Does not understanding (not language/accent-wise, but information-wise) what the person you're talking to is telling you fall into the rude category? If you have to (politely) reiterate the question in different words in order to fully understand what their answer is so that they might restate their answer in clearer terms, then are you considered a rude customer?
"Customer Service" in this instance is about talking to my specialized banker (SB) (concerning one account that I have) and taxes. I had, what I thought was a simple question.
This is a new SB for me, first time that I've talked to him. Previous SB was all over explaining things in layman's terms (easy for me to understand), which I really appreciated, but he has left the company.
When I first started talking to new SB, he sounded like he didn't know what he was talking about. All hemming an hawing, "Um, let me think . . . your question is what? Give me a minute." Then there was a response of "I think you need to do blah blah blah." I said "That's not really the point of my question, so I restated my question in different words.
True. Maybe I was completely dense in in my understanding of his answers or maybe there was a total breakdown in communication . . . he thought he was answering my question, but I really didn't understand how his ("um, maybe you should") explanation answered my question.
We went round-about for about 15 minutes. The culmination of the conversation was:
Me: "I'm sorry, I'm still not sure that I'm clear on the information that you're giving me. Are you saying that I should blah blah blah?"
SB (laughing): I'm saying that you "should do this,"* Lady!
That's when I asked to speak to his supervisor.
He put me on hold, then came back, all apologetic, and gave me the phone number for his supervisor (the main branch of the bank?) I called the supervisor, who was not available, left a message and haven't heard back yet.
Is this an escalating-worthy complaint?
Etiquette question -- okay, maybe I'm totally dense and don't have a clue but am I rude for trying to (politely) clarify answers?
*nothing derogatory, but something completely different than what my main question was.