Unfiltered Story #209830

(I work in a tech support call centre for two low-level government agencies. We sometimes have users who struggle to return equipment when they leave our company or one of the agencies who hire us. Equipment is handled by a third party supplier, and they work with a standard courier service in order to arrange deliveries and collections of equipment. One of those users calls up on the outstanding incident line, meaning they’ve called us in the past about an issue.)

Me: “Good afternoon, you’ve reached [Company]. My name is [My Name]. Can I take your ticket reference, please?”
User: “Yes, I’d like to escalate a ticket. The reference is [Supplier Reference].”

(I recognise this as a reference for our suppliers but look it up anyway because our ticket system can pick up things like that if they’re properly recorded.)

Me: “Okay, can I confirm I’m talking to [Not The User]?”
User: “No, I’m [User].”
Me: “Okay, let me just check this ticket real quick.” (Pause.) “From what I understand, [User], you’ve got some of our equipment that needs to be returned, is that correct?”
User: [presenting an attitude now] “I’m off sick from work today and a driver’s been buzzing my flat all morning so I’ve had to haul out of bed when I’m sick and I went to the balcony and told him that I’m sick and the equipment is downstairs and I can’t carry it because I’m sick. The driver was very rude and when I went downstairs to give him the equipment, he was gone.”

(Deliveries and collections are handled by an external courier service hired by our external suppliers, our service desk has nothing to do with the collections or the deliveries except to arrange the equipment be replaced or ordered as necessary.)

Me: “I’m really sorry that’s happened, [User]. The driver is employed by a courier hired by our suppliers, and we don’t usually handle much of the collection process at all. What I can do—”
User: “—I want that driver to come back! I’m not dealing with him but if he doesn’t come back I’m leaving the equipment outside.”
Me: “Okay, what I’ll do for you is I’ll check with a colleague what the best course of action with this is. What is likely is I’ll call our suppliers to let them know that this has happened and then see what they would like to do regarding this.” (The colleague sits near me and has overheard what I’ve said. He tells me I’ve said exactly what I should be saying with an issue like this.)
User: “I’ve had to arrange deliveries so many times! I’m sick! I can’t carry it, I’m just going to leave it outside. I don’t want the driver having my number!” (This particular courier is known for sending texts when the driver is near to the delivery address. Drivers by default have a mobile number to contact.)
Me: “Alright. Like I say, I’ll call our suppliers and let them know. I’m also going to make a note on the ticket on our side so that there’s a record with us that this has happened. Once I’ve spoken with our suppliers, I’ll see what they want to do about this and I’ll call you back to let you know what’s happening.”
(Following this, the user is a lot calmer. She was very difficult to begin with and I’m a little proud of this, as a colleague was saying she’s a problem and one of the staff for our suppliers has been dealing with this issue and really dislikes the user. I finish the call with the user and call through to our suppliers.)

Supplier: “Yeah, she yells at me too. What’s funny is she has our number and has called through to us before about deliveries, so why she was bothering [My Company] about a collection is weird.”