Leave Me A-Loan (Number)

I work as a customer service representative for a finance company. The company provides loans for home improvements, decks, sidings, bathrooms, and the sort.

Today, I received a call from a woman demanding to know who did her siding. This is not an uncommon situation; lots of customers call because they’ve lost the contractor information, and it’s usually an easy call to handle. All I need to do is ask for their loan number and verify the customer, and then I can provide the contractor’s information.

Me: “May I have your loan number?”

Caller: “I don’t have a loan number.”

I thought she just didn’t have the loan number handy, so I tried to look up her account by other means.

Me: “May I have your social security number?”

Caller: “I’m not going to give you my social. Why do you want my social?”

Me: “I’m trying to find your account. If you don’t have your loan number handy and don’t feel comfortable providing your social, may I have your address?”

Caller: “I’m not going to give you any information. I don’t even have a loan with you.”

When she said that, I thought I may have misheard her; why would she be calling us if she doesn’t have a loan with us?

Me: “You don’t have a loan with us?”

Caller: “I just said that.”

Me: “Then how can I help you?”

I thought maybe I was wrong about the reason for the call.

Caller: “I told you already; I just want to know who did my siding. Why do I have to keep repeating myself?”

Me: “I’m sorry, Ms. [Customer], but I don’t have a way of knowing who did your siding.”

Caller: “Why?”

I really couldn’t believe I had to explain this.

Me: “You don’t have a loan with us, so we don’t have a record of who did your siding.”

Caller: “But you guys work with the people who did my siding. They offered me to finance through you, but I decided to pay in cash instead of taking a loan.”

Me: “They are a different company. We are just a finance company; we provide loans for home improvements. We work with lots of contractors who offer their customers to finance through us. If you paid in cash, you didn’t do business with us, only with your contractor, and I don’t have a way of knowing who the contractor was.”

Caller: “So, I’m being punished for paying in cash instead of getting myself into debt. Wow!”

Then, she hung up on me.

I don’t even know how she remembered our company’s name and not the contractor’s name.