[the_snooze]

> I put people on indefinite holds, I let the phones ring a little more than I should hoping they would give up and hang up etc.

The people who call into customer service are those with issues they want to have addressed. By throwing up roadblocks, you're making it even harder for them to get to a solution. They expect the people on the line to provide help, but this behavior puts them in an adversarial mindset by the time they actually talk to someone.

It does seem a like a tragedy of the commons situation here: people only have so much empathy to give, so we all individually pull back, which makes everyone worse off.

[Msw242]

I think they understand that logically.

But they are put in a position where that is their least painful move. The incentives are wrong due to poor management.

[edgyquant]

Yeah I was in the wrong for sure, I am not qualified to be a customer support rep and I was a web dev at that job who picked up the slack for an infilled position. I was just trying trying to explain that dehumanization goes both ways and that is why CS is such a crappy field in almost every aspect.

As frustrated as we get with these systems we have to remember there’s a human on the other side and no one wants to be engaging with each other + most companies don’t have CS to actually help anyone they do so to check of a box and prevent any potential legal issues from popping up. In a lot of places, especially commerce related, those you speak to don’t even have many/any tools to resolve your complaint. The job is quite literally being a punching bag, if you manage to help someone that’s little more than a nice to have.