Unfiltered Story #116230

[I work for a company with multiple departments and locations, staffed by nearly a thousand employees. I get calls like this multiple times a day.)

Me: Thank you for calling [company]! How may I help you?

Caller: Yeah…I just missed a call from this number…

Me: *internally face-palming because I know exactly how this conversation is about to go* Okay. Were you waiting on an order or speaking with someone in [lists a couple of the most likely departments]?

Caller: No…but someone called me from this number.

Me: Did the caller perhaps leave a message? If not, I’m afraid I don’t know who could have called you; we have a lot of people here.

(At this point, the call goes one of three ways. The less likely ones are that the caller admits they have a message but didn’t bother checking it before calling, or that there was no message and they guess it was a wrong number, sorry for bothering us. The most likely one, however…)

Caller: But someone called me. Who called me?

Me: I’m sorry, I’m really not sure. There are dozens of people it could have been. If you weren’t waiting on a call from someone here at [Company], it may have been a wrong number.

Caller: Someone called me from this number so I called back. Why did you call me? I don’t even know who you people are.

Me: I don’t know why someone would have called you, sir/ma’am. We’re a very big company, so it could have been anyone. It was probably a wrong number and I’m really sorry about that. *resisting the urge to beat my head against my keyboard* Is there anything else I can help you with?

(At this point the caller usually either just hangs up, continues trying to figure out who out of several hundred people called them, or berates me for my coworkers not being careful when dialing.)