I work as a customer support phone operator for a large insurance company. We send reminders through email and post running from one month up to the day before their policy is due to be renewed. Depending on how busy the postal service is, it can take a few days, a week, or even longer to reach customers.

I can’t even begin to count how many times I have had the exact same conversation.

Customer: “I just received a request for payment for this year! I already paid this on [date]! What are you trying to pull here?”

Me: “I’ll be more than happy to check that for you… and I do see that payment was taken successfully. You said you just got this letter? Can you tell me the date on it?”

Customer: “Well, it says here [date before he called to make payment], but I don’t see what that has to do with anything!”

I understand you’d be upset to pay twice, but if folks wouldn’t only take two seconds to read the paperwork we send, it would prevent a lot of hassle on both our parts.

When I was still new at a call center, I was still very nervous about speaking to angry customers. During my first couple of months there, I got what is still probably one of the craziest customers I’ve ever spoken to.

If customers ask for a supervisor, then we have to advise them that we do not have a supervisor available and that the escalations team has the same authority as a supervisor (they actually have more as far as what they can do for a customer) and get them to accept speaking with them.

Also, any time we have to contact other departments, it counts against us in one of our performance-based incentives. It’s called contact rate, and it counts what percentage of our calls we have to contact another department for. Even if they don’t take over the call, it still counts on our contact rate.

I give my introduction, and immediately the customer goes into a long rant about what’s going on. Basically, she was sent a defective item. She returned it and was sent another item which also turned out to be defective. She definitely has a valid complaint. I would be super frustrated in her shoes, too. I start to offer to send another item (required as our first solution) and she interrupts me.

Caller: “No! I don’t want that. Here’s what I want. I want to send you this crap back and just get a refund. I don’t want to deal with this or your company anymore!”

She sounds pretty mad, so at this point, I consider contacting my escalations team, but we aren’t supposed to unless they specifically ask to speak to someone else. My contact rate is high already, I totally understand why she is upset, and she is asking for something I am capable of doing, so I decide to just push through my nerves and be helpful.

Me: “Absolutely. I completely understand your frustration, and I am so sorry this happened. Just return the item with the prepaid shipping label that was included, and I’ll go ahead and get started on a refund request.”

Caller: *Now shouting* “What?! I want to talk to your supervisor! So you’re not gonna come up with a solution? You’re just gonna do what I tell you to do?! Unbelievable! Get me a supervisor now!”

It really took my brain a few seconds to comprehend what she had said. I could not believe she was mad because I agreed to do what she requested.

It took several minutes to get her to accept the escalations team in place of a supervisor, but eventually, she said that was okay. I was just so shocked that I got yelled at for that.

Related:
That Escalated Quickly, Part 2
That Escalated Quickly

Our call center allows us to work from home due to health reasons as long as we have a stable Internet connection, which, thankfully, I do.

Caller: “Where am I calling? This had better be an American!”

Me: “You’re calling Cebu in the Philippines, sir.”

Caller: “I want to speak to an American, d*** it!”

I try to explain more but this caller just isn’t having it. Thankfully, due to watching too many shows and YouTube, I can do a pretty good accent from someone in the US. I put them on hold, switch accents, and come back to them.

Me: “Hello, sir, you’re speaking to [My Nickname]. How can I help you?”

Caller: “Thank God, you’re an American. Where are you?”

Drawing a blank, I just think about a line from a “Star Trek” movie I have seen recently where Captain Kirk says, “I’m from Iowa; I only work in outer space.”

Me: “Iowa, sir.”

Just then, a rooster cries the typical “cock-a-doodle-do!” in the backyard of my very rural, very Filipino home that is certainly not in Iowa.

Caller: “Good! Sounds like Iowa, too! Now, my problem is—”

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I work in a call centre for an Internet provider. It can be a thankless job with bad days, and this day seemed to be one of them. For context, this is the only time I have ever said anything like this to a customer. I’m always cordial, no matter my temper, even if I have to hang up on a customer.

It had been a rough day, with a lot of angry customers and very stupid calls, and I was at the end of my rope, even though I have had days like that before, I don’t know why that day was different.

A customer had been ranting about her poor Internet service. I was sympathetic, but as an agent with no technical training, I could not help her. I had been trying for ten minutes to transfer her, but she would not let me get a word in. Finally, she started to wind down.

Customer: “…and I’ll have you know, I’m very upset!”

I responded in the most unimpressed and done tone.

Me: “Yeah, no kidding.”

It was a second of silence later that I realized how badly I had just screwed up. I apologized profusely, stated that it had been a mistake, and offered some compensation.

I don’t know if maybe she realized that the ten-minute rant was a bit overboard or what, but she accepted the compensation and let me get her over to a tech.

All my coworkers had heard was my remark and my frantic attempt to fix it. We can laugh at it now, but it was definitely not funny in the moment.

Me: “[My Name] speaking, how can I help you?”

Caller: “I would like to know what it costs to get a key vault next to a client’s door.”

A key vault is something people use to give access to their home for care — for example, for the elderly.

Me: “I’m sorry, but that is not part of our service. I don’t know those costs.”

Caller: “Oh, I thought you might know that because you had to place one for your mother or something. Anyway…”

She goes into a long-winded spiel about her client and how she always has to ring the doorbell of the neighbours because her client doesn’t hear the doorbell. Because I have a hunch the question might be how her client can get an extra key, I look that information up. It’s three clicks for me, so no problem.

Caller: “…so, can I get a code of the complex?”

Me: “Our buildings don’t have codes, but your client can order an extra key for you.”

Caller: “And what would be the costs of that?”

Me: “That would be [amount].”

Caller: “Oh? So, you do know that by heart, eh?”

I am confused by her condescending tone.

Me: “Pardon me?”

Caller: “So, you don’t know how much a key vault costs, but when you can make an extra buck you know the price by heart?”

Me: “I… already looked up the information for you while we talked.”

Caller: “Sure, you did. Well, I now know where [Company] stands! I hope they pay you well!”

She disconnected the call. I guess my service was too quick?