I have put many years into working customer service, more than I care to admit. Each year I tack on I swear common sense just goes by the wayside with some of these situations. I’m not talking about general “common sense” that we could sit back and dispute as not being so “common”.
I’m talking about the absolute minimum someone may need to survive day-to-day as a functioning adult.
Had a call some time ago. Caller sounded to be in the absolute least his 30’s.
Caller: “I’m having trouble with my utility service, it’s an emergency!”
Me: “Okay sir, what is your service location?”
Caller: “Uhh…. (provides state)”
Me: “Sir I need your full address to locate you, may I have the full service location address?”
Caller: “When I say (state) what part don’t you understand!?”
Me: “Sir, I understand you are in (state), but I need to know exactly where.”
Caller: “God, did they pull you out of the gutter somewhere? Are you even educated?”
Me: *takes a deep breath before continuing* “I cannot help you if you are unable to provide the address in which your service is rendered. Do you have a bill nearby that you can read that from, or maybe another piece of mail that has your address?”
Caller: *scoffs* Just f*cking hold on!”
By this time I am about 3-4 minutes into a call that should have only taken 2 minutes tops. I can -VERY CLEARLY- hear the caller going around to several different people in his home asking if they knew his address. I can only imagine the looks he was being met with. After another 3 minutes of waiting I could no longer hear the caller and began to state the closure procedure.
I begin thinking that I’m in the home stretch, almost ready to end the call and then
Caller: “Dammit I said HOLD ON did you want the f*cking address or not?”
I then apologize and tell him that I could not hear him for several minutes, which was immediately dismissed as he was being “inconvenienced” by having to locate an “address you should already know.”
Finally, he spits out the address and I can see what’s going on. Here, he had been living at the location for several years and his utilities were off for lack of payment. He was freaking out because his girlfriend is expecting and he can’t bring a child into the world in the dark with cold water. He was in hot water with her though, and her family. Apparently from what tid bits were given he was hosting their baby shower in his home. When her family discovered that he had no hot water or electricity, their approval of him went down the drain along with his girlfriend’s desire to continue living with him. (Bet it didn’t help by having to ask all attendees what your own address was)
I empathized to the best of my abilities after the whole fiasco and told him he will need to call Account Services in the morning to help since they were now closed.
Caller: “You mean to tell me not one of you idiots there can turn my stuff back on? What are you even paid for just to waste everyone’s time?”
Me: “Sir, due to the nature of your lack of service only Account Services can help you during regular business hours.”
That began an influx of verbal abuse not unlike I’ve ever experienced, accompanied with accusations of ill will towards his future offspring which at that point had nothing to do with the issue at hand.
Finally after another minute of mental abuse from the caller he finally decided to disconnect after realizing I’d let him continue without giving in to his demands or feeling less than a human.
I just wonder to this day, who would want to reproduce with such a person? How did this person even figure out how to accomplish such a feat?
Yet, WE’RE the idiots…
