I am a transgender woman. I have just started my very first job post-transition, as myself, where no one knows my dead name. I am openly out in a very safe and affirming work environment.

As I live in a very safe home environment, have a fantastic support system, and my coworkers only know me as me, I am very lax with my voice training. Adding in the electronics messing with my voice, and it makes it easy to misgender me over the phone, even with my very feminine name. Let’s say it’s Carol.

I have dealt with misgendering before, from very personal interactions to complete strangers. I have taken to correcting callers, which goes over mostly positively. But this call I took less than a week after getting on the phones was a whole different level. I’ll shorten it up a bit, but you’ll get the idea.

Me: “Thank you for contacting [Company]. My name is Carol. Whom do I have the pleasure of speaking with?”

Caller: “Hi, I have a problem with [Product], and nothing I’ve done is fixing it.”

I take down the details the company asks us to gather for our cases.

Me: “Okay, sir, let me see what I can do for you. Can you please hold for a few minutes?”

Caller: “Absolutely, sir.”

Me: “Oh, I’m sorry — the phones do tend to mess with my voice. It’s ‘ma’am’.”

Caller: “Oh, no problem.”

I do some standard troubleshooting and get back on the phone to have the customer handle his end.

Me: “Can you please try testing [Product] now?”

Caller: “Of course, sir.”

Me: “Sorry, as I stated before, it’s ‘ma’am’.”

Caller: “Oh, no problem.”

We go through several bouts of troubleshooting, but my cubicle neighbor can see that I’m starting to get upset. The guy is saying “sir” an unnecessary amount of times for normal conversation.

Finally, I’ve had enough; I put him on a long hold and stand up. My supervisor is next to my neighbor, who has clearly looped him in.

Me: “I can’t anymore. I have tried correcting him, but he keeps saying ‘sir’ no matter what.”

Supervisor: “Okay. You can send him to me. I’ll handle him. Go outside and take a breather.”

Me: “Okay, I’ll let him know…”

Supervisor: “No, you send him straight to me and do not get back on the phone. Go take care of yourself.”

I went to my car and lost it. I cried so much I could hardly breathe

My supervisor came out to check on me and reassured me that nothing was wrong with what I did; I’m paranoid about correcting people sometimes. He told me to take however long of a break I needed, get cleaned up, and get a drink, and not to get back on the phone until I was absolutely sure I was ready to.

To this day, I will never forget how this moment cemented me knowing I was safe at this company.

I am working in a call center on Christmas Day.

Caller: “Oh, my God, someone picked up!”

Me: “Yes, ma’am, we are keeping the lines open for this morning.”

Caller: “But why would anyone need to call the helpline of a stationery store on Christmas Day?!”

Me: “Well, forgive me for pointing it out, ma’am, but you have.”

Caller: “I was just calling to see if anyone was actually in today! I don’t actually have any issues, though. What time do y’all close today?”

Me: “The lines close at 1:00 pm Central Time, ma’am.”

Caller: “That’s twenty minutes from now?”

Me: “That’s right.”

Caller: “What happens if someone calls you at 12:59 pm with a complicated problem?”

Me: “Then we need to stay on the line to fix it.”

Caller: “Then I do have an issue! I estimate that it will take about nineteen minutes and fifty seconds to fix. Can you help me?”

Me: *Smiling* “I appreciate the gesture, ma’am, but really, I don’t mind—”

Caller: “No! I have an issue! My… um… my printer I got from you guys! It’s busted. I need help printing my… uh… my Christmas shopping list!”

Me: *Laughing* “You want to print your Christmas shopping list at 12:40 pm on Christmas Day?”

Caller: *Also laughing* “It’s for next year’s Christmas! I’m very organized!”

And so, taking the caller at their word like we’re trained to do, I help her fix a “printer issue”. Every time it seems like we’re going too fast, she accidentally presses the wrong button. “Oh, no, I did it wrong again.” Finally, at 1:01 pm…

Caller: “Oh, my, look at the time! I need to go and make sure the grandkids are safe. You hurry on home to your family now, y’hear?” *Click*

Thanks, crazy printer grandma! You were my Christmas miracle!

I worked in customer service for a big tech company.

A pair of entitled nightmares in human suits called during Christmas week. They had purchased two tablets online but weren’t satisfied with their shipping options. The week of Christmas, there was no way whatsoever to get the tablets to their home in time for Christmas due to the sheer volume of packages overloading delivery companies. Even overnight shipping was removed as an option at this point. They were demanding that we fly the pair of tablets to their home by private helicopter.

I’ll give you a moment to let that sink in.

Of course, they exploded when I told them that we couldn’t do that. After much work on my end to try to calm them down, they demanded to speak to management.

I patched them over to the company’s senior advisors, who I at least knew well enough to banter a bit with. I explained the situation.

Senior Advisor: “They want us to… what?”

Me: “They demand delivery by private helicopter.”

Senior Advisor: *Pinching the bridge of his nose* “They want… a delivery… by private helicopter…”

Me: “Yes, sir.”

Senior Advisor: “Please tell me you’re joking.”

Me: “Wish I could. They’ve been screaming at me for several minutes for telling them that we can’t do that. They’re demanding a manager.”

Senior Advisor: “I swear to God, if I pick up that phone and you’ve called the Rick Roll hotline or something, I will fire you. I don’t have time for pranks.”

We both knew that I would never do that to him, and he didn’t really mean that he’d fire me. It was just his way of trying to cling to his sanity during the most insane part of the year.

Me: “No joke, no prank. Brace yourself, sir. If I had a combat helmet to give you, I’d offer it in a heartbeat.”

The senior advisor muttered something that sounded like a string of four-letter words under his breath before picking up the line.

The senior advisor was on the phone for just a few minutes, as incomprehensible screeching sounded over the phone.

Senior Advisor: “I see you placed your order after our Christmas cut-off date. No special deliveries can be made as all our couriers are working overtime to deliver to customers who had the foresight to order early.”

He paused.

Senior Advisor: “I have no idea who you are and I absolutely don’t care. The cost of the helicopter alone is well over the cost of the tablets, and I’m not spending an idiot’s sum of money to fly two tablets to you.”

He paused.

Senior Advisor: “You do that. Your business will not be missed.”

Thus, they were banished.

I am calling customers in our database asking if they’d like to take a survey. They get $5 store credit for taking the survey, so it hasn’t been too bad. I connect to another customer. It seems they were just on a call with someone else.

Me: “Hi, this is [My Name] calling from—”

Customer: “Stop calling me! Look. I already told you: the cat decided it would be best, and I’m sorry about what happened to the car, but if you think about it, everything turned out okay; if it had landed closer to the trunk, it would have taken out the whole street, and Mr. Custard wouldn’t have been pleased. Best lose this number.” *Click*

Me: “Wait… I… Is the cat okay?”

I got my manager to listen to the call to make sure I wasn’t going crazy. I wasn’t. We both have so many questions.

Related:
Please Be A Prank, Please Be A Prank…, Part 3
Please Be A Prank, Please Be A Prank…, Part 2
Please Be A Prank, Please Be A Prank…

Caller: “I get my Internet from you, and it’s not working right!”

Me: *Looking at the caller’s details* “I’m not seeing an outage in your area. Could you—”

Caller: “No! It’s not an outage thing! But your stupid Internet won’t let me post my s***!”

Me: “Oh, are you having an issue with a particular website?”

Caller: “All of them! Facebook! Twitter! I keep posting, and then they keeping taking them down!”

Me: “Oh! I see. Well then, it sounds like your Internet service, which we are responsible for, is working just fine. We’re not responsible for the actions of Facebook and Twitter.”

Caller: “I pay you for Internet! I expect my Internet to do what I need it to do!”

Me: “I would recommend contacting Facebook and Twitter about your issues, ma’am.”

Caller: “I tried! They got no phone number like you do!”

Me: *Trying to be helpful* “Maybe it’s to do with the nature of what you’re posting? I know that Facebook and Twitter have policies that—”

Caller: “All I’m posting are the f****** facts! The facts! They keep coming at me with their f****** fact-checkers!”

Me: “I… see. Well, ma’am, I do know that sometimes, if what you post can be interpreted as misinformation, they can apply fact-checkers to… uh… make the message a bit clearer?”

Caller: “I don’t need their f****** fact-checker! The Bible is my fact checker!”

Oh, Lord…

Me: “I’m afraid there’s still nothing I can do, ma’am.”

Caller: “Useless libt*rd!” *Click*

Yeah… there was no saving that conversation.