Latest Call Center Drama!

Cartoon Used with Permission from Randy Glasbergen

As some of you know, I work in a call center doing tech support for a cellular provider. Today, I was lucky enough to get another shining example of stupidity in America on my line. My company is going through a major transition right now and as a consequence it is sometimes hard to find a customer’s records in the normal manner. A male customer called in literally shouting at me from the start of the call. He was angry that he had been transferred to me and he was angry that he was put on hold until he could reach me. I tried to be polite as I realized he had gone through a long wait and frustration was certainly to be expected. When the man provided his number, I could not find it in the system. I suspected that he had been transferred to me because other groups involved in the transition also could not find his records and I did not want to upset the customer further. So, being a dutiful employee and trying to do the right thing, I asked the customer if he was new to my company. The reason I asked was because sometimes new customer’s records take several hours to show up in our system but there is a way to retrieve them. The man immediately escalated and started shouting at me about what kind of moron he considered me to be and how stupid could I be to ask such a question. He swore and screamed and shouted in such a way that you would have thought I had breeched national security. I let him vent than tried to explain what I was trying to accomplish, to no avail, the man simply started screaming again and would not allow me even a sentence to explain my position or simply change to another strategy to correct the problem and find his account. Finally, after allowing the man to cuss in my ear for another five minutes and seeing no end to his venting in site I put on my most commanding voice and interrupted the man. I said Sir, I simply asked about your account to service your needs better. I did not say we do not have your account, I did not say you are a new customer, I simply asked for information to assist me to locate your account so I can help you better. Again, the man escalated and hung up. During his tantrum, I checked his notes and discovered that he had done the same behavior to other representatives earlier in the day. Oddly enough, even with his tantrum and cussing directly in my ear at top volume and verbally degrading me for several minutes, I found his account just as he hung up. The guy only accomplished one thing on that call, he proved himself a total fool. Had he been polite and considerate, I could have found his account much sooner and his issue would have been resolved. Instead he threw a tantrum like a child and now he is in a position to have to call back in and wait in a queue that was much, much larger than usual and go through it all over again. According to the records, he had done this to two other reps earlier in the day, I was the third rep he assailed and our call volume was so high with waiting as long as an hour (very rare for us, but because of the transition a necessary evil). The guy probably spent at least 2-4 hours on hold just to throw tantrums in representative’s ears. If he had listened and worked with us, we could have resolved his issues in moments and he would have been spared the wait time and calling back, serves him right. We are open 24/7 and somehow I imagine he is still calling in trying to bully reps into ‘better’ service. Geeze guy, it’s a cell phone, not rocket science, get some perspective!