So straight off the bat, I’m Scottish, so sometimes my accent is hard to understand and I get that. I work for a bank, and I deal with anything from transfers to fraud.
So I’m currently running on 3 hours of sleep and 3 coffees and I’ve only been at work for 2 hours. I have anxiety and working from home has hightened that so mornings are rough as it is. Anyway, I get a transfer through from a colleague of mine who hasn’t gotten any details or completed any security with a customer. They tell me the customer is hard of hearing and can’t hear him at all. Ok, so it’s going to be a difficult call, I mentally prepared myself and had the customer passed through.
And then follows an hour of my life I won’t get back.
Every question I asked was answered with a 5 minute monologue of nothing with any relevancy. He gave me a complaints reference number and when I asked if he spoke directly with him he went on a 5 minute tangent about how he managed to get compensation from another company and he can shut us down if he wanted to (apparently he’s great at writing letters like he wouldn’t let me forget).
At one point, I asked for his details, and he passed me back and forth between his wife and himself. He kept saying he hates talking to women on the phone. He also went on a speech interrogating me about if I was religious which ended with him talking about the government? Yeah. I don’t know either.
So eventually, after half an hour, I pop him on hold and phone through to complaints so they can discuss it with him. I explain the situation to my colleague and she said to pass him over. Unfortunately, I had to do a warm transfer, which meant speaking to the customer again. Now goes another half an hour:
DC: deaf customer ME: …me IM: inner monologue
Me: HI THERE. THANK YOU FOR HOLDING.
DC: Hello
Me: SO… I… AM … GOING … TO … PASS …. YOU …. TO … COMPLAINTS
DC: so I don’t know if you’re someone new but I’m very hard of hearing, can you speak slowly and loudly please. I can give you a reference number if you need it (proceeds to give me same rant about being deaf and us not doing enough for him)
Me: ITS STILL ME
DC: Oh I cant bloody understand you, and my wife has just gone outside
Me: repeats myself but louder and slower
DC: You’re talking too slow and shouting I can’t hear you
IM: what do you want from me man…
Me: SORRY. I AM GOING TO PASS YOU TO COMPLAINTS
DC: goes on another rant about how I’m not helping him and how he won’t go to the financial ombudsman he’ll go straight to the press about me and how it won’t be a good look on me
IM: …. great… another customer who is going to personally blame me for his issues
Me: I AM TRYING MY BEST TO HELP YOU
DC: then goes on another rant about how he can shut us down and how he’s amazing at writing letters and how I better get him to complaints
Me: (starting to shake with anxiety) OK I UNDERSTAND, BUT IM JUST PASSING YOU THROUGH
DC: well I don’t want to be on hold for another 30 minutes
Me: YOU WONT BE. SHE IS ON THE OTHER LINE
DC: SHE?! I told you I’m not sexist but I don’t like talking to women
Me: (still upset and shaking) SHE CAN HELP YOU OUT MORE THAN ME
DC: another rant about how he can’t hear me and he thinks I’m disgusting
Me: (almost crying now) IM PASSING YOU THROUGH NOW transfers call and proceeds to cry
It’s just so frustrating. Like I try my best to help these customers and I do feel empathy towards them, but when I get accused of not wanting to help when I do and get verbally abused it’s just hard for me To stay calm. I’m working from home so I can have a good cry, but it affected me so much. I tried so hard not to seem insensitive but it’s like this guy wanted to hear me get upset.
Any tips for dealing with this in future? I mean I feel I did everything I could like suggesting letters or chat; but he was insistent that I should magically fix everything for him…
submitted by /u/woosunghyuk
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