Fighting the GCC

Do you ever get tired of fighting the fight?  I don’t know what the fight is for you.  It is different for all of us and sometimes it is different for each of us day by day.  For me, today, the fight makes me weary.  Bob called me at work.  I was at lunch and not at my desk when he called so he left a voicemail.  I am not always happy with the voicemail thing because he sometimes uses it to unburden himself while making me feel frustrated because I am chained to my desk at work and not able to do much about why he’s calling. 

Today’s call left me feeling defeated and helpless and so, so tired.  Apparently he was having trouble with our printer and the new cartridge he put in yesterday.  He called the toll free help line for Giant Computer Conglomerate GCC in order to ask for their help.  I am proud he took this call upon himself.  Usually he leaves that stuff to me because he loathes telephone errands.  And when I say he usually leaves it to me, I mean that he whines and complains about the issue so long that I tell him I will call just to get him to be quiet about it for a while.

He finally got through to a customer service person who asked him for some kind of identifying number found on our printer.  Bob told the rep that due to muscular dystrophy, he could not lift or turn the printer.  Apparently the rep didn’t even let him finish explaining why he didn’t have the number.  Based on Bob’s message, the rep told him he didn’t care about his personal problems, didn’t want to hear it, and if he didn’t have the info, he should just hang up.  Bob attempted to speak with him about his attitude but the dude ended up hanging up on him.  Bob tried to call back and speak to a supervisor only to be thwarted at every turn.  He was angry and sputtering in his voicemail and I felt myself getting angry and frustrated on his behalf. 

Bob’s suggestion was for me to call or email the GCC on his behalf.  I could do this, but I doubt it would get very far.  I don’t know the specifics and would just be working on the information Bob left me in his voicemail.  I also do not have the original information the customer service rep was looking for.  And finally, as much as this irritates me, I just don’t want to do it.  I don’t want to have to finagle my way through GCC’s phone tree.  I don’t want to have to explain what happened and why it should not have happened.  I do not want to have to escalate it in order to get a manager involved.  I do not want to be “handled”.  I do not want to have to fight my way to an apology and good customer service.

This is the thing.  People, if you are in a job that works in any way with the public, learn to be nice!  If your job is specific to customer service, ask for more training in dealing nicely with people.  Do be nice!  Do apologize.  Listen.  Do something to help the people calling you.  Don’t give attitude.  Don’t be sassy.  Don’t say you don’t care.  If you can’t do anything to help, give suggestions that might help with future calls or transfer to a manager.

I cannot wait until we pay off our computer and printer from GCC.  Then we won’t have to deal with them for anything and they won’t have our nuts in a vise.  Plus the interest rate on our payments is outrageous.

Looking this entry over makes me want to delete it altogether but I realize I just need to vent/rant/etc and I am going to leave it up…for now.