Stupid Customer Jokes

[jackfaire]

I put this here instead of CS cus it isn't a suckage just an annoyance. For you this is the first day you made the crack about the something else you need at the end of the call is the winning lottery numbers.

For me it is the 50th time I have bloody heard it. Trust me it's not funny. I am trying to be nice and empathic but oh my god shut up. I hear so many "jokes" that all customers tell all day it's nuts.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Item doesn't scan.

"Heh heh, it must be free, hyuk!"

*Boom*

That is the sound of me getting out my rocket launcher and blowing your head off for making the same joke that ten trillion people have already made.

[ladyneeva]

I take it you would rather they just stare off into space and ignore you rather than make what, to you, is a feeble old joke? Back when I was still able to work outside the home, I was both a cashier and a customer service agent at different times... and I tell you what, I would much rather hear those same jokes a thousand times than deal with the ones who won't even bother to shut off their cell phones long enough to be given their totals.

At least the ones with the stupid jokes are acknowledging that you exist after all. And I'll definitely take the ones with the jokes over the "have you heard the word about Jesus Christ!?!", "what is your stance on ~insert controversial topic such as abortion, gay rights, and/or the death penalty here~". And the mothers. Dear gods if I NEVER hear another cute anecdote about the contents of some disgusting little larval stage human's diaper again it will be entirely too soon.

[crashhelmet]

I put this here instead of CS cus it isn't a suckage just an annoyance. For you this is the first day you made the crack about the something else you need at the end of the call is the winning lottery numbers.

For me it is the 50th time I have bloody heard it. Trust me it's not funny. I am trying to be nice and empathic but oh my god shut up. I hear so many "jokes" that all customers tell all day it's nuts.

I always fire back with "If I had them, I wouldn't be working here."

CH

[Boozy]

Item doesn't scan.

"Heh heh, it must be free, hyuk!"

I was shopping with a dear friend I rarely see this weekend, and I was trying to find a price tag on some bag I was looking at. "It must be free!" she said. I died a little inside.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I take it you would rather they just stare off into space and ignore you rather than make what, to you, is a feeble old joke?

No, fantastic as it sounds, I'd prefer they talked to me like a human being.

And actually, a goodly amount of customers do, in fact. Discussing the weather (a very English trait), commenting on newspaper headlines and asking after them (in the case of our regulars) makes for a much better experience than cracking feeble jokes and expecting me to laugh uproariously.

[jackfaire]

I take it you would rather they just stare off into space and ignore you rather than make what, to you, is a feeble old joke?

No I would rather when I ask, I work in a call center, "is there anything else I can help you with" they politely say no thanks and hang up the bloody phone.

[Savannah]

For you this is the first day you made the crack about the something else you need at the end of the call is the winning lottery numbers.

Item doesn't scan.

"Heh heh, it must be free, hyuk!"

If it makes you feel any better, thanks to lurking on CS, these are on my mental list of "Things I will never say to someone in customer service". (Mind you, these are unfunny enough that I wouldn't have said them anyway, but there have been a few others on CS that I might have said before...)

[jackfaire]

If it makes you feel any better, thanks to lurking on CS, these are on my mental list of "Things I will never say to someone in customer service". (Mind you, these are unfunny enough that I wouldn't have said them anyway, but there have been a few others on CS that I might have said before...)

It does actually. I feel bad sometimes but I have been known to jump all over my friends when I hear them being shitty to someone over the phone that works in my field.

What really gets me is when people are treating customer service reps like shit and you point it out to them then they say, "I used to do that job I know how to talk to them"

[Anthony K. S.]

I would much rather hear those same jokes a thousand times than deal with the ones who won't even bother to shut off their cell phones long enough to be given their totals

"It's really annoying when customers pay for a $3 purchase with a $100 bill."
"Oh, yeah? Maybe you'd rather they pay for it all in pennies, then, huh?"


Person #1 : [Whispers, barely audible]
Person #2 : I'm sorry, but you could please speak up? I can't hear you.
Person #1 : Oh, yeah? [Takes out a megaphone and shouts through it] HOW'S THAT?! IS THAT BETTER?!


I don't understand people who insist on turning everything into a choice between extremes. Does the middle of the road no longer exist?

Of course it's rude and annoying when customers talk on their cell phones while you're ringing them up, or stare vacantly into space and ignore you, or ask for your stance on some political issue, or any of the other things you mentioned.

None of that has anything to do with the fact that those old jokes that we've heard a thousand times before are extremely annoying.


What I would prefer is that customers are polite, respectful, and attentive during a transaction, and refrain from doing things that are stupid and annoying.

And that's not really that difficult for customers to do - I'd say that 95% of the customers I deal with every day are perfectly fine in this regard.


We don't have to choose between (1) disliking customers who tell stupid and annoying old jokes and (2) disliking customers who totally ignore us. We can complain about both types of customers, because they both fall into that 5% who simply fail.

[Vagabond]

I, too, from lurking on CS have tried to be more polite, respectful and courteous to those that work in the customer service field.
Most lately dealing with a wireless telephone company where I was transferred about 4 times, and I repeated the same story about 4 times. I didn't yell at a person once. But I figured that the machine saying "...Press 3 for Spanish, Press 4 for English, and Press 6 to repeat these options..." was fair game. I couldn't give them an account number because I had closed my account...

[jackfaire]

Oh gods yeah yell at the automated system with my blessing I curse it out all the time.

[ladyneeva]

Just because you are perfect and have some form of psychic ability that allows you to instantly know every single joke someone has heard before upon seeing them, does not mean everyone has that ability.

But hey, calling people names and threatening to blow them up because of a stupid little one line joke is just so much better than ignoring it. Cuz, you know, it's completely inconceivable that maybe the person telling the joke hadn't heard it before or was just trying to brighten your day with a joke or something. How rude of them!

[jackfaire]

Cuz, you know, it's completely inconceivable that maybe the person telling the joke hadn't heard it before or was just trying to brighten your day with a joke or something. How rude of them!

I am not psychic and when they tell me a joke that I didn't think was funny the first time I heard it when I was the customer standing in line behind the person who said.

When a customer says it I chuckle wish them a nice day and hang up.

But in the future I will endeavor to never be annoyed by anything as clearly having negative emotions is wrong and I need to be happy when people annoy me and smile thank them and beg them to do it more.

Honestly I am entitled to be annoyed by something repetitive and stupid that I deal with daily. I am not hurting anyone and my customers leave my phone thinking they brought a laugh to my day. I treat them just as well as I do anyone else. Getting upset with me for that would be like telling someone who gets annoyed at the traffic cuz they should smile and be happy about it cuz everyone is just trying to get to work.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Agreed. And for the record, I plaster on a smile and act as tho I'm not annoyed.

does not mean everyone has that ability.

But hey, calling people names and threatening to blow them up because of a stupid little one line joke is just so much better than ignoring it. Cuz, you know, it's completely inconceivable that maybe the person telling the joke hadn't heard it before or was just trying to brighten your day with a joke or something. How rude of them!

Must be nice to be perfect and constantly sitting in judgement of others. Cuz, you know, no-one's allowed to get irritated with anyone in your perfect, drab little world.