"He’s unavailable to talk and won’t be for a while…."

I work for a cable/phone/internet company and one of the regulations we have to follow is that we can not disclose any information to unauthorized users unless there’s documentation on the account stating otherwise such as an obituary stating the account holder has passed or POA forms. This caller was the account holder’s son (AHS) and was trying to find out how much it would be to reconnect services since they had been disabled due to no payment.

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I get the account verified and I notice the caller isn’t on the acct:

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Me: I do apologize but Mr XXX doesn’t have any users on the account so i can’t release any information without him authorizing you on the account, if he’s available he can add you really quick or he can call us back and add you later.

AHS: Well… He can’t talk at the moment, can’t you just tell me?

Me: I’m sorry sir but I can’t without him adding you on the account.

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Now at this point I’m thinking that the account holder’s out of the house, maybe sick in the hospital, thinking of all the reasons why someone wouldn’t be able to speak at the moment.

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AHS: I’m telling you he’s unavailable to talk and won’t be for a while, just tell me what I need to know!

Me: Sir, I understand the frustration but I can’t release this information without XXX’s permission.

AHS: HE. CAN’T. TALK.

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So I was getting frustrated going back and forth about how I can’t give out information, he wanted to make a payment but since i couldn’t give him the exact amount he was throwing a fit.

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AHS: I don’t see why you can’t just tell me! He ain’t gonna be talking for a long time!

Me: Sir, I understand he can’t speak at the moment, but he can call us when he can and then we can get everything going for you from there (we’re both heated in our speech at this point)

AHS: HE CAN’T CALL BACK, HE’S NEVER GONNA TALK, HE’S DEAD.

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Was not expecting that, I was stunned.

Me: Well sir that’s a totally different story…

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I went online and found the obituary and was able to help him from there, but why would anyone just keep saying he can’t talk? I get family passing is a painful thing to go through but that was a 10 minute call of back and forth thinking this man was still alive and could eventually speak