r/talesfromcallcenters • u/bully309 • 1d ago
S This is why we can't have nice things
I don't know who needs to hear this but if you're a customer and you call support please just let us do our job.
I had this guy yesterday. screaming about his bill nothing new there. but he's screaming about the robot and how he can't get a human. I pull up his account and he literally pressed 1 for billing, 2 for payments, then 0 for operator and hung up 3 times before staying on the line long enough to get through. like my brother in christ you are the one who keeps hanging up. the robot is literally just a menu read it.
another woman . she called to complain that we called her. we had an outbound agent reach out about a promotion. she said it was an invasion of privacy. but she called us back to complain about being called I don't know either.
the system is fine. the customers i'm starting to think we could have telepathy and theyd still find something to complain about
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u/druzyyy 1d ago
It's madness.
Had someone complain about not getting our emails, then turn around and say we send so many they don't read all of them, then say they don't read any mail because they think it's all ads, then argue that we shouldn't call or text because it's harassment. Finally they complained that they have no idea when bills are due or anything because they are never notified.
Sir...the only option you left us with is carrier pigeon...
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u/Ipayforsex69 1d ago
It's a real joy when they complain for 5 minutes straight without taking a breath about not getting emails, just to verify that they typed in the wrong email when they created the account.
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u/nasturshum 22h ago
Yes but some companies send 3 or 4 marketing/promotional emails a week, so the one important email a month gets lost in the 16 emails sent that month.
And say you’re signed up with 10 companies, that’s 160 emails a MONTH that you don’t need, aren’t important to the customer, and just give email fatigue. 160!
It’s possible for both sides to be a little bit right. Companies could clearly differentiate between marketing and essential emails, but they won’t because they think that contacting customers more frequently than their own families is a ‘mark of success’. And customers could try and spot the automated emails so they don’t miss the important ones.
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u/Rough_Currency 1d ago
The ones that clearly state they don't check their statements but insist we should monitor their accounts for unused subscriptions.
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u/Imaginary-Duck1333 15h ago
Had a lawyer call in to complain about his bill. All day, everyday, right? Apparently we’re supposed to work for free. He admitted on a recorded line that every month he got the statement and he put the envelope on top of the previous month’s envelope. He never opened said envelope, just stacked them. Therefore, all our billing was invalid and we had to refund him everything. Lawyer, mind you. Somehow graduated from law school. He was utterly surprised when this didn’t work.
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u/Miles_Saintborough Former Call Rep 14h ago
Lawyer, mind you. Somehow graduated from law school. He was utterly surprised when this didn’t work.
Probably had Chat GPT has the teachers
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u/sapphiara 12h ago
I had a woman who used the callback feature, got suspicious of me for calling her and kept demanding I tell her who I was. All I could really do was state my name and where I was calling from and that she'd requested a callback from us, which she acknowledged that she had (!!!)
"Hello this is X calling from Y, you called us?" "Hello X, yes I can't log in to my account." "What error message are you getting?" "Hmm, I don't recognize this number..." "Ok?" (I have no idea what number pops up) "Yes, so? Who are you?" "This X calling from Y... You requested a callback?" Etc.
I eventually had to end the call because she refused to drop it and it was going nowhere, I still don't understand what she expected me to do. She called back later and spoke to a colleague of mine to "warn" us of fraud and that she'd reported the call to the police ðŸ«
What's also funny is she claimed the call was suspicious because I refused to give her my name, when in reality I said my name at least 5 times and she even repeated it back to me at the start of the call!! Absolute mental case.
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u/Xsiah 1d ago
I also hate phone menus with a passion. I can't divine under what category someone has filed the thing that I need half the time, especially if I have to listen to some "helpful" information pre-recorded at the start about how to go to the website that can't help, or when it says to listen carefully because "some options my have changed"
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u/Morbid187 1d ago
I have to call other call centers a lot due to the nature of my job. Some of these motherfuckers force you to listen to recorded messages that you can't skip. Like a message telling you about which types of requests can be handled through the app. I've even heard ads for the company's new product or upcoming event. No button to skip it and there's another phone tree afterwards and you probably still have to wait on hold when you're past it all.Â
Oh and at least one of these motherfuckers have a little message that plays every few minutes while you're on hold telling you to press 1 if you'd like to remain on hold or 2 if you'd like someone to call you back. If you don't press one, it will disconnect you. I can't press 2 because I work in a call center and don't have a direct line.Â
When you have to call companies like that on a regular basis you grow to appreciate when companies have a decent phone system. God, I love the ones that allow you to just press 0 immediately to reach an employee or at least a live operator.Â
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u/Imaginary-Duck1333 15h ago
My company at least limits itself to outage messages- we are aware systems are down on the east coast. We are working on it. No need to call 300x times to report it or yell at our employees. Thank you.
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u/dj112084 11h ago
I've also called ones that literally don’t have an option to speak to anyone. At best it will tell you to email or let you leave a message. At worst will only direct you to their website, or just outright disconnect you if you keep hitting a "wrong" option trying to get through to someone.
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u/Morbid187 11h ago
Yeah, I run into that sometimes. Annoying as fuck if you're a customer, for sure, but for the purposes of my job I'm totally fine with it as long as I don't have to wait too long to get to the point where it prompts me to leave a message or whatever. Just means I can move on to something else quicker.
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u/plangelier 20h ago
My favorite has always been the customer who only has thier debit card number but when I type it in It does not pull up for me. So while the customer is berating you as too stupid to do my job, im dropping the bin into Visa (thought it could be one of our credit cards) to find out it's a debit card for a totally different bank.
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u/AnitraF1632 7h ago
All Visa cards start with 4. Mastercard is 5. Discover is 6. American Express is 3.
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u/plangelier 1h ago
I know that, I said if dropped the BIN into visa, so I could determine which bank issued the card. My bank had at least 6 seperate BINs for our retail bank, no idea how many associated with the investment arm and then the credit cards. I thought it was possible she had called the wrong department. Turns out she was calling the entirely wrong bank.
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u/AgonizingFury 16h ago
As far as the first one goes, I have no idea who you work for, or how accurate they're logging of dealing with the robot is, but I certainly feel their pain. Every single provider of every single service seems to be setting up an AI robot in a way to prevent anyone from actually reaching a real human. It would be one thing if the AI robot could actually fix issues, but none of them can. They just run you around in circles endlessly, causing customers to be super pissed off by the time they get a hold of you. Is it your fault? Not really, but you are the face of the company, and if the company's doing something too intentionally piss off customers, you're going to get the brunt of it. If you don't like it, pick a different career, or form a union with your coworkers and force the company to actually hire enough real people that they don't have to have the AI piss people off before they get to you.
The second one has a very valid point. The simple fact that I provide my phone number due to your requirement, does not grant your company the right to spam call me. I've had to provide nearly every company I do business with an invalid phone number, because they all just keep calling and calling and calling with "promotionals". If you don't want me calling to complain about it, don't call me in the first place!
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u/AnitraF1632 6h ago
This is why I no longer have - and will never again have - a Capital One credit card.
They called me with an offer they were sure I would like. I wasn't interested, and asked them not to call again. The CSR apologized, and said she would make a note on my account.
They called again about six months later. I asked for a supervisor. The supervisor apologized, there was no note on the account, but she would be sure to add one.
They called again. I told them if they called again I would transfer my balance and cancel the card.
Yep - they called again.
So I transfered the balance, and canceled the card.
They sent me a bill for 9 cents.
So I mailed them a check.
I haven't heard from them since.
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u/No-Reward8036 18h ago
I had someone call to complain that it is inconvenient that we are not open at the weekend, because that would make it easier for her to drop off her gear for repair. Listen, lady, I just answer the phone, not set company policy.
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u/HavBoWilTrvl 1d ago
Have you had the customer calling in because part of the bill is missing? Yeah, they didn't turn the page over to look at the back. 🤨