Originally posted this in r/talesfromtechsupport and was told to put it here too.
First time posting. On mobile so forgive my mistakes.
Back in 2012, I used to work for a 3rd party call center that closed down for whatever reason. Used to have the name of a certain three letter foreign agency making some of our calls interesting as we did customer service for phone lines. I had been having a slow day when I suddenly got an irate woman yelling into my ears. It caught me so off guard I jumped and threw my headset. Also found out that call had been picked as a random listen in as my supervisor reacted exactly the same way and notified me to answer but add him in.
It took about 20 minutes of trying to de-escalate the call to finally find out the issue. A woman in her late seventies had been trying to get her phone line fixed properly and it had not been working at all since installation 5 months prior. I continued running through the very basic troubleshooting before attempting to make an appointment for a technician to visit. Unfortunately this was just after Hurricane Sandy so many of our techs were assisting first responders in her area.
She broke down crying and through the sobs notified me of something that was never marked in her account, her phone line was exclusively for LifeAlert. As soon as I heard that, I dug deep into her account with help from the billing side of the house. Found out her original agent marked it as a note on the sale account but not as specifically Medically necessary. This one mark could have cost a life. With the help of my supervisor, we updated her account and credited it for two months. She was happy to get money but preferred service that worked. Staying on the line with a tech supervisor in New York, we got an emergency tech to fully inspect the line at no cost to her only to find out exactly what happened. The first tech connected her line to the wrong apartment. Once it was fixed and she was told, she cried again this time happily.
Fast forward two weeks later, got called into HR. Got told I was being put on a final alert for termination for taking too long with the call. My supervisor was told he was wrong to tell me to help and I should have hung up as soon as she began yelling at me. I put in my two weeks notice on the spot.
Final part: About two months after I quit, my old supervisor called me. Turns out not long after the line in that particular customer’s home was fixed she had a mild heart attack and fell hitting her head. She was able to use her LifeAlert before losing consciousness. She made a full recovery in the hospital. Her daughter had called in and asked to thank me if possible. It made me happy to know I helped make a difference even a small one in a stranger’s life. Sorry if it ran long. Just popped in my head after reading.
submitted by /u/UTSATaino
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