I want to talk to your manager

[Herk]

I didn't see a better place to post this legal question, so this may be the wrong place. For that I apologize.

If you are talking to a company you are dealing with, like your phone company or local electronics store, and have a problem, is the person representing the company that you are dealing with obligated to give you contact information for their manager or get the manager for you? For instance, the customer service rep disagrees with you or will not help you. If you ask, "May I speak with a manager," are they required to forward you or give you a name and number?

I have heard in the past that the FTC requires this, but after a while searching about the tubes, I did not find an answer.

I know TFP has some wise information. By the way, this is mostly -not entirely- out of curiosity. Help me out please?

[Martian]

As far as I'm aware there's no legal requirement for such a thing, though this may vary by region. Even so, it's pretty crappy customer service not to.

Here's a secret: In a lot of places if you're calling in and you ask for a manager you'll just get passed to a new rep (who may or may not pretend to be a manager -- policies vary). I've worked for two separate companies that did this -- one was a call centre contracted by one of the major Canadian ISPs.

[Herk]

In every case in the past, they have let me speak with the manager, and I have always been helped appropriately or had to end up sending mail. Then, I would get helped. Tonight however, I was told no, and I thought it was odd.

[Tully Mars]

Don't think there's any such law or requirement. Sadly customer service has become a joke in the US (as well as other countries, Mexico's sucks dog balls from my experience.)

Only way to deal with poor service is vote with your wallet and take your business elsewhere. Least that's what I usually do.

[amonkie]

Speaking as a manager who is the manager on duty for my company's call center daily ... usually by the time you ask for one the person who is currently servicing your issue is more than ready to hand you off to one. Its usually our practice to take down your information and say that a manager will call you back - giving out direct contact information of someone who has no idea your call may be coming is considered rude, and does nothing to help solve your problem.

[ItWasMe]

I think it's more company policy than a law, but I could be wrong.

My husband recently encountered a rude employee (without a visible nametag) at an AT&T cell phone store. Brushed him off when he asked her name, if he could speak to a manager, or if she was the manager. Idiot. Not a smart idea when you work for a place that sells friggin camera phones. He took her photo, told her it was for corporate, and left. You could always try that if you're dealing with someone in person.

[FuriousAvatar]

I vaguely recall reading an article about this topic. I think the gist was it's not a law, just general policy per company. Most will go ahead and pass you on-every job I've been at has been that way where I was the supervisor/manager.

[MSD]

It's bad policy to not allow escalation when a customer is unhappy -- unhappy customers are significantly more vocal than the happy ones and a manager is usually more able to help with problems when a lower associate can't.

On the other hand, my experience when I worked in retail and seeing how the average customer treats the average employee makes me sympathetic enough with employees that I tend to wish they had the authority to make a choice between "escalate call to supervisor" in cases when a customer has been legitimately wronged and "electrocute customer over phone line" for the other 90%. Standard phone lines run at 48v and 25ma, but can carry somewhere in the range of 30,000v at that current without damaging the wires.

[FuriousAvatar]

MSD, patent that shit, I'll find a way to fund it.

What? It's not technically legal? Well fuck.