dO yOu SpEaK jApAnEsE?!

Hello all, first time long time!

I wanted to share a customer encounter that’s stuck in my head for over a day, and ill probably never forget! Its been a busy week with the launch of the new iphone, hurricanes and such, so hold times are high. Most are agitated by the wait but I always acknowledge the wait and alone calms people down and its business as usual. Not this guy…

Me: “I appreciate your patience waiting to speak to me today, how can I help.”

Cust: “I cant believe this, making a customer wait like this should be criminal, and I don’t appreciate being treated as a criminal!”
Me: “I apologize for the wait, you have me now, I have your number and will be sure to call you if we get disconnected.”

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At this point im looking in the notes and hes just called back after failing text authentication with another rep. Rep states “very rude and upset.” Ok well nothing I cant handle. Next the customer goes into a long spiel about how awful our company is not allowing him to suspend a line because his phone is lost, that the other rep treated him like a criminal because he did not know is account PIN and that the rep could not show him how to check text messages for the secondary verification on his phone. At this point his acct is locked from to many secondary text message attempts for 24 hours, so I decide to help him out via email.

Me: “Im sorry the previous rep could not assist you, I do have the emulator for your phone pulled up so I can help you with any questions about checking messages, but at this point we will need to try a different way to access your account since we are locked out of text messaging route for 24 hours.”

Cust: “WHAT!!! YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THE PREVIOUS COULD HAVE TOLD ME HOW TO CHECK MY MESSAGING, THIS IS CRIMINAL.” (keeps using that word for some reason)

Now im sure he tried to help the guy press the BIG button on his basic phone labeled MESSAGES, so im not going to apologize for the previous rep at this point as I am getting annoyed at this guys attitude.

Me: “Ok so I know you waited a long time to speak to me so I don’t want to keep you waiting all day. I’m going to send you a verification email to [Address@adress.com](mailto:Address@adress.com) – Is that a good email for you?

Cust: ” What? Yes that’s my email, why didn’t the previous rep do this?”

He goes on for another minute about how unhelpful we are and how long this is taking, filibustering at this point. So i interrupt and apologize again and give him some instructions. Made sure to outline how this is going to work, because once I send the verification email, it will expire after a few minutes! So he has his email up and this exchange happens….

Me: “Ok I have sent you the verification email. We need to open it and complete verification.”

Cust: “Oh, well I have me email open and no new mail, there is just the number 1 next to the word Inbox.”

Me: “Oh ok, sounds like we need to refresh your screen, either click on the word inbox, sign out and back in, or press F5 on the top-”

Customer interrupts me at this point…

Cust: *speaks some Japanese*
Me: … ok what do you see, did the page refresh?
Cust: *speaks Japanese again and calmly says* Do you speak Japanese?
Me: “no sir. Do you see the email because its about to expir-” He cuts me off again
Cust: *Japanese intensifies* dO yOu SpEaK jApAnEsE?

Me: “no sir.”
Cust: “THAN WHY THE HELL DO YOU THINK THAT I UNDERSTAND WHAT YOUR TELLING ME TO DO JUST TELL ME WHAT TO DO”

Im literally screaming internally, is this real life?

Me: “Can you reload your email sir?”

Cust: “WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN?!?!”

Me: “Can you close your browser and re-open your email?”

Cust: *speaks Japanese again* WHY DO YOU EXPECT ME TO KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS IM 80 YEARS OLD!”
Me: “In the upper right corner there is a red X, this closes the browser window, click that then re-open your email like you normally do.”

At This point we’ve finally got the new email displaying in his inbox, he struggles to open the email and then asks what to do next.

Cust: “It says to complete authentication, click below? WHAT THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO CLICK THERE IS NOTHING THERE!?”

Me: “Ok is there anything below the “click below”?

Cust: “Just a red button that says complete authentication and something about if you received this email in error to contact us.”

Im loosing my patience with this guy and then it happens. On my screen I get an “Authentication request timed out.” At this point we cannot help the customer with his account unless he goes into the store, as we have exceeded the numbers of email authentication also. I explain this to him and he goes on a big tie-raid again about how awful we are and how unhelpful we are, hes going to write a letter to corporate and that hes an author and hes “very smart” and how were treating him like a criminal yadda, yadda. At this point IDGAF because I’ve been nothing but courteous and professional. He goes on and on some more and decides to go to the store to get it sorted. But boy oh boy did I want to treat this guy like a baby. You mad because you don’t know how to work a cellphone or pc and its our fault. No, I don’t speak JaPaNeSe and next time CLICK THE WIDDLE WED BUTTON IN THE UPPER WEFT OF DA WINDOW TO CWOSE DA WINDOW AND OPEN YOUR WEMAIL AGAIN.

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