Thank You. You're Welcome.

My workmates don't seem half as annoyed by this as I do, they'll mutter kind of half-heartedly when it happens but I rant and rave and spit blood at the phone.

Only yesterday I went round in circles with some bitch saying "Goodbye," and me saying "You're welcome" (very polite I was) until eventually she slammed the phone down. Cow.

"This is the part where you say 'thanks'"

I mean, presumably the people who are calling you feel that either a) their systems have gone wrong, or b) they haven't been trained well enough to know how to get the results they want from those systems. Both those things are your responsibility (you might not have actually designed these systems, but as the helpdesk you're the public face of the people who did). So your clients can rightfully expect help - you owe it to them. In that sense, it'd be daft for them to be grateful for it.

"This is the part where you say 'thanks'"

Or you could just say "no need to thank me."

Bollox grateful, it's being polite!

I suspect you may be one of these people who lack manners.

When you call for a doctors appointment do you that the receptionist before you hang up or do you just slam the phone down and expect her not to care because "it's her job?"

I thank the driver when I get off the bus. I thank the pizza delivery guy (most effusively, bowing and scraping as I back in the door with my goodies), when I call up to pay my bills I say thanks despite hating parting with money.

Manners cost nothing.

Cheers, thanks, ta, thank you.

Well I think that's very presumptuous of you.

do you just slam the phone down and expect her not to care because "it's her job?"

No, I don't. Please stop assuming that, beacuse I've made an attempt to explain these behaviours in other people, I have a tendency to display them myself. I don't.

The reason I bothered posting was that you seem to be getting very upset about something that really isn't that big a deal, and I thought that by trying to present the other side of the argument, I might be able to give you a bit of perspective and make it less annoying for you. I didn't post so that I could be personally attakced. For somebody who claims to be big on manners, you seem to be quite rude yourself.

In that sense, it'd be daft for them to be grateful for it.

there is nothing daft about common courtesy, which is the issue here.

how rude

On the other hand, when people call a helpdesk maybe they feel they don't want to use up your time as you're bound to be busy, so they don't waste it with thanks. Though clearly the helper is going to be able to tell the difference between being quick and being rude.

-x-post

It's an acknowledgement I think. It's like when you stop to let another car go past when you don't really need to & they just ignore that fact. i think it's rude.
Beanz - but it doesn't take very long to say "thanks."

Personally I probably use it more as a signal that the phone call is over/problem is resolved on my end, a useful closure.

Hahahaha wait, isn't everyone except possibly lauren who posted up to this point living in the UK?

As I said upthread, I know I over-react to this sometimes but it's sooo easy in this kind of job to be made to feel like a piece of shit, which many of us do. Some of the callers start slagging us off to people in the background before they've replaced the handset, and as I've explained it's an in house system so is pretty repetitive and soul destroying at the best of times.

I feel great empathy with those who work in call centres and on helpdesks and I would never ever think to be abusive, slam down the phone or afford them courtesy - even if I was having a shit day.

Just once I would have liked a tiny amount of variation: "cheers" or "no problem" or "no worries" or "my pleasure" or "thanks" or just something different please!

Sorry, USx0RS.

So everyone here is pretty much agreed that the words "thank you" aren't anything to do with gratitude, they're "just polite"? But that argument doesn't feel right - "these words are meaningless but you should say them anyway, just because of social convention". They're clearly not meaningless, really, otherwise people wouldn't mind their absence. So what do they mean?

I suspect it's an indicator of respect. Saying thankyou implies "I see you as my equal or superior", and not doing implies "I see you as inferior". Which is why it tends to be an emotive issue.

The problem in there, for me, (and the reason I maybe lean away from the "manners" position) is the bit where people use thanks as a way of saying "I look up to you". Having previously been in a position where my job involved giving support to people over whom I technically had authority, I generally found that the most effusive thanks I received were from the sycophants who were looking to move up the ladder, while the people who actually deserved promotion were the more efficient ones, who'd tend to just say "right, ok" and get on with the job.

See, no, you’re not. I see this a lot on ILX and it is amazing to me that there are so many people here who really think they are entitled to be treated a certain way by strangers. People are going to act in ways you don’t like and those actions are the result of what is happening around them, and to them, that day, week, month, year, lifetime. Its not all about you. Its probably nothing to do with you at all.

I’m no alcoholic but I totally try to live by the AA credo of ‘you can’t control other peoples actions, only your reaction to them’. I’d go fucking crazy otherwise.

And this whole ‘I’m such a good person I guess I just cant understand the actions of bad people’ bullshit I see a whole lot of here is, well, bullshit.

The good news is that Rumpie’s life must be pretty sweet if this kind of thing even registers as a blip on her radar.

You've never worked customer service before.

yesterday when i said thank you to the coffee dude for making my coffee, he surprised me by saying "thank you more!" it was kind of nice; i mean i'm an impatient new yorker and i'm all about functionalism, but a lot of people here (esp. in front-line jobs like retail and food service) shut them off from human interaction to the point where ANY minor attempt at communication (and i'm not particularly "talky") is met with apathy or quiet disdain.

there's this false stereotype that all new yorkers are rude -- and no, not all of us are, but it's true that people in certain jobs get so frustrated dealing with human stupidity day in and day out that they can't help but be a little brusquer than those of us with less people-oriented jobs.

shut themselves off

http://www.livejournal.com/community/customers_suck/

-- Tantrum The Cat (tantrumtheca...) (webmail), Today 12:24 PM. (Tantrum The Cat) (later)

Actually, I've had some of the shittiest customer service jobs you can imagine - telemarketing, liquor stores, carpark attendant (yeah, i had a kerouac moment - shut up). I've been spit on, screamed at, had change thrown at me but, fuck, its nothing to do with me. Some people use customer service people to exert their power over because they know its the one place they can get away with it. I just cant help but think if thats what they need to do then they must feel pretty shitty about themselves.

Anyway, like N_V sort of said, you've got to make yourself happy. You're never going to be if you let the actions of other people dictate your moods.

er yeah obv if they're behaving like a twat, don't thank them.

it's funny when people are rude. funny fannies.

I did this all the time in the service industry, I don't know what the solution is.