Dear Amy: I’m responding to the letter from “Fired,” the customer service worker who was let go from her position after an angry customer took to Twitter with complaints.
I am a customer service manager, and I have noticed in recent years that angry customers have become more confrontational, militant and aggressive.
While registering complaints through social networks can make us all more informed consumers and, by proxy, makes organizations better at serving customers — it can also lead to outrageous abuse of customer service personnel, and cannot be relied upon as fact.
Bad customer service certainly exists and shouldn’t be tolerated, but more often I am seeing customers who come in looking for a fight.
It’s not uncommon for customers to scream at us, insult our intelligence and call us horrible names. They don’t want resolution to their problem, they want to know their complaint resulted in the person being terminated.
My co-workers and I have had angry customers take our pictures with their camera phones, threatening to have us fired, and some people will post those photos with hateful commentary — and even our names — on their Facebook and Twitter pages.
One recent customer videotaped an entire conversation with a customer service representative on his phone.
The customer posted it on YouTube with the representative’s name, referred to her as “a stupid pig” and encouraged further confrontation from strangers.
He tagged our large organization’s Facebook page, so our members and co-workers all saw the video of the customer berating and humiliating the representative. It was quickly removed, but you see my point?
I can’t tell you how many times we’ve found online reviews of our staff and organization that include unfounded claims of racism and theft, reviews that are sexually explicit and overtly racist themselves and a good number that are almost entirely false. The reviews were written, based on the childish frustration that the customers simply didn’t get their way, even when the demand was unreasonable.
I guess this is just another perspective. — Management
Dear Management: Just as networking through social media makes for many wonderful stories of positive connections, the ability to record encounters and post thoughtless complaints can lead to abuse.
Just as complainers should think before they tweet, management should confirm the veracity of complaints before making any rash moves.
Dear Amy: My 25-year-old daughter, “Stephanie,” will be getting married soon.
Stephanie has a half-brother and half-sister — my stepchildren — who have families of their own.
All of her life I have referred to these siblings as her brother and sister.
I also treated these children as my own — their mother has even made statements to this effect.
Now I learn that neither of these siblings will be attending her wedding.
They have all kinds of excuses and Stephanie is very hurt and upset.
I am also very upset with my stepchildren and want to confront them about this, but I am not sure if I should. Is it my place to speak to them? To let them know how much they are hurting their sister and me? — Baffled in N.C.
Dear Baffled: It is your place to express your bafflement to your stepchildren. Keep it simple: “I really hope you’ll attend Stephanie’s wedding. These events are important, and you should be there to celebrate with the rest of the family.” It isn’t your place to speak on “Stephanie’s” behalf. She’s an adult.
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