Unfiltered Story #194437

(I was working in a call center doing tech support for a company offering cable TV, VoIP and internet services. At the time I had a trainee listening in on my calls to get a feeling for the “real thing”.)

Me: “Hello, this is [Name] speaking, how may I help you?”

Customer: “My TV isn’t working. There’s nothing on the screen, it’s just black!”

Me: “I see. Well, we should be able to fix that – is there a light burning at the front of your TV anywhere?”

Customer: “Yes. A red one.”

Trainee next to me begins to laugh – quietly, at least.

Me: (still calm, because this was not unusual) “Alright, would you please get your TV remote for me and press the ‘standby’-button?”

Customer: (annoyed at this point) “Can’t you just fix it? Well, okay – yes, I tried it just now, it doesn’t work!”

Trainee stops laughing and looks worried, thinking we have a real problem at hand.

Me: “That’s alright, sir. I’d like to try just one more thing. On your TV remote, is there a button showing a circle with a line going through it pointing up? It’s probably a red button or the circle is red.”

Customer: (impatient) “Yes, yes there is one. Should I press that?”

Me: (poker face) “Please do.”

Pause.

Customer: “Oh God, that worked! The light turned green! Thank you so much!”

Me: “I’m glad I was able to help. Have a nice evening.”

After the customer had hung up, I had to spend a few minutes getting the trainee to calm down – which worked after he realised that he’d be dealing with A LOT of this in future, poor thing.