We had a typical ‘Karen’ call us a few months back, asking to escalate her call. I had only heard brief bits of the story from my co-workers who had dealt with her in the last few hours and thought no more of it because in my job you do get people like this from time to time. I had no idea what was going on.
She began her first call at 9am on the dot, when our lines opened. I heard my colleague get frustrated as he went over the same thing over and over again about something I didn’t quite catch as I was taking my own customer call. Eventually, as I finished my call I heard my colleague say, “Ma’am, I’ve done as much as I can and I’m now terminating this call” and hung up.
This was not the last of her, however, as she began to call again and again but reached various different people. I heard more staff calling the higher ups for help because this woman was causing hell. She called for hours using different or ‘unknown’ numbers that weren’t in our system. But no matter how many times this woman was passed to our higher ups team, she refused to listen, hung up and called again to get a different staff member.
We had all been warned by our higher ups and manager that this woman might phone back and to pass her to them if she did. I couldn’t understand why she wanted escalated or why she wouldn’t take no for an answer.
It hit 5PM and there was a deadpan silence from her. I was sitting on ‘available’ as our calls began to get quieter. It seemed people didn’t want help at that time of day.
The clock rolled onto 17:15 and a call shot through to my side.
I picked it up.
Me: “Hey there. You’re through to ****. How may I help you today?”
K: PUT ME THROUGH TO YOUR HR NOW!!! I WANT TO SPEAK TO THE OWNER!!!”
(The owner lives in an entirely different side of the world and would never have time for something like this in such a huge company)
Me: “I’m sorry to hear that you’re unhappy, Ma’am. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to transfer you, however, I can help you today. Would you like to start by telling me the problem?”
K: “No! Put me through NOW. I am a loyal customer and expect the best treatment.”
Me: I understand that and thank you for being such a loyal customer. I can pass on feedback to my manager for you if you’d like and we can call back with a resolution.”
K: *sighs loudly * “Ugh, FINE. I called today because YOU didn’t give me my $5 dollar coupon and I needed it to make my order.”
(I checked her order and saw that it was in fact a total of $300, so a $5 refund to make up for it would surely be something she could wait for while we processed it)
Me: I’m so sorry to hear that, Ma’am. I’m happy to refund you $5 dollars as well as given you a 15% coupon for your next order with us.”
K: “No, you’ve already given me that. I want my order for free.”
At this point my manager comes over and asks to take the phone.
M: “Hi, Ma’am. It’s Jeff again, here. We spoke on the phone three times before. Now, I understand that you’re unhappy about your $5 coupon not being applied to your order. We have refunded this as well as given you a 15% coupon. You have abused my staff and attempted to call us multiple times, using different numbers. We are now terminating your account and blocking your email address and the phone numbers you have used to call us. We thank you for your loyalty and wish you the best. Goodbye.”
Never have I wanted to hug Jeff more in my life. I’m not joking when I say many of the staff cheered.
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