Yeah… Your Car Is Being Repo’d

I work in a call center for a travel and touring agency.

Customer: “I booked an excursion and cancelled within the deadline! Why don’t I have my money back?!”

Me: *Checking the booking* “Sir, you cancelled this booking about twenty minutes ago. Refunds take up to seventy-two hours to be processed and credited back to your account.”

Customer: “SEVENTY-TWO HOURS?! I NEED THAT MONEY NOW!”

Me: “I’m sorry, sir, but there isn’t anything I can do at this end other than tell you that we have confirmed your cancellation and will be refunding you within the next seventy-two hours.”

Customer: “Why does it take so long? Just give me my money back!”

Me: “Funds leaving the business need to be verified and accounted for by management and the accounting department so as to minimize fraudulent activity and so that the finances are balanced correctly—”

Customer: “I don’t care about that! Look, my bank is about to come to repo my car any minute if I don’t come up with that money today!“

Me: “I’m sorry to hear that, but I can’t do anything—”

Customer: “No! Stop what you are doing, put me on hold, go to the managers and the accounting department, and tell them to stop what they are doing and process my refund! Move it!“

Me: *Stifling laughter* “Sir, that’s not how that works.”

Customer: “Transfer me to your manager!”

Me: “I’m not going to waste his time having him tell you the exact same thing I’ve just told you now.”

Customer: “Do you not understand this is a high-priority case?!“

Me: “Sir? For the past hour, I have been tied up making calls back and forth with one of our tour operators and a bus line vendor because one of our customers left a purse containing her child’s heart medication, insulin, and allergy pen shots on one of the buses. We are trying to track down which bus it was on and get it back to her before something terrible happens. That is a high priority. Your €300 refund is not a high priority; it’s an inconvenience.”

Customer: “…” *Click”