Unfiltered Story #67122

We deal with quite a few queries at this office – they can come in by post, e-mail or by the phone. The following took place by phone over the course of 10 months.

Me: Thank you for calling business name, my name speaking how may I help you?

Caller: You guys haven’t paid me for work I have done and I want it looked into.

Me: Certainly, may I ask if you have our references?

Caller: No. Do I need that?

Me: It certainly makes it easier for us to look into the queries.

Caller: I’ll just post you copy invoices.

A few weeks pass and a stack of about 10 invoices appears. I look into them and see that the majority aren’t for us so I locate the callers e-mail address and e-mail them explaining this. 8 months pass and then:

Caller: I spoke to you months ago and posted you invoices and I still haven’t been paid. I find it rude how you are just ignoring me.

Me: I apologize, can you provide me with some details.

The caller gives me some more information – it is at this point that I realize it is the same person.

Me: Looking at our system I actually e-mailed you on this date regarding these files.

Caller: No you didn’t, if you had I would know it.

Me: Well, I have the e-mail in front of me so I can resend it if you never received it?

Caller: You never sent it in the first place but my e-mail is xyz.

Me: Ah, I see what the problem was, I e-mailed abc.

Caller: That is my secretaries e-mail, I tell her not to bother to read any e-mails about my work and to just delete them. I don’t know why you e-mailed her in the first place when I am the one with the query.

Me: I apologize but your secretaries e-mail was on our system. I will get that amended for you.

Caller: No, I don’t want to receive any e-mails from you just send them to my secretary to deal with.

I am slightly bewildered at this point but send the e-mail on. I hear nothing for another month when we then receive more invoices in the post from this person. I call and leave a voicemail explaining that we aren’t responsible.

A month later the phone rings again…

Caller: I spoke to you last year and you ignored me and never responded to my queries. When am I getting paid!

Me (recognizing the name of the caller): I forwarded the e-mail to you on x date and also left a voicemail for you last month.

Caller: I don’t bother reading e-mails from you, they waste my time.

Please note that we send proof of payment by e-mail which might explain why the caller thought we never paid them. Though who they thought the money they were receiving was from I do not know.