I don’t work in a call center; I work in a service department that gets forwarded a lot of call center calls and chats if the reason for the customer’s contact is service related situations. Yesterday afternoon before leaving the office for the day, I was forwarded a call from our call center regarding an irate customer, mad about not having received a call from the service department regarding a damaged screen door she has.
The call center support agent gave me the heads up and I listened to the brief recording to catch up before accepting the call and I knew I was in for a treat. Here’s the dialogue from the recording:
Support Agent: Thanks for calling [redacted] this is John, how may I help you?
Karen: I’m having an issue with my screen door not closing fully. I’ve called the service department several weeks ago and no one has yet appeared so obviously this job is too small for them.
Support Agent: I apologize for the inconvenience, I can reach out to the service department on your behalf to follow up, but with everything going on I’m sure they’re just backlogged and will–
Karen: No! They’re making more money doing new installations so they don’t want to spend time on fixing mine. I live in a high mosquito population area and my screen needs to close fully!
Support Agent: Okay, let me see if someone from the service department is available. May I place you on a brief hold?
Karen: Yes.
—
Once I got all caught up on the recording, I picked up the line that was transferred to me and prepared myself for some absolute nonsense.
Me: Hi, this is macmoosie in the service department. I understand you’re having difficulty getting your screen to close?
Karen: Yes and I’ve called your department weeks ago and never got a call back. Mosquitoes keep flying into my house because my screen door won’t close all the way!
Me: I’m sorry, but unfortunately with COVID-19, we’ve been understaffed and very busy, operating in limited capacity. I haven’t received any calls regarding this issue until today, but I’ll do my best to help you. May I have your name and address so I can look up your order?
Karen: Karen McKaren, 123 Main Street, etc.
Me: Thank you. I’ve found the order. What I’ll do is create a service order and pass it along to the scheduling manager so we can get a technician out to you as soon as possible. What is your availability for a service appointment?
Karen: Today.
Me: I’m sorry, we do not have any openings today. What is your general availability? Are there any days of the week or times that do not work for you?
Karen: I’ve been dealing with this for weeks! I need this fixed today!
Me: Karen, I understand your frustration, but we do not have any open appointment slots nor do we have any available technicians. If you can provide me your general availability, I’ll be able to get you a service appointment sooner rather than later.
Karen: This is HORRIBLE customer service! What am I supposed to do in the meantime?
Me: Is it just a screen door or is there another door installed behind it?
Karen: It’s installed on my back door. I leave the back door open and keep the screen door closed, but it won’t close entirely, so mosquitoes keep getting in!
Me: Karen, until we’re able to get a technician out there to fix the screen door, I would recommend keeping the back door closed in this case.
Karen: WOW. What a genius idea, can’t believe I’ve never thought of that! This is unacceptable!
Me: I’m sorry, but that’s the best I can offer at this time. Would you like to provide your availability for service, or do you want to call us back when you’re ready to proceed?
Karen: OH GO TO HELL! *click*
—
Thank God that was right before the end of my shift because I didn’t have the strength to carry on any further. Most of the customers I have to interact with are absolutely wonderful and lovely and even the irate ones are never that bad. Karen was a whole different animal.
TL;DR – irate customer clearly just wants to stay mad and ignores any attempts at assistance.
submitted by /u/macmoosie
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