Installation Cost Inflammation

Australia, Call Center, Liars/Scammers | Right | July 16, 2018

(I work in the quotes call centre department of a subcontracting installation company for a major telecommunication and cable company, pricing up any additional works that are required for the installation, such as extra time or materials.)

Me: “For [additional work], that will come up to an extra charge of [amount]; is that okay to proceed?”

Woman: “This is crazy. I’ve spoken directly to your CEO about this installation, and he said there wouldn’t be any extra charge!”

(I know this is almost certainly false. We have had CEO involvement with some VIP customers, and they’re dealt with directly by the managers.)

Me: “Okay, I’ll just need to take a look at the account notes in order to verify this; please hold.”

(Lo and behold, there’s absolutely no mention of CEO involvement on their account.)

Me: “I’m sorry, but there’s nothing written on your account about that. I can only advise you call up [Parent Company] directly to discuss the quote with them; I don’t have authority to waive this sort of thing, as we’re just the sub-contractors.”

(The woman didn’t accept this, and after a few minutes of bluster and complaining, she hung up the call, and I thought that was that. I later found out that she called back through to our other departments several times that day, this time claiming to have the CEO on hold on the other line, and demanding to speak to a manager. We called her bluff, asking to speak to the CEO, but she hung up. Unfortunately, the saga would soon prove to continue. While bored, about two months later, I decided to look into the account notes for this customer, to see what happened. Turns out they did call [Parent Company], and whoever they spoke to bought their story. I refuse to believe they’d ever spoken to the CEO, and will continue to do so until the day I die. The best part, though, is that the customer still ended up paying the exact quote they’d been complaining about, and didn’t get anything free of charge or anything like that. The only thing they got was a delay of their installation by about a month while we sorted this all out, and got to feel important about having the “CEO” excuse to boss us about a bit.)

This story is part of the Customers Bluffing roundup!