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dealing with evil clients

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by keats175

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Hi,

I'm an IT manager at a small college. Two of us are managing the network, e-mail service, telecom services as well as a 100+ workstations and notebook computers. We are doing a good job with limited resources.

However, we have one client who repeatedly threatens to publicly humiliate us when problems arise with his computer (these vary in magnitude from missing desktop icons to network slowdowns).

The threats we receive vary from him writing letters complaining of IT Dept. incompetence and lack of service to various campus committees to the promise that an entire essay about how terrible we are will be written and published in campus newspapers, etc.)

I'm resigned to the fact that we are a target for this guy and unfortunately he is a highly-placed guy on campus as well.

What I am trying to figure out is how to create a more stable working relationship with the guy. I am planning to speak with him about referring his concerns to my supervisor, etc.

However, if any of you have had experiences with vindictive clients and come up with some creative conflict resolution techniques, I could really use them.

Thanks for the help.

best,

keats

10 replies

by road-dog

but I recommend that you track down and archive EVERY trouble ticket he has submitted. Run a comparison between the problem guy and the average user. Find out how many tickets he submits, and how long it takes you to resolve them. If he puts in 3 times as many tickets as the average user and your response time is justifiable, then you should be OK.

Perhaps you are not the only victims of this guy. Listen a little bit to others while you're in his work area and see how well regarded he is by his coworkers and subordinates.

I would suggest hacking his email account and finding incriminating evidence to hang him with, but that would be a MAJOR violation of ethics. But, if his supervisor was emailed an email incriminating this guy, (from his own mailbox) you're problem might go away overnight. This would also be particularly evil if he emails his wife and girlfriend from the same account. If the two email addresses were swapped in the contacts, but names left the same, he just might nuke himself. (insert evil maniacal laughter here)

But you wouldn't do such a thing, would you? I thought not......

by mallardtooxx

Pinky to mouth....1 million dollars. ROad that was a good ploy, I think it would work out nicely. However since this is an ethical forum... okay semi ethical forum., we must refrain from the fun stuff.

Actually what you could do is like road-dog said, check his tickets. Then when you have enough evidence nail him. Better yet, call his bluff, sounds to me like the guy is computer illiterate anyway so what the hell. If he is as big a pain as you say then he will prolly hang himself.

Now tell me this, why does this guy hate you so much? Some IT guy steal his wife once? Did you eat his last cookie while he wasn't looking?? this guy has to have a reason right????? Or maybe he is just a vindictive A$$hole that needs to find a newcross to bear.

-duck

by oldefar

I am really tempted to add on to some of road_dog's active response, but that would be more fun than the law allows. That name twist suggestion from the Duck is a nice touch as well.

Instead, call his bluff. The man is a bully and I suspect a bit of a fool. If he wants to express this to the community at large, let him.

I worked at a company where customer satisfaction was almost a cult. Our CEO encouraged clients to call him directly if we were not meeting our responsibilities. Oneclient manager in particular tried using this as a club to make anything related to him a priority. The third time he threatened my team with a call to our CEO, I handed him my card. I told him to make sure he got my name right. I put my home number on it as well.

You guessed it. No call, and no more threats. The secret is, you have to be doing your best with your limited resources and accepting responsibility for your errors when they occur. Right makes might, not vice a versa.

by jkaras

I agree that you have nothing to worry about. I'll bet he is just flexing his ego for a little respect. Time for the mighty to fall. I was once a supervisor that had to deal with an incompetant manager that constantly got on me on nit picking things. Finally I said if there is a problem lets go see the man, sure enough next day we went. Inside 15 minutes of his complaints/whinning I schooled him and made him look like a complete iddiot in front of the store mgr. I got an apology in front of thestore mgr and his credibilty was shot where I looked even better by handling the problem professionally behind closed doors where my job performance was more appreciated. Needless to say word got out and the embarrassment became two fold where he later left. Call his bluff but before you do get your documentation and prepare to humiliate. You gotta promise that you post the reckoning details this will be sooo classic that I cant wait.

by maxwell edison

Does you college have a Web Site? The tone of your letter suggested that this guy was/is way out of line, and I assume that you do a reasonably good job supporting all of the college's IT needs - including his.

Well, post his letters on the Website for all to see. Post a rebuttal if it's appropriate, or just let his unreasonable ramblings speak for themselves.

The best weapon against someone is his own words.

by samiangel

You are doing the best that you can with the resources that are available. I know of a of a similar situation were there is one IT Tech in a department with many PC and to top it all off there are 3 other satellite offices that he takes care of. Everyone has a comment to say about how he does his job, but you know what he does his best and the network has never been down. The best way to handle it is confront him. Does he have any Technical background? Dont let it get out of control, it may cost you your job. Do the best that you can, ask for help if you need it. In the IT field there are always resources available for assistance if you are having any problems with software, hardware etc. Use them show this guy you know what you are doing.Keep up the good work!

by omie

I did encounter a lot of people like that... remember IT is a service oriented group and treat every employee with respect for they are your costumer. First of all, I would like to know if his complain are legitimate ? What are the causes of the problem ? Is it the computer itself ? the application ? or he is not computer savvy and he is just trying to pass his shortcomings.Address his complain accordingly.

The most important is documentations. Document all those complains and your findings. If a lot of problem is his own fault let him know. This includes the installation of programs(screen savers.. etc)

Again when ever he ask you after the resolution of the problem just answer him "ID 10T error" and make a nice smile.

What is ID10T error ? if you write it properly "ID10T". Okay smile and have a nice day... One more thing don't interprete that error for him or else you will be more in deep trouble ..

by maddiuex

Do not stoop to the level of an idiot, They will drag you down, and beat you with experiance. Tell him he has the IBTK Virus and there is no fix for it.. IBTK = Idiot behind the keyboard.

by keats175

Since I posted things have quieted down a bit and I am grateful to be out of the line of fire for the moment.

Your anecdotes, comments and suggestions were all dead-on and I laughed and laughed over some of the postings (it's so true that folks are sometimes totally clueless about what we could do the them ... were we unethical.)

We have and continue to keep good written records of our interactions with him. I've set up a simple folder system in my mailbox and have my help desk tech pop me an e-mail with a summary of each contact/call with the guy--no matter how trivial. That combined with our trouble tickets, etc. will help us out if this ever goes from private threats to truly out-of-hand behavior.

The best suggestion were the ones that referred to a "take it to my supervisor" approach. Ultimately, that does dry this kind of stuff up. But boy is it unpleasant when one is getting beaten up :)

Thanks again to all who posted.

best,

keats/*

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