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Gimme advice/tips/tricks to deal with overly "helpful" customers.

There's a long time customer at work that has suddenly decided I'm their BFF and is constantly calling me for updates and emailing me suggestions. I'm not sure why, other than the fact that they remembered my name and I'm friendly at work?

Long story short, we have to deal with an insurance company and a government office, plus track down some parts (the part we need has been backordered since October and isn't available anywhere in the US right now, we can make another part work, but need a waiver from the government office to purchase it legally in our state, and then finding a vendor that actually has it in stock and will be willing to ship to our state is another thing that complicates matters and slows things down) to get this job finished.

Before the customer even came in, I informed them this is going to take several weeks.

I just don't have the patience right now to deal with weeks of them calling or emailing for updates I do not have. I've assured them I'll keep them updated on where we're at in the process WHEN I have new information... which I do not.

And..... it's just annoying having them email me suggestions for places to buy this part that aren't even useful. Like, thanks for the link to a place we've already contacted and told us it's not available, but no thanks. Just because another website LOOKS like you can place an order doesn't mean it's actually in stock (speaking from experience). Also, it's frustrating like... we literally have done this multiple times before and they don't even understand what parts need to be ordered, but they're gonna send links for parts? Okay.

Any tips, tricks or advice are appreciated, because it's getting more and more frustrating to have to relay the same information over and over, listen to or read suggestions that aren't helpful, and keep saying, "I don't have a timeframe of when the job will be done until I hear back from these other places, which is totally out of my control. As soon as we get to the next step in the process, I'll update you, but I don't have that information yet, so expect it to be another few weeks, not days."

My boss suggested just telling the customer that they should take it elsewhere if they think that can get it done faster, but that just feels so rude and the idea of actually saying that gives me anxiety, especially because this person is being polite, and I think they think they're genuinely being helpful with their suggestions.

I hear you! Maybe their life experiences have taught them that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and they have gone through too many transactions where some supplier dropped the ball, as it were. (Like, haven't we all?). The thing that is bugging you may be a by-product of our impersonal methods of electronic interactions, where we come to almost assume we are dealing in real time with another person, but the results we get are not 100% the same as in the old days, when people actually listened? (I know, I'm dating myself with this one...)

From time to time, my H gets a customer like this. I have learned they are just pushy. Usually a certain demographic like wealthy, urban, rather self-important....but if they pay their bills, we sort of accept they have their obnoxious reasons for their irritating insistence. In other words, there are lots of people out there like that (at least in the car business, haha! I could write a book.)

From time to time, my H gets a customer like this. I have learned they are just pushy. Usually a certain demographic like wealthy, urban, rather self-important....but if they pay their bills, we sort of accept they have their obnoxious reasons for their irritating insistence. In other words, there are lots of people out there like that (at least in the car business, haha! I could write a book.)

You nailed it.

Oh Ya, as my grandfather used to say. The double bind for a competent woman in businesses men expect to be good at (such as my H's) is that the woman may not be believed, because these customers recall all the difficulties they have had with inexperienced/clueless hires. I told my H that it really can be a double bind for a woman who deals impersonally with male buyers in a heavily technical environment! All their gender stereotypes get amplified by not knowing you. I was in construction management back in the 1980's, believe me I have seen it.

Maybe your boss has a good idea, as well! I tell my H "dump that customer, pronto," when he gets one like that. If they call at 9 pm to argue with him about whether their race car gearbox problem is something they caused, we don't need the drama.