Person damage

Trigger warning for death and tragedy, promise a happy end thought.

Me > The resident CC-Agent first class. Vic > Very important client

To sat the stage, I worked at a large CC for a national railway company in europe.

My area where a horrible bonuspoint-program and also the special hotline for very important clients, people that left more than 3.000€ a year with us. These people where, surprisingly, often nicer than the bonus-point people.

My phone rings, I do the introduction, get his Vic-number and ask how I can help.

Vic, kind of tense sounding: “Yeah, we got a problem on our hands here, see, we got a person-damage here and now I need to know if a minor can travel unaccompanied.”

Me: mental record scratch “Uh, I’ll try to find out, one moment please.”

Now, what you need to know here is, that ‘person-damage’ is a set phrase that is the slightly euphemistic way to say “one of our trains just deanimated a person and spread them over a large area in the process”

Combining that with his tense sound and the ‘and now a child needs to travel alone’ and there where VERY unpleasant images in my mind.

I asked a supervisor, and basicly recieved the answer “WHAT? FUCK, I don’t know! Ask the people at child-accompany-service!”
They told me that, “Yeah, possible, just not recommended and WHAT? OH SHIT! Shouldn’t there be an emergency service taking care of that?!”

I finally get back to Vic, who is thoroughly annoyed at this point.

Vic:” I can’t believe this takes so long, I got the damn flu and all I want to know is if my child can visit his grandma without me!”

Me: “Uh, yes he can, it’s just you who’s sick?” (Yes, the “just” slipped out)

Vic: “Yes, what did you think!”

Me: “Well, you kinda said…”

Vic:”…OH FUCK, I said ‘person-damage, right?”

Me: “Yes, you did.”

Vic: ” And to you that means…”
Me: “Yes it does.”
Vic: ” I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to make you worry!”
Me: “It’s alright, is there anything else I can help you with? I kinda need to calm down a couple people.”
Vic: “No, thank you, bye, and again, I’m sorry.”