Privacy Schmivacy

Me: “Thank you for calling [Store]; how can I help you?”

Customer: “I need to talk to [Supervisor].”

Me: “I’m sorry, she’s not in today. I can connect you to the woman covering for her or leave a message for tomorrow.”

Customer: “No, I have to talk to [Supervisor] and it has to be today. Do you have her phone number?”

Me: “I’m sorry, I cannot give out employee phone numbers; it’s a privacy issue.”

The customer starts to get very cranky.

Customer: “I don’t want you to give me her number. I want you to call her and tell her to call me.”

Me: “I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. I’m not allowed to access employee phone numbers myself because that’s private information.”

Customer: “IT’S NOT A PRIVACY ISSUE IF YOU ARE THE ONE CALLING! JUST CALL HER AND MAKE HER CALL ME!”

Me: “Like I said, ma’am, I don’t have a way to access that information.”

Customer: “GET ME YOUR MANAGER!”

I connected her to my manager who she eventually wore down into calling my supervisor. I later found out that all the customer wanted was to ask my supervisor if she wanted to go to a concert with her.