Cancel The Nice!

(I answer the phone, transfer calls, and try to provide basic assistance after hours. One day at 4:50 pm Central time, I receive this call.)

Client: “Is [Representative] there?”

Me: “I’m not sure who you mean, exactly; do you know his last name?”

Client: “No! I’ve been calling him all day and I just keep getting his voicemail! I must have called eleven times! And he hasn’t returned my calls!”

Me: “Okay. How can I help you today?”

Client: “I need to know if my loads are going to be picked up today! And [Representative] won’t return my phone calls!”

Me: “Okay. Do you have any reference numbers for these shipments?”

Client: “No!”

Me: “Okay. What’s the name of the company paying for the freight?”

Client: “I AM!”

Me: “Do you know your account number? Or can you spell out the name of the company for me, please?

Client: “It’s [Company]! I have four shipments that need to be picked up today before 3:30 Pacific time!”

Me: “Okay. I found your account. I do see four shipments scheduled to pick up out of the same warehouse by 15:30 PT today, all scheduled with [Carrier], so most likely they will only send one truck to load all four shipments, as they are scheduled as LTL.”

Client: “But [Representative] hasn’t returned my calls! I need to know if they’re going to be picked up!”

Me: “Okay. Well, if you can hold for a moment, I will call the carrier and double-check that they will be sending a truck today.”

Client: “Then do it!”

(I call the carrier. All four loads have been cancelled by the representative this client is trying to contact. I am freaking out, so I try to call this guy’s manager to see if I can get any help. He is in a meeting. My manager tells me to try to calm the guy down and see if we have his rep’s cell number so we can see what is going on. I take the guy off of hold and find out what is really going on.)

Me: “I apologize; it looks like the carrier does not have these shipments scheduled to pick up today. I am attempting to reach out to your rep and his manager to see if maybe they had booked a different carrier—”

Client: “I KNOW WHAT HAPPENED. That’s why I’ve been trying to call him all day! My secretary found a better rate, so we cancelled these pickups with you, but she’s an idiot and she booked them wrong! And now you have to get them picked up by 3:30 today! That’s in two hours! And [Representative] won’t return my calls! You have terrible customer service! Absolutely terrible! I need these shipped today! It’s Friday!”

Me: “I apologize. However, as your rep is not in the office today, we will likely not be able to reschedule these shipments on such short notice.”

Client: “Well, why isn’t he in the office?! It’s Friday! We’re all working!”

(Well, some people work different schedules and don’t cancel orders at the last minute expecting everything to be worked out by yelling at someone who didn’t cause their problem – but I guess that’s life.)