In which I give you a peek at an interoffice email I just sent.
This really happened, and I really sent this email to my boss.
Hello M—,
Friday evening I hung up on a customer. Twice. Here are my notes:
6/19/09 Cust put new CC on file. He wished to argue with me about how expiry dates work, I disconnected the call when he began to yell. He called back and told me I’m “full of shit” and that he intends to get me fired. I gave him my name and my supervisor’s name and hung up on him again. -mm
In the first call, I thanked him for putting his new card number on file and tried gently to terminate the call. He wanted to explain that his card had “never expired” (although in the same breath he told me he’d received a new one in the mail) and that B– is “the only company” who is unable to run charges against an expired credit card. When his pointless lecture escalated to the edge of abuse, I said I was not interested in arguing and that I was ending the call. Then I hung up.
When he called back, he told me I’m “full of shit,” said I didn’t know what I was talking about, called me “young lady” with contempt, and said he would “get me fired.” He proceeded to argue with me again about our stupidity in not being able to charge an expired card, and didn’t slow down at all when I asked, “Do you really not have anything better to do on a Friday night than yell at someone who makes minimum wage?”
I told him to call in Monday and report me to my supervisor. I gave him my name, and I gave him your name. I refused to give him my last name when he demanded it (or yours, for that matter). Then I told him I was ending the call, and hung up on him again.
He has called back in at least eight more times – and hit all the queues: billing, reception, tech, and sales. I have not answered any of them.
I forwarded the one voice mail message he left to your box.
Cheers,
—
Michelle M—–
Support Technician
B— M—— Internet
http://www.—-.net
(800) 485-XXXX xXXXP.S. …before I managed to send this, he called back YET AGAIN, this time from a different number. I answered with my name, and he said “Hello Michelle, I need to speak with someone in billing that’s NOT YOU.” I said, “There is no one else. I’m the only one here.” He said he’d call on Monday and hung up on me.
I’m sure he felt very powerful when he did so.
Of course I don’t actually make minimum wage. but he didn’t need to know that.
Seriously, how many people with MBAs yell at call center drones and don’t understand that you can’t run a credit card without the correct expiration date?
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Jesus, what an assgnome.
Totally. -m
Sing it, sister. As a former call center employee, I never understood why people felt the need to be abusive. At my (former) job, the line they always tried was “I’m a taxpayer” (meaning, I suppose, that because they paid taxes they were my boss?). And I would always say, “so am I.” And then they would stammer for a bit and bitch about something else.
People seem a lot crankier these days.
I’m just going to start blurting out, “I’m a taxpayer!” and see if it works in my industry too. -m
As a former service manager I’d have recommended that you let him scream, not say a word, wait, wait, wait until he’s all screamed out then wait some more. The dead silence seems to get to them. When they say, “Are you there”, or similar, you can jump back in but at that point they are usually calmed down.
However, in any well run company, even as a phone drone you are never required to listen to personal attacks or abuse and hanging up is acceptable.
I do have the waiting silently tactic in my arsenal (must have learned it from you), but this guy was such an asswipe I chose instead to laugh at him and hang up. -m
I know a fellow with an MBA that has close to twenty foreclosures to his credit. How the eff does that happen? (He’s a dick, too.)
Twenty? Social engineering and luck. -m
I feel your pain, I work in an anti-virus company and sometimes our in-house tightvnc app doesnt function as it should so we use showmypc. I had a gentleman try to tell me that he wrote the program and that we need to put it back on his PC. I explained that if he wrote it he should have the source code backed up somewhere, and that he should have explained that he wrote it. Of course when asking this gentleman what OS he ran before we connected he proclaimed Windows Vista 8 2007!. No sir, You have IE 8, running an OEM install of Vista from 07, without SP1 I might add and anyone who can program a remote application that uses SSH protocols to connect like showmypc would undoubtedly not make the mistake you just did. I hope it gets better for ya.
Hah! Just… hah! -m
I like it!! hey add me to your msn. telomiro at hotmail dot com… I look forward to meeting you 😉
Ah, that was YOU. You’re my neighbor, right? I use your wi-fi! You rock! I had no idea who was suddenly adding me on MSN ’cause I hardly ever use it! -m
No worries, actually go ahead and get yourself fired!!! That would be some funny S*%#. It would be awesome you could start that new job the next day…
I know, wouldn’t it?! -m