How dare you question my internet?

I work in a call centre that works for two major banks in the UK.

I had a man call up yesterday to complain that the website “Doesn’t work, I was told I would find xyz here but there’s nothing here!” He sounded older so we are told to always start with the basics with elderly customers with web problems so I asked him what he could see displayed on his screen. He replied that it said “page not found connection error”.

I replied “Hmm it sounds like there may be an issue with your internet connection, if not it could be…” I was about to ask if it could be a 404 error or of it could be that our site had gone down but we need to check everything else before jumping to the site going down because it causes a lot of grief for everyone when it goes down.

Before I got any further he was screaming down the phone at me “what did you just say to me? Don’t be so bloody stupid, how bloody thick are you? How rude are you? You need bloody training in customer service talking to me like that, I can’t believe you would ask me that, how dare you make implications about my internet speed!”

I was silent for about 15 seconds because I didn’t really know what to say to such an out of proportion response to a question WE HAVE TO ASK! “…I’m sorry sir we have to check. Ok have you tried…” Cut off again, he sounded like he was foaming at the mouth, “how dare you? You are so rude, I cannot believe blahblah bank hires people like you, clearly not intelligent enough to fix your own website…”

About two minutes of this and I cut him off “sir if you continue speak to me like that I will release the call, I am only trying to help.” He said fine “release it then” I said “sir do you want me to hang up or help?” He grumbled that he needed help so I explained what he needed to do and where to go on the site for what he was looking for. I just wanted him gone at this point.

I ask at top speed if he needs anything else? And replied “yes actually, I want your full name, you employee ID and your manager now. You have offended and insulted me.”

Now I was at the end of my bloody tether at this point, I hate the job more than anything and customers like this make it so hard to keep up the fake smiley voice. Before I could stop myself I said “that’s ok” and hung up.

I have only hung up on one person before, some bloke called me a f****** slag so after this guy I put myself in break and made a cup of tea.

Bloody customers