No Ma’am, Your Son Doesn’t Need an iPhone

I quit my latest call center job so here’s a story from my first call center job to celebrate and one I touched on in my last post.

I worked for this place that I won’t name but it contracted out from a major wireless company and gets sued a lot for its crummy treatment of employees. The other great joy of the job was the customers that would call in with an astonishing sense of entitlement.

I answer the phone this time, say my spiel, and immediately get a very snotty “My son needs an iPhone!”

Me: “That’s fine ma’am there’s an upgrade on your line we can use-“

Snotty: “No we can’t I need that upgrade!”

Me: “Well then your son will have to wait a couple of months for his upgrade, we can’t do early upgrades on iPhones it would violate our contract with Apple.”

Snotty: “THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE HIS PHONE ISN’T WORKING! HE CANT EMAIL! HE NEEDS AN IPHONE!!”

I stop and take a breath after that one. If there’s anything I’m continuously grateful for from that job it is a well-developed sense of patience.

The metrics for this particular place were strict and we couldn’t transfer too much but I was at the point where I was fine with using a transfer for this peach. Normally I’d try to do at least some tech support but for Snotty? Naaaaah.

Me: “Ma’am we can try tech support if you don’t want to use the upgrade.”

Snotty: “Fine, whatever just do it.”

I put her on mute because our time in hold was also monitored. Protip if you don’t hear music people on the line can still hear you.

Snotty: “This dumb broad-“

Honestly, to this day I don’t remember what she said after that. I smile. Wait a minute. Take another deep breath. Suddenly decide I do mind wasting my transfer.

Me: “I’m sorry ma’am we’re having some technical difficulty let me give you the number for tech support.”

A growl and a click later. I decided to give my super awesome manager a head’s up about the incident since I don’t like being catty with people and she laughed and said “now you’re getting it!”