(Long, probably unnecessary background (and story) ahead, skip to the third paragraph for the story to begin. Also Department Store credit card supervisor, hate my life, blah blah blah. Sorry for any mistakes, love you.) A customer had made a payment on our credit card through his bank’s Bill Pay. It did not get applied to the account for whatever reason. It happens, computers aren’t perfect all the time. It’s usually due to the customer submitting it to their bank with an incorrect payment address, an older account number, or incorrect account number all together. That means we have the payment, but it’s in our payment purgatory waiting to find its place. It’s important to know that the people who handle that are in a different center, across the country from my location. We have absolutely no access it, or to expedite anything even if we wanted to for these entitled garbage cans, even as a Supervisor.
The procedure for this is to request them to fax proof the payment was withdrawn from their bank along with the bank information, our payment research department uses that to locate and assign the payment. Yes, it’s annoying to us as well that faxing is the ONLY option. I don’t make the rules. It of course gets dated to when we received it, and all fees are retroactively waived, any sign the account was past due is wiped. Even if it took 2 months, (it can… for no reason… an irritating story of another center’s incompetence, a story for another time,) everything is wiped.
The customer calls in and escalates to me because he doesn’t want to fax. I read the notes, he was told to fax when he called 4 days ago. Also 5 days prior to that. He acted like this was the first time he’s heard that fact. We’ll call him Richard, because he was a dick. By now, I had already reiterated all of the above about why we need it. Also, despite how jaded I am, I have a very sweet and cheery customer service voice, so I’m not as rude as I may sound here.
Richard: This is disgusting. Why should I be so fucking inconvenienced for YOUR mistake.
Me: Sir, I’m sorry, but this is the third time that we’ve advised you of this. Believe me, if we had the capability to expedite this for you, we absolutely would. Your bank would likely happily fax it for you if you call them, and a store associate would definitely fax it for you for if you visit your nearby store.
Richard: Why do you just keep saying the same thing? This is out of fucking control!
Me: I am saying the same thing because it is not going to change, sir. Please allow me to give you the necessary fax number, I understand that you are frustrated, but we do need your cooperation to solve this issue together.
So Richard finally took the number with a lot of bitching, and ended the call… until my phone rings 10 minutes later. Another agent has Richard on the other line who demanded a Supervisor right off the bat.
Me: Hi there, my name is… (he cuts me off)
Richard: (fake pleasant tone) Listen, I had just spoken to a supervisor who told me to call back when I have my proof of payment, and that someone could give me an email to send it to for being such a good customer. (He wasn’t.)They said they’d do that just this once.
Me: Sir, that was me that you spoke to, my name is Karli. We also would have just given you an email if we had it I assure you, we would not inconvenience you in asking you to call back minutes later and speak to a completely new person, and have to explain your concern again.
Richard: (still fake pleasant) No, it couldn’t be, her name was Melanie.
Me: Mr. Richard, I’m sorry but… it was definitely me no less than 10 minutes ago, and we do not have anybody named Melanie. (He tries to cut me off here, but I continue because it’s 20 minutes to close and I’m dying at this point) We never discussed an email, I apologize if anything was misunderstood. I thought when you accepted the fax number that you understood. Is there anything else I can clarify for you this evening?
Richard hung up on me. Cool, tragically it’s too late for me to even feign interest in calling back. Phone rings again about 1 minute to close. If you’re still here with me, yes you guessed it, it was our friend Richard.
This time I don’t even get to start my greeting, before he said that the last person who he spoke with was SO rude, SUCH a bitch, every bad name and slur in the book, and that they should be fired for “impersonating Melanie, the nice woman who offered him kindness.”
Me: Hi Mr. Richard, it’s Karli again. I’m the person that you spoke with. I apologize for upsetting you, I assure you that it was not intentional. Would you like to speak to somebody else? I am not able put in a complaint about myself. I can put you through to my Manager if you’d like!
Richard hung up on me again. I was heartbroken. We were closed by then, and I saw after refreshing the notes that he was repeatedly trying to call back again, but could only speak to the Automated System. Poor thing. Fuck you Richard, I hope you hit your hip on a doorknob. The end.
TL;DR: Man calls in 3 times in a row and gets me each time which is upsetting for him, he wastes his own time by spending it harassing us instead of just faxing a damn paper, he makes a complaint about me, to me, and my name is Melanie now.
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