The Problem Wasn’t The Problem

I work at a local college in the Student Accounts/Business Office. For some context, I had gotten a phone call yesterday from a man trying to contact one of my coworkers in a different location. She didn’t answer the phone, so he called our location instead. 

Since he had a very specific problem (one that only my coworker and my boss had training on/access to the specific system for), I explained that my boss was out of the office and had a lot of meetings, so he was free to send her an email, and she would get to it when she could. He refused, explaining that he wanted someone over the phone. Since that wasn’t possible, he got very upset and eventually hung up. 

Which brings us to today, as he was my first call when I clocked in. I recognized his name, but forgot what the context was. This was the conversation (loosely paraphrased, as it was a lot longer and I don’t remember every complaint he had):

Me: “[Name of University] Student Accounts, how can I help you?”

Caller: “Is [Boss] in today?”

Now I remember why his name was familiar. She isn’t, and I start to dread his response.

Me: “I’m afraid she’s not in the office right now.”

Caller: “She wasn’t in yesterday, she’s not in today, when is she in?!”

Me: “She was in earlier this week. I’m afraid I don’t know her exact schedule, but I believe she’ll be in tomorrow.”

Caller: “I can’t get a hold of [Other Coworker], I can’t get a hold of her, I mean, this is unbelievable. Who else can help me?”

Me: “Unfortunately, the only people able to help you with that are [Other Coworker] and [Boss].”

Caller: “Are you serious?! I can’t reach either of them. This is ridiculous, who does [Boss] report to, who’s the… the director around there?”

Me: “That would be [Boss].”

Caller: “So she’s the director, and she’s not even available?!”

Me: “She is, sir, it’s just not by phone today.”

Caller: “I spend thousands of dollars here, this is unbelievable!”

Me: “Would you like me to give you [Other Coworker] and [Boss’s] email?”

Caller: “No, I have their email. But this is unacceptable that I can’t reach them!”

At this point, I’m confused and slightly annoyed. This man knows and has their emails and could have resolved his issue yesterday if he had contacted them, but he refused to.

Me: *Slightly annoyed.* “They can be reached, sir, you’d just have to send them an email.”

And once again, he hung up.  

I don’t know what he wanted me to say. I gave him a solution, and he refused it. I don’t even know if he left [Other Coworker] a voicemail or if he just gave up when she didn’t immediately answer the phone.

Considering he called two days in a row and was getting increasingly agitated, I decided to email my boss his info, asking her if it was possible for her to reach out to him, since he was refusing to do so himself. She told me to call him back, explaining that she was in a meeting and would reach out to him, either by phone once it was done or email during it.

Thankfully, and with a lot of complaints on his part in the email I was cc’ed in, the problem was resolved in thirty minutes.

Thirty minutes. For something he wasted an entire day on and a bit of the next by refusing to send an email.

Why are some people like this?