Rude customer service is rampant

i believe customers have unfair and unrealistic expectations of customer service.  agents are there to do a job, not care about every single customer's life story.  many customers are cheats, too.  they want to return things that are five years old (esp clothing) just because they don't like it anymore, they want a ful refund of cash without even a proof of purchase, they want to return things that specifically cannot be returned (ammo).  i just don't get customers lately.  they perceive rudeness when they just didn't get their way.  i will not apologize for that!  we are humans too, and remember the old saying: you catch more flies with honey...remember that you are dealing with human beings not robots.  if you come to me with attitude, then guess what, i don't want to do my best for you! 

I think consumers are more the problem.  With that said, I in no way am saying there isn't unjustified bad customer service out there which should be addressed.  In my opinion after over 5 years of being in customer service for a large electronics store this argument goes both ways. 

American consumers want to pay as little as possible for everything in a lot of cases, including electronics.  Places like amazon and walmart need to provide little to no customer service, which keeps overhead very low, and allows them to drop prices.  Stores that have to have somewhat educated sales people in order to sell products and services are suffering, because they cant profit as much when they have to provide 2-3 times the people to help customers than walmart or amazon do(look at what best buy is going through right now).  People used to come into our store, pick our brains and then say "well amazon has the same tv for $250 less".  This would put the tv either at our cost or below what our company paid for it.  Those customers rarely bought accessories, and we lost money if we price matched.  Not only that, but customers would get angry and "demand to speak to a manager" when we couldn't match the price.  Many times management would cave in, in order to keep the customer happy. 

Because the overhead is shrinking, so is the amount companies can pay their salesmen/women.  Companies like Best Buy have put pay caps on their floor level employees (at least in TX they have) which has eliminated most of the good sales people.  Now you are stuck with people who have no intentions to make a living off of sales, but just need a job.  Some of these people care about the job and some don't.  The one's that don't care are usually easily spotted, and have little motivation to work hard for minimum wage, or little more.  The ones that do care get spit on by a good 30% of the ignorant customers they have to deal with who are rude for the sake of being rude, have a power trip, or just don't understand the way things work.  A lot of people treat customer service reps like dogs or servants.  While it is their job to "serve", they should not be treated as lower beings. 

I think anyone criticizing customer service reps should try and walk a day in their shoes.  It is easily one of the most stressful jobs out there.

The customer is NOT ALWAYS RIGHT. I work in "combat retail"  and have most of my working life. I can tell you that more often than not it is the customer who draws first blood. I get personally attacked every day by customers with unrealistic and absurd expectations: all I am trying to do is help. And the Liars, Cheats and scammers are rampid among the consuming public. Many take pride in "getting one over" on there retailers after spending untold amounts of energy scheming and planning. BELIEVE IT In my opinion Company's like Wall-Mart that will take any item back for any reason breeds the misconception that the customer is always right. The customer needs to shoulder personal responsibility for their consuming actions as well. The price of most retail goods would decrease significantly if the amount of Fraudulent Returns could be reduced. As retailers we cant just "write it off' like many consumers erroneously think.

Customer Service issues aside Wall Mart is killing America. Not a believer???? Go look at ANY small town in middle America...there all but dead because Wall Mart in the neighboring town has sucked the life out of the surrounding communities. That's not building a better mouse trap it it PREDATORY.

Such BS, I have yet to see and article ever written that did not place all the blame on the employee. There are three parts to this problem, employee, employer and customer. Every article comes to the same conclusion it’s the employees fault, and since the issue is getting worse maybe its time for a professional to look and see if maybe the real problem lie’s with the employer (under pay employees) and customer (rude). Maybe then we can find a working solution.

We have to stop blaming over worked under staffed Customer service for all our problems. After all you are obviously calling about a product or service that did not meet your expectations. But the person you are talking too did not make your product or service you are calling about. They are just the messenger who get's a paycheck and tries under the company rules to satisfy your complaint.

I have found that if you are rude to the customer service rep. They will be rude right back. Its human nature to do so. Its certainly alright to be upset and to express that to the customer service rep. But try and make sure not to direct that anger directly at the customer Rep. I have also found that calling in off peak hours is much better then peak when the CS have probably talked to a lot of idiots before you.