Mokuhine

Bill Swanson, former CEO of Raytheon put it this way: "A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter (substitute CSA here), or to others, is not a nice person. Watch out for people who have a situational value system, who can turn the charm on and off depending on the status of the person they are interacting with. Be especially wary of those who are rude to people perceived to be in subordinate roles."
From former Sara Lee and PepsiCo CEO Brenda Barnes: "How executives treat waiters (again, think CSA here) probably demonstrates how they treat their actual employees. Sitting in the chair of CEO makes me no better of a person than the forklift operator in our plant. If you treat the waiter, or a subordinate, like garbage, guess what? Are they going to give it their all? I don't think so."

From me, the first time someone spoke to me that way on the phone: "I don't have to tolerate that language from you or anyone. You calm down and call me back when you can speak to me in a respectful tone." Me: twenty-something assistant answering the phone; him, 50-something multi-million dollar client to my boss. The apology was immediate and profuse. We were able to continue the conversation without incident and I solved his problem. My boss heard everything, and he expressed astonished admiration for me handling the situation so well. I had not been trained to expect any such type of encounter. Within two years I had a job at the same level as my boss. (and by the way, I am an atheist)

Proudelitist

You know how "This call may be recorded for training purposes"? Yeah..that's so when the OP later complains that he was hung up on they know to tell him to pound sand.

OP is totally at fault here. Whatever issue he legitimately had (if any) is irrelevant.

Proudelitist

It's nobody's job to take abuse, and it certainly isn't in any job description.

Dealing with angry people..yes. Dealing with difficult people. Yes. Dealing with profanity and verbal abuse? No. Not at all.

And I am as elitist as they come. Even I don't abuse the help.

mikesyr18

Right, just ask Paula Dean... She must definitely think our society has become less sensitive to words.

Our current president talks in a way other presidents haven't... And that's why the media and left whine every day, 24 hours a day about it.

I'm seriously on the floor laughing at your comments.

mikesyr18

Not in a job description, but let's be realistic, most employees take abuse from either their employer or customers who do business with their employer.

Think you can defend yourself? There goes your job... If you think Walmart is going to back you up when you slip and say something unprofessional to a rude customer, think again.

tatterdema

Yikes. It is rare I feel pity, I have some pity in my heart right now.

jep8821

This isn't a Sunday morning church service....... Profanity on a phone call about the situation which was NOT directed at the person themselves isn't that bad... Lets be real folks!!! People act liking hearing a cuss word is somehow the end of the world. Now.. Like I have said.. If the cussing was directed at the employee themselves.. thats different. I 100% support ending the call if its directed directly at them.

mapleg

One is free to do neither at casinos I frequent. That's how I like it.

mikesyr18

So in other words, it's a glorified children's room with card games.

mapleg

No it is a place where adults can go, gamble, and avoid selfish oafs who smoke and like to blow smoke at others . As for swearing, the people who go there never really do that at all. Not sure why--perhaps they don't get frustrated easily or have a bit of class.

mikesyr18

I hate second hand smoke too, but it's not my place to tell someone how to live their life. Perhaps that's how you live, but that's why this country has the problems it does now.

N830MH

I think some reservation agents should be fired. I do not appreciate for those reservation agents' behaviors. They must listen to those customers. When they ask you something about flight change, or any kinds of those stuff. You cannot hung up the phone. You must had respect them and don't try used inappropriate languages.

tmiw

Second hand smoke has health consequences for the people around the smoker. It's why many states don't let you smoke inside restaurants, etc. anymore.

In short, rights are definitely not absolute.

ftnoob

A HS teacher of mine described it pretty well: "Your right to swing your fist ends at the tip of my nose." (Even then it probably should have been updated to read "the edge of my personal space" instead of "tip of my nose.") Either way it is a fantastic illustration of how wrong it is to view our rights as limitless.

ftnoob

For almost the entire history of WN, attempting to handle an IRROPS situation other than through airport personnel has been a terrible choice. See for example: I have a vague recollection of an example or two posted here in recent times where a pax had good results dealing with IRROPS over the phone, but I'm not sure that was ever proven to be correct.

Pretty sure it has been specifically discussed here that attempting to do an IRROPS rebooking via phone, instead of on site at the airport, will result in a fare upcharge. The CS&S agents can perform "on request" rebookings with the regular rules (fare upcharge), yet cannot perform the IRROPS special circumstance rebookings; that is what is (or was) the case, probably for decades.