A Case of Mistaken Identity?

I hope this is the correct subreddit for this tale, otherwise, I’m not sure where it would fit.

This situation took place several years ago. I used to work for a crisis intervention call center and when this mess started, I had been out sick with a nasty case of bronchitis.

While I was home, recuperating, I received a call from the 12-Step Desk, (another type of Call Center), as I’m also in a 12-Step Program. The 12-Step Desk asked if I could be available for a 12-Step Call in person, (we used to do that years ago), and I replied I might be able to if I could arrange for a second person to go with me, (12-Step Calls were done in teams of two). I was able to find another team member and we drove over to the person asking for help.

During the 12-Step visit, I let the other team member do all the talking because my bronchitis had messed up my voice a lot and preferred not to talk so I wouldn’t start coughing again. At one point, the person we were visiting commented that they had initially called my place of employment, they transferred the call to the 12-Step Call Center and the individual was PISSED about that! (I thought: “Uh-Oh!” Because employees, like myself, are NOT supposed to be meeting these callers face-to-face!) I continued to remain silent while my teammate continued talking about the 12-Step Program. When my teammate explained that we couldn’t promise nor guarantee what this individual demanded, including driving them over to a different county, the individual threw us out. (Okay, then.)

Several days later, I had recovered enough from bronchitis to return to work on the Crisis Intervention phones when I received a call from an IRATE individual complaining about how unhelpful everyone was. It turned out to be this individual who had initially called the Crisis line, was transferred to the 12-Step Recovery line, and was the 12-Step visit that I had been part of! I knew right away that I could not continue with this caller even though policy stated I needed to stay on this call from beginning to end. I persuaded the caller to be placed on hold while I went to my supervisor and filled them in. (The caller did NOT know it was me on that 12-Step visit and I preferred to keep it that way.)

My supervisor acknowledged that I could not continue the call and had me transfer the call to them. I don’t know what actually transpired between the caller and my supervisor other than the caller hung up on my supervisor because they couldn’t get their demands met.