No Urgency For This “Emergency”

I work at a call center that takes overflow and after-hours calls for car dealerships all over the country — all makes and manufacturers. A call comes in on a Friday, fifteen minutes before we close. This is just a few months after a whole airbag recall debacle started.

Caller: “I need to set an appointment tomorrow morning for my car; it has an airbag recall. This is an emergency!”

Again, she’s calling at 10:15 pm on a Friday night (and she’s in our timezone), and Saturdays are always the busiest day of the week. The standard policy is to email the dealer the customer’s contact information and have them call the customer in the morning. Recalls we do with no call at all due to volume, email only.

Of course, I can’t tell the customer this, so I try and assure her the best I can.

Me: “I apologize, ma’am, I’m not seeing any availability for tomorrow morning, but if you could leave me your contact information, I’ll have a service advisor get back to you in the morning and see what we can do.”

Caller: “WHAT?! THAT’S NOT GOOD ENOUGH! THIS IS AN EMERGENCY! I NEED THIS TAKEN CARE OF NOW!”

I’ve had a long week; I’ve been going to school full-time and working at this soul-drenching place for over a year. My shift is over in fifteen minutes, and I am all out of f***s to give.

Me: “Ma’am, if it was such an emergency, why the h*** did you wait until 10:15 at night to call about it?”

There was a long pause and then a click.

Good riddance.