Originally Posted by
lugweld
Ahhh...the other side is revealed. Sounds as if you started abuse with "dumb girl" or whatever you said worse (at least you showed the attitude and disrespect for another person...and no one should tolerate that from either side if it is initiated). Abusive by nature of the wording, and especially if you used anything stronger than that. I don't take abuse wording from customers. I've refused to deal with them when being verbally berated or belittled, like one did recently calling me a "ignorant redneck" (not actual full words but I guess because of his detection of my deep south accent) when I was trying to help the fellow and get to the bottom of the problem and customer would not answer my basic diagnostic questions trying to ascertain the real problem, and would not simply accept his untrained diagnosis. I told them, I would not get any further using language like that, but if he wanted to clean it up I'd work with him. He then insulted my mother literally calling my mother a *** **** whore, and that was the end of the conversation. (He hung up, not me fwiw). I reported the conversation, and hope I don't have to listen to that kind of insult again as the number was recorded and flagged to redirect.
But customers think it is a one way street and they can abuse us or get out of line and expect us not to be human. If you are abusive toward someone, don't expect that all will be roses with your reception. If you set up an adversarial relationship by abusing employees, don't expect a warm reception. You will be helped if you have a problem, but don't expect the red carpet.
As far as millenials, the people that work at Everlast are either 1) Not millenials or 2) Grew up in and around another culture, that is far less sensitive than you imagine. But your open disdain for them further shows your tendancy to initiate the "abusive" atmosphere. No, no one, even employees of a company should have to face abuse from a customer, especially foul or perjorative language. I am not shifting blame here, merely drawing lines of our basic expectations of a customer not to be personally abusive despite difficulties.
It sounds as through some frustration with delivery delay you experienced, you were the one that initiated abuse by using perjoratives in describing a woma, and you were met with someone who was not going to take it.
Now the "girl" you are referring to is highly intelligent, hard working, long hours and deals efficiently on a daily basis with many customers and has a long, stable decade plus employment record with us. And if she slips up, itsn't on purpose, but it is because she stays busy multi-tasking and things with the volume we do with our staff do get quite blustery keeping the plates spinning. I myself try to stay on her good side because I know she works hard as anyone could possibly work.
Possibly, all you need to do is call in and apologize to her about how you referenced her and talk back with him and things will be good. That may be beyond you and your expectations...I don't know.
Addressing the delay in shipping that you experienced....
We run out of stock, even still. It's frustrating for all. You could have had stock the day you ordered, but it may have been the last to be processed that day (first order in, first order out). All you need to do if you do not want to wait is ask for a refund. Granted, we don't want to have to give up a customer and will usually try to accomodate you, but there are times that it is hard to give an exact estimated day of delivery.
And we do have shipping delays that are beyond our control. I'm waiting on some stuff now that got hung up in shipment in an overseas port, creating an extra delay. It's not an ideal situation, but we do want to help our customers out as much as possible. We've tripled our warehouse capacity, but delays are inevitable during certain seasons, no matter how well you plan or how fast you build and ship product. If you were calling the shipping department, that is the wrong one to call to find out when it is to arrive. That is the business side. Shipping department handles shipments out, packing etc, but not in control of incoming shipments.
What I think you should have done (before you revealed what you had said about the "girl") was to call them directly, and talk with them and explain your concern about how things looked and were being perceived about the situation. Also ask for the other side of the equation. That would do more than anything. At the very least emailed.
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