PLDT myDSL call
April 8, 2007I recently came across this Odeo post of a myDSL customer sales representative being berated by a customer. The irate customer first begins by repeating and repeating his problems with myDSL. Then this escalates to swearing at the female customer rep. He swears "P* I*" at the rep, gets her to break down, and not the least bit affected by the girl's emotional state, continues to swear P* I* about 15x! Not content with that, he later edits the dialog, posts it online, perhaps to highlight the inefficiency of PLDT's customer service, or my guess is, as an attempt to get the young girl fired. But what amazes me more, is how the vast majority of comments to this post are unsympathetic and actually blame the girl - for crying, for being unprofessional, for being uninformed!
What is clear to me, is that there is a glaring discrepancy in the way our society treats the poor. Kung hindi lang nag-tagalog yung sales rep, I don't think the (male) customer would have sworn invectives at her. If the girl had answered the phone with Call Center English, the customer would have assumed that girl was educated and perhaps of a higher social strata, and would have probably been more courteous.
Just because the poor are powerless doesn't mean the rest of us should treat them callously, or forget they are human beings in the first place.
Previous Comments
I feel sorry for the CSR but for a different reason. From the point of view of someone who teaches Customer Support Management, I pitied the client more. All PLDT CSRs are trained that clients have 2 needs that they must address at all costs. One is the practical needs which are the solutions to their problems. And the Personal Needs which are more on emotional needs like being understood that they have been inconvenienced, reassurance that the mishap wont happen again and that the company’s not sitting on its hands, and the need to feel important and valued as a client. If you analyze the audio again, you’d realize that the CSR failed to address both. It was actually she who cursed with P.I mo. The client’s curse wasn’t really meant for her but for the stalemated situation he was in. Even if the CSR was having her monthly period, her mishandling of the call was unforgivable. I think it was not an issue of poor vs rich nor language incompetency. The client even talked in Filipino which meant he expected to be answered in Filipino. It was more on “I want value for my money” and “You are a Customer Service Representative whose sole responsibility is to help me out, so do your job”.
Posted by maui at April 14, 2007, 6:28 amwhat if the client is a relative or a friend of your wife? patience is a virtue and customer reps were trained to provide an excellent service to the clients. no excuse for the bad attitude of a csr.
Posted by steve at July 31, 2008, 5:33 pm
Well I do agree 100%. My sympathies in this situation was indeed for the CSR. In as much as the caller was venting legitimate frustrations at the company and its inability to provide the much needed service, his “moral” right was lost when he got abusive.
The girl could have used a bit more training, but here the fault lies with the caller.
I believe when civility and decorum escapes us, we then descend to the level of predators!
Posted by NAM at April 10, 2007, 3:07 pmIt doesnt matter if we’re rich or poor. I think education and civility is the key.