When Passwords Attack

Hi fellow call center friends!

I work at a call center for a well known tech company. During the day I work in our outbound sales team and I also work some night and weekend hours so I can get time and a half and make more sales.

So tonight at the end of my overtime shift I get a call from a guy who can’t remember his password and needs a password reset. Ok, this is a 2 minute call tops. The guy is friendly right off the bat.

I send him an email with a link to reset his password.

“So I’m kind of having a hard time right now because I’m really hungry and I really want to go get food.”

Me : Oh dear. Well let’s just reset this password real quick.

Customer: Yeah.. so how do I do this thing?

Me: Type in your customer number or your email and your password.

Him: Whats my customer number?

Me: 246165

Him: Whoa. That’s a lot of numbers. Let me write that down.

Me: Okay. Ready? 246165.

Him: wha…?

Me: 246165..

Him. Ok. Ummm, it didn’t work.

Me: 246165…

Him: This website hates me.

Me: Uhhhhh

Him: It won’t wooooorkkkkk.

Me: Its 246165.

(Repeat this same sequence for 10 minutes.)

Him: Oh I put in my email, joe1985@gmail.com.

Me: Oh, the email on your account is joe1985@yahoo.com. Try that one.

Customer: It won’t work. Is there something up with your website? Are the towers down? Maybe the towers are down? You get any calls about that?

Me: No, we haven’t actually. (At this point I am actually laughing out loud and unable to contain myself)

Him: Okay let me try this again…. it didn’t woooork.

Me: can I put you on a quick hold? I’ll send you another password reset, let me send that over.

I put the customer on hold and go track down the inbound supervisor, Jenny, and say “I have a little problem. My customer is having a hard time resetting his password and we’ve been on the phone for 20 minutes and I’m pretty sure he’s high as a kite. He’s very nice, just not able to follow simple instructions. Is there a nice way to wrap up this call?

Jenny laughs and tells me I can tell my customer that the queue is getting busy and I have to move on to other customers and wish him a great night.

I get back on the line.. “Hi Joe. So – “

Him: So it says my password has been successfully reset. What does that mean? That’s good right?

Me: Yes, you just changed your password.

Him: Oh wow! That means I did it. I did it!!!

Me: Yay! Now is there anything else I can help you with?

Him: ….you’re…..leaving me???

Me: Well… (starts giggling) I do have to get to other customers.

Him: Ohh crap… How do I get into my email?

Me: Maybe you should take a break? Get some food and try again later?

Him: Okay yeah good call! Thanks! Bye!

And that was what happened to me while working overtime this evening. #CallCenterProblems 🙃