Terrible experience at public counter

LegacyUser · 21-06-2019 12:13am #1

Today I had to visit a public service counter.

I would not normally post on something like this but I was with someone else who'd come along for accompaniment and they were appalled at the treatment I received, so much so that they asked for the name of the person attending me from that person's supervisor to make an official complaint.

Basically this person was incredibly rude and dismissive. I had to explain my circumstances because they are complicated and before I'd finished my first sentence they had visibly rolled their eyes, face-palmed and half turned away. While I was speaking they also began talking and would ask questions of which I only started answering before they actually got out of the chair and walked away. They fairly barked questions at me without giving me a chance to respond.

There was no eye contact whatsoever.

Because my situation was so complicated their supervisor (who was the kindest person) had to come over for help and they resolved my issue in all of 5-10 minutes. Which would have happened in the first place had I gotten a chance to lay out what the situation was to the first, awful man I dealt with.

I wasn't upset so much at the rudeness but that someone else in a much more vulnerable situation than me would have to deal with this horrible attitude and that it was definitely the most unprofessional and awful public service counter I've ever come across. It was awful. my support was incensed and I would never make a fuss, bar unloading like this on the net or something but they were furious and as said, will make a complaint.

A few years ago I would have been crying and distressed after such an event and I've come a long way with my self confidence but looking back I just don't know that the person who I had to deal with should be in that public facing job.

I don't even know if they will get a reprimand or even training on how to deal with the public but without giving details it was really disgraceful how they behaved.

I'm not sure what else outside of officially complaining I can do. I'm not confident that it will be taken seriously.

That person should not be attending to vulnerable members of the public at all.

ManOfMystery · 21-06-2019 10:05am

There's nothing more you can do bar make a complaint against them. Whilst their behaviour is entirely unprofessional and uncalled for, rudeness is not illegal so they have not broken any laws.

Making a complaint to their supervisor or employer is as far as you can take it, and trying to consider the ramifications of this person's behaviour with vulnerable members of the general public - whilst commendable - is also a futile exercise and far beyond the scope of your control.

Many of us engage with customer service staff every single day - face-to-face in shops, over the phone, online, etc. Most companies will train their staff in customer service or at least educate them on their expectations, and for me the vast majority of my experiences have been positive. It's an unfortunate fact of life however that you will encounter the odd one who is either having an incredibly 'off' day, or doesn't have the temperament/personality/patience to be in that line of work. That applies not just to customer service, but to any role. People who aren't cut out for customer service tend not to last long in the role anyhow - a prickly nature is completely at odds with a profession relying on courtesy and patience, and sooner or later complaints are made.

antix80 · 21-06-2019 10:20am

Is it the public counter in the social welfare office?

Op sounds like you're playing the victim. That's not good for your mental health. With a negative mindset, every situation becomes dire, everyone's against you.

Not saying the guy didn't behave poorly. It could have been a clash of personalities.. maybe he was due a break and asked you a straightforward question from a form and you proceeded to tell your life story. I've worked in customer service and there's nothing worse than an over-emotional customer because they can be so difficult and irrational.

But why let it ruin your day? You got your query resolved after escalating it to the guy's manager.

If you wish to make a complaint, jot something down, 2 paragraphs max, stick to the facts, sign it and then decide whether you want to post it.

Brego888 · 21-06-2019 10:22am

Make your complaint and then let it be. There's nothing more to be done.

SaltSweatSugar · 21-06-2019 12:42pm

As everyone else has said, making an official complaint is really the only thing you can do and I would agree that you should.

While it’s not fair that you had this experience a lot of people don’t understand just how stressful working at those types of counters can be. I know it’s their job and a certain level of professionalism is expected, but they’re human at the end of the day, not robots. Perhaps the person before you was abusive, maybe they were stressed out from previous clients, having a bad day or extremely busy. It’s easy to say that shouldn’t affect how they deal with other people, but unfortunately that’s not always possible. Even the nicest, most patient or professional person in the world still has a limit. It doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be doing that job. And maybe they are just incompetent. You don’t know what goes on when you’re not there. I don’t think it’s fair to say that person shouldn’t be dealing with vulnerable people based on your experience alone.

I wouldn’t let it prey on your mind. Make your complaint and put it behind you.

SusieBlue · 21-06-2019 12:57pm

I'm not defending him but I'm sure he has to deal with many difficult, unreasonable and even abusive people each day. You might have just caught him at a bad time and unfortunately bore the brunt of his frustration.
Of course this isn't acceptable, but we are all human and none of us are exempt from having a bad day.

This man wouldn't be dealing with the public and the complex issues surrounding social welfare if he didn't have adequate training.

Try to put yourself in his shoes. Yes it wasn't nice, yes it shouldn't have happened, but who knows what other people he had to deal with before you that day.
Make your complaint and put it behind you.

21-06-2019 12:59pm

Appalled user wrote: »

Because my situation was so complicated their supervisor (who was the kindest person) had to come over for help and they resolved my issue in all of 5-10 minutes. Which would have happened in the first place had I gotten a chance to lay out what the situation was to the first, awful man I dealt with.

I'm not sure what else outside of officially complaining I can do. I'm not confident that it will be taken seriously.

OP, I'm sorry to hear you had such a bad experience.

Without having more details about the specifics of your vulnerability/his actions/the service you were there for, I do think all you can do is send in your complaint.

Having worked in a similar job, everyone's case is complicated. Genuinely, every single case is complicated - it's someone's life, it's never going to be a cut and dry single-factor transaction. Yet the staff member has a specific checklist or go/no-go box to tick. That guy probably has to take a lot from people every day, and you must have gotten to him on a pretty bad one. Maybe he is a horrible person, but I don't think he'd still be working there if he was. It's more likely that you caught him at a really bad moment, and he just couldn't bring himself to hear you out.

Sounds like the supervisor sorted it out for you, but (again, I realise I don't have the specifics of what service you were looking for) they would have been ticking the same form as the other guy, the only difference is that the supervisor had the extra time to let you talk it out first.

Farawayhome · 21-06-2019 1:05pm

There's no excuse for behaviour like this. Make the complaint and follow it up. Horrible people like this think they can get away with being rude. You'll see them try to explain it away as we've seen in this thread, none of that washes. As I said, there's no excuse for being rotten.

wiggle16 · 21-06-2019 1:20pm

Make your complaint and put it behind you. While this person shouldn't have acted this way you don't know what the background was, if they have something going on in their own life, were having a bad day, if the previous person was abusive etc.

Make your complaint and put it behind you. There's nothing else to be done about it, it's a disciplinary matter, and since those are internal you won't be advised of the outcome of your complaint even if you follow up. So just complain and forget about it.

Pawwed Rig · 21-06-2019 1:27pm

If it is public sector organisation the only minor success will be to get your local TD to write a letter. Otherwise, ime, you just need to suck it up. Even with the TD writing a letter it is not clear if the individual issue is actually addressed.
If it is a private company send a formal written complaint to the person highest up that you can get contact details for.

gwalk · 21-06-2019 3:01pm

Why is it being assumed that it was a man behind the counter?

OP has not specified a gender

nothing · 21-06-2019 3:04pm

gwalk wrote: »

Why is it being assumed that it was a man behind the counter?

OP has not specified a gender

From OP

to the first, awful man I dealt with.

SirChenjin · 21-06-2019 3:04pm

gwalk wrote: »

Why is it being assumed that it was a man behind the counter?

OP has not specified a gender

'Which would have happened in the first place had I gotten a chance to lay out what the situation was to the first, awful man I dealt with.'

gwalk · 21-06-2019 3:10pm

Well now I look foolish

ElizaBennett · 21-06-2019 3:23pm

I completely disagree with all of those making excuses for appallingly rude behaviour from a public service provider - and that's speaking as one myself. No excuse. How dare he take our his frustrations on an innocent party. We all have personal problems to worry about but shouldn't take them to work. And I especially take issues with those claiming he 'wouldn't be still working there' is he was so horrible. Not true. Plenty of awful people working away for years at public counters. Definitely make a strongly worded complaint and seek a response. I work for a Council and we are compelled to respond to written requests within a timeframe.

Graces7 · 21-06-2019 3:27pm

OP; happened to m e in recent years; the person came into the interview shouting at me! I was very new to the area, and am old and visibly disabled, and to get to the office had to come in by ferry and a long drive. She kept the aggression going for about 20 minutes and was trying to make me keep several more appointments I was too unwell for.
Else I would she said not get the needed award I was entitled to .

Later she kept sending me more and more summons to appointments even though she was told I was ill abed.

I finally complained in writing, never heard back but the correspondence stopped. Never got the money though.

hard to shake it off I know; make a formal complaint as it will help you feel better

Gerianam · 21-06-2019 4:34pm

I am very sorry that this happened to you.

Rubberchikken · 21-06-2019 5:07pm

theres no excuse for rude behaviour in a public service position.
they take the job knowing they will have to deal with all types of personalities.

op you did the right thing and maybe the supervisor will give them a chat in how to behave towards customers in future.

well done on handling it the way you did:)

LegacyUser · 21-06-2019 7:40pm

Hello everyone thanks for the responses

To clarify, it wasn't a social welfare office and I was not there for money.

Understandably public facing jobs get to see the range of human personalities and I've dealt with many public counters and gotten the bored, irritated etc but this guy was beyond rude.

I don't know if I described just how nasty his attitude was.

I worked in a civil service public facing position before and was always courteous and some clients were just awful but it was my JOB.

I just don't think there's ever any excuse to he rude especially when you're in a gatekeeper position that a person needs you to be helpful with.

I was so upset about it yesterday the more I looked back on various other experienced I'm convinced the man should not be in that job

Anyway the complaint has been made. At the very least hell maybe get training or get pulled off the front desk it's uncalled for to behave like that.

And yes my situation actually was complicated compared to most who present at that particular desk. Even if it wasn't I should have been able to say what I wanted without eye rolling, someone walking out on me mid-sentence after they asked me a question or audibly huffing and puffing in irritation when I was answering things that they asked.

tara73 · 21-06-2019 8:02pm

you said the supervisor came over and dealt with you instead of the rude man. why did you not complain directly to this supervisor??

splinter65 · 21-06-2019 8:16pm

gwalk wrote: »

Why is it being assumed that it was a man behind the counter?

OP has not specified a gender

They did say it was a man.

gwalk · 21-06-2019 9:03pm

splinter65 wrote: »

gwalk wrote: »

Why is it being assumed that it was a man behind the counter?

OP has not specified a gender

They did say it was a man.

That's already been clarified cheif

dartboardio · 22-06-2019 2:09am

Unfortunately for you the man will probably keep his job and not have anything said to him, unless the way he treated you was discrimination or affecting your rights or whatever.

I think you should leave it now as you have made the complaint, and pondering over it everyday makes him have 'one up' on you.

In this situation in future, if any bxxxxx tries to treat you like that again, try be just as bad in return, usually puts them in their place.

If its public sector, hse or similar, small time complaints may aswell be thrown into a big black hole, nothing really comes of it, especially if its in relation to one incident with one out of thousands members of staff.

Best of luck

Blaizes · 28-06-2019 7:11pm

dartboardio wrote: »

Unfortunately for you the man will probably keep his job and not have anything said to him, unless the way he treated you was discrimination or affecting your rights or whatever.

I think you should leave it now as you have made the complaint, and pondering over it everyday makes him have 'one up' on you.

In this situation in future, if any bxxxxx tries to treat you like that again, try be just as bad in return, usually puts them in their place.

If its public sector, hse or similar, small time complaints may aswell be thrown into a big black hole, nothing really comes of it, especially if its in relation to one incident with one out of thousands members of staff.

Best of luck

I hear what you are saying about being rude back but there are lovely gentle souls out there who just don’t have the heart to do this. Glad the op made the complaint though. Definitely some people better suited to back office roles than dealing with public.

Sorry about that · 29-06-2019 1:33am

dartboardio wrote: »

Unfortunately for you the man will probably keep his job and not have anything said to him, unless the way he treated you was discrimination or affecting your rights or whatever.

I think you should leave it now as you have made the complaint, and pondering over it everyday makes him have 'one up' on you.

In this situation in future, if any bxxxxx tries to treat you like that again, try be just as bad in return, usually puts them in their place.

If its public sector, hse or similar, small time complaints may aswell be thrown into a big black hole, nothing really comes of it, especially if its in relation to one incident with one out of thousands members of staff.

Best of luck

It may be of some use to know that complaints are dealt with in the HSE. A well-meaning but poor communicator colleague of mine, was reported a few times by members of the public. They had to meet with our line manager and defend their behaviour. This man will certainly have a bit of explaining to do.

rock22 · 29-06-2019 7:55am

SusieBlue wrote: »

I'm not defending him but …....

But then that is exactly what you do!

dartboardio · 29-06-2019 10:18am

Sorry about that wrote: »

It may be of some use to know that complaints are dealt with in the HSE. A well-meaning but poor communicator colleague of mine, was reported a few times by members of the public. They had to meet with our line manager and defend their behaviour. This man will certainly have a bit of explaining to do.

The HSE is huge..

That really depends what department

There are hundreds..

I work in the medical card unit within the HSE, luckily enough I enjoy and am good at my job so wouldnt get complaints but I do see complaints being put in and going unheard, to a typical generic email that another dept is supposed to acknowledge but nothing much would come of it unless pretty serious.

SusieBlue · 29-06-2019 1:07pm

rock22 wrote: »

But then that is exactly what you do!

Nice one for selective quoting there, great contribution.
I told her it was unacceptable and she should complain but maybe the man had a bad day and working in a customer facing role in such a job usually garners a lot of hostility and abuse from the public, and to maybe cut him a little slack.

That no one is immune to reacting badly in a stressful work situation. I stand by that advice and don’t see anything wrong with it, it’s not like I said he was dead right for being short tempered :rolleyes:

woodchuck · 29-06-2019 7:39pm

Mod note:

As the OP has made the complaint and hasn't been back in over a week, I'm going to consider this matter resolved and close the thread.

Terrible experience at public counter

Comments