It seems as though the customer was more invested in picking a fight and being defensive about his mistake in supplying them with incorrect shipping information than he was with correcting the problem and getting his product in a timely manner. As far as I'm concerned, when I order something online and the shipping information is incorrect, that's my fault - not theirs.

But that's my 2¢. The CSR was extraordinarily polite and helpful. Bryan was just a jerk.

no love,
chenry

@OhYeahAlright:
And it's rather ignorant of you to disregard the fact that meiran was not talking about both people who hold phd's and college students, but rather, young college students who are studying for PHds, and therefore, one, small minority among both college students and phd holders.

You're bryan... aren't you? Come on. fess up. :P

@phoebeblue: your situation might be a little different depending on a couple things. Did the seller take forever sending it, or was it the shipping company's fault it was late? If it was the shipping company, the seller may have left you negative feedback because they were upset with you leaving a neutral for something that wasn't their problem to begin with.

I pulled this stunt once. In person. By taking off my glasses. I'm still ROFL with how the guy bought it.

I've bitched, with CSRs, about how crappy companies are. I NEVER personally attacked any.

Bullying a fellow human being, just shows Bryan as a self-righteous dick.

You poor poor poor Special Needs Teacher. Why come you no answer to your "tip" you tool?

Seriously, KUDOS to the Customer rep. She is awesome. The lady really tried and you got bitter because you got knocked off your high horse. hahaha.. such a TOOL!

So, I say: Have you found you balls enough to make a reply to all your "fans"? Yeah, I thought not.

My wife is from South America, and she writes the same way - phonetically. Maybe that's why I have a soft spot in my heart for Paola. It's probably also why I had no problem reading her exchanges. She kept it going way too long, offering a remedy too late, but I can understand her frustration. Clearly, neither is completely in the right, but Bryan is certainly more in the wrong for taking the conversation toward personal attacks.

He should be ashamed of himself.

Bryan is certainly one of the largest fuck-tards I've ever met. Oddly enough though, I've occasionally had the impulse to swat someone for communicating poorly, and even followed through on it a few times.

I know that English is a very hard language to learn, and that this CSR was doing her best, and to her credit most of what she wrote was perfectly understandable. But malformed communication does give an incredibly poor image of a company, and their ability to provide good service.

The biggest trouble with Paola's responses above is that from reading them I don't know if she understand the actual problem. Her responses are better than many I've gotten, but in truth, the malformed sentences lead to very ambiguous meaning.

I've ordered from Adorama a few times. Their shipping prices are very high (10 bucks to ship a lens filter via "Mail Innovations", a horrible service that means my package sits in a distribution center for more than a week before anyone bothers delivering it) but otherwise no problems.

How amazing that he is so utterly unaware of what an arrogant jerk he is. He is so blinded by his anger that he couldn't see a reasonable person trying to do their best to help. I pity those poor kids that have to listen to him "teach".

I feel sorry for Paola - can we all gang together and send her some good wishes for putting up with this guy?

Customer Service is a two way street. Yes, people are willing to be more than accomodating to the customer as long as they don't behave like a complete ass.

This customer deserved the disrespect that he received toward the end of this transaction and if he is not willing to understand that every now and then shit happens be it because of policy or accident, then they should have refunded his money and never had dealt with him again.

If we customers can dish it out when their service is "wrong", they should be willing to take it when they are wrong.

I just want to say to you Brian/Bryan(your name changed halfway through the article but who gives a crap), that not only are you an awful human being, I disagree with that customer rep.
I hope you die and never come back

The fact that you feel accomplished with your exchange with that customer rep only shows your a worthless human being. I can imagine you in your younger years throwing tantrums so mommy would bring your chocolate glass of YooHoo in the living room so you can sip and play SNES at the same time.

I think he is probably a teacher's aide in a 4th grade special needs class. Sort of the smartest of the slow kids kind of guy who thinks he can call himself a teacher. He is clearly one of the lucky teachers who doesn't have a class full of ESL students who have to struggle to learn two languages at the same time. No matter what he thought of the CSR's intelligence, she was at least smarter than him in the fact that she learned a second language well enough to work customer service by phone and email. She is probably handling bi-lingual customers as well, so if she misses some basic grammar rules in the process then I'll let her slide on that. I promise you that "bryan" is not the kind of customer that anybody wants to have doing business with them.

When the narrator explained the situation it was crisp and easy to understand, but in the actual correspondence I did not see PAOLA clearly explaining the customer's options.

I think that if PAOLA had simply said: "We cannot have it shipped to your house, but we can either refund you fully or ship it again to a new address you provide" the situation would have dissolved in an instant. But PAOLA did not take the time to explain the options and limitations that her company provides, or to write complete and intelligible sentences.

Younger people such as myself are used to bad spelling and grammer, but many older people legitimatey cannot understand it. When they see a misspelled word they don't necessarily know what is meant.

Grammer is not some useless law thrown over language to make it harder to learn, it is a pattern that helps us alternately accentuate or mask our meanings in order to communicate as effectively and clearly as possible.

I'd hate to think this woman's job is in danger as a result of this guy's probably repeated and energetic complaints. She seems pretty confident that her manager will support her, but sometimes things like this can translate up the chain of command without all the right context.

Hopefully, someone at the company is reading all the comments and realizing that there's a 100 to 1 ratio of people that think the CSR was good to bad.

She needed to think a little more "outside the box" and try to figure out a way to get the customer satisfied, but he was so far up on his soap box that wouldn't have recognized a willingness to assist if it slapped him in the face.

@coolkiwilivin: there has to be a better way than either option. public school kids are lacking funds and the excitement that a truly involved teacher provides (granted, there are plenty of exceptions to both, i'm providing a generalization), but most of the homeschooled kids i've met seem barely able to function socially once they hit the rest of the world. the attention and enthusiasm provided in homeschooling needs to be coupled with the social interaction of a public school.

but of course they won't.

Actually, shouldn't it read:

"Wow. I have no clue what any of that says since your sentences are all run-ons and are really, really long. Go back to school."

Anyways, I'm no english expert myself, but shouldn't there be a comma between the two 'really' instances in this sentence?

"Wow. I have no clue what any of that says since your sentences are all run-ons and really really long. Go back to school."

*shrug*

@Jabberkaty: Bryan is probably the same person who would also complain about immigrants who sit at home and "do nothing" if their English is not good. Paola has a respectable paying job that will help to improve her confidence with English in the long term--why not give some props to that?

And like the rest of you, I did not see any religious subtext in her "born again" comment - I interpreted it as saying that Brian is such a terrible person, that the only way he could ever fix his personality problems would be to start his life over from the very beginning. I completely agree.

If Brian is such a smart and talented individual, how come he can't comprehend the customer service e-mails? Everybody else here on the website can. How could he derive a religious reference from her e-mail, even though it's clear it was not a religious attack at all?

I want to be perfectly clear. Brian very clearly iis (in his own words, mind you) an "asshole" and I feel sorry for everyone that has ever had the misfortune of ever coming into contact with him.

Sometimes this site takes the customer's side when the customer could possibly have handled the situation in a better manner. I'm glad this was not such a case.

Usually, just so I remember what it's like to be a CSR, I read [notalwaysright.com] to remember how NOT to be a consumer.

This way credit card scammers can't simply have the package rerouted there without actually going to your residence and UPS is always more then happy to oblige. Use soem common sense and avoid this whole problem!

First, "born again" is not a religious comment. Because you are too concerned with yourself to try to understand what other people are saying, you missed the point that you obviously aren't going to learn manners in this lifetime.

Second, your escalating demands were completely unreasonable. You screwed up, the company offered their assistance, you rebuffed it.

Third, it's really disgusting how self-assured you are that you were right here. Hopefully this public criticism will set you straight.

Cheers,
Chris

Brian?

Lemme address Brian.

First of all. My Mom is a teacher. My Fiancee's Father is a teacher. My Aunt is a teacher. Most of my Mom's friends are teachers. I have grown up around hundreds of teachers from different grades and different styles of teaching and Bryan is not only the most arrogant that I've encountered, but if he is incapable of understanding her emails, then I suspect he is probably the stupidest as well, so much so that I doubt he is actually a teacher.

I work Customer service, and I do my job well. She did too. Just because you are too incompetent to place your order correctly the first time, or barring that, to check the companies policies to see if what you want is even possible before placing the order, you imply that it was HER who was stupid and not you?

Even if your address is undeliverable (Where the fuck do you live, in a Unibomber shack in the woods?) that sounds sketchy. I wouldn't do it even if I could have, were I in their position, it sounds like the kind of bullshit I used to go through when people were trying to scam us to get free products.

Bryan, fuck you. You aren't entitled to shit. Buying a service or a product only means that you have the economic means to do so, it doesn't mean anyone owes you a Goddamned thing you arrogant piece of shit. If you go into a store and buy a cheeseburger, they owe you a fucking cheeseburger, not half an hour of their time arguing with you over how to make it. What the fuck do you know? You couldn't even understand her emails, so you must not be able to work with children very well, I've READ what they write and it is generally for more confusing than anythign she wrote. So you can't even do your own job properly and you have the nerve to criticize how others do theirs, as if you know better than they do?

Seriously, you and of the baby-boomer spawn like you who think they deserve the world on a platter need to go fuck yourselves. I deal with people like you every day, and usually we just act nicely to your face and talk shit on you behind your back. Nobody likes you, and if you have any friends, it is probably only because they are amused by how much of an asshole you are, and the novelty of that wears off quickly. You probably couldn't handle yourself in a fight if your life depended on it, but you act aggressively and rudely towards others.

If you do any one thing to make the world a better place, I recommend you kill yourself. We will all be much better off without you.

Once UPS has it, you should be able to use the tracking information to call UPS and find a way to get your package. Being an asshole to a CSR over a rule she can't control is just...wtf.

Love the "born again" comment and it was so obviously about him being a LIFE FAIL rather than religiously motivated.

Also, what the heck is a 4th grade teacher doing with a Blackberry?

And to all the commenters who suspect that English was Paola's second-language, please read her name again. It's clearly Portuegese, which means she's either Brazilian or...well...Portuegese (but probably Brazilian).

I thought I'd clear that up. Cheers.

The International Association of Bryans and Brians has issued an official censure to this Bryan, and his membership in the IABB has been permanently revoked. An associate will arrive shortly to confiscate his membership card, engraved ring and monogrammed towels.

Excellent quote. It's really sad that she is more intelligent than he is and just happens to probably be from a different country and forced to work a csr job. It's funny how people get so worked up about grammar when it's obvious that they could understand the sentence. So maybe it took like 3 seconds longer to comprehend? In Brian's case, it must've taken a lot longer since the "you've failed at life" comment went right over his head.
Ugh, can you imagine his reaction with his 4th graders? In my grade school, there were always 2 teachers for each grade of students. He's that teacher that scared the shit out of you in 3rd grade and you had to pray that you didn't get assigned to his class instead of getting the awesome other 4th grade teacher with the cool spaceship thing inside and working fake economy.

And I've dealt with Adorama's customer service in the past. They are top notch.

And yes, the spelling/lack of punctuation is irritating when you have to reread stuff. However, when I get above and beyond customer service, grammar/punctuation means dick.

Bryan really has no skills that would indicate to me that he is a teacher of any stripe that I would want interacting with my children. Some of the most important qualities of a teacher should be patience and understanding.

If Bryan had patience, he could've at least bitten his tongue when dealing with Paola who, despite his treatment, continued to offer her assistance with his issue, even if it was just "because it's her job."

If he had a sense of understanding, he would sympathize with her that at best, she's merely a pawn in a large company that requires her to adhere to a rulebook and her managers' decisions.

It is also evident that he NEVER made clear his request that another package be sent out in place of the first.

In my opinion, Adorama is truly going above and beyond their duties here, and since Bryan has already determined the outcome (that he'll never shop there again), there is no need to grant him free shipping on the replacement. Refund his money less shipping, and send him on his merry way as a reward for his belligerence.

PS: Dear Bryan, stop breathing. Thanks!

@katiat325: Actually, I get business email from corn-fed Americans that contain similar typos and syntax. I've stopped even reacting unless it's really, really bad or really, really funny.

@aristan: Yeah, but after they attempted the first delivery and he wasn't there, they could have left one of those delivery tags that allowed him to change where to deliver it to or pick it up at UPS. I have to do that all the time since UPS won't deliver to my apartment. Fortunately, UPS is on my way home from work. I think this guy was just looking for some kind of argument or something for free.

Bryan is your typical union employee. Nothing is ever their fault, they are always right and they are entitled to everything in the world. simply because they show up.

Their correspondences really are pretty pathetic. "unfurtunaly this is an Amazon order and we wont be able to have you pick it up. I apologized for the inconvenience this may have caused you."

Sure, you get the point of what this person is trying to say, but it looks incredibly unprofessional and childish.

Of course, Bryan also screwed the pooch here with rude and obstinate correspondences of his own. Lose-lose.

I thought sure this was going to be about the OMG 16%!111!1 WTFBBQ Icelandic savings accounts.

@HelenOster: Umm..you do notice how good this story makes both Adorama and Paola look, don't you?

Ack...free advertising! Exposing Paola to hundreds of compliments and kind words from strangers! Making her a small Internet celebrity for her excellent CSR skills!

It's unnecessarily cruel!

He's not a sociopath, he's just an asshole. I AM a sociopath & we don't act like that. We mostly keep to ourselves & occasionally kill people.

He was probably a bully or a jock in school, and carried his superior, self-serving attitude over to adult life. People like him honestly think they DESERVE to have their asses kissed & become enraged when people refuse to.

@intellivised: I am, by profession, a translator of Hebrew to English, and I don't think her native language is Hebrew. First off, Paola is not a Hebrew name. And if she wanted a more convenient "American" name for work, she'd have chosen something other than Paola. Also, she is not translating from Hebrew. That was the first thing I thought of but when I tried to "reverse engineer" her writing, I could tell it was not being translated from Hebrew.

A lot of my job is actually resolving screwed up addresses and such and I'll say this guy is definitely an extreme example, but I get more assholes bitching than I do people who appreciate that I'm doing extra work to make sure they get what they ordered.

This sounds like a teacher I once had in 4th grade. I wonder?

@Muusu: You see, that's how I looked at it! Sigh... This guy really is the definition of an anal-sore.

:P

@wcnghj: no, it doesn't. It sounds like she's learning English in some manner, but truthfully, English is a hard language to learn if you start learning it as an adult. You start to think of the language's words and phrases in your native language's grammar. It's very common for immigrants learning English in America. I would know, my mother does the same thing.

The problem is, Amazon won't let 3rd party resellers change UPS shipping info/directions while the item is in transit.

Paola told Bryan this via email which she said that if he had ordered directly from the company rather than via Amazon, she would have no problem changing the shipping information. Sadly, her companies contract could be pulled by Amazon if she did this in violation of the contract.

Keeping Bryan's business by violating the contract with Amazon doesn't make good business sense. Keep him happy, but lose all business because Amazon shuts your store down.

Some customers just need to be fired.

Its different.... its different....

Adorama... I'm going to have to check them out! I like this Paola... spunky kid!

On a side note, I get along and like everybody. But if this Bryan guy ended up dead, I wouldn't be sad about it. He deserves to no longer be a citizen of this planet. Yeah that is harsh, but he obviously is not contributing to the world, and he is ruining poor 4th grade kids' lives in the process.

@mythago: You ain't kidding. Homeschool kids are on average way ahead of their Public School counterparts. He sounds like the typical product of Public School and do anything to stroke their self esteem the Elementary school close to my house has a huge sign that says, "Success is measured by effort." No success is measured by success. The scary part is that the teachers union will stick by this by guy rather than doing what's best for the kids.

Yeah, I'm an asshole

STOP! Enough said.

I'm leaning towards the "fail at life" theory, myself.

bryan is an asshat.

Oops my last reply was supposed to be @parad0x360

I never really have a problem with bad customer service.... I seem to get really good results when I start off with honesty about my attitude. I'll tell the person answering my call what my frame of mind is right away, so they can be prepared... as in..

"Hi, I'm really frustrated today, there is a problem with my whatsis, and it's driving me crazy. I'm really hoping you can help me out, or if you can't that you'll help me get a hold of the department or person who can..."

Of course, tone of voice matters a lot, so I be sure to have a "pleading" tone, and not an angry tone. I figure starting off like that lets the CS rep know how I'm feeling right away, so they don't feel ambushed if halfway into the call I start getting upset. It also lets them know that I'm already aware that they (the CSR) might NOT be able to actually solve my problem, and that "escalation" might be needed. Basically, they already know to treat me gently because I'm already a bit frazzled.

More important though, is that 99.99% of the time starting off like that gets the CS rep on my side right away. They take a bit of pity on me, and they want to help me even more...

Srsly. I may not be a teacher, but I could follow what she was saying pretty well. Are his comprehension skills so bad that he can't parse out meaning if it's not delivered with impeccable grammar and perfect punctuation?

Brian just served up a heaping helping of FAIL.

I'm sure Bryan is reading our comments now. Rather than taking into consideration what anyone has to say, he is just nit-picking our comments for grammatical errors and basing his opinions of us as people based solely on that.

The CSR went a little out of bounds after a while, but she never deserved that treatment in the first place.

I'd like to see Brian respond to why he acted the way he did.

Anyhow, CSRs can be incredibly helpful, if you let them. The less respectful you are, the less willing they'll be to help. No one should treat anybody else like the OP treated this rep, it's deplorable.

@squablow: of course he deserves special treatment, we all know that being a prick can force any company to change their policy to accomodate you...

Paola is not a native speaker of English. In most likelihood she is not even doing her job within the United States.

Her English usage patterns lead me to believe she is Chinese.

She is most likely an employee of a Help center tasked with answering email from various different companies. That help center is probably located in China.

Also judging by her measured and polite responses to Bryan's rude and obnoxious missives, she is doing a better job of dealing with him than an American would have.

An American customer service rep tasked with taking care of his complaint would most likely have told him to "Fuck off" after such repeated abuse.

Having taught English to many Chinese Help Center workers located in the PRC who answer Emails from customers around the World, I would say that Paola's English is good enough to get the job done.

I have read many emails from customers in the US sent to one such center in China. The English writing of most Americans and Brits is appalling. Paola's is good enough for the job she has to do.

The problem lies with Bryan. He has a big attitude problem. Despite his criticism of Paola's English ability, his is not as great as he thinks it is.

Perhaps that's why he teaches fourth Graders and not higher grades.

Oh, and knowing Chinese Companies, if Paola is indeed working at one, she doesn't need to fear any fallout from Bryan's threats of contacting management and complaining about poor customer service. She'll keep her job, because, the owners of the help center in China really don't care what one complaining American Customer has to say about their workers.

And Bryan's remark that she should "Go back to school" was just ridiculous. Obviously the one who should go back to school
is Bryan. He has a lot to learn about how business works these days. He actually thinks he's corresponding with an American worker.

Paola probably has more degrees than Bryan does.

Yes, you have to deal with jerks like Bryan, and worse. But you get invaluable experience in how to get by in life.

I am not a patient person. I've had my share of infuriating exchanges with poor customer service from crappy companies (WaMu, I'm looking at you). But at least I know that beating up on GOOD CSRs is not the way to get what you want.

1) I hope Bryan loses his job. He's not much of a teacher if he acts that way.

2) Paola was GREAT at being a customer service rep. It's people like Bryan that turns them into apathetic assholes.

Now, our high schoolers who have lived in this country all of their lives and should be proficient in English who sound like this... yeah, then it's kind of sad. But, it's still not a reason to berate them so unkindly. Some people I went to school with were clearly not exposed to reading and writing skills early enough and thus nothing stuck and at the age of 30 they still sound like a 4th grader. It happens.

You can still understand the message they are trying to convey, even if it is poorly executed, the point was clearly made. What a dick. This sounds like one of those people who would complain if you gave them a $100 bill about how it's not green enough, or it's got a small cut in it, etc.

if a company takes as much pride in their customer service as Adorama clearly does to have a representative responding to this post, perhaps they should consider that emails with misspelled words and lack of appropriate capitalization do not present a very professional impression.

I could care less about the verb tenses, it is obvious the rep's first language is not English, but I did find the lack of appropriate capitalization and blatantly misspelled words. It is not hard to verify that a word is spelled correctly and the sentences properly formatted before sending off a reply as a representative of your employer.

I don't think the "born again" referenced religion, I took it to mean that he was ruined for this life and the only way for him to be a decent human being was for him to be literally born a second time as a baby. Which is impossible.

I agree with the rep. He's a lost cause.

Why give free shipping to a dick like that! Give it to me instead! I'm a nice person! :3

Besides the daily deals, this is the first time the consumerist has encouraged me to buy from a company :D

Way to go jackass!

@HelenOster: Have you missed the hundreds of comments that are completely sympathetic to Paola's command of the language, given it's not her native tongue? Did you miss the fact that this was posted precisely to highlight how the customer is not only not always right, but sometimes a jerk who gets his kicks from making fun of someone who is doing her best at communicating in a language that's not her own? I'm guessing so.

No one here cares about her grammatical errors because everyone here gets that it's not her native language. So it is cruel, how, exactly?

the answer is "thanks!!!!"

Seriously? Did you want them to correct her spelling or something before they posted it?

The post is an accurate word-for-word account of what happened. Your reply really makes your company look bad. You are saying that portraying your own customer service EXACTLY LIKE IT HAPPENED is cruel. Now, tell me, how is it cruel for this service to be public but acceptable for your customers?

All this being said, I saw nothing wrong with the way Paola handled things. Her English was rough but still easy to comprehend. My overall point is that you should be thanking the Consumerist for sticking up for your company instead of calling them cruel for "exposing" (your words, not mine) how your customer service is.

what a prick.

@Emidawg: You talk fancy. I like it.

It is people like Bryan who make me lose faith in humanity. I thought she did a fantastic job given the circumstances, having to deal with such a disrespectful person. English is one of the hardest languages to learn, and I applaud her for making it this far. I am sure Bryan can speak multiple languages and pass for a native without question!

If you are unable to comprehend what she was trying to get across, maybe it is you who needs to go back and hit the books.

Aww, But we're all pro Paola, we think she did a great job, above and beyond. I can't really speak for the Consumerist, but I don't think anyone meant to embarrass Paola, it was just that the way "Bryan" treated her was so reprehensible...

It seems the concern is the people who are saying she should have spell checked, well those people can take those opinions and "please respectfully stick it up [their] tightly wound asshole[s]." as Kaylabear so eloquently put it.

FURTHER! I SUBMIT! That in Paola's first response

hi!
unfurtunaly this is an Amazon order and we wont be able to have you pick it up. I apologized for the inconvenience this may have caused you.

This apologized - past tense - is further evidence that the exchange between the two had been going back and forth for more than even Bryan admits...

Carey wrote:

Bryan didn't send us his original request, so we'll start with Adorama's response.

Well, it seems obvious that Bryan left out his original request, along with at LEAST one previous response from Paola. Otherwise, are we actually supposed to believe that she misspelled "apologizeD" in the past tense? Seems FAR more likely that Bryan had been haranguing her for a little while already. It's already been established that he is an asshole.

And really, anyone with any sense can see that Paola's first few responses were hurried, and that she was flustered by the jackass Bryan. I wouldn't have spellchecked either, because I would be more concerned about not making the angry customer wait for responses. I mean heck, maybe some of those "unforwarded exchanges" would show Bryan complaining that she was taking to long in her answers.

Her grammar seems outstanding, amazing, phenomenal if you ask me. Clearly, she had an unfortunate problem with one particular word, and I'm sure she'll be spelling it correctly from here on out. It seems fitting that the word "unfortunate" will now forever remind Paola of Bryan. I'm pretty sure that's not good karma.

Most of the other errors seem like minor typos or parts where the sentences are sent mid-edit... like this one...

if the order was place directly from us we wouldn't have this problem.
again I apologies.

To me that looks like it's mid-edit, as if she were in the process of rephrasing it... again I apologies ... could have been "All I can offer are my apologies" and then she goes to change it, accidentally hits enter or send and *poof* it's sent unfinished.

whew.... what a long pointless post I just wrote. Fuck it, I'm hitting submit anyway

I know that "brusque" doesn't even begin to describe myself, but fer cryin' out loud....

That guy may be the worst for attitude, but the worst ethics may have been a few months ago when a man stole a case of soda and claimed he was falsely accused. That guy was a moron.

Paola, if you read the consumerist YOU ROCK

You, sir, are a first-class douche bag who has NO right to be teaching anybody, let alone 4th graders. The fact that you wrote Comsumerist thinking this was justified is just beyond me. Pull your head out of your ass and start treating others with some respect.

Which means I get lots of mistaken-laden mail, and I write informally a lot too.

Like right now, with two sentence fragments.

@parad0x360: Oh no, you said "after" twice! Bryan is gonna come after you!

What a clown.

Mighty Weasel says:Is it just me, or did it sound like maybe English was not this CSR's first language?
As you may be aware, Adorama's Head office is in New York, which has a resident and working population from diverse backgrounds. In common with many others, English is indeed not Paola's first language.

It would not be unreasonable to suggest that Paola could - and should - have used her 'spell-checker'. However, whilst I applaud the 'Consumerist' for the support given to consumers in highlighting shady business practice, I believe it was unnecessarily cruel to expose Paola's spelling and grammatical errors in such a public forum.

Sincerely

Helen Oster
Adorama Camera Customer Service Ambassador

They even rushed an order to bail me out when B&H botched my order before I had to photograph a wedding.

From the look of it perhaps english may not be Paola's native language, which is more than possible seeing as many CSRs are located in other countries, and the internet can be a global marketplace.

There was no reason for the gentleman to be rude, she told him what he wanted was not possible and made several suggestions to rectify it, to which he just replied with bullheaded ignorance. If I dont get my way Im going to make fun of you! Are you hanging out with your students too much sir? Your tactics are quite like that of a gradeschool bully!

100% agree- he read the email with an anti-religion bias and read what he wanted to read. He used the "crutch" argument and is a self proclaimed A-hole. Well Bryan, perhaps you could use a crutch up side the head. Folks like you seed the world with hate and discontent.

Perhaps Bryan was getting some sort of PMS medicine that he clearly needed. Bryan lost site of the goal. I didn't read all 138 comments, but if you are not where you say you will be, UPS will take your package to a depot and then they will allow you to pick it up.

Bryan does not need to be teaching fourth graders. If he is, they're probably learning how to be a douche to people who are trying to help them. Customer service reps do have limited ability at resolution once a different company takes over. Amazon is just covering themselves by not letting people change shipping methods for addresses. Dur.

Nice Bryan, real nice.

It's been several months, and that article still pisses me off.

And Bryan, all respect, you were kind of an ass about it. The person tried to help you. Sure, their grammar/spelling sucked, but at least their messages were clear about what policy is and why they couldn't help you. As for the "born again" crack, you got personal first. You insulted someone trying to help you and they remained mostly professional in response. So it's really hard to be sympathetic to your cause without first pointing out your failings.

best of luck, though.

Just my two cents
Brian with an i

Bry, you portray yourself as a total waste of humanity in this exchange - I hope you read ALL the comments in this post and take the advice to heart. You, unlike all other animal species, have frontal lobes that allow you to reflect on what a douche you've been in this interaction and taking that fact to heart, DO something positive with yourself and 'be born again' (NOT a religious trite phrase, not that I think it was when purportedly uttered by Jeshua either - meant exactly what everyone, atheist included, so aptly described it to be above - starting over, as if being born again, growing up all over again, and hopefully this time 'getting it right')

Thanks, Consumerist, for sharing this with us. In these trying days (and even more difficult days to come) humans need to be so careful to keep their humility, patience, kindness, 'humanity' in their L1 and L2 cache.

Cheers, one and all.

monkey

No the customer is not always right and you don't have a right to treat someone that way. I am glad she fought back. She should not have to put up with this sort of treatment.

Brian, please quit your job. Don't influence the next generation in becoming self-indulgent, entitled little whiners.

As a former TiVo CSR I can truthfully say that I've dealt with my fair share of customers like this. Nobody calls customer support for fun. CSRs are one of the lowest people in the company, they have NO say in policies. The CSR was in the right until she started to blatantly argue with him. During my time with TiVo I was more inclined to help people who were kind and curteous, and wanted people like Bryan off my phone. You may think that being an ass to a CSR will get them to give you what you want because they want to end the conversation, but that rarely is the case. I was usually more than happy if a call escalated to a supervisor because they restated the SAME policies, and wouldn't budge either unless we were clearly in the wrong.

I agree - I didn't take that as a hint that Bryan needs to get religion, more like Paola commenting that while it might be possible for her to learn to spell, Bryan will always be an asshole. Like the old "I can diet, you'll always be ugly" comeback.

As for Bryan... the guy's asshole-ishness is just compounded by the fact that he actually had the nerve to send this in to Consumerist. "OMG, this company couldn't change the shipping instructions I HAD GIVEN THEM after the item had shipped, and then not only that, but their CSR doesn't write perfect English!!"

Uhhh, I hate to blame the consumer here, but... oh wait, no I don't. Bryan is an obnoxious idiot. I guess he behaves like this in restaurants, too - I can only imagine how much server-spit and other nasties he's consumed over the years.

ahem, i am also an elementary school teacher and the majority of my students are not native speakers of english. bryan seems to think that not having english as your native language automatically makes you stupid. yeah, he must be a great teacher, i'm sure his students love him...

If Bryan had his address listed on Amazon, then that's where Amazon sellers send it, which means that Paola was perfectly justified in sending her apologies but informing Bryan that nothing could be done until the package was returned. She was doing her best to offer good customer service and explain why his request (ahem, DEMAND) couldn't be met, and rather than accept that, Bryan decided to throw a tantrum and try to ridicule her to inflate his own ego.

By the way, my brother is a teacher (and a fantastic one, I might add...he won the annual Teacher of the Year Award last year), and I can say without reservation that he would be absolutely ashamed of Bryan.

Spelling is a surprisingly (there! did it! first try!) unnecessary life skill as long as you can edit ... or hire an editor.

And I agree with the poster above who states that Bryan is most definitely not a teacher. He's just a typical "Internet Tough Guy" who jumped on the chance to belittle a CSR because he knows he will never have to face that person in real life. In other words, he's a douche-bag.

Bryan dealt with this CSR in a truly pathologically dysfunctional way. The appropriate place to learn new ways of thinking and behaving would be in the therapist's office. I wish him luck.

First he wants a mere CSR to change company policy just to suit his picky-ass demands, and then he takes to personally attacking her when she can't do it? Does he teach fourth grade or is he IN fourth grade?! What a prick!

This poor girl was nothing but polite to him. It's obvious by her name & her english that she's not a native english speaker but I think she did pretty damn good. Yes, she made some grammatical mistakes but her communication was pretty clear & effective.

You are a an immature, self-important, fit-throwing CHILD, Bryan. GROW UP, asshole.

I'm off to shop at Adorama.

Get over yourself.

Well, Bryan, I hope you feel like a big man now. Being a self-proclaimed asshole is really cool, eh?

Sorry, sorry... I know pirates are old.

@Victo: I also hope he doesn't have any kids in his class who are in the process of learning English.

I find that most teachers are highly aware of exactly how privileged they and their students are to have an education, and are more sympathetic to those who didn't have a great education. I currently teach students in Grade Nine (so, they are fourteen years old) to read and write. Eight of my nine students are at least third-generation Canadians whose parents and grandparents speak, read and write only English. Yet, for some reason, these students have not learned to read and write. If we've got native English speakers who are totally unable to read and write, how can a customer expect perfect English grammar from an obviously non-native English-speaking customer service representative? Also, I wonder how this "teacher" "handles" the "problem" of ESL students in his classroom. What nerve these children must have, being born to parents who chose to or had to immigrate! How dare they require accommodations and modifications to their program of studies? Don't they know they're making more work for him? Why don't they just drop out of school and get a job in customer service or something... Oh wait... Nevermind...

People don't seem to understand that when you pay through Amazon, everything is through Amazon... so when Amazon is holding your payment, if Adorama doesn't ship to the exact address that Amazon provides them, the customer can initiate a chargeback that shows the item wasn't delivered to the address provided and thus Amazon will lose the chargeback case, and the money will eventually come out of Adorama's pocket in the end, because this idiot didn't take 5 seconds to make sure his shipping address was correct.

I tell my employees if you ever get a complete jackass like this, give them their money right back and end it there, but if they resort to stuff like this, feel free to retort right back and point out they are an idiot for making the mistake in the first place. These kind of "customers" will never be happy, EVER, so it doesn't matter if they never come back since either 1) they probably wouldn't anyway or 2) they'll always have something to complain about, and thus make the workplace less productive / positive.

DIE BRYAN DIE!

There's a difference, between @%?$@@# the company, and personally attacking a human being.

I believe once they've made a failed attempt at a delivery, you can contact UPS and have them hold it for you. If the shipper can't change the shipping instructions, leave them out of it.

@kaylabear: Gasp! Your avatar looks so sweet, but you just scratched Bryan up like you're a tiger! :)

I bet Bryan goes shopping at Wal-Mart hoping for a receipt check just so he can go apeshit on some senior citizen.

No kidding. Adorama and B&H = Hebrew central.

May the messiah bless them. And buy lots of photo gear.

I went threw all those comments and this asshat never responded. I was hoping he would explain his actions but nada, nothing, zippo. I'm not going to state what has already been stated over and over again but I was very disappointed this person doesn't have the balls to reply.

The victim here is the CSR that had to deal with him.

@Nofsdad:

This guy seems like equal parts of:

"rebel without a clue"
[redwing.hutman.net]

"jerk":
[redwing.hutman.net]

"tireless rebutter"
[redwing.hutman.net]

and "Ferrous Cranus"
[redwing.hutman.net]

I bet Bryan is one of those people.

Somebody kick this Bryan in the ass. He's making the rest of we teachers look bad.

This is horribly awesome.

I had a guy yell at me in the parking lot at my business last week, and I've never even met him before.

F?? this guy deserves a Z..

It's called being polite. Paola there was nicer than any amazon seller I've ever dealt with, and she gave tons of help to you. It's not her fault you're a wishy washy person who chooses to change the address after something ships.

The reason some online places don't allow that is it's a major source of fraud. That's right, fraud you filthy theiving teacher.

You're making me glad I decided not to go into teaching if this is truly how you all act.

At first I thought the lady was being semi-sarcastic and kind of funny in a bitchy sort of way, but she was not.

"Well, ma'am, that particular model I'd have to order for you (because our boss was a cheapskate)"

"Well than can you tell me where I CAN get it?"

"Well, if you want it now, maybe you can go to the Apple store across town. They might have it"

"Well, can you call and check for me?"

At this point, if she would have been any nicer, I may have. Or at least have given her the number. "Nope. We're not associated with the Apple store in any way."

"You mean, you won't call them for me? Not even for CUSTOMER SERVICE?"

Now, again, at that point I wanted to scream at her, "Well your not even a customer now, are you? You fat ugly bitch! RAWR!!!!!!". But unfortunately I did not. I had to respond merely with, "No. Sorry."

"Well then! Can I use your phone, I don't have a cell?"

The other employees thought I was being too nice, and I let her use our phone. Although, I wanted nothing more than to see that lady get in a horrible yet non-fatal car accident in the parking lot. Maybe breaking her neck and having to relearn how to walk and write with a pen and realizing what a horrible shrewd she had been her entire life when no one wants to help her recover; not even her closest "friends" who have put up with her for so long. Then she would have an epiphany and change her ways after her husband left her all alone and married her nicer sister after realizing his terrible mistake when, in fact, it was her who had truly loved him. Then, the horrible lady would only have her cancer-ridden, sick cat left with her which would, unbeknownst to the bitch, be found later. Killed by the same kid from across the street who used to tee-pee her house every Halloween.

Some people just don't get it. You don't deserve ANYTHING. In no way are you somehow entitled to all the niceties in the world from some salesman or whoever simply because you ASKED for it. You are horrible and your attitude towards people like that pretty much sums up how you are as a person: an ignorant asshole who's sole purpose in life is to help only yourself and step on anyone who might deny that "right" to you.

You deserve nothing, and just like an addict having to hit absolute bottom or have a life threatening experience in order to change their ways, as are you doomed to the same fate. I truly hope this embarrassment has taught you such a lesson.

Whew...... that brought up some bottled up memories. I feel better!

I can't believe that whole point about going back to school and about his rudeness and having to be "born again" was totally missed by him. Completely flew over his head. He obviously had it out for this customer service agent from the get go and used her bad grammar to really stick it to her. What an asshole.

Lesson: Customers need to be less like Bryan and CSRs should be more like this woman.

Miserable prick.

If you're going to complain about someone's grammar and spelling, you should make sure that yours is impeccable, especially if you're a teacher. Otherwise, you just look like an idiot.

I am going to go out of my way to buy things from Adorama as they really did provide good service.

I also know from experience that by far the best way to get someone to bend the rules for you is to be nice to them. The second you start acting like a dick, they will start following the rules to the absolute letter.

the CSR put up with more than she should have, and did it with more courtesy than i can imagine. i have worked in restaurants for the better part of my career, and this guy would have rated the "chef's special" in many of them. (i never went for that-but many of my coworkers did)

it makes me incredibly sad that he thinks this is even remotely acceptable behavior in ANY interaction-not only that, but he is convinced that she was the one who behaved poorly. what an ass!

Assholes are assholes and educated assholes like Bryan are simply capable of passing more crap than the ordinary asshole.

It's a shame she had to deal with such an ass.

And since Paola is a highly uncommon name in the U.S., I join the people suspecting she's working in a foreign language to boot. (Though I think it's a nice touch that she's Paola and the credit for the article photograph goes to a Paolo.)

My first thought is "Why didn't you use the correct address/method in the first place?" If you tell the system "Ship to X", when you want it shipped to "Y" you may be out of luck.

My second thought is "They may really be bound by the policies..." Amazon has very strict rules with those that use them.

Third...yes, her spelling and grammar are less than ideal. But she's trying. And it does beat the canned response which may be technically perfect, but is even less useful.

Last...as some have commented: Born again wasn't a religious comment. It was a statement about your very existence. She may be helped by additional schooling, but you need to literally be born again...starting from square one.

Congrats, sir...you win the "Don't be this guy" award.

In the words of Cameron Frye, "Pardon my French (Bryan)...but you're an a--hole!"

Bryan = grade A, self-entitled, douchebag. I'm going to ask God that Bryan never has the opportunity to breed.

Who knows what kind of monsters he would unleash on the world?

In summery: Bryan=FAIL

@verucalise: My computer sucks everyone, it doesn't keep up with what I type. Sorry for the errors.

I love the leetspeak phraseology from this loser.

Bryan, it's been said before. Reveal yourself and take your lashings!

I, for one, do not see Bryan as a teacher at ALL. I believe once this CSR mentioned "Are you a teacher?" that this f*ckface decided to seize the opportunity - besides, who would check? It was an easy way for him to assert his grammar superiority and throw a few "my 4th graders are smarter than you" insults in.

I find it childish, and if I were to go all "freudian" on this situation, I would say Bryan is a sexually frustrated guy in his mid 20's who truly believes that he is always right. That the world will bow to his godliness. I also bel,ieve he's fat, and taking his aggressions over his sucky life on innocent and helpful CSR's.

Childish, rude... I could go on and on. Unfortunately, I do not feel like giving this gentleman any more of my time, seeing as he's probably reading over everyone's comments and is actually insulted. I'm sure he sent this all in just so he could see his story/name somewhere, anywhere.

The old addage comes to mind : "Negative attention, is still attention."

Sounds like the typical customer I talk to everyday. Collections is getting interesting with the down turn in the economy.

But in the regards to the story, the customer service representative went above and beyond what she had to do in order to satisfy him.

Why don't we just Old Yeller him when we take him out back?

I don't mean this in a harsh way at all, but translators don't misspell..... Also, translators tend to botch things up...

I agree. Kissing customer service ass is the best possible way to approach a service problem. Even going so far as to show sympathy for their horrible job and ask them how THEIR day is going will lubricate the gears of helpfulness.

After all, the whole point of contacting customer service is to obtain a solution. Not bitch slap someone who gets crap wages.

Regarding this comment:

""Make it happen?" Tell that to a waitress and you'll rightly end up with a drink down your shirt."

hehehehehe I sincerely doubt that a good waitress would do that.

A *good* waitress would make sure that his meal "happened," and that he got ALL of his food and drink, maybe even a "complimentary" appetizer or two, and preferably dessert. All SPECIALLY prepared.

And if she was REAL good, the rest of the patrons would be fully aware of it, and laughing their asses off as Bryan sat there for a couple of hours eating that SPECIALLY prepared food...

I don't care that this guy is a teacher - I feel so bad for his students (I imagine he's the joke amongst the older students at his school). In fact, he should know better than to make the situation more difficult and prolonged than it had to be - I've been in such situations and I'm just totally focused on getting my facts straight and getting the whole thing resolved. I try to refrain from any kind of communication not regarding the situation. And if ever the employee gives me attitude, I'm smart enough to know that instead of getting tangled up in some stupid, back-and-forth bullshit with them, I'm just going to cut to the chase and go over their head: I'm just going to look up their direct supervisor or manager.

Bryan must not have much else going on his life, him being so desperate for 'drama.'

Bryan, whoever you are: you are the douchiest douchebag, and go ahead, feel free to mark my comments up with a red pen: afterward, please respectfully stick it up your tightly wound asshole. Have a nice day!!!!

For what it's worth, it's totally obvious that she wasn't telling him to be "born again" in the Christian sense either, and I would expect a brilliant teacher to recognize this.

Still, I'm not at all religious and maybe even somewhat anti-religious but in this instance it would help him to be born again in a fundamentalist Baptist way, he would less intolerable.

@hollywood2590:

I would say this was not meant religiously at all. It just looks to me as the CS agent does not have english as a first langauge and struggles a little bit to say things as she means them, but was trying as hard as she could.

Brian is a Jerk

a) the customer is NOT always right
b) treating someone else like a leper is bound to fuck you in the end
c) Bryan is a douche

And you might want to add the "bad consumer" tag.

Verbally abusing someone doing their best to help you whether face to face or not makes you a bad person. End of story.

Just because you (general sense - not you smartperson) have other frustrations in life doesn't mean you can take it out on a CSR. They probably have far more frustrations and don't need your abuse on top of that.

Not that I'd be that big of an ass about it though.

That customers feel they are entitled to verbally abuse people or, as this guy did, vent a life full of pent up aggression at someone they deem below them is more a sign of how uncivil our society has become.

This guy will still be ugly in the morning but the CSR has a chance of improving her spelling. She has already learned how to correctly spell unfortunately.

To be honest, the CSR frankly makes me want to do business with Adorama.

* She tried to help, within the confines of her power. She was very polite, even in the face of ranting.
* She didn't lose it until she had been insulted multiple times, and even then she hit a zinger right over the customer's head.
*She offered her supervisor's contact info. Without being prompted.
*She attempted to resolve the problem again by offering to attempt to waive shipping.

This woman is my CSR dream! Can I, like, send her a tip or something?

I do wish Brian's e-mail had "accidentally" made it into the posting so I, and I suspect many others, could tell him directly what a douchebag he is.

(Brian I hope you're reading this - you, sir, are an ASSHOLE!)

Y'know Bryan, you're not even -good- at being an asshole.

The post mentioned Brian as a reader of Consumerist...I wonder if that's still gonna be the case after the thorough shaming we've given him.

Wow [looking in mirror]. I hope I don't ever come across like that guy, no matter how frustrated I might be with a customer service issue.

I agree with maztec, she told him that he needed to be born again...as in start over. He's just too dense and self-righteous to see that. I guess his students are getting a great example of humanity, not to mention humility, having him as a teacher.

While the rep should have stopped responding, I still think she was pretty civil throughout. This guy is clearly an ass. He seems like one of those people who are just generally angry, and look for someone or something to take it out on.

Well, I hope Bryan achieved his goal with sending this in. Golden rule, indeed.

Bryan, you FAIL, hardcore. :( Shame on you!!

That woman is an angel of customer service. Hats off to Paola for keeping her cool for so very long, the poor thing!

As for Bryan: He might not actually be a bad person. Sometimes people vent other frustrations they have in life in highly inappropriate ways; the fact is it is easier to verbally abuse a fellow human being when you're not face-to-face.

If you've had a chance to cool down Bryan, think about what you've done, and figure out what you can do to make it right.

There are many bad CSR out there and there are good ones also. I see them ask Police Officers. They ALL start out (well most) wanting to help people then people do this to them and they start becoming bad.

I did have one CSR for wildblue give me a hard time. She told me that I could not do math. Why on the phone with her I pulled off one of my degrees and fax it to her. She then started to say she was sorry but its how they have it written down. A hour later she had the problem in front of her to help others. People can be assholes and then they can be nice.

One last thing, remember you called the CSR help they did not call you for help.

Whoa...i just spent two hrs at notalwaysright.com. I don't know if i should curse you or thank you -- i'll check back in another hr and see ;).

Wow, this guy is a grade A+ douchebag. The spelling and grammar could've been better but that is forgiveable since English obviously isn't the CSR's first language. The CSR went out of her way to provide positive customer service and no matter what she did, Brian had to be an insulting, holier-than-thou (oh noes! religion!) pompous ass.

Note to consumerist editors: I really enjoyed this article, since it shows a horrible customer service transaction from the other side. I'd love to see more in the future.

What a gigantic, gaping, arrogant asshole. It's a pity a moronic prick like this guy is entrusted with the task of educating children.

Fuck you, Bryan.

@Meiran: People like that are pretty rough to deal with.

One of my favorite things to do with people like that are just to outright ask them, "Sir/Ma'am, I've gone over the situation and what solutions I feel we can provide. What would you suggest in place of these?"

Half the time they don't know (one of the most popular responses is "You're customer service and I'm the customer, serve me!), since they're just arguing for the sake of arguing, and they finally realize that they're coming off as a complete douche. Most of the time this makes them more willing to take one of the options I've offered them.

Instead he's getting publicly humiliated and shown to be much further down the totem pole than the people he was trying to get humiliated in the first place.

There's a word for this... If only there was a 4th-grade teacher around to help me remember....

OH YEAH!

IRONY

Hi Bryan! :)

BE HAPPY!

@mythago: Haha, that's awesome. Definitely a +1 for that.

As a customer service rep myself, I give the lady credit for most of this. She got off track at the end, but if it were me I'd have a hard time offering to replace the order with free shipping and such once he's been that much of a moosetard.

I wouldn't have been surprised at the anger demonstrated by Brian if this was a non-reputable company (Fry's?) or one that only pays minimum wage (Wal-Mart?), but Adorama? Come on. You know better Brian than badmouth someone because you tried to order from Amazon (to get free points/discount?) instead of directly from Adorama.

Here are question that have risen upon reading said exchange:

A) Is Brian a scammer? Many people order through Amazon with stolen credit cards to circumvent security measures.

B) Is there a reason why Brian insisted on picking up the package in person, and ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY DOES NOT want the package to be sent to the address? Maybe because the billing and shipping address of said possibly stolen credit card are all correct, but it'd raise a red flag if the real credit card holder received something from UPS (or Adorama, via Amazon) that he did not order.

C) Is Brian a dush (sic) bag? "Dush" is not a bad word, so I'm not being unprofessional and thus getting banned LOL

D) Having read the story that Consumerist is downsizing, was it perhaps because they've had to deal with tons of this kind of non-sense email tips so the staff actually decided to quit? :P

E) It might be possible that English was not PAOLA's first language; perhaps she was from India or even Brazil. On the other hand, it's obvious that she tried to send out a quick reply, which was why grammar was poor and letters after a period weren't capitalized. Isn't that how ALL fourth graders type their text messages???

F) To sum up, BRIAN WAS THE VICTIM just because Paola didn't ace grammar, even though I've read tons of posts in forums that were written SO POORLY that make this look like "The Last Supper." (Couldn't resist using religious references, which apparently drive Brian insane. Well, more insane.) In unrelated news, Brian also kicked his grandma in the shins because Nana forgot how old he was.

Also I agree, he doesn't seem to get that he needs to be "born again" in order to change. She seems to indicate that his foul attitude would only be changed by reliving his life, nothing about Jesus.

I've generally found that if you just call UPS with the details of the package (Address and Tracking number), they'll move it around - I generally pickup my UPS and FedEx orders at their shipping spot, since it's next to my work. Even though they ship to my address, they'll just note it, and leave it at the ship place. (Generally, this also shaves off the day, because if they receive it around Monday at 3:00, they won't put it "Out for Delivery" until Tuesday.)

Him writing the seller was just stupid. He went too far with this one.

@Coles_Law: I dunno, I had a Fleabay seller give me negative feedback in retaliation for a "neutral" rating after a 3-day-shipping item took 2 months to arrive. I can see where it could get good sellers screwed over, but I really thought the new rule was to protect good buyers. Naive?

Also an affirmative on the "not a religious reference". Bryan wasn't paying attention to what he was saying long enough to understand that she was dishing it right back to him.

But perhaps he's resorting to calling it a religious reference, then he's definitely feeling that guilt, then.

The CSR may very well speak English as a second language. The mistakes in her messages are extremely common for non-native English speakers, and she's extremely understandable. I'm just baffled... why would anyone think it's OK to abuse a CSR because their grammar wasn't perfect? Ugh.

That's how I read it as well.

Spelling and grammar are important, but so is reading comprehension, no?

Thanks

Me neither. If she had mentioned something to the effect of "Look to Jesus as your personal Savior" then yes, it would be religious.

I'm surprised that she resorted to lowering herself to his level to engage in name calling. She had the moral high ground until she responded to his "you don't know how to use proper English" shtick. Nevertheless, she mostly kept it focused on the issue. Bravo for mostly good customer service on Paola's part!

Cheers!

Can we start seeing more of these on the weekends? I think it helps put things into perspective.

@hollywood2590: Yes, that's what I thought as well. He was just looking for something to be offended at.

Hey, Bryan, if you're reading this: Lighten up! You'll get your camera, have patience.

I've been a very happy Adorama customer in the past and in the future. In fact I might just buy something from them this weekend. I'll ask for Paola.

I'm positive the "born again" reference wasn't religious. For one thing, it was taken out of context, for another thing Adorama observes Jewish holidays/sabbath.

I hope the superintendent of the school district reads this blog, and fires Bryan. If my child was in his class and came home with a comment like this he'd be getting more than my opinion at parent teacher conference.

People don't treat people like this. Animals do, but even they can be trained.

At some point Bryan gave up pursuing a resolution to his problem but still wanted to vent, and the nearest thing he could find that wasn't his fault was Paola's grammar and spelling. The amazing part is that after all was said and done, he thought he had something to complain about. I could possibly see him complaining to his friends about this - giving it his own slant, but then again, he probably doesn't have any friends.

In conclusion, I AGREE WITH BRYAN - he's an a**hole.

WINNER!

BTW I've dealt with Adorama and it was a great experience. This email exchange reinforces that I would do it again in a heartbeat.

I did see where it could be religious - but in the Hindu multi-life fashion, not in the Christian sense.

Good luck in your next life, Bryan. Maybe you'll be lucky and end up as a cockroach.

But in this case, it's the contents of the e-mail that matter, not how they are communicated. The CSR was more than willing to help, giving Bryan several (simple, IMO) options. Bryan was just too busy being a jerk to notice this, and proceeded to anger himself and insult an innocent individual who (as Bryan so wonderfully evidenced to us) just trying to be helpful.

@ParkPlace: Sellers are no longer able to post negative feedback about buyers. So you can be a dick as a buyer and they can't point this out.

@ParkPlace: Sellers can no longer leave neutral or negative feedback for buyers. Also, Paypal disputes tend to favor the buyer.

i feel like this is one of those, except bryan wants to be a consumerist post.

And that's what he was doing. He was trying to make her feel bad so that she would break the rules and risk getting in trouble--perhaps because he was trying to make her feel that he was so much smarter than her that she should clearly accede to his judgment, or simply to get him to stop talking to her because the experience was so incredibly unpleasant.

Hey, at least Brian admitted it himself, he is an ASSHOLE!

I really hope it's a fad.

I'm VERY surprised he's not here screaming at us right now....

BURN!!!!

I wish Consumerist would also incorporate some Canadian stories!

Brian, mr high and mighty, F- conduct Needs improvement, plays well with others, needs improvmenet, respects others needs improvement.

basically, he's gonna get his butt warmed when his parents get this report card.

As "uneducated" as she comes off, at least she was accommodating, unlike Bryan, who is like the CSR's we complain about.

It's people like Bryan that give companies the fuel and excuse to continue bad service.

@MightyWeasel: My guess is that a lot of e-mail and chat CS positioned are outsourced.

Ugh, I bet Bryan is like this in all walks of his life. It really doesn't concern me how grammatically correct the response from customer service is, as long as the message is clear and helpful. Kudos to Adorama for allowing their customer service reps to go off script.

You know, it would be kind of funny to have a company that provides insulting, inflammatory customer service (but still fix the problems). That certainly would make it a little fun to report a problem.

Damn, I totally should have said, "Wy 2 go brain, yu totaly told that women of! Yuo are so samrt!!!!?"

@sophistiKate: It really isn't that bad. You can get the point, and really the exchange should have ended at 2 e-mails when the choice of a refund or shipping to a new location was offered. Would you really have been aggravated at that point?

Way to go Brian! Great job telling off that woman who was trying to help solve your problem, and then end up with no resolution.
You are my hero!

(not)

@wcnghj:
That was my first thought when I saw all the "typos". I assumed the CSR's first language was not English, therefore the presumption to ridicule her grammar is even more of an asshat act.

I ordered a Holga from Adorama a couple of months back and received great service from them.

I work as a CSR for a company I will not name...but, respect towards any individual goes a long way. The CSR in this situation she was very professional, even after being insulted, and she still provided good customer service. I would have dropped that chat/phone call like a bad habit if anyone talked to me like that.

As a CSR, I cannot count how many moronic people I have spoken to. Even if they can't form a simple sentence, I still attempt to help in any way I can. If only that worked the other way around.

P.S. I suck at spelling too; Spell Check and Google will save you!

@hollywood2590:
I certainly didn't think it was a reference to religion, but more, "You are a total waste of a human being that the only way for you to be 'schooled' is to start your life all over again and try to get it right this time.".

The period should be inside the quotes, like "good customer service."

pwn'd

Eventually I just sent her to a supervisor while she was in the middle of a screaming tirade. I learned a valuable lesson to just let people yell at you, smile and nod, and move on.

That way, at least you're secure in your knowledge that they're the jerk.

I think I had a similar teacher in 4th grade. She threw a stapler at a kid in my class. Of course, she had tenure.

Perhaps 4th grade is where they try to traumatize the children. A life lesson of sorts, I suppose.

There are a lot of teachers in my family (wife included). I read this story and just shook my head. Paola gave him SO many chances to have it made right. That was excellent customer service wrapped up in some fairly decent English. And that's ok. I took five years of Spanish and can barely remember any of it.

You fail, Bryan. With an 'F.'

You should work in higher education ; ) You haven't seen entitlement and arrogance until you've seen what happens when you combine PhDs with fresh-faced college students.

That aside, what a friggen jerk. Its so rare to get a good CSR these days and this guy finds one who is willing to help him after after he acts like a 2 year old. What a shame.

Hopefully in future, she'll learn that the proper course of action in that case is to completely ignore that sort of argumentative behavior and to stick to the matter at hand.

A simple, "If something in my previous statements was unclear, please let me know what and I will be happy to explain further. Now, at this point, I can do either A or B. Which would you prefer?" would probably have worked better - and sticking to that even if he came back with more venom. Not that it's her fault he was being rude, but when you work with people, you have to learn how to shove them in the right direction.

Sometimes appealing to whatever shred of humanity they have works too. A firm, "Hey, I'm the person trying to fix your issue - yelling at me is not going to help. The sooner we get this resolved, the sooner we can be done with this. Now, let's move forward and get this taken care of," is often useful. Of course, that assumes that the person you're talking to actually -has- a shred of humanity.

"You are very disrespectful, maybe my problem can be solve going back to school but in your case you will have to be born again"

That means that you, Brian, will have to die and start life anew to have any chance of being a better person. That could be taken as religious, but I think it was more of a general insult "you fail at life".

And I agree.

It was clear to me (and frankly, I detest fundies and what they do to others) that the customer rep was not using the phrase "born again" to mean religion. From the grammar used (which while not perfect was perfectly understandable) I'd suspect that person didn't even know the phrase ever referred to religion. It seemed to me that she was saying that to go thorough basic school and learn something, you'd have to be starting over in life.

And man, this Bryan is a nightmare, and to top it he obviously doesn't see himself as one. He thinks he's in the right here! There's a guy who makes things harder for every one of us who ever has a legitimate complaint. Every time a guy like that precedes you in the complaints cue he sets up the business's rep to react badly toward the next person.

It boggles my mind that their are people this arrogant.

@jamar0303:

I am willing to bet these types of exchanges are very common.

Way too common.

It came across moreso as a "Hey, I can change my bad English, but the only way for you to not be a jerk any more is to start life over from the womb", almost like that "can't change stupid" phrase or whatever.

If I were the CSR, I'd have just stopped replying and forwarded every consecutive emails to my superiors.

Bryan is your typical asshole with entitlement issues. Yes, we all value good customer service and it's nice when everything goes the way we planned. But the problems stem from Bryan's lack of a deliverable address, and then he demands things that can't be done.

This is the reason why eBay is in such big trouble with their foolish and poorly thought out new system. The buyer can be a complete dick and screw over a very good and helpful seller making business on the site difficult.

Interesting to see that Amazon is no different.

I think most people don't understand how a large organization functions. They don't realize that 99% of the time the rules are in place to prevent fraud (that results in higher prices), and incompetence on the part of the employees. When a situation arises, they think that the world has come to an end and that their problem must be fixed. 9 times out of 10, its an unusual circumstance that would eventually get escalated to a high enough level where something can be done tos olve the problem. You can't give that much leeway to minimum wage employees and expect the company NOT to be screwed and defrauded. Fact of life, right there. Thank you Consumerist, for showing that customer service is a two way street.

And Bryan, seriously? C'mon man. You're a dick.

As to the "born again" thing. I didn't take that to mean in the religious sense. But that the CS rep was telling him that while her problem can be fixed with more schooling, there is no help with his issue. Something similar to this, supposedly said by Winston Churchill:

I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.

Okay. Fess up. Which one of you is it???? There's no way this person isn't a commenter here.