I’ve been a big fan of Zappos for a while. My very first order with them went pretty badly (the shoes were lost and never found). But their customer service was so amazing! They sent new shoes to me overnight and upgrading my Zappos membership to VIP status for life! Any company that goes that above and beyond is awesome in my book.

By the time I was able to order new shoes, it was about 7pm on Friday. And with Monday being a holiday, I had no idea if my free next business day shipping would get my shoes to me on time.

I ended up contacting them directly to see if there was anything else I could do (or pay) to get them to me by Monday. The representative I spoke to said that there wasn’t really much that could be done. The next day guarantee is only for orders placed by 1pm. But they were looking at where my shoes were coming from and where they were being delivered and thought that there was a chance I would get the shoes on Monday (I didn’t know that UPS delivered on holidays).

When I got my shipping tracking information, it said that the shoes were supposed to arrive Monday by 3pm. I have to leave for my workouts by 3:30pm, so it was going to cut it close.

All day on Monday I was on high alert. And around 1pm, the UPS guy came to my door and dropped this off!

I put the shoes on right away to try to break them in a little before my workout. And while they weren’t super comfortable right away, they were so much better to wear than the broken shoes.

Yes, this entire post is about how much I love Zappos. But I’ve learned that when you find companies that are awesome, you really want to share it with the world.

So thank you Zappos for rushing my shoes to me so my workout wouldn’t be affected by busted shoes. Now I just need to order a backup pair of shoes so when these break I can have new ones waiting for me in my closet.

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Posted in Fun Stuff, Health, Saving, Shopping

Tagged customer service, shoes, workout

Amazing Customer Service (or I Love Sharing Positive Stories On Here!)

Posted on December 30, 2014 | Comments Off

I’ve shared some pretty horrible customer service stories on here in the past. I don’t like doing that and I don’t want to turn my blog into a place where I call out companies that treat customers poorly. But when bad customer service truly affects my life (like those times mentioned on the blog did), then I feel like I have to share it.

But I’d much rather celebrate some amazing customer service stories on here and help you all find stores/companies that you should support. Recently, I had 2 great customer service experiences and I wanted to let you all know about them.

First of all was an experience that I had at the Nike Store in Beverly Hills. I went there because I knew that I won the Nike ID Challenge at Orangetheory and I wanted to find out what size Nikes I needed to get (I don’t typically wear Nikes).

I was nervous going into the store for 2 reasons. One was that I’m not completely comfortable going into sporting goods or fitness stores. I still feel judged and I’ve had some experiences with employees not helping me as quickly as they would help other guests. The second reason was I knew that I wasn’t going to be buying anything while I was in the store. I wanted to be upfront with the salesperson so they understood that they wouldn’t make a commission off of me, and that could affect how they treated me.

But as soon as I walked into the store, all my fears disappeared. There was a wall of shoes that could be Nike ID customer shoes in front of me.

A saleswoman (whose name I sadly have forgotten) came over to help me right away. I explained that I had won some Nike IDs and needed to find out my size before I collected my prize, and she was really excited to help me. She knew that I wasn’t purchasing anything that day, but she went above and beyond to make sure I found the perfect fit with the shoe that I’m going to be getting.

She even was asking me all about Orangetheory because she thought it was awesome that a fitness studio gave away Nikes. She took my information so she could join me for a workout at some point.

As someone who works in customer service and used to work for commission, I understand the frustration that this saleswoman probably felt but she never let it show. I hope that with me being so laid back and in no rush to try on shoes (so she could help other customers) that I made it a little easier on her.

We haven’t designed our custom Nike ID shoes yet at Orangetheory, but at least now I know exactly what size I need (and how to stretch them out to fit me a bit better).

My second amazing customer service experience that I’ve had recently was with the Hanukkah gift that my mom, my brother, my sister-in-law, and I got for my dad. I found this amazing chair and footstool made out of old skis by doing a search online and as a group we decided to order it for my dad.

I called Green Mountain Ski Furniture to get a bit of clarification on some of the pricing options, but I never heard back. I followed up with an email explaining that I had previously called and left a message and got an email back very quickly from the owner. He apologized for not getting back to me and answered all of my questions to help me complete the order.

He sent me another email as soon as I ordered confirming everything. And when he shipped out the chair, I got 2 emails from the owner. One was the tracking information and the other was a personal email saying how happy he was with how the chair turned out and how he was making sure that the chair would get to my dad before Christmas (even though that didn’t matter it was nice that he made that effort).

The chair got to my parents the day before Christmas and my dad put it together right away. And it looks amazing!

This chair is going to live up in Tahoe and my parents will bring it up there on one of their next few trips to the mountains.

While almost all customer service experiences that I have are good, I feel like these 2 recently have gone above and beyond. So if you live in LA and need anything from Nike, you should definitely go to the store in Beverly Hills. And if you want anything made out of old skis or snowboards, you have to go with Green Mountain Ski Furniture for your gift!

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Fun Stuff, Shopping

Tagged Beverly Hills, customer service, Lake Tahoe, presents, shoes

Adventures In Customer Service (or Trying Not To Be The Bad Call)

Posted on November 7, 2014 | 1 comment

I’ve worked in customer service for many of my day jobs. Most of the time, I’ve been interacting with customers in person. But with my telesales job and my current box office job, I’m just doing customer service work on the phone (or in a chat feature like at my current job).

When I worked in telesales, I did discover that I was being much nicer to telemarketers on the phone. I didn’t hang up on them (unless they were robo calls) and if it was something that I know I wouldn’t be interested in, I would politely ask to be put on the do not call list.

But things have changed since I started my current box office job. I’ve had some really crazy customers since day one. I’ve never been threatened more at a job than with this one. Customers tell me that they are going to have me arrested to show up at a show and demand to see me so I can apologize for doing whatever they believed is wrong.

First of all, what saves me every day are my co-workers. While none of us work in the same city (I think only 1 other employee works in California), we are able to chat with each other through the chat feature while we work. We can ask if someone had previously spoke with a customer. Many times, customers will say that someone else told them that they could do something that is against the rules. I check with my co-workers to see who spoke to them and exactly what was said. That way, I can let the customer know that the information that they got from one of my co-workers is correct and I’m not able to bend the rules for them.

For some of the more detailed issues, we just direct them back to the location that they are attending. This is all done by email, so we have records of when we passed on a customer. Since a lot of the tough issues are not dealt with the box office, I’m grateful for that.

But ever since starting this job, I’ve noticed a change in how I deal with customer service people on the phone. I don’t believe that I have ever been mean to anyone, but I’m learning what preparation goes into making sure everything is done correctly.

For example, I ordered a DVD box set for my brother for his birthday. It was a pre-order so I knew it would take a bit of time to be shipped. I got an email 2 weeks ago saying that it would be shipped then, but there was no tracking number. I also had a charge and a refund on my credit card.

Before contacting customer service, I gathered all the information that I had gotten from the company. I knew when emails were sent to me, when the charge and refund was on my card, and when they claimed they would be shipping the DVDs. When I got a hold of customer service, I presented all my information and she was easily able to find out what happened and what went wrong (they are finally shipping the DVDs this month now).

I also recently called an Orangetheory location down in San Diego. I will be there for Thanksgiving and my dad, my brother, and my aunt all want to take a class with me on Thanksgiving. When I called the first time, the guy I spoke to seemed very confused by my request to schedule a class. He took down my information, but nothing seemed right.

After going to my Orangetheory and getting some more information about my membership from them, I called the San Diego location again to get everything straightened out.

The woman who I spoke to on the phone the second time kept saying how great it was that I was prepared to schedule everything and that I had all the information in front of me. It made her job simpler and allowed the problems to be corrected (it was mainly some typos and the previous employee using a different account to schedule my class).

Basically, from being yelled at on the phone every workday at least once, I’ve really learned that there is no reason to not do everything that I can do to make a customer service call as easy as possible. It’s not just about being nice (although that helps and I wish more customers were nice to me), it’s about knowing what had happened with your interactions with the company in the past and knowing what you need to have accomplished (as long as it is possible and not breaking any rules).

1 Comment

Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff, Tough Stuff, Work

Tagged box office, customer service, job, Orangetheory, patience

Being The New Employee (or Starting Yet Another Day Job)

Posted on August 28, 2014 | 2 comments

I started my new day job this week. It’s box office/customer service work for a murder mystery theater group. They have locations all over the country, so we are considered a national box office.

Everyone started a week before I did (I’m not sure the exact reason, but it worked out well for me). So a lot of the kinks in the system were figured out before I started.

But since this is work from home, I don’t have anyone around to answer questions for me.

Thankfully, this is much easier than my other box office job (or the telesales job). There is a spreadsheet with all the information that we need to know. And if things get too specific or someone needs to know something about a particular location, we just email that location and they take it from there.

I have to answer questions over the phone and also on online chats, so that’s a little new for me.

My first day was Tuesday (this job is Tuesday-Saturday) and it was pretty scary. The phones are weird because they ring for all of us at the same time (there are 4 of us in different locations around the country). So sometimes I’d answer the phone but someone else got it a split second ahead of me. Then I’d hear a dial tone.

I was terrified that I was doing something wrong with the phones, so I kept emailing another employee asking her a million questions. Thankfully, she was patient with me and understood that it’s tough when you are working alone at a new job.

After my second day, I’m starting to get a hang of it, but it’s still a little scary. I’m worried that I’ll get asked some crazy question and have no idea what to do (it’s happened plenty at my other box office job). I’m just trying to remind myself to stay calm and not to be afraid to ask questions to other employees.

This isn’t my first work from home job, but it seems different from all the others. This is the first time that I have to wait for the work to come to me, instead of me initiating the work like I did with my headhunter assistant job. I’m learning that it’s ok for me to step away from my desk for a second to get a drink of water or something because I’m never more than a few steps away from my phone or computer (the benefit of living in a tiny house).

I’m so happy that I finally have a job with regular hours again. And I’m ok with feeling nervous. When I started my telesales job, it was my first telesales (or any type of sales) job ever. I was so scared and would hope that people wouldn’t answer their phones. But by my second year at that job, I ended up being the assistant manager.

I’m not expecting to get any sort of promotions with this new job (it really isn’t set up to be that way), but I keep reminding myself that in time I will be comfortable with this new job and it will feel easy to me. And having regular money coming in will be really nice too.

2 Comments

Posted in Fun Stuff, Tough Stuff, Work

Tagged box office, customer service, job, nervous, telesales

A+ Customer Service (or Loving Benefit)

Posted on May 20, 2014 | 1 comment

I’ve been going to Benefit for a while to get my eyebrows done. I first discovered Benefit as a salon when I went to an Eventbrite event a while back. And while I don’t go to the location where the event was held, the Santa Monica location is very close to my box office job.

I almost always make an appointment to get my eyebrows done. It’s nicer than walking in plus then I don’t have to wait around for someone to be available. So when I decided to go get my brows done this past Saturday, I tried calling to make an appointment. But when I called, I just got a message saying that the mailbox was full. This seemed weird, so I kept trying back. For a few hours, all I could get was that weird message. So I decided to risk it and go in without an appointment.

It took me twice as long as I usually do to get over there and once I turned on the street, I discovered that there was an event going on where all the stores on the street were selling things on the sidewalk at huge discounts. The street was crazy busy and it took me forever to find a parking spot.

I should have seen this as a sign, but I finally parked and walked inside Benefit. Once I got inside, I said that I was hoping to get my brows done and I couldn’t call to make an appointment. The manager let me know that the phones were down and unfortunately they couldn’t fit me in for a brow wax because everyone was booked up.

I was a little annoyed (I feel like even if the phones are down something should have been put on their twitter or Facebook account to let people know that there couldn’t be any walk-ins that day). But I scheduled an appointment for the next day.

On Sunday, I got to Benefit with no issues and found a parking meter right in front of the door. As soon as I walked in, the same manager from the day before was there and she apologized for the day before. And since I was inconvenienced, they gave me my brow wax for free!

I was shocked that they would comp my wax on something that they could not have helped. When I told the manager that they didn’t have to comp it, she said that they wanted to be known for good customer service.

And even though I’m already a fan of Benefit (for the eyebrow wax and the cosmetics), they have made me a fan for life!

Plus, they did an awesome job on my brows and I got a nice makeup touch up right after.

1 Comment

Posted in Beauty, Fun Stuff

Tagged Benefit, customer service, eyebrow, waxing

Tag Archives: customer service

Sometimes Work Is Just Funny (or Having Some Crazy Customer Stories)

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Being The New Employee (or Starting Yet Another Day Job)

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