By Jeanne Yacoubou, MS

Customer service representatives are limited by what resources they have available to them. They often say too much without having proper documentation or authority to make certain statements. They often become flustered when a caller is too persistent with a line of questioning. Even supervisors of the call centers or senior staff members make these mistakes. This has happened to me in the case of both small and large companies. Don’t be alarmed or surprised by an experience of conflicting or questionable information. It’s fairly typical.

In one case, the employees’ databases may pull up similar words and that is what they tell you about, though they are different products. They assume incorrectly that they are the same ingredient. Often employees have limited knowledge of what they are answering questions about.

This is why it is always good to write in a question on the website customer contact form and call in. Compare responses. If they’re consistent you have a bit more reason to believe it’s true. If in doubt, resubmit the contact form after rewording the question slightly and call again on another day at a different time. Often it depends on how you ask and re-ask the question to be sure with greater assurance that your inquiry is accurately understood by the listener.