No, I don’t want to speak to the right department!

tl;dr customer is in the wrong department, I offer to transfer him to the right department, he decides to vent on me.

I work for a car rental company as a specialist. Basically when a customer demands a supervisor I take the call, even though I’m not really a supervisor, but I get better tools to work with.

I’m sure that anyone who works in a Call Center has received a call where it’s not possible to help the customer. Normally, you tell the customer your position, and transfer him/her to the right department. Unfortunately, there’s always that ONE person who needs to remind us why we need a better job.

H: HenriquesDumbCousin D: Dumbass

H: Thank you for calling Car Rental Company, my name is HenriquesDumbCousin, with whom do I have the pleasure to speak with?

D: Dumbass.

H: Thank you very much, how can I assist you today?

D: Well HenriquesDumbCousin, I’m upset right now. I have one question and need to speak to the location where I picked up the car. I called and they gave me their number. I called that number and it connected me to a Call Center. They told me that I needed to wait in the line until someone picked up the phone, I waited and no one picked up the phone, then I called again and they told me ‘no, you need to press this extension’. I called again, pressed the extension and it connected me to the Call Center again. I already wasted more than an hour and no one can help me.

I felt bad for this guy. Unsurprisingly, he picked up the car in an airport. To anyone interested, if you ever have an issue and need to speak directly with the counter at the airport, don’t. Despite the fact that the agents will provide you a phone number, they never pick up the phone in the airport. They basically gave those “tips” to this guy just to get rid of him.

While this guy was telling me his tragic story, I started to look for some information using his phone number. Found a reservation under his name, but when I clicked on it, it said that I needed to escalate the call to another department. Kept doing some research and found out that this guy had a mini-lease, he made a reservation for more than one month. I only handle regular reservations, so I would need to connect him to another department.

H: Yes Mr. Dumbass, I do apologize for the inconvenience, I would also be upset…

D: I’ve been dealing with this for more than one hour, your apologies mean absolutely nothing to me.

I mean, I get it, you’re upset, but seriously, why do people do this? Do they think that being an asshole motivates us? At this point I don’t even care, I might just drop the bomb.

H: This is because of your mini-lease reservation, right?

D: All I want to know is if I can drop this car tomorrow, I don’t need it anymore.

This is the thing, he can definitely return the car the next day if he wants, but I cannot guarantee if the price will be readjusted or not. In regular reservations, there are two types of payment: pay at the counter and pay in advance. If you pay at the counter and return the car early, the price is readjusted. If you pay in advance and return the car early, tough luck, they won’t refund you anything. Knowing this, and considering that I don’t handle this kind of reservations, I’d rather connect the customer to the right department so that they can explain him the policies for this kind of reservation.

H: This is the regular reservations department sir, we don’t handle that type of reservations, I can connect you to the right department so that they can answer that for you.

D: I’ve been in the phone for more than one hour and you can’t help me?

H: This is regular reservations sir, we cannot help you.

D: … I want to speak to your supervisor.

For fuck’s sake…

H: I apologize sir, he doesn’t take any calls.

D: Well, he’ll need to take this one.

H: Ummm… no sir, he doesn’t take any calls.

D: What’s his name?

H: I cannot provide that information.

D: Is he there with you?

H: No sir.

D: Can you provide me with his phone number?

H: Of course not sir, I cannot provide that kind of information.

D: Is this how Car Rental Company treats its customers?

H: I apologize sir, but I cannot help you in this situation.

D: I’ve been in the phone for more than one hour, you apologies mean nothing to me.

H: I know sir, but regardless, I already told you that I cannot help you, I already offered to connect you to the right department and you rejected my suggestion.

D: Ummm… nooooooooooooooo, you suggested to connect me to another department, and I told you that it was a horrible idea, I asked for your…

click

This happened a few weeks ago, I was reminded of this incident thanks to another call I had earlier today. Basically this guy had some issues with his car, so he needed to speak with roadside assistance. Rather than let me connect him to that department, he wanted to know why he was speaking with a supervisor for reservations when he specifically requested a supervisor for roadside assistance. Dude, who cares? Let me connect you to the right department.

I just don’t get some people.