This one goes back a few years when I was working a customer correspondence, and nothing has come close to this tale of crazy. It’s another tale linked to my now previous employed in the energy industry.
The customer had raised this complaint before, it had been dealt with and closed as the customer would stop contacting us but every so often, you’d get a new letter. The letters were very colourful and would accuse water companies, the police, the government and would also name drop people the customer had spoken to at the energy company as being part of a Mafia syndicate.
Just my luck that I picked up this customers most recent ramblings where they accused us of stealing the gas meter whilst they were in Africa. The gas meter was removed due to a large debt, no payments and a semi-derelict property.
On this fateful morning, I had the joy of calling the customer
Me: “Hello, is that Mr Customer?”
C: “Who is calling?”
Me: “My name is Careful_Garden and I’m calling to discuss your letter about your gas account?”
C: “YOU STOLE MY GAS METER, BRING IT BACK NOW! GOD TELLS YOU TO BRING IT TO ME”
Me: “I’m happy to discuss this with further once we’ve gone through Data Security”
Some how, we managed to get through the formalities of confirming identities before he realised I share a name with someone he’d name dropped in his letter as part of being the Mafia syndicate
C: “ARE YOU “XX XX” AS THEY ARE PART OF THE MAFIA?”
Me: “I can assure you that whilst we have the same forename, we’re different people and I can assure you I’m not part of the Mafia. I just want to see what we can do for you about your gas as you want a meter back in”
C: “YES, WHEN WILL YOU BRING ME THE METER?”
The customer did shout constantly on the call so the caps are to emphasise his volume.
Me: “When we took the meter out, there was a bill of £xxxx.xx which needs to be settled. If you can…..”
C: “NO, THAT’S NOT MY BILL. I WASN’T HERE. YOUR ENGINEER IS IN THE MAFIA AND IS LYING”
Me: “I was going to say, if you could pay a third of the balance then we can look to put a meter back in for you”
C: “NO, YOUR ENGINEER IS LYING AND THE MAFIA ARE RUINING MY LIFE”
Me: “I can assure you that the engineer who took the meter out confirmed the reading to bill you for the gas used plus there are warrant charges as well”
C: “WARRANT CHARGES? THE MAFIA WERE IN MY HOUSE? THE POLICE ARE THE MAFIA”
Me: “The court granted us access to inspect and remove the meter but in this instance, the Police were not at your property. For us to help you get the meter back, what could you pay today?”
At this point, the customers volume rose again and there was loud rambling noises on the phone before the customer hung up. Standard business practice, we call customers back if the line drops….
Me: “Hello, it’s Careful_Gar”
C: “DON’T CALL ME BACK AGAIN, I HAVE PUT A CURSE ON YOU”
And the line dropped again.
From here, the customer continued to write in and my name was included as part of the Mafia syndicate alongside, the police, the government and the waters companies. The customer was referred internally to a specialist team to manage which looking back should have been done a lot earlier than my referral.
He continued to argue about his gas meter, which never got returned with this specialist team for another 12 months before he gave up the property and letters then stopped as he was no longer a customer.
TL;DR – Customer thought I was part of the Mafia and put a curse on me as he had no gas meter.
submitted by /u/Careful_Garden
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