I don’t actually work in a call center but I work in the corporate office for a company with retail locations in a dozen or so states. My department has a hotline for the retail stores to call us. We have to be logged in our whole shift but we usually finish a call in 1-2 minutes.
We have 5 employees logged into the hotline. Since this is a small part of our job we just use a shared excel sheet to log calls. We won’t know if a store has already called that day unless they mention it but some stores need to call 5+ times a day anyway. We do occasionally get employees trying to manipulate us but we never give in because it will inevitably cause issues for them which they will then (not so nicely) demand for us to fix.
Today was an especially slow day for calls and on top of thar our supervisor was out for half the day. Between the 5 of us on phones, we’d each get a couple calls an hour. We work in 2 open rooms so I hear most calls at least subconsciously.
I got a call from a store employee, Wannabe Scammer (WS) who said he needed my help ASAP or he was going to lose a huge sale. I was sympathetic but then he mentioned a quantity of 40 things. My department only has the authority to deal with 6 things at most. I remembered hearing a coworker mention a call for 40 things earlier that day so I put WS on hold and asked my coworkers about it. Turns out all 4 of my coworkers had already spoke with WS about this issue and they had all given the same answer: “I’m sorry sir but I do not have the authority to do this. Let me transfer you to A at our other location because she does”
I get back on the phone with WS and tell him I’ll transfer him to A so she can fix his problem. He immediately gets aggressive and says “No I already spoke with her. She can’t fix it so you have to”
My supervisor isn’t in the room like she usually is, our calls aren’t recorded, he is technically a fellow employee, and 4 of my coworkers have already given him the same (AND BEST) solution to his problem, so I said “Let me call A and then I’ll call you back” and hung up without waiting for a response.
I immediately called A and asked if she knew anything about this and she didn’t. She checked her call history and turns out every time my department had transferred him that day he had hung up before A saw she had a call! I explain WS’s problem and she says she will be able to take care of it but it will take an extra business day. Since my department can’t do anything for this quantity this is by far the best outcome for WS.
I call WS back and tell him A is available to speak with him and that my department can’t do anything else for him besides transfer him to A. He grumbles but I manage to transfer him to A anyway.
A emails me to tell me she saw him call again but he hung up before she could answer. 20 minutes later WS makes another call to the hotline which gets directed to me. I recognize his number so when I answer I use a fake name. He immediately starts asking for my supervisor and telling me all my coworkers are rude and purposely trying to make him lose a huge sale. I then looked up all the employees at his location and found his full name (as well as his home address and personal phone #).
I tell him “I’m sorry Wannabe Scammer, you can talk to A or you will lose this sale” As soon as I call him by his full name he pauses for a minute then asks to be transferred to A. I did and she emailed me afterward to say he was very polite and they were able to work out a solution, but UH OH, since WS waited too long to call he’d have to wait an extra day, maybe 2. I wish someone in my department had let him know we can access all his personal information before we collectively spent an hour trying to help him!
tl;dr employee tries to bully corporate coworkers without realizing he tried bullying all of us already when we know exactly who he is, where he lives, and we work 50 feet away from the CEO… so now he has to wait twice as long to fix his issue
submitted by /u/psychbih
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