Putting The Why In The Y-Chromosome

(A man calls about his phone line that’s not working. After some checks, it’s clear that the fault is somewhere in our network.)

Me: “All right, sir, I’ll open up a support ticket and put it through to our engineers. They’ll fix it for you.”

Male Caller: “They oughta fix it soon, because my mother is very ill and in the hospital. I want to be able to be called by the doctors.”

Me: “I’m sorry to hear that. These problems are normally solved pretty quickly, but I’ll make a note of it so that our engineers will give it a higher priority.”

Male Caller: “You’d better do that!”

(We end the call and I put the request through. When I check the ticket a day later, I see it was solved about two hours after the initial call. As part of standard procedure, I call the man back. This time, a lady answers the phone.)

Me: “I’m calling you about the trouble you had regarding your phone line. Someone else called about this yesterday and I wanted to ask if everything was taken care of well.”

Female Caller: “Oh, it must have been my son who called about that. Well, everything was solved, and pretty quick, too.”

Me: “Your son? I’m glad to hear you’re out of the hospital already.”

Female Caller: “In the hospital? What are you talking about?”

Me: “Your son said you were very ill.”

Female Caller: “That liar! He told me he had a trick he uses to get problems like these solved. He does this all the time. I’ll make sure he won’t do this again!”

Me: “Okay. Well, have a nice day, then.”

Female Caller: “You, too, and I’m sorry about my son. He just looks like his father, that’s all!”

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