None of the examples given in the article make me think it would consider screaming at a representative of a company that’s wrongfully cost you thousands of dollars after you’ve spent months trying to rectify it as part of the “5%”. That’s totally reasonable, even if it want directly the representative’s fault. Screaming at a service worker because of a hair in your food isn’t—that’s psychotic.
No, screaming at a worker whose job is to answer the phones is not reasonable. It shouldn't have cost them anything either - you shouldn't be paying incorrect bills.
Had they filed official complaints? Gone to any regulator? Had the issue escalated?
I will say that I have since grown and become more emotionally intelligent and am far less likely to do that now. My comment about being raised by wolves was intended to convey that I was brought up poorly and not taught how to handle myself in situations like this without yelling.
> Had they filed official complaints? Gone to any regulator? Had the issue escalated?
At the time I wouldn’t have known how to file an official complaint or even that there were regulators who could do anything. What fixed it was that my screaming got it escalated to an appropriate person who could actually do something. I didn’t know the term “escalate” in that context at that time, and customers shouldn’t have to know how customer support works to get things escalated. That should have just happened when I described the problem the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th times.
I think your comment was fine by the way, I got the raised by wolves part and you clearly stated you weren't proud of it. It's entirely understandable as a response, and it's not like it's some mortal sin. I was more responding to someone saying that was the right thing to do.
The OP clearly said they tried for months and stated they did not feel good about being pushed past their limit, so yes, I'm assuming they tried less extreme solutions over those months.
Otherwise, I agree with you. I'm trying to say it's psychotic for your _primary_ reaction to be rage.
Miss Manners reported her newspaper delivery going astray and calling the paper. The nice man told her "We don't do anything about that, unless the caller is really angry."
She asked if he would put her down as being irate, and he agreed. Her newspaper delivery resumed.
I have screamed at support people, but only in the rare cases (maybe three times on the last 30+ years would qualify) where they personally acted unreasonably and reasoning with them did not work, and they refused to pass me to a supervisor. The last part being key to me.
In the vast majority of cases I agree with you - if it's the company's fault it's not fair to scream at people with no power to do what you ask (but if there are no other means it may be fair to be intentionally difficult to force them to escalate - but you don't need to be rude to be difficult).
While I agree, I’d also argue that some companies put out purposefully bad policies and then staff customer service reps to handle the blow back. These situations are often really bad for the consumers and the staff.
